KVTA


KVTA is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Ventura, California and serves Ventura County and southern Santa Barbara County. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and airs a news/talk format. It broadcasts with 5,000 watts day and night from its transmitter near the Santa Clara River off the Ventura Freeway.

Programming

KVTA airs a local wake-up program on weekdays from called the KVTA Morning Show. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated talk shows, including The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Glenn Beck Program, The Jim Bohannon Show, Coast to Coast AM, and Morning in America. Weekend shows discuss topics such as money, health, real estate, computers, and travel. Syndicated shows include The Kim Komando Show and the Christian Science Sentinel Radio Edition. Also featured are paid programming and repeats of some weekday shows.

History

The station at 1590 AM in Ventura County, California first signed on June 1, 1947 as KUDU; it was licensed to the cities of Ventura-Oxnard, California jointly. In January 1973, KUDU changed its call sign to KBBQ. Featuring a country and western format, KBBQ served as the NBC Radio Network affiliate for Ventura County.
KBBQ became KOGO on February 1, 1985 and switched to adult contemporary music. As KOGO, the station changed hands twice. In July 1986, Forrest Radio sold KOGO and FM sister station KBBY to New York City-based ownership group Ventura Broadcasting Associates for $3 million. That same group would in turn sell the combo three years later to Buena Ventura Inc., headed by George Duncan, for $6.7 million. KOGO renamed itself KBBY after its FM counterpart on September 17, 1993; the heritage KOGO call letters returned to the San Diego station then known as KKLQ the following year.
In December 1996, Buena Ventura Inc. sold the station, then using the KXSP calls and broadcasting in Spanish, along with KTND, to Gold Coast Broadcasting for $2 million. The transaction split the station from its longtime combo partner KBBY-FM which later would be owned by Cumulus Media.
From 1998 to 2004, the station held the KUNX call letters and aired a Spanish-language talk format under the "Radio Unica" branding. For a brief period in early 2004, it was known as KKOM and broadcast content from The American Comedy Network. The former KUNX and KKZZ then exchanged frequencies, with the KKZZ calls landing on 1590 AM on March 5 and KUNX's Spanish programming resurfacing on 1400 AM.
During the 1590 AM frequency's second stint as KUNX starting in April 2008, it aired programming from Mexico-based news/talk network Radio Fórmula.
In February 2013, the Radio Fórmula programs moved to Gold Coast Broadcasting sister station KKZZ on 1400 AM. That same month, KUNX began simulcasting English-language news/talk outlet KVTA, which at the time was on 1520 AM. On March 6, 2013, KUNX and KVTA swapped frequencies, sending the KUNX calls to 1520 AM and KVTA to 1590 AM..