The End of KWXY-FM Palm Springs

[ednixon]

Don Wardell at work on KWXY, 7pm - midnight Saturday & Sunday

Saturday evening Dr. Kramhoff and I visited the historic "Broadcast Centere" of KWXY on Dinah Shore Drive in Cathedral City to see it
before it is absorbed into KDES on Feburary 2. KWXY is truly a real life time capsule, seemingly frozen at some point before digital audio (except for compact discs)well into the last century. Much of KWXY's "Beautiful Music" has originated from analog open reel tape and vinyl,
but this all comes to an end next week. Like most broadcast clusters, the "beautiful" format will be nothing but
a blinking hard drive activity LED, indicating a stream fed to the old 1340 AM, starting Tuesday after next.
Two of the staff will survive the transition from 98.5 FM to 1340 AM. For this last week prior to February 2, I have set up a live audio stream where you can hear the last days of this format, should such nostalgia bemuse you. In the snapshots from last night's visit you can see the old standby RAYTHEON AM 1340kHz 500W transmitter, and the STANDARD BROADCAST FM transmitter, both tube type transmitters from the early 1960's.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

the elevators of my life will never be the same

[ednixon.livejournal.com]

Don Wardell refers to the KWXY day parts that are NOT part of his show, which he personally programs with his own records, as "Elevator Music from Hell". This is especially appropriate when it is playing on a broken warbly wow & flutter filled tape deck.