KGST

KGST (1600 AM) is a radio station serving Fresno, California and vicinity broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. The station is under the ownership of Lotus Communications. Its studios are located north of downtown Fresno with the transmitter tower in the city's southwest portion.
History.
KGST, known for much of its history as "La Mexicana," started out as a mixed-format "international" station in 1949 with programs available in Armenian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Serbian. Its programs were hosted by brokers who paid for airtime and was one of the earliest radio stations in California and the first in the San Joaquin Valley with full-time Spanish-language programming. At its inception, KGST was the only independent (not affiliated with the four major networks) station in Fresno's five-station market (c.f. White's Radio Log, Fall 1949).
Juan Mercado, who got his start as the Spanish-language programming director at a Visalia station, was one of the most popular deejays at the station. In 1959, he was able to buy the station due to his success. Mercado died just two years later and the station was bought by a couple of men who were at the time running KLOK out of San Jose.
In the mid-1950s to 1960s, KGST was a "eclectic" mix of C&W, Blues, Jazz, and Spanish and other language programming. "Happy Harold's House of Blues" was a program fixture for many years (c.f. Fresno Bee radio logs). In that time, KGST was "sunrise-to-sunset" with a power of 1 kW (c.f. White's Radio Log, various editions).
In 1988, KGST was bought by Lotus Corporation.