
KWIZ

KWIZ (96.7 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Santa Ana, California, and broadcasting to the Los Angeles-Orange County area. KWIZ airs a Classic Regional Mexican radio format branded as "La Ranchera 96.7 FM." It is owned by Estrella Media with studios and offices are on West 5th Street in Santa Ana. The transmitter is off East Glen Albyn Lane in Orange, California.
KWIZ is not licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in the HD Radio hybrid format. Yet the HD Radio Guide indicates that KWIZ broadcasts on one HD channel.
History.
96.7 FM signed on as KVOE-FM in 1949, simulcast with AM 1480 KVOE (now KVNR). The two stations were owned by Voice of the Orange Empire, Inc., Ltd. They were Mutual Broadcasting System and Don Lee Network affiliates. The studios were on East 5th Street in Santa Ana. On July 1, 1954, KVOE-AM-FM changed their call signs to KWIZ and KWIZ-FM, but still under the same ownership.
Ernest and Franc Spencer sold Voice of the Orange Empire in 1965 to the David Broadcasting Company. By 1970, KWIZ-FM had separate programming. The AM station aired a full service middle of the road format of popular music, news and information. The FM had an automated easy listening sound, that switched to soft adult contemporary music in the mid-1980s.
Liberman acquired KWIZ-AM-FM in 1987. In 1990, KWIZ-FM began carrying Los Angeles Dodgers games in Korean, and on March 10, 1991, it flipped from adult contemporary music to a full-time Korean format, brokered from Radio Korea. In 1993, after another brokering deal, KWIZ-FM flipped from Korean to Vietnamese as "Little Saigon Radio."
Other brokered programming deals soon followed. In addition to religious and ethnic talk shows, KWIZ-FM also was home to several niche format music programs. They included Reggae, Alternative Rock, and Surf Rock. At night, the station's time was leased to "Renegade Radio," a dance music/techno music format hosted by DJ Racer and former rave station MARS-FM 103.1 DJ Mike "Fright" Ivankay. Renegade Radio also broadcast MARS-FM music director Swedish Egil's syndicated Groove Radio program, which later became a full-time local electronica format at 103.1 KACD/KBCD.
In January 1997, Liberman switched the AM and FM services, making the FM a Spanish-language station and the AM aimed at Vietnamese-Americans. While Liberman has three FM stations in the Los Angeles market playing contemporary Regional Mexican music, 96.7 KWIZ specializes in classic Mexican hits from past decades.