
KTYM

KTYM (1460 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Catholic radio format from ESNE Radio. Licensed to Inglewood, California, United States, the station serves the Los Angeles area. KTYM is owned by El Sembrador Ministries of Chatsworth, California.
History.
Early years.
Albert John Williams obtained the construction permit for a new daytime-only radio station on 1460 kHz in Inglewood on August 1, 1957. The station signed on February 14, 1958, airing a format of popular and semi-classical music; the same day, KTYM-FM 103.9 debuted as a simulcast. It had a policy of no back-to-back commercials. The FM was known for its programming for the Black community in southern California at night; by 1964, KTYM-AM-FM was just one of five racially integrated radio stations in the region. Meanwhile, the AM added several foreign-language programs. The station increased its power to 5,000 watts directional in 1962, having been approved for the upgrade the year before.
At the end of 1963, Williams transferred the KTYM stations to the Trans America Broadcasting Corporation, wholly owned by Williams.
Anti-Semitism inquiry.
In June 1966, the Federal Communications Commission renewed the license of KTYM by a 5–1 vote. The decision was contentious because of a program that the station aired, "Richard Cotten's Conservative Viewpoint". The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) took umbrage with two airings of this program in October 1964 and May 1965, claiming that they linked Jews to communism and included personal attacks on the league. However, the commissioners said that, despite their "strongest personal feelings" against the content of the programs, they could not intervene in the matter without becoming "the censor of broadcasting" and cited that KTYM had offered the group air time under the Fairness Doctrine. The decision was decried by local labor groups and Jewish organizations.
The ADL would appeal the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which declined to take it up in 1969. That same year, Williams bought Fresno television station KAIL-TV for $236,500.
Later years and sale to ESNE.
Williams reached a deal in 1971 to sell KTYM-FM to the Black-owned Avant Garde Broadcasting, headed by Clarence Avant. He spent much of the decade starting up KDWN, a 50,000-watt AM station in Las Vegas. The station was approved for 500 watts at night in 1979. Personalities that hosted programs on KTYM included Stewart Alexander and Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
Williams died in 2005.
KTYM primarily aired a mix of religious talk shows and paid programming. On March 17, 2014, Trans America reached a deal to sell KTYM to IHR Educational Broadcasting, operator of the Immaculate Heart Radio network. However, the KTYM purchase was put on hold. On July 22, 2014, Immaculate Heart Radio announced the purchase of Spanish-language KHJ, which switched formats to Catholic religious programming. In March 2015, the sale of KTYM to Immaculate Heart Radio was approved by the FCC; six months later, KTYM was instead sold to El Sembrador Ministries, which operates six other radio stations in California and Mexico and one station in Chicago.