KMPC thrives on Dodger diet

Station at 710 on the AM dial wins the local radio pennant. (Not to be confused with KPMC, 1560)

Above, back in the days when there were beauty contests for every subject, even to encourage people to vote.

By Keith Thursby

Times staff writer

The Dodgers were a run-of-the-mill team in 1958 but they were a hit on the radio.

Don Page, writing the Radio Beat column for The Times, praised
Dodger broadcasters Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett.  "Their descriptions
were always of high caliber and of remarkable clarity," wrote Page.

The Dodgers quickly became ratings winners for KMPC.  Page reported
that the station "consistently smothered all opposition with phenomenal
ratings, even beating television marks in the same time periods."

KMPC was a big sports station in Los Angeles for many years but
wouldn’t air the Dodger games much longer. The website
walteromalley.com, a must read for any Dodger fan, has among its many
historical items a letter from Gene Autry to O’Malley dated Nov. 24,
1959 telling how much the Singing Cowboy regretted losing the Dodgers
to another station for the coming season.  The Dodgers moved to KFI.

Autry, of course, would get another baseball team for his station in 1961 when he became owner of the Los Angeles Angels.

Autry’s letter to O’Malley closed with this line: "I am still a Dodger fan!’

keith.thursby@latimes.com