The Brief
History of KQL, Los Angeles
By Jim Hilliker
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The Brief
History of KQL, Los Angeles By Jim Hilliker
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www.theradiohistorian.org Copyright 2022 - John F. Schneider & Associates, LLC (Click on photos to enlarge) KQL license application,
page 1 KQL license application, page 2
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The licensee and owner of KQL was Arno A.
Kluge of 1045 S. Bixel Street in Los Angeles, where KQL was also
located. In the
September 3, 1925, Los Angeles Evening Express, Fred
Christian, the founder of KNX, recalled those early radio days. He said
that Arno Kluge and he had designed
“5-watt haywire transmitters” for their radio telephone stations. The
Western Radio Electric Company in Los
Angeles also had been broadcasting experimentally since April of 1920,
playing phonograph records. Kluge had served as an instructor in the Signal Corps from
November 1917 to July
1919 and moved to Los Angeles in September of 1919. It's clear that he
had been tinkering with radio for some time, and was
also active as a dealer in radio parts
and magazines. In the July 1920 issue of Radio News
(page 53), Arno A. Kluge
is listed as one of the dealers of the Consolidated Radio Callbook. In
the August 1920 issue of Radio
News, Kluge is listed as one of
six dealers in California for AMRAD products from the American Radio and Research Corporation.
He also wrote a few technical articles for radio amateurs
in the same magazine, dating back to 1919. After building up a good trade, Kluge began his wireless
telephone experiments. On
October 1, 1920, Kluge was granted a license for experimental radio
station
6XN, which was also licensed to A.H. McClelland and J.B. Farrington. In addition, Kluge was given a license for
experimental radio station 6XAO on November 1, 1921. His regularly broadcast wireless phonograph concerts
for amateurs and wireless enthusiasts over
6XN in 1920 and 1921. This led Kluge to apply for a
license for the new classification of a radio broadcasting station. He was granted a license with the call letters
KQL.
Information on KQL is very
scarce. However, while doing research in
2022, I found the following item in the Los Angeles
Times which advertised a broadcast by station KQL.
On
November 1, 1921, radio station KQL was on the air, possibly for the first and
only time as a broadcasting station, transmitting on 360 meters (833 kilocycles). The above advertisement appeared on page 3 of
the Los Angeles Times on
November 1, 1921.
Nonetheless, I have not found any later announcement
of phonograph concerts by
KQL, and can find no evidence
that station KQL made any other broadcasts. However,
it is possible that Mr. Kluge or an assistant
could have put
KQL on the air occasionally to play records, without making any
announcement in the
newspapers. With only 4 low-power
stations licensed at the time (KGC, KYJ and KZC), KQL could have
broadcast irregularly when 360 meters was generally clear, and this may
have gone virtually unnoticed in late-1921.
It was later learned by the radio community in Southern California that
Arno A. Kluge died in Los Angeles on December 31, 1921, just two months after
the first KQL broadcast. His obituary was printed
in the publication Radio on page 33
in the March 1922 issue. Arno A. Kluge
was 23 and had been in ill health, after being disabled by paralysis
and was
confined to a wheelchair at his home. With
the unexpected passing of Arno A. Kluge,
it was the end of station KQL.While
radio magazines and newspapers listed the station in 1922, there were
apparently no more broadcasts. The
Department of Commerce deleted the KQL license on June 9, 1922. Licensed—October 13, 1921
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