KRRL

1948—1989 (KFAC-FM)

The station first signed on the air on December 29, 1948 as KFAC-FM, the sister station of 1330 KFAC (now KWKW).^[2] The stations aired a commercial classical music format for the Los Angeles media market. At first, the two stations simulcast but later aired separate fine arts programming for part of the day. According to a quote from a 1989 New York Times article, "only 41 of nearly 9,000 commercial radio stations in the United States play classical music, and KFAC was considered one of the best".^[3]

For more, see KFAC (defunct).

1989—1999 (KKBT)

In January 1989, Evergreen Media announced they would be purchasing KFAC, with the sale to close that summer.^[4] On September 20, 1989, at 2 p.m., after a simulcast with non-commercial classical station KUSC and a farewell luncheon outside the KFAC studios, 92.3 began stunting with a heartbeat sound effect and brief clips of music. The following day at noon, the station flipped to KKBT, "The New Beat FM 92". The first song under the new format was "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed.^[5] The station offered a blend of adult rock, dance music, and adult contemporary, with the slogan "Rock with a Beat". The format failed, and on February 3, 1990, the station dropped the adult rock cuts, and the station was rebranded as "92.3 The Beat". The station then moved toward a rhythmic AC format playing a blend of disco, soft pop hits, current R&B and oldies.^[6] The station still did not do well, and by the summer of that year, it evolved to a strictly urban AC format.^[7] By 1991, rap and hip-hop were being mixed in, and the station evolved to an urban contemporary format.^[8]

As an urban contemporary station, KKBT hit #1 a few times in the ratings. It competed aggressively with a hip-hop station on the 105.9 frequency, KPWR. During its tenure as "The Beat", the station featured many popular and legendary DJs who came from great stations like KPWR, KMEL, WQHT, KIIS-FM, and KDAY, like John London and The House Party, a popular morning show which competed with other top local shows such as Mark and Brian on KLOS and Rick Dees on KIIS, DJ Theodore "Theo" Mizuhara, Eric Cubiche, Nautica De La Cruz, NWA's founder Dr. Dre and the World Class Wreckin' Crew, with Ronnie "Big Ron" O'Brien, Johnny "Big John" Monds, and Kevin Nash. Other shows included Westside Radio, a weekly radio program dedicated to West Coast Hip-Hop (now airing on KDAY), and Street Soldiers, a weekly program dedicated to community issues and politics. The station went by the slogan "No Color Lines", proudly championing the diversity of the region. It is believed that KKBT was inspired by KMEL and KDAY. During the 1990s, the station held a summer concert known as "Summer Jam", which featured major Hip-hop and R&B stars who performed at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. In February 1996, sister station WYNY in New York City simulcasted KKBT for a day as part of a week-long stunt of simulcasting sister stations nationwide before changing formats to rhythmic adult contemporary as WKTU.

In a group deal in 1997, Evergreen merged with Chancellor. Chancellor acquired stations from other groups that exited the market. In 1999, Chancellor merged with Capstar and the company became AMFM, Incorporated.

1999—2001 (KCMG)

In the fall of 1999, Clear Channel Communications and AMFM Inc. merged. This gave Clear Channel the five FM stations in LA and KIIS-FM which Clear Channel already owned. However, in order to get under the government-mandated market ownership limits, some stations were required to be spun off. One of the full powered FMs in Los Angeles had to go. KKBT's was the station chosen; it was sold to Radio One. However, Clear Channel wanted to keep the best possible signal and gave Radio One 100.3 FM. Leading up to the frequency swap, rumors swirled about whether 100.3's format would survive the move to 92.3 FM. Being that 100.3 was going to an African-American owned company known for urban formats, it seemed that "The Beat" would likely move to 100.3 intact. Much speculation led to 92.3 going active rock, possibly with the KMET calls. When the switch was made at 5 p.m. on June 30, 2000, the formats and call letters did come along for the ride, with 92.3 becoming KCMG, "Mega 92.3", and 100.3 becoming KKBT, "100.3 The Beat".^[9][10][11]

2001—2015 (KHHT)

The station, now called "Mega 92.3", continued playing rhythmic oldies. On August 9, 2001, KCMG changed its call letters to KHHT, re-branded as "Hot 92.3", and shifted to more of an urban AC format.^[12] However, KHHT was not a typical urban AC station; this station was one of the first urban AC's to play more old school/classic soul, the more mainstream-level R&B (barely-to-not playing neo-soul at all) and some rhythmic and Latino pop/R&B songs to cater to the Hispanic and Asian audiences that listen to R&B music in particular. In this way, KHHT's playlist structure was the inspiration for other urban AC markets in the western half of the U.S. such as sister stations in KISQ San Francisco, KSYU Albuquerque, and KHYL Sacramento.^[13]

KHHT was one of three urban ACs serving the Los Angeles market. The others were KRBV, (formerly KKBT, which changed from R&B/hip-hop in May 2006, but was sold by Radio One to Bonneville International in April 2008) and KJLH, whose signal is not full-power and barely penetrates the San Fernando Valley. In July 2006, it was announced that Art Laboe, a legendary oldies DJ in Los Angeles, would expand his syndicated show from weekend to weekdays, with KHHT as the flagship station. Laboe's move was interpreted as an attempt to expand the station's Hispanic audience as it competed with KRBV and KJLH, both of which were African-American owned, operated and targeting stations (only KJLH remains Black owned).

However, by 2008, it became apparent that the over-saturation of Adult R&B stations in Los Angeles had made it difficult for three outlets to compete for the same audience. As a result of this, KHHT began to shift directions from an urban AC direction to rhythmic hot AC, allowing it to focus more on the Hispanic and Asian audience. It opened up its playlist to include current rhythmic hits. This move also opened up a new battle in the Los Angeles radio war, which found KHHT taking on another rhythmic AC, KMVN, whose direction was more focused on recurrents from the 1970s and 1980s, which also explained KHHT's decision to add currents to its playlist. KHHT's sister station KBIG-FM once had a rhythmic AC direction before shifting back to Hot AC in September 2007. The recent sale/format change of KRBV would've resulted in further tweakings at KHHT, but due to Arbitron's implementation of the Portable People Meter in the Los Angeles radio market and a move by its sister stations to adjust their formats to attract certain demos, KHHT decided to continue concentrating on attracting their Hispanic demos, where they feel more comfortable.^[14]

As of April 2009, KHHT once again became the only rhythmic adult contemporary in the market, as KMVN made a format change to Spanish. This move has prompted KHHT to further adjust its musical direction by adding more Disco and Freestyle tracks to its current format as a way to attract the displaced KMVN listeners, and by June 2009, it showed an increase in the PPM ratings after it began to further tweak its selection more to slightly favor currents and less favor Old School tracks. These latest changes at KHHT led to hints that it was moving towards adopting a current upbeat (and Dance-leaning) formula patterned after sister stations WKTU New York City, WMIA-FM Miami, and WISX Philadelphia. All three stations saw good rating numbers with this formula.

In November 2010, KHHT tweaked its direction again, shifting to a Gold-based rhythmic AC approach and reducing the number of currents being played on the station. Although it may have had elements of the former KCMG, KHHT had not tilted all the way back to rhythmic oldies or urban AC as most of the music are in line with other soft-leaning rhythmic Adult Contemporary outlets in nature.

In April 2011, KHHT fired morning host Victor Zaragoza (now at KBLX San Francisco). On April 20, the station announced that it would hire Rick Dees, who had hosted morning shows at sister station KIIS-FM and KMVN. At that time, the station dropped the "and R&B" from its slogan (to distance itself from playing current R&B or adult R&B product), effectively making the radio station a full-blown Gold-based rhythmic AC, with emphasis on rhythmic, disco, Freestyle and R&B hits from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. This same approach is also being used at sister stations KHJZ Honolulu, KFBT Fresno and WMOV-FM Norfolk, Virginia. The latter three are targeting Gen-Xers and concentrate on the latter two decades and play some currents in their presentation. Shortly after Dees arrived, KHHT shifted its format to a hybrid of rhythmic oldies and urban oldies, focusing mostly on urban rhythmic hits from 1970 to the mid-1990s, with some soul hits from the 1960s sprinkled into the mix. However, on July 3, 2012, a year after making a return to morning drive, Dees parted ways with KHHT due to a desire by station management to make some adjustments in its direction.^[15]

2015—present (KRRL)

On February 5, 2015, iHeartMedia announced it was changing KHHT back to urban contemporary the following morning.^[16] The announcement came just a day after KHHT's HD3 sub-channel launched with Air 1 and just a few hours after KPWR's morning host Big Boy announced he would leave KPWR for KHHT. (Since then, he was served a lawsuit by KPWR's parent company Emmis Communications for breach of contract, thus preventing him from joining the station until his contract or his injunction was lifted; he would join the station on March 9.) Another reason for the change was the station's poor ratings performance; KHHT was ranked 14th in the market with a 2.5 share in the January 2015 PPM Nielsen radio ratings. The entire "Hot" airstaff was released (including Art Laboe, who would later end up on KDAY) on the same day as the announcement, as KHHT began promoting a "major announcement" at 9:23 AM the following morning, as well as running a "300 Greatest Hot Songs Of All Time" countdown.

At that time, KHHT changed back to urban, branded as "Real 92.3", launching with "10,000 joints in a row".^[17] The change put 92.3 back in direct competition with KPWR and returned the urban format to the 92.3 FM frequency for the first time since the 2000 format swap with 100.3 FM. The change also returns the urban format to the market for the first time since 2006, when KKBT changed to urban AC as KRBV.

On February 20, 2015, KHHT changed its call letters to KRRL to match the "Real" moniker.

As of August 2018, the American cable channel FM now carries an edited video simulcast of the station's morning show, Big Boy's Neighborhood, weeknights and mornings.

HD Radio