| Broadcast area | Santa Clara Valley |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1290 kHz |
| Branding | Viên Thao |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | Vietnamese |
| Format | Music and talk |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | August 31, 1957 |
Former call signs | KPER (1957–1967) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 54572 |
| Class | D |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 36°57′49″N 121°29′22″W / 36.96361°N 121.48944°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www.vienthao.com |
KAZA (1290 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Gilroy, California, and serving the Santa Clara Valley. It airs a radio format of Vietnamese language music and talk, and is branded Viên Thao Radio. The station is owned by Tron Dinh Do, through licensee Intelli, LLC.[2]
By day, KAZA is powered at 1,500 watts. To reduce interference to other stations on 1290 AM, it reduces power at night to 19 watts. It uses a non-directional antenna at all times.[3]
KPER was founded by Don Bernard and Chuck Jobbins, co-owners of the Bernard & Jobbins Broadcasting Company.[4] After being granted a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on January 23 that year, the station first broadcast on August 31, 1957, with call sign KPER and five watts of power.[5][6] The FCC officially granted KPER its broadcast license on November 21, 1957, and KPER increased its transmitting power to 500 watts and was licensed as a daytime-only station.[6] A member of the Keystone Broadcasting System, KPER also broadcast programming in Spanish and Portuguese.[4] KPER increased its power to 1,000 watts on January 21, 1959.[7] On May 2, 1963, KPER increased its power to 5,000 watts, a level continued to this day.[7]
On October 3, 1966, Bernard & Jobbins sold KPER to South Valley Broadcasters for $325,000.[8][9] KPER became KAZA on July 15, 1967.[6] By 1968, KAZA began broadcasting 85 hours of Spanish programming weekly, in contrast to seven hours of Portuguese.[9]
South Valley Broadcasters sold KAZA to Radio Fiesta on March 29, 1973, for $522,500.[10]
KAZA began carrying Spanish language broadcasts of Oakland Raiders games in 2002, the most recent season the Raiders made the Super Bowl.[11] The broadcasts continued for the 2003 season,[12] before they moved to KZSF in 2004.[13]
In November 2010, Tron Dinh Do's Intelli LLC began operating KAZA on a local marketing agreement with Radio Fiesta and began broadcasting the Vietnamese language Viên Thao Radio network. Radio Fiesta ultimately sold KAZA to Intelli for nearly a million dollars in October 2014.[14]