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KBIG

KBIG

KBIG-FM is an FM radio station in Los Angeles, California. The station plays a Hot AC format with a rhythmic lean. They are owned by Clear Channel Communications. At one time KBIG was once one of the highest-rated Beautiful music stations in the country. KBIG began broadcasting in 1952 as an AM radio station originating from Catalina Island off the coast of California. The call letters were named in honor of the station's original disc jockey, Carl "Mr. Big" Daily. They originally broadcast Big band and new music of the times. In the mid-1960s, KBIG began simulcasting its AM signal on the 104.3 FM frequency (where KBIG continues to broadcast today). As an FM station, KBIG broadcast the format for which the station is best known, Beautiful music, playing lush instrumentals and occasional vocal performances. KBIG also had its staff of "KBIG Singers", who would sing the station's jingles and also record their own albums to offer to listeners. One of the "KBIG Singers" was session singer Sally Stevens, who began her career at KBIG. The station was owned by Bonneville International for many years. The Beautiful music format continued until 1987. At that time the station dropped its instrumentals and became a Soft AC station. In 1988 KBIG began mixing in more rock and roll oldies from 1964-1969 as well as hotter AC artists. They were still Gold Based AC at that point. By 1990 KBIG began playing more current hist and less 60's music. By 1992 the 60's songs were dropped and KBIG was more of a Hot AC station (which is sort of the format KBIG continues to air today). By 1995 KBIG moved toward more of a mainstream AC to compete against rival KOST. Nicknamed K-BIG 104, KBIG is today home to morning host Charlie Tuna and to Disco Saturday Night, an all-night disco music program. Bonneville though decided to sell KBIG to Chancellor in 1996 but when Chancellor had too many other stations they sold KZLA 93.9 the Country station to Bonneville. In 1997 KBIG moved toward a Hot AC format. When Chancellor acquired Modern AC station KYSR and AC station KOST they kept KBIG a Hot AC format with a lean on uptempo Pop, 70's and 80's gold, uptempo AC currents, and Rhythmic pop. In 2000 Chancellor merged with Clear Channel and so KBIG is now a Clear Channel station. On July 18, 2005, KBIG made major changes by cutting back on commercial time(concentrating on 30 minute music sweeps), dropped the jingles and the top of the hour IDs( i.e."...It's 4 O'Clock In The West..." would no longer be heard), and tweaked their musical direction by focusing on less currents and more recurrents from the 1980s and 1990s, with most of the music leaning towards a rhythmic approach. Clear Channel Communications still owns KBIG.

External link


- [http://www.kbig.com/ Official website]
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BIG-FM Category:Clear Channel radio stations

Los Angeles, California

The City of Los Angeles (from Spanish; Los Ángeles, ) also known simply as L.A., is the second-largest city in the United States in terms of population, as well as one of the world's most important economic, cultural, and entertainment centers. It was incorporated as a city in California on April 4, 1850, when the city's population was only 1,610, and is the county seat of Los Angeles County. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 3,694,820, but a May 1, 2005 California Department of Finance estimate shows the city's population at 3,957,875, with the metropolitan area at 17,545,623. The city is also large by geographic standards since it sprawls over more than 465 square miles (1200 square kilometers), making it physically larger than New York City and Chicago. In addition, Los Angeles hosted two Olympic Games (in 1932 and 1984) and is home to world-renowned scientific and cultural institutions. The city is one of the biggest entry points for immigrants to the United States, making it one of the most culturally diverse places in the world. People are attracted to the city for its warm weather, its vibrant lifestyle, its unique energy, and the opportunity to realize the "American Dream."

History

The Los Angeles coastal area was occupied by the Tongva, Chumash, and even earlier Native American peoples for thousands of years. The Spanish arrived in 1542, when Juan Cabrillo visited the area. In 1769, the Spanish returned to California to stay. Father Juan Crespi described a "beautiful river", which the explorers named in Spanish "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula", English: "The Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River". The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was founded in 1771, thus establishing a permanent presence in the area and securing Spanish territory. territory On September 4, 1781, settlers from the San Gabriel Mission founded the town and named it after the river, but used a slighly shorter version. The official name was El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles, "The Town of the Queen of the Angels", showing Franciscan affiliation. It remained a small mission and ranch town for decades. Mexican independence from Spain was achieved in the 1820s, but the greatest change took place in present-day Montebello after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in 1847, which decided the fate of Los Angeles. Yankees gained control after they flooded into California during the Gold Rush and secured the subsequent admission of California into the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850. Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923, Los Angeles was supplying one-quarter of the world's petroleum. Even more important to the city's growth was water. In 1913, William Mulholland completed the aqueduct that assured the city's growth and led to the annexation by the City of Los Angeles, starting in 1915, of dozens of neighboring communities without water supplies of their own. A somewhat fictionalized account of the Owens Valley Water War can be found in the motion picture Chinatown. In the 1920s the motion picture and aviation industries both flocked to Los Angeles and helped to further develop it. The city was the proud host of the 1932 Summer Olympics. World War II brought new growth and prosperity to the city, although many of its Japanese-American residents were transported to internment camps for the duration of the war. This period also saw the arrival of the German exiles, which included such notables as Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger. The postwar years saw an even greater boom as urban sprawl expanded into the San Fernando Valley. The Watts riots in 1965 reminded the country of the deep racial divisions that even the nation's youngest city faced. The XXIII Olympiad was successfully hosted in Los Angeles in 1984. The city was once again tested by the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A city-wide vote on San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession was defeated in 2002.

Geography and climate

Geography

2002 According to the United States Census Bureau,the city has a total area of 1,290.6 km² (498.3 mi²). 1,214.9 km² (469.1 mi²) of it is land and 75.7 km² (29.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 5.86% water. The extreme north-south distance is 44 miles (71 km), the extreme east-west distance is 29 miles (47 km), and the length of the city boundary is 342 miles (550 km). The land area is the 9th largest in the Lower-48th of United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). The highest point in Los Angeles is Sister Elsie Peak (5,080 feet) at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, part of Mt. Lukens. The Los Angeles River is a short, largely seasonal river flowing through the city, with headwaters in San Fernando Valley. Its length is almost entirely lined in concrete. The Los Angeles area is remarkably rich in native plant species. With its beaches, dunes, wetlands, hills, mountains, and rivers, the area contains a number of important biological communities. The largest area is coastal sage scrub, which covers the hillsides in combustible chaparral. Native plants include: California poppy, matilija poppy, toyon, coast live oak, giant wild rye grass, and hundreds of others. Unfortunately, many native species are so rare as to be endangered, such as the Los Angeles sunflower. There are many exotic flowers and flowering trees that are blooming year-round, with subtle colors, including the jacaranda, hibiscus, phlox, bougainvillea, coral tree blossoms and bird of paradise. If there were no city here, flower-growing could still flourish as an industry, as it does in Lompoc. Wisteria has been known to grow to house-lot size, and in Descanso Gardens there are forests of camellia trees. Orchids require special attention in this Mediterranean climate.

Cityscape

Mediterranean climate Mediterranean climate The city is divided into many neighborhoods. Most of the neighborhood names come from farm towns that were annexed by the growing city, physical terrain features, major streets, or subdivision names coined by enterprising developers. These divisions have no legal status but are of significance to residents for cultural and financial reasons. Signs have been placed on major thoroughfares designating some of the communities, a practice going back decades. (The "neighborhood councils" of Los Angeles began in 1999 and often follow different borders).

Climate

Mediterranean climate The city is situated in a Mediterranean climate or subtropical zone, experiencing mild, wet winters and warm to hot, dry summers. Onshore breezes keep the beach communities of Los Angeles and San Diego cooler in summer and warmer in winter than those further inland. Temperatures in the summer can get well over 90 °F (32 °C) and smog can become a problem. Average Summer day time highs are 85 °F (29 °C), with overnight lows of 66 °F (18 °C). Winter day time high temperatures get up to around 67 °F (19 °C, with overnight lows of 48 °F (8 °C) and rain is a possibility. Generally the weather is warm and dry in all seasons, with 325 days of sunshine a year. The median temperature in January is 58.3 °F (14.6 °C) and 74.3 °F (23.5 °C) in July. The highest temperature recorded within city borders was 116.0 °F (46.7 °C) at Canoga Park in 1985; the lowest temperature recorded was 18.0°F (−7.8 °C) in 1989, also at Canoga Park. The highest temperature ever recorded for Downtown Los Angeles was 112.0 °F (44.4 °C) on June 26 1990, and the lowest temperature ever recorded was 28.0 °F (−2.2 °C) on January 4 1949. Accumulating snowfall is a once in a lifetime event. There has been three recorded instances of snowfall in the city; two inches (5 cm) of snow fell in 1932 and the last snowfall occurred in 1949. Rain occurs mainly in the winter and spring months (February being the wettest month) with great variations in storm severity year by year. Los Angeles averages 13-16 inches (330 to 410 mm) of rain per year.

Pollution

1949Due to the city's geography as well as the population's heavy reliance on automobiles as a major form of transportation, the city suffers from severe air pollution in the form of smog. The Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley hold in the fumes from automobiles, diesel trucks, shipping, and locomotive engines, as well as manufacturing and other sources. In addition, the groundwater is increasingly threatened by MTBE from gas stations and perchlorate from rocket fuel. Some consider urban sprawl to be a result of the city's transportation system. Light pollution is also a problem.

Seismic activity

Like most areas of California, Los Angeles is subject to frequent earthquakes, due to the close proximity of the San Andreas Fault, as well as the smaller San Jacinto Fault and Banning Fault, in southern California. Most earthquakes are relatively minor, however, throughout history there are several major earthquakes. The most recent was the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which was centered in the northern San Fernando Valley. Coming less than two years after the L.A. riots, the Northridge earthquake was a severe emotional shock to Southern Californians, in addition to causing physical damage worth billions of dollars. Other major earthquakes include the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake and the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

People and culture

Demographics

Sylmar earthquake

Census 2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,694,820 people, 1,275,412 households, and 798,407 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,041.3/km² (7,876.8/mi²). There were 1,337,706 housing units at an average density of 1,101.1/km² (2,851.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 46.93% White, 11.24% African American, 0.80% Native American, 15.89% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 25.70% from other races, and 5.18% from two or more races. 46.53% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race and 29.75% White, not of Latino/Hispanic origins. There were 1,275,412 households of which 33.5% had children under 18, 41.9% were married couples, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% were non-families. 28.5% of households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size 3.56. The age distribution was: 26.6% under 18, 11.1% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 or older. The median age was 32. For every 100 females there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males. The median income for a household was $36,687, and for a family was $39,942. Males had a median income of $31,880, females $30,197. The per capita income was $20,671. 22.1% of the population and 18.3% of families were below the poverty line. 30.3% of those under the age of 18 and 12.6% of those aged 65 or older were below the poverty line.

Other demographics

Of 2,182,114 native people, 1,485,576 were born in California, 663,746 were born in a different state of the United States of America, and 31,792 were born in a United States territory (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, or Northern Marianas). Of 1,512,720 foreign born people, 100,252 were born in Europe, 376,767 were born in Asia, 20,730 were born in Africa, 4,104 were born in Oceania, 996,996 were born in Latin America, and 13,859 were born in Northern America. Of such foreign-born people, 569,771 entered between 1990 to March 2000. 509,841 are naturalized citizens and 1,002,879 are not citizens. The people of Los Angeles are known as Angelenos. L.A. can truly be described as a "world city" (Alpha World City) — that is, it has one of the largest and most diverse populations of any municipality anywhere. The Hispanic and Asian American populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian American population is the second largest of any city in the U.S. Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Armenians, Cambodians, Filipino, Guatemalans, Israelis, Koreans, Salvadorans, Thais, Mexicans, and Hungarians outside of their respective countries. Los Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Japanese and Persians (Iranians) living in the U.S., and has one of the largest Native American populations in the country. L.A. is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Koreatown, Little India (Artesia), Little Armenia, Thai Town, Historic Filipinotown and Little Ethiopia give testimony to the polyglot character of Los Angeles.

Crime

The COMPSTAT unit of the Los Angeles Police Department tabulates Part I offenses (violent and property crimes) committed in the city. Los Angeles has been experiencing significant decline in Part I offenses since the mid 1990s hitting a record low in 2004. Criminality peaked in 1992 with 72,667 recorded acts of violence (1,096 homicides) and 245,129 recorded property crimes. In 2004, there were 31,245 recorded violent crimes of which 518 were homicides. The distribution of homicides in the city is uneven with nearly half of such crimes occurring in the four stations of the South Bureau of the LAPD encompassing South Los Angeles and the Harbor area. A further quarter occur in the areas covered by the Central Bureau which covers Downtown and its environs. Property crimes were three times more common than violent crimes; 90,374 were recorded in 2004. When compared to other large cities, Los Angeles fares relatively well with a total crime index lower than San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. Many movies and songs about Los Angeles depict the notion that the city is home to a large number of gangsters and professional criminals. According to a May 2001 Drug Threat Assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center [http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs0/668/overview.htm], Los Angeles County is home to 152,000 gang members organized into 1,350 gangs. In Los Angeles, car chases happen more often than in most other major cities (sometimes several per week). The city's complex freeway system allows for lengthier pursuits, which may take them throughout the city. Other common crimes include: car-to-car shootings (see road rage), drive-by shootings, thrill killings, hit-and-run accidents, and carjackings. Numerous instances of all these crimes are documented on the LAPD press release Web site [http://www.lapdonline.org/portal/generic.php?page=/press_releases/press_releases.php]. One interesting example is a report on ten freeway shootings within two months [http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4449599/detail.html]. Also, Los Angeles has been a popular setting for several crime-based video games, such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which features Los Santos, a city largely based on the Los Angeles metropolitan area) and True Crime: Streets of LA (which takes place in a close replica of the Los Angeles area).

Arts and entertainment

True Crime: Streets of LA Los Angeles is sometimes considered the entertainment capital of the world. It shares the title of the cultural capital of the United States with New York City. Its largest entertainment industry is film production, but it is an important center for music, art, and architecture as well. As a major global metropolis, Los Angeles has evolved a unique culture and that is well-portrayed in popular media and is sometimes idealized as highly desirable. However, this culture has also inspired criticism that it is not really a unique culture, although most believe the contrary. Residents of the city of Los Angeles are served by the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) and its branch locations. Residents of the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and various cities within the county are served by the County of Los Angeles Public Library The LAPL is funded by voter-approved bond and tax levy packages. The Main Library is located in downtown Los Angeles and has been recognized as a National Historic Site.

Media

The major daily newspaper in the area is The Los Angeles Times. La Opinión is the city's major Spanish-language paper. There are also a wide variety of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including the Los Angeles Newspaper Group's Daily News (which focuses coverage on the Valley), Village Voice Media's L.A. Weekly, L.A. City Beat, Los Angeles magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Daily Journal (legal industry paper), Variety (entertainment industry paper), and [http://www.downtownnews.com Los Angeles Downtown News]. In addition to the English and Spanish language papers, numerous local periodicals serve immigrant communities in their native languages (e.g. Korean, Persian and Japanese). Most of the above papers are center-left or left in their political stance with the clear exception of the Daily News, which is center-right. One example of this is that the L.A. Times often does high-quality investigative journalism on important inner-city issues like health care and crime, while the L.A. Daily News is usually content to run wire stories on those issues, if it covers them at all. The L.A. Daily News also focuses on business issues, education, and crime. It strongly supports lowering taxes. Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps into certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Examples include the Daily Breeze (serving the South Bay), and The Long Beach Press-Telegram. The Los Angeles metro area is served by a wide variety of local television stations, and is the second largest designated market area (DMA) in the U.S. with 5,431,140 homes (4.956% of the U.S.). The major network television affiliates include KCBS 2 (CBS), KABC-TV 7 (ABC), KNBC 4 (NBC), KTTV 11 (FOX), KTLA 5 (WB), and KCOP 13 (UPN), and KPXN 30 (i). There are also four PBS stations in the area, including KVCR 24, KCET 28, KOCE 50, and KLCS 58. World TV operates on two channels, KNET 25 and KSFV-LP 27. There are also several Spanish-language television networks, including KMEX 34 (Univision), KFTR 46 (Telefutura), KVEA 52 (Telemundo), and KAZA 54 (Azteca America). KTBN 40 (Trinity Broadcasting Network), is a religious station in the area. Several independent television stations also operate in the area, including KCAL 9 (owned by CBS/Viacom), KSCI 18 (focuses primarily on Asian language programming), KWHY 22 (Spanish-language), KNLA-LP 27 (Spanish-language), KJLA 33 (variety), KPAL-LP 38, KXLA 44, KDOC 56 (classic programming and local sports), KJLA 57 (variety), and KRCA 62 (Asian language programming).

Religion

Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions. Los Angeles has the second-largest Jewish community in the United States, rivaled only by New York City. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles leads the largest archdiocese in the country. Roger Cardinal Mahony oversaw construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, completed in 2002 at the north end of downtown. The Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is their second-largest temple and is located in West Los Angeles. The Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909) in Los Angeles was a key milestone in the history of the Pentecostal movement. Los Angeles can be called the birthplace of Christian Fundamentalism. From 1908 to 1959 the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (B.I.O.L.A. now Biola University) was located in downtown at the corner of Hope and Sixth streets, in front and to the west of the Los Angeles Central Library building. In 1913, B.I.O.L.A. published a set of books called The Fundamentals, which presented a defense of the traditional conservative interpretation of the Holy Bible. The term fundamentalism is derived from these books. In the 1920s, Aimee Semple McPherson established a thriving evangelical ministry, with her Angelus Temple in Echo Park open to both black and white church members. Billy Graham became a celebrity during a successful revival campaign in Los Angeles in 1949. Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God used to have its headquarters in nearby Pasadena, now in Glendale. Until his death in 2005, Dr. Gene Scott was based near downtown. The Metropolitan Community Church, a fellowship of Christian congregations a focus on outreach to gays and lesbians, was started in Los Angeles in 1968 by Troy Perry. Jack Chick, of "Chick Tracts", was born in Boyle Heights and lived in the area most of his life. Chick Tracts]] Because of Los Angeles's large multi-ethnic population there are numerous organizations in the area representing a wide variety of faiths, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Bahá'í, various Eastern Orthodox Churchs, Sufism and others. Immigrants from Asia for example, have formed a number of significant Buddhist congregations. Los Angeles has been a destination for Swamis and Gurus since as early as 1900, including Paramahansa Yogananda (1920). The Self-Realization Fellowship is headquartered in Hollywood and has a private park in Pacific Palisades. Los Angeles is the home to a number of Neopagans, as well as adherents of various other mystical religions. One wing of the Theosophist movement is centered in Los Angeles, and another is in neighboring Pasadena. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founded the Transcendental Meditation movement in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. The Church of Scientology has a major presence in Hollywood, as does the Kabbalah Centre.

Sports

Club Sport League Venue Logo
Baseball Major League Baseball: National League Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium
Baseball Major League Baseball: American League Angel Stadium of Anaheim Angel Stadium of Anaheim
Los Angeles Lakers Basketball National Basketball Association: Western Conference Staples Center Staples Center
Los Angeles Clippers Basketball National Basketball Association: Western Conference Staples Center Staples Center
Los Angeles Sparks Basketball Women's National Basketball Association: Western Conference Staples Center Staples Center
Los Angeles Kings Ice Hockey National Hockey League: Western Conference Staples Center Staples Center
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Ice Hockey National Hockey League: Western Conference Arrowhead Pond Arrowhead Pond
C.D. Chivas USA Soccer Major League Soccer: Western Confernce Home Depot Center Home Depot Center
Los Angeles Galaxy Soccer Major League Soccer: Western Conference Home Depot Center Home Depot Center
Los Angeles Avengers Arena Football Arena Football League: American Conference Staples Center Staples Center
---- Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers , the Los Angeles Sparks, the Los Angeles Kings, the Club Deportivo Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy, and the Los Angeles Avengers. Los Angeles has been without an NFL franchise since 1995 despite being the second-biggest television market in North America. Prior to 1995, the Rams (1946-1994) and the Raiders (1982-1994) of the NFL were in the Los Angeles market. Raiders Anaheim, about 25 miles (40 km) to the south-east of downtown, is home to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. At various times in history the Angels have been known as the Los Angeles Angels (1961-1965), the California Angels (1965-1997), and the Anaheim Angels (1997-2004); talks in 2004 suggested the team was considering returning to the original name, over loud protests from the Anaheim government. The name was officially changed to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in late December 2004 in order to link with the larger city while still complying with contractual obligations. Beach volleyball and windsurfing were both invented in the area (though predecessors of both were invented in some form by Duke Kahanamoku in Hawaii). Venice, also known as Dogtown, is credited with being the birthplace of skateboarding and the place where Rollerblading first became popular. Area beaches are popular with surfers, who have created their own subculture. Los Angeles has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games: in 1932 and in 1984. The Los Angeles area contains all kinds of topography, notably the hills and mountains rising around the metropolis (it's the only major city in the United States bisected by a mountain range); four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries. Thousands of miles of trails crisscross the city and neighboring areas, providing exercise and wilderness access on foot, bike, or horse. Across the county a great variety of outdoor activities are available, such as skiing, rock climbing, gold panning, hang gliding, and windsurfing. Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

Economy

The economy of Los Angeles is driven by agriculture, petroleum, entertainment (motion pictures, television, and recorded music), aerospace, international trade, and tourism. Los Angeles is also the largest manufacturing center in the United States. The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together compose the most significant port in North America and one of the most important ports in the world. They are vital to trade within the Pacific Rim. Los Angeles is the world center for the entertainment industry, including adult entertainment. Other significant industries include media production, finance, aerospace, telecommunications, law, tourism, health and medicine, and transportation. The city is home to three major Fortune 500 companies, including aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman, energy company Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and homebuilding company KB Home. Other companies headquartered in Los Angeles include Twentieth Century Fox, Herbalife, Univision, Metro Interactive, LLC, Premier America, CB Richard Ellis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Guess, Inc., O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, TOKYOPOP, The Jim Henson Company, Paramount Pictures, Robinsons-May, Sunkist, Fox Sports Net, Health Net, Inc., 21st Century Insurance, and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The metropolitan area contains the headquarters of even more companies, many of whom wish to escape the city's high taxes. For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax based on a percentage of business revenue, while most neighboring cities charge only small flat fees. The companies below clearly benefit from their proximity to Los Angeles, while at the same time they also avoid the city's taxes (and other problems). Some of the major companies headquartered in cities adjacent to Los Angeles include Shakey's Pizza (Alhambra), Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Beverly Hills), City National Bank (Beverly Hills), Hilton Hotels (Beverly Hills), DiC Entertainment (Burbank), The Walt Disney Company (Fortune 500 - Burbank), Warner Brothers (Burbank), Countrywide Financial Corporation (Fortune 500 - Calabasas), THQ (Calabasas), Belkin (Compton), National Public Radio West (Culver City), Sony Pictures Entertainment (parent of Columbia Pictures, located in Culver City), Computer Sciences Corporation (Fortune 500 - El Segundo), DirecTV (El Segundo), Mattel (Fortune 500 - El Segundo), Unocal (Fortune 500 - El Segundo), DreamWorks SKG (Glendale), Sea Launch (Long Beach), ICANN (Marina Del Rey), Cunard Line (Santa Clarita), Princess Cruises (Santa Clarita), Activision (Santa Monica), and RAND (Santa Monica). There are many other well-known companies with headquarters located in the County of Los Angeles or the greater Los Angeles area, but they are far beyond the City of Los Angeles (and the scope of this article). See Los Angeles County: Economy for a list of such companies in Los Angeles County.

Infrastructure

Government

Los Angeles County: Economy The city is governed by a mayor-council system. The current mayor is Antonio Villaraigosa. There are 15 city council districts. Other elected city officials include the city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, and the city controller, Laura Chick. The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanors within the city limits. The district attorney, elected by the county voters, prosecutes misdemeanors in unincorporated areas and in 78 of the 88 cities in the county, as well as felonies throughout the county. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) polices the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department polices all unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and some cities which have contracted for law enforcement services because they lack police departments of their own, including Calabasas, Temple City, West Hollywood, and Compton. The Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Public Library System and Los Angeles Unified School District are among the largest such organizations in the country. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power provides service to city residents and businesses. The city government has been perceived as inefficient and ineffective by residents of some areas, which led to an unsuccessful secession movement by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood in 2002. The main problem seems to be that the city administration in Downtown gives priority to high-density neighborhoods like Mid-City and Downtown at the expense of its far-flung suburban neighborhoods. To make the government more responsive and to help encourage the cohesiveness of neighborhood communities, the city council has promoted the formation of neighborhood councils. These advisory councils were first proposed by city council member Joel Wachs in 1996 and were incorporated in the Charter Reform of 1999. The councils cover districts which are not necessarily identical to the traditional neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the borders of which often reflect those of cities that were annexed to Los Angeles. More than 90 neighborhood councils have been formed and all stakeholders in a district may vote for council members. Though the councils have little actual power, they are still official government bodies and so must abide by California's Brown Act that strictly governs the meetings of deliberative assemblies. These and other regulatory requirements have proven frustrating for activists unaccustomed to bureaucratic procedures. The first notable achievement of the neighborhood councils was their organized opposition in March 2004 to an 18% increase in water rates by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (a municipal monopoly), which led the city council to suspend the rate hike pending further study.

Legal system

Los Angeles Department of Water and PowerThe Los Angeles County Superior Court has jurisdiction over all cases arising under state law, while the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California hears all federal cases. Both are headquartered in a large cluster of government buildings in the city's Civic Center. Unlike the largest city in the United States, music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. "Mood music", "easy listening", "elevator music", and (inaccurately) "Muzak" are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured. Beautiful Music can also be regarded as a subset of MOR music. Beautiful Music first offered soft and unobtrusive instrumental selections on a very structured schedule with a minimum of commercial interruptions and often functioned as a free background music service for stores, with commercial breaks consisting only of announcements aimed at shoppers already in the stores. Pioneer beautiful instrumentals station was WPAT in Paterson NJ over metropolitan NYC. KLEF in Dallas' Gordon McLendon copied the format. In the late 1950's John B. Reynolds, Jr's WJBR in Wilmington DE pioneered the FM Beautiful music format in the Delaware Valley. Later, in the early 1960s the Federal Communications Commission adopted a standard for transmitting and receiving stereo signals on a single channel of the FM band. With the sound quality and better resistance to interference. At Philadelphia's WDVR, Marlin Taylor, in 1963, created a custom-designed "Beautiful Music" format and within four months, WDVR-FM 101.1 FM became the #1 rated FM station in Philadelphia and went on to become not only the first big success in FM but instrumental in establishing the viability of the FM band. (The station later changed its calls to WEAZ but retained its beautiful-music format until the early 1990s, when it transitioned to Adult Contemporary and eventually became WBEB, and continues to this day as the market's top adult-music station.) Although WDVR perfected the "beautiful music" formula and confirmed its appeal, it did not invent the format. Perhaps the first true "beautiful music" station in the United States was KIXL in Dallas, Texas, which operated at "104 on both dials" (1040 AM and 104.5 FM) during the 1950s and 1960s. Pronounced "kicksill" on the air, KIXL was well-known for seamlessly blending one song into another with the help of specially designed instrumental bridges, and for a popular feature called "Think It Over," in which the smooth-voiced announcer softly intoned a proverb or a word of wisdom, followed by a short pause and the admonition, "Think it over." Inspired by the success of KIXL, Gordon McLendon - best known for programming Top 40-formatted KLIF, which was the top-rated station in Dallas throughout the 1950s and '60s - decided to start up a Beautiful Music station of his own in the San Francisco market. He took over KROW-AM, licensed to nearby Oakland, and revamped it with a Beautiful Music format as KABL (pronouned "cable," as in "cable car"). Others, such as Jim Schulke, devised a method of buying air time on FM stations in bulk and reselling the blocks to interested advertisers. Schulke formed Stereo Radio Productions (SRP) to help his stations get better ratings and pull in more agency advertising dollars. His stations used 600 ten-and-a-half-inch reels of stereo audio tape, using a method called "matched flow", where a couple of tape machines had 15 minute segments which by controlling where you cued the reel, you could vary the sound where no half-hour was repeated within a two week period. One of Schulke's stations using the "matched flow" concept was WDVR's chief competitor in the Beautiful Music format in Philadelphia, WWSH-FM (now Smooth Jazz WJJZ). Others such as Bonneville Broadcasting Systems followed along with many smaller syndicators which also offered reel-to reel and other formats. Generally, the music heard on Beautiful Music stations were newly orchestrated arrangements of the songs of the day. These were available from the major record labels and performed by artist such as Andre Kostelanetz, Percy Faith, Mantovani, The 101 Strings, Billy Vaughn, The Living Strings, Frank Chacksfield, and many, many others. When the record companies cut back on releasing this material, syndicators of the format had custom recordings produced for them, performed by many different orchestras from around the world. Many Beautiful Music programmers constructed their own style of sets, eventually incorporating vocal songs, generally one to each 15 minute set. Some of the most notable and highest-rated Beautiful Music stations included WPAT and WPAT-FM in New York, Art Wander programmed WBAL AM, Baltimore, in early 1960's. WLIF in Baltimore, WPCH in Atlanta, WJOI (formerly WWJ-FM) in Detroit, WDUV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, WLAK in Chicago, WAYL in Minneapolis, KBIG in Los Angeles, KUMU in Honolulu, WKTZ in Jacksonville, KEWT & KCTC in Sacramento, KABL in San Francisco, the above-mentioned WDVR (later WEAZ) in Philadelphia, and K-JOY & XTRA in San Diego. KWXY in Cathedral City, California has retained its Beautiful Music format since taking to the air in 1965 and remains one of Palm Springs' most highly-rated stations, largely thanks to an annual influx of older vacationers from cold climates. WJIB in Cambridge, Massachusetts is notable as one of the few remaining Beautiful Music serving a major metropolitan area. Most of the aforementioned stations were programmed by Schulke Productions or competing syndicators such as Bonneville and Century. Ed Winton, a protege of Gordon McLendon, brought the format to Connie B. Gay's WGAY 1050 am in Silver Spring, MD changing AM to WQMR. Simulcasting on WGAY and WQMR (Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Maryland) Ed Winton, Bill Doty and Alan Campbell programmed an independent Beautiful Music format beginning in the early 1960s and ending in the early 1990s. Later Bob Chandler, tutored by Winton, a leading exponent of the genre, was Operations Director. He organized repeated trips to Europe to make instrumental cover recordings of popular vocal music, which were then made available to Beautiful Music stations in other markets. In the latter years of the format, more vocals were incorporated into each set, and eventually the instrumentals were eliminated completely, making way for the Adult Contemporary format. By the end of the 1980s the popularity of other formats, such as Top 40, Album Oriented Rock, and Classic Rock began to dominate the FM dial. Advertisers were going after a younger audience, and stations soon dropped the Beautiful Music format and switched to whatever seemed more appropriate for the audiences the advertisers were going after. But the Beautiful Music format did not die completely. Today's Smooth jazz radio stations maintain the structure and style of the Beautiful Music format. And although there are today only a handful of true Beautiful Music stations still on the air, the format still lives on a few non-commercial radio stations, including WKTZ-FM in Jacksonville, Florida, which is owned by Jones College and also streams its programming online. Using WDVR-FM and SRP veterans, XM Satellite Radio programs a dedicated Beautiful Music channel for its subscribers called "Sunny", and the Music Choice digital satellite service now has a permanent music channel devoted to the once-mighty FM radio format that relaxed and soothed radio audiences for decades.

Artists and music


- Some instrumental artists associated with Beautiful Music have included:
  - 101 Strings Orchestra
  - Ronnie Aldrich
  - Caravelli
  - Frank Chacksfield
  - Richard Clayderman
  - Floyd Cramer
  - Syd Dale
  - Johnny Douglas
  - Percy Faith
  - Robert Farnon
  - Ferrante and Teicher
  - James Galway
  - Jackie Gleason
  - Arthur Greenslade
  - Johnny Gregory
  - Hollyridge Strings
  - Nick Ingman
  - Bert Kaempfert
  - André Kostelanetz
  - James Last
  - Geoff Love
  - Henry Mancini
  - Mantovani
  - Paul Mauriat
  - Peter Nero
  - Franck Pourcel
  - Paul Weston
  - Roger Williams
- Among the vocal artists featured on Beautiful Music stations are:
  - The Carpenters
  - Ray Charles Singers
  - Ray Conniff Singers
  - Engelbert Humperdinck
  - Anita Kerr Singers
  - The Lettermen
  - Johnny Mathis
  - Frank Sinatra
  - Barbra Streisand
  - Andy Williams

External links


- [http://www.angelfire.com/ab/day/EZ/ The INSTRUMENTALists] Musician Biographies
- [http://www.easylisteninghq.com/ EasyListeningHQ.com] (tribute site)
- [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BeautifulMusic/ Launch/Yahoo! Beautiful Music Message Forum]
- [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BeautifulInstrumentals/ Launch/Yahoo! Beautiful Instrumentals Message Forum]
- [http://www.kwxy.com/ KWXY, Cathedral City, California]
- [http://wktz.jones.edu - WKTZ, Jacksonville, Florida]
- [http://www.wjib740.com/ WJIB, Cambridge, Massachusetts]
- [http://www.percyfaithpages.org/ Percy Faith]
- [http://sunny.xmradio.com/ Sunny, XM Satellite Radio's Beautiful Music channel]
- [http://www.wqmrwgaymemories.org/ WQMR and WGAY: Washington's Beautiful Music Stations]
- [http://www.netradio.com/ netradio.com]
- [http://www.angelfire.com/biz/acousticdigest/SS/ The VOCALists] MOR Singers Biographies Category:radio formats

1952

1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January


- January 8 - West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders.
- January 24 - Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria.
- January 24 - Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada.

February

Governor-General of Canada and her mother, Queen Elizabeth at the funeral of King George VI.]]
- February 2 - A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.
- February 6 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI.
- February 6 - In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.
- February 14 to February 25 - Winter Olympics in Oslo
- February 15 - Funeral of King George VI takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
- February 16 - Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker formed in Eastern Oregon.
- February 20 - Emmett L. Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
- February 21 - Winston Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards
- February 26 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.

March


- May 7-12 - Marcel Bardiauc sails through Kap Horn
- March 10 - General Fulgencio Batista takes power in Cuba - again
- March 15 to 16 - 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in Cilaos, Réunion, the most rainfall ever in one day
- March 20 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
- March 21 - The last two executions in the Netherlands take place.
- March 21 - Dr Kwame Nkrumah elected the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast
- March 27 - Failed assassination attempt against Konrad Adenauer

April


- April 4 - In Hague tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth 3 billion dollars from Germany.
- April 18 - Bolivia National Revolution: universal vote enables indigenous and women to vote, nationalisation of mines and agrarian reform.
- April 18 - West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations.
- April 23 - Nuclear test in Nevada desert.
- April 28 - The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the occupation of Japan.
- April 28 - Treaty of Taipei (Treaty of Peace between Japan and t

May


- May 1 - East Germany threatens to form its own army.
- May 2 - First passenger jet flight route between London and Johannesburg
- May 3 - U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.
- May 6 - Farouk of Egypt had himself announced as a descendant of prophet Muhammad.
- May 13 - Pandit Nehru forms his first government
- May 15 - Diplomatic relations established between the governments of Israel and Japan at the level of Legations.

June


- June 1 - Catholic church bans books of André Gide.
- June 5 - Remains of a Viking ship found near Boston, Massachusetts.
- June 14 - The keel is laid for the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
- June 15 - The Diary of Anne Frank published.
- June 21 - U.S. launches the first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
- June 29 - Finnish Armi Kuusela wins the title of Miss Universe.
- June 30 - Marshall Aid ends.

July


- July 13 - East Germany announces formation of its people's army.
- July 19 to August 3 - The Summer Olympic Games are held in Helsinki.
- July 23 - General Mohammed Naguib leads The Free Officers (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser - the real power behind the coup) in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.
- July 25 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
- July 26 - Military coup in Egypt ousts King Farouk.

August

Farouk, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands form the European Coal and Steel community, the foundation organisation what will become the European Union.]]
- August 10 - Establishment of the European Coal and Steel community.
- August 11 - Jordanian army forces king Talal to resign due to mental illness - his successor is his son Hussein of Jordan.
- August 13 - Japan joins IMF.
- August 14 - West Germany joins IMF.
- August 14 - West Germany joins World Bank.
- August 16 - Lynmouth in North Devon England is devastated by floods, death toll of 34.
- August 26 - British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic Ocean in the same day.
- August 27 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg - Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.
- August 29 - Premiere of John Cage's 4' 33" in Woodstock, New York.
- August 30 - Last Finnish war reparations to Soviet Union.

September


- September 2 - Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis perform first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota.
- September 4 - September 9 - Thick smog in London, England causes 4,000 fatalities.
- September 18 - Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.

October


- October 8 - Negotiations of ceasefire in Korea are postponed.
- October 8 - Three-train crash in Harrow railway station in England - 110 dead.
- October 14 - United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City
- October 19 - Alain Bombard begins to sail from Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days; he reaches them December 23
- October 20 - Martial law in Kenya due to Mau Mau uprising.

November


- November 1 - Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy - The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["m" for megaton], at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll located in the Pacific Ocean.
- November 4 - 8.25 Richter scale earthquake in Kamchatka
- November 4 - U.S. presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson (correctly predicted by UNIVAC computer).
- November 18 - Jomo Kenyatta is arrested in Kenya for alleged connection to Mau Mau uprising
- November 20 - Fireball crashes in a backyard in Havelock North, New Zealand
- November 20 - First official passenger flight over the North Pole from Los Angeles to Copenhagen
- November 21 - Show trial in Czechoslovakia sentences 11 ex-communist officials to death - all of them Jews.
- November 25 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London; as of 2004, it continues, next door at the St. Martin's Theatre, and remains the longest continuously running production of a play in history.
- November 29 - Korean War: Newly-elected U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a political campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

December


- December 1 - The New York Daily News carries a front page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark became the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
- December 4 - Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descends on London ("Smog" for "smoke" and "fog" becomes a word).
- December 14 - First successful surgical separation of Siamese twins in Mount Sinai Hospital, Ohio.
- December 25 - Shooting incident in West Berlin - one West German soldier is killed
- December 26 - Joseph Ivor Linton, first Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan, presents his credentials to the Japanese Emperor.

Undated events


- 3300 die of polio in U.S.; 57,000 children are paralyzed
- National Security Agency founded
- Winston Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards
- Cold War over Germany's frontiers intensify
- Sister Theresa becomes Mother Theresa and begins her charity work in Calcutta
- Charles Chaplin expelled from U.S.
- Cheez Whiz introduced
- Traffic lights in New York City
- Wernher von Braun talks about a manned flight to Mars.
- Nordic Council agrees free transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.
- National Prohibition Foundation incorporated.

Births

January-March


- January 11 - Ben Crenshaw, American golfer
- January 11 - Lee Ritenour, jazz guitarist and composer
- January 20 - Paul Stanley, American musician (KISS

Catalina Island

Santa Catalina Island, often called simply Catalina Island, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The 76 mi²/48,000 acre (194 km²) island is located about 22 miles (35 km) south-southwest of San Pedro, Los Angeles, California and is part of Los Angeles County. It is the only one of the Channel Islands chain to have a permanent civilian settlement and urbanization; most of the 3,000 residents live in the resort city of Avalon, California. Most of the island is owned by the Catalina Island Conservancy.

History

Prior to the modern era the island was inhabited by people of the Tongva tribe, who also lived in the area of Los Angeles, had villages near present day San Pedro and Playa del Rey, and who regularly traveled back and forth to Catalina for trade. The Tongva called the island Pimu or Pimungna. The first European to ever set foot on the island was the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. This happened on October 7, 1542. He claimed the island for Spain and christened it San Salvador. Another Spanish explorer, Sebastian Vizcaino, rediscovered the island on the eve of Saint Catherine's day (November 24) in 1602. He renamed it Santa Catalina. 1602 During the following 300 years, the island served as home or base of operation for all sorts of visitors, from Russian otter hunters to Spanish smugglers to Chinese pirates. Franciscan monks tried to build a mission there, but failed due to the lack of fresh water on the island. The native population was mostly wiped out during 19th century. Catalina Island experienced a brief period of gold rush in 1860s, but no gold was found, and ultimately those early mining attempts have been abandoned. By the end of 19th century, the island was almost uninhabited except for a few cattle herders. At that time, its location just 20 miles from Los Angeles—the city that had reached the population of 50,000 in 1890 and was undergoing the period of enormous growth—was a major factor that contributed to the development of the island into a vacation destination. The sons of Phineas Banning bought the island in 1891 and established the Santa Catalina Island Company to develop it as a resort. Their efforts were set back on November 29, 1915 when a fire burned half of Avalon's buildings, including six hotels and several clubs. World War I also hampered tourism, and the Banning brothers were forced to sell the island. William Wrigley, Jr. bought Catalina Island in 1919 and devoted himself to preserving and promoting it. In 1921 he sold lots for building in the town of Avalon. The tourism industry was encouraged by the construction of a beautiful Art Deco dance hall, called the Casino, in 1929. Its upstairs dance floor has a capacity of over 6,000 dancers, and sits above the Avalon Theater, a glamourous movie theater with seating for 1,150. The Casino's name derives from a more traditional Italian definition of casino, meaning social gathering place; the building has never served as a gambling establishment. From 1927 through 1937 pottery and tile were made on the island, and these items are now collectible. The Chicago Cubs, also owned by Wrigley, used the island for the team's spring training. During World War II, the island was closed to tourists and used as a military training facility. [http://www.ecatalina.com/article_ww2.cfm] Catalina's airport, the "Airport in the Sky" (AVX), was completed in 1946. The 3,250-foot (990-meter) runway sits on a mountaintop, 1,602 feet (488 meters) above sea level. Up until the time of the airport's construction, the only air service to the island was provided by seaplanes. In 1975, Philip Wrigley deeded the Wrigley shares in the Santa Catalina Island Company to the Catalina Island Conservancy that he had helped create. It now owns the vast majority of the island.

Wildlife

Philip Wrigley A herd of American Bison roamed the island for many decades, supposedly first imported in 1924 for the silent film version of Zane Grey's Western tale "The Vanishing American." Boars, brought over as game, also ran free. The island also maintains a small population of Island Foxes, an endangered endemic species. About 400 species of native plants grow on the island, including the endangered Santa Cruz Island Rock Cress (Sibara filifolia). Several species of plants are found only on Catalina Island, including: Cliff Spurge (Euphorbia misera), Island Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. lyonii) and Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. floribundus). Some of these plants are protected in the island's Wrigley Botanical Gardens. In the waters surrounding the island, there are also lots of fish like garibaldi, blacksmiths, opal eyes and many more. The Conservancy is tasked with the responsibility of maintaining the island's natural state. It is eradicating invasive weeds and removing non-native animals such as boars. Some bison are occasionally removed to control their population, as they have destroyed much of the original, native plant life on the island. During the past few years, most of the bison were relocated to the mainland. For example, in December 2004, the Morongo Band of Cahuilla/Mission Indians donated $75,000 to relocate 104 bison to South Dakota. As of September 2005, about 125 bison still remain, and this number is expected to stay unchanged, since they are a major tourist attraction.

Tourism

About a million tourists visit the island every year; Catalina is serviced by ferries and the "Airport in the Sky". Ferries depart from Orange County in Newport Beach and Dana Point. Ferries depart from Los Angeles County in Long Beach, San Pedro, and Marina del Rey. Most of the island is controlled by the Catalina Island Conservancy, a private nonprofit organization. Under an agreement with Los Angeles County, the Conservancy has granted an easement to allow day hiking and mountain biking, but visitors must first obtain a permit at the Conservancy's office (on which they declare the parts of the island they intend to visit). Hiking permits are free, whereas annual bicycle permits are available for a fee (as of 2005, $60 per person). as of 2005 The use of motor vehicles on the island is restricted; there is limit on the number of registered cars, which translates into 10-year-long wait list to bring a car to the island. Most residents move around via golf cart. Bicycles are also a popular mode of transportation. There are a number of bicycle and golf cart rental agencies on the island. Only the city of Avalon is open to the public without restrictions. Glass bottom boats tour the reefs and shipwrecks of the area, and scuba diving and snorkeling are popular in the clear water. The area is famous for the schools of flyingfish and the bright orange Garibaldi which teem in local waters. Bus tours are given of the interior. Two Harbors is the second, and much smaller, resort village on the island. Located at the isthmus of the island, north of Avalon, it is the primary landing spot for those who wish to tour the western half of the island. It is accessible by boat from San Pedro and by bus or boat from Avalon. Two Boy Scouts of America councils in Los Angeles County have camps north of Two Harbors: Camp Cherry Valley, operated by the San Gabriel Valley Council, located at Cherry Cove next to Two Harbors; and Camp Emerald Bay, operated by the Western Los Angeles County Council, further up the coast. Both are accessible by water taxi from Two Harbors or hiking trails. Guided Discoveries also runs several camps on Catalina Island providing hands on opportunities to learn marine science and environmental studies to school groups and community groups during school year and summer sea camps during the summer. water taxi

Education

Children in Avalon attend schools in the Long Beach Unified School District. There are four K-12 schools on Catalina Island: Avalon Elementary School, Two Harbors Elementary School, Avalon Middle School and Avalon High School while thousands of school-age youths travel from the mainland to study at the Catalina Island Marine Institute every year. The USC Wrigley Institute research and teaching facilites at Two Harbors, maintained by the University of Southern California and named for Philip K. Wrigley, consist of a 30,000 square-foot laboratory building, dormitory housing, cafeteria, a hyperbaric chamber, and a large waterfront staging area complete with dock, pier, helipad, and diving lockers. The facility was made possible by a generous donation from the Wrigley family.

Pop culture and trivia

In 1936, a young radio announcer for WHO in Des Moines, Iowa traveled to Catalina to cover the Cubs during spring training. While there, he took a screen test and was offered an acting role. The actor's name was Ronald Reagan. In 1958, the Four Preps recorded the hit song "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)." Marilyn Monroe briefly lived in Avalon as a young, married woman, and was a babysitter for neighborhood children. Several scenes from the film Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson, were filmed on Catalina, including one showing the Casino. Actress Natalie Wood drowned off the coast of Catalina in