KRLA Beat: L.A.'s first rock-and-roll newspaper

The KRLA Beat was the earliest American newspaper to cover the top-forty music scene. The Beat, published by Pasadena radio station KRLA 1110, grew from a small four-page newsletter in October 1964 to a 16-page weekly and later 24-page bimonthly edition by 1966. During its four-year run The Beat was an invaluable source of information about the changing music scene of the 1960s, featuring exclusive interviews with singers, musicians, and producers as well as concert updates and record reviews. Columnists included Tony Barrow, the Beatles' publicist, and Derek Taylor, former assistant to Brian Epstein.

This online collection has been assembled from private resources and copies donated by generous people around the country. You can read the entire run of the newspaper, from February 25, 1965 to May 4, 1968. Also available are fifteen of the twenty known KRLA Beat newsletters issued to KRLA fans from October 1964 to February 1965.

For those interested, courtesy of Google Books, here's what Billboard had to say about the Los Angeles radio scene in 1965 and the proliferation of music-related newspapers published by local stations. Some of you may know The Beat via its KYA permutation. Check out the chart on page 66, which compared circulation of The Beat to other pop-music newspapers of the time. Click the image to read the article.

To read about The Beat's history, hear a sample of KRLA airchecks, or explore individual issues, click any tab at the top of the page. If you run into any problems, please contact the webmaster for assistance. Issues are listed in chronological order.

We're missing just five newsletter-style issues from the KRLA Beat's earliest era. If you own an issue not represented here and can provide a photocopy from your own collection for scanning, feel free to contact the webmaster. We'll be most grateful and will reimburse all expenses and postage. If you have airchecks or original broadcasts and would like to share, please let us know.