In Koreatown, Radio Koreas move to Orange County feels bigger than a change of address

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Richard Choi spent much of the past nearly 37 years waking up at 3 a.m.to make it to Radio Korea in time to give the morning broadcast.For years, Choi’s commute to the station on Wilshire Boulevard took only a few minutes from his home near Hancock Park, but when the station moved its main operations to La Palma in Orange County last December, he would have needed to wake up an hour earlier to make the drive.“That just wasn’t realistic,” Choi said.

“So I decided it was time to retire.If the office had stayed in Koreatown, I probably would have continued broadcasting.”The move hasn’t sat well with some longtime listeners and former employees who saw the station as inseparable from Koreatown.Choi, 78, added that several longtime employees left the news outlet rather than make the commute to Orange County.By the time he retired last year, Choi was one of the station’s most recognizable voices, particularly during the 1992 L.A.

civil unrest, when Korean immigrants across the city turned to Korean-language radio for updates and information.When management first floated the idea of leaving Koreatown, Choi told them to reconsider.The station’s headquarters became such a fixture in the neighborhood that many in the Korean-speaking community referred to 3700 Wilshire Blvd.as the “Radio Korea building,” and the area in front of it, the “Radio Korea lawn.”Now, the large Radio Korea sign in big, white block letters is gone, with just a shadow of an imprint.The company spent years searching for another space in Koreatown after landlord Jamison Properties notified tenants in the Wilshire building that they would eventually need to vacate, Radio Korea CEO Michael Kim said.The developers plan to redevelop the commercial space into affordable housing.Radio Korea looked at multiple sites, including one near Hancock Park, but repeatedly ran into issues involving parking ...