Classical K-Mozart to Go All-Country?

News flash: LAist is reporting a rumor it's hearing that Mt. Wilson Broadcasting's KMZT-FM may dump classical for country.

Here's what LAist's Tony Pierce is hearing:

We are hearing murmurings that LA classical FM station http://www.kmzt.com/index.asp K-Mozart is about to go the way of its other Mt. Wilson Broadcasting sister-stations by trading in their bowties for bolos and go country.

When KZLA stopped bootscootin to country music and switched over to the soulful jamz of Movin' 93.9 in August of '06, it left a twanging void on LA's FM dial.

Mt. Wilson's KKGO (1260 AM) tried to pick up the slack on the AM dial but why wouldn't you want to hear the song of the year in mono, the Dixie Chicks should be in stereo and that's possibly what 105.1 FM will become if K-Mozart decides to shift gears.

The other radio station in the Mt. Wilson Broadcasting group is the Tijuana-based, Country 540.

We tried to call K-Mozart but their answering machine said that they close their business day at 5pm. It was 5:45pm. Our tipster tells us that the changeover could happen as early as tomorrow. Developing...

The move would cause a stir: KMZT is the last remaining commercial classical station in Los Angeles. But it's possible, given Mt. Wilson owner Saul Levine's history of frequently flipping his AM stations. Most recently, he dumped adult standards on the AM outlets to run country music instead -- so country's definitely on his mind.

KMZT also isn't a heritage classical station; it dumped jazz for classical in 1989 when KFAC dropped its longtime classical format.

By the way, KMZT's HD channel already programs country (I'm assuming the station's sister AM country feed, but in stereo).