The latest radio star from Sacramento to emerge nationally is former KRXQ jock Laura Ingle, who became a television reporter for Fox News in the early 2000s. As far as Sacramento radio entrepreneurs who have made a national impact, one need look no further than Amador Bustos, who created the Z-Spanish Network in 1992 in Sacramento for under a million dollars and sold the chain of 33 stations to Entravision in 2000 for $475 million.
There have been quite a few stories of Sacramento radio talent beyond Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus and Morton Downey Jr. rising to national exposure. Christine Craft had been a television figure as a reporter for CBS-TV long before hitting the Sacramento airwaves. She also made national news in the eighties as a plaintiff in a federal case that challenged sexist practices in the television news industry.
Mark S. Allen, who was a popular jock on FM 102 in the eighties and nineties, hosted Comedy Central's Short Attention Span Theater in the nineties. Since 1996 he has been the morning anchor at KMAX-TV in Sacramento. Tina Macuha started out on the FM 102 morning show in the early nineties and then advanced to doing traffic reports on several stations before joining KMAX TV's "Good Day Sacramento" in 1995 as morning commute traffic reporter. One of Sacramento's most successful television anchors, KXTV Channel 10's Cristina Mendonsa, did news at FM 102, KZAP and K108 in the late eighties before moving on to television.
Mick Martin, who did movie reviews on KZAP from the late seventies through the early nineties, became co-author of the popular book The DVD Movie Guide. Another KZAP personality from the glory days, Cary Nosler, wrote books on nutrition and hosted a national television show called PM Magazine. KZAP also employed the news team of Richard Beban and Judith Nielsen in the seventies, who both went on to be writers for television shows, including the series Barney Miller. Another news person at KZAP in the seventies was Jok Church, who went on to be creator of the national comic strip Beakman & Jax.
The Billboard book Echoes of the Sixties was written by early seventies KROY production man Jeff March, who now runs a communications firm at Editpros.com. Perhaps the metropolitan area's best kept secret about several local radio personalities who talked to a national audience was Concept Productions out of Roseville from the mid-seventies through the nineties. Another national voice that rose out of Sacramento was Tony Pigg, who went on to become the announcer for the Live with Regis and Kelly national television show.
It all started with KFBK in 1922 then KROY in 1937
Radio was used mainly by the U.S. military in the early 1900's and then began its venture into commercial use in 1920 at KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA, owned by Westinghouse. The first AM radio station to be heard in Sacramento was KFBK, owned by the Kimball-Upson Company. The license was issued on Dec. 9, 1921 by the Department of Commerce (the FCC was not established until 1934). The station signed on as KVQ at 833 AM on Feb. 2, 1922. It soon changed to KFBK and bounced around the dial a few times (including 1490) before finally landing on 1530 AM right after the end of World War II. By then the owner was McClatchy, who owned The Sacramento Bee.
KFBK was Sacramento's only licensee on the local airwaves until KROY arrived in 1937 at 1210 AM and then moved to 1240 AM four years later. Named after its first owner, Royal Miller, the station delivered popular syndicated shows of the day such as Your Hit Parade. Until the end of World War II, Sacramento's only two radio stations were KFBK and KROY. One of KROY's early salesmen was Elton Rule, who later went on to become a broadcast icon as President of ABC. A deeper look at the history of KROY can be found at www.1240kroy.com.
Then came KCRA and KXOA in 1945
Then KCRA (first day-only at 1340 AM then day/night at 1320 AM) and KXOA (first at 1490 AM then increased power at 1470 AM) both debuted in 1945. Those first four stations in town were pretty much the choices on the AM dial until the fifties, besides San Francisco stations that could be picked up, such as KSFO (560 AM), KFRC (610 AM) and KGO (810 AM). Sacramento's first FMs began to appear in the late thirties, although FM stations did not start to attract significant audiences until the late sixties. Each of Sacramento's four AM licensees were affiliates of the four big national radio networks at the time: KCRA (NBC), KFBK (ABC), KROY (CBS) and KXOA (Mutual).
Roy Sells KROY
In 1946 the history of radio changed when the FCC, for the first time, had to oversee a bidding war for a radio property. That station was none other than KROY and it changed hands from the Royal Miller Estate to Harmco Inc. for $150K. Eight years later Robert Walker Dunn bought the station and ran it until 1959, when Lincoln Dellar Stations moved in. Under this new ownership KROY became a top 40 station in 1960 - when 8 year old Dave Williams started to listen and decided that he wanted to pursue a radio career - one that would constantly find him at number one in Sacramento. In KROY's early stage of its long run delivering the national hits to Sacramento, the station billed itself as "Color Radio," consulted by Ted Randall.
In the fifties, television casts radio into a new role
When television began saturating homes in the fifties, radio was greatly eclipsed by the visual medium. Up until television, radio was the most popular form of media. As national networks began moving away from radio to concentrate on their television properties, radio began to reinvent itself. For a period in the early fifties many stations began experimenting with block programming, implementing a wide variety of shows and musical genres in scheduled time slots. As rock and roll music became popular in the mid-fifties stations had to decide which audience they wanted to serve: kids or adults. With the baby boom, a whole new market was emerging with youth culture accelerated in the late fifties by the popularity of the transistor radio, which allowed listeners to fit radios in their pockets and take the airwaves with them wherever they went.
KGMS rocks in the fifties
In the fifties a few more stations popped up on the AM dial. One was Auburn community station KAHI at 950 AM in 1956. Another was KGMS, whose three owners had last names beginning with G, M and S. Those owners were Steve George, Jack Matranga and Irv Schwartz. Matranga later went on to own television station KTXL Channel 40. KGMS sprung up at 1380 AM in the mid-fifties. It began as an MOR (middle of the road) station but by the end of the fifties the format drifted toward current pop hits. They continued this approach until about 1962 when they went back to more adult Sinatra-type artists and instrumentals with the slogan "the good music station," which also went along with the KGMS call letters. It became one of the top stations in town both in billings and ratings throughout the sixties. A familiar voice on the station during the sixties was news announcer Ray Hasha.
From 1959 to 1961 Jim Hadlock was the KGMS Program Director before he moved on to do voice work for local television station KXTV Channel 10. Jim introduced a format called "Select 60" at the station, which was a rollout of the sixty biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. During his tenure Jim also did morning drive followed by Lou Guttenberger (middays), Jack Haskill (afternoons), Jim Barber (evenings, later worked at KCRA TV Channel 3) and station engineer Jim Lehman (overnights). Jim Hadlock's daughter Karen Hadlock (now Karen Beck), became a morning host on KSFM in the seventies during its Earth Radio days. After Jim Hadlock left in 1961 the station went a little more rock and roll for about a year before shifting back to MOR.
Bill Rase swings at KCRA
KCRA featured big band music in its programming throughout the fifties, which is why the station hired local orchestra leader Bill Rase in 1952. Bill became a popular disc jockey at the station until his departure in 1965 to create his recording studio, Bill Rase Productions. From 1955-1965 he also produced a live variety show for KCRA-TV Channel 3, which aired every Saturday afternoon. On the show he was known as "Bosun Bill." The Bill Rase Orchestra has since played at countless local events, including rallies for local politicians of both major parties. His band played over 7,000 events for a half century, according to the Sacramento Bee. Rase passed away at the age of 79 on May 18, 2006.
FMs begin to appear in the 40s/50s/60s
The FCC was slowly easing FM stations on the air by allowing AM stations to simulcast their broadcasts on sister FM signals. The first four FM stations in Sacramento appeared in the late thirties through the late forties. These early FMs were sister stations of the existing AM empires of the airwaves: KROY-FM (94.5), KCRA-FM (96.1), KFBK-FM (96.9) and KXOA-FM (107.9). In the fifties KGMS-FM (95.1) and KJML (106.5) were added to the dial while the 94.5 and 96.9 frequencies went dark for awhile. In the sixties the 100.5 frequency was added and became religious station KEBR. KXRQ (98.5) came on in the sixties as a lite pop in the day and jazz at night station. In 1968 it changed ownership and format to freeform rock as KZAP.
Broadcast Engineer Fred Morton says, "All commercial FM had basically no power limits until the last major set of FM rules went into effect in 1961. Those that ran more power and/or height than the rules of 1961 permitted were allowed to be grandfathered in at that power and height. If they moved, all bets were off. It's interesting that KFBK's FM station still runs higher than normal power, but never took advantage of its former sister TV station's tall tower in Walnut Grove when that stick went up in 1959."
After the FCC ruling KEBR was Sacramento's only FM example of a station previously broadcasting at 100,000 watts, which meant the station was allowed to continue at that output. Another new FM was at 102.5 in 1961 when KATT appeared but floundered and went dark circa 1967-1968. It came back in 1970 at first as top 40 station KRBT with live jocks then as an automated station called "Robot Radio."
Battle for the hits: KROY vs. KXOA
In the fifties 1470 KXOA flipped from its original MOR/block programming to top 40 hits. The other two teen stations at the time playing a similar format were KGMS (1380) and Stockton-based KGDM (1140). The rest of the AM dial - which was KFBK, KROY and KCRA - played MOR for adult listeners. As KXOA emerged as the hit music leader, in the early sixties both top 40 competitors flipped to MOR. With KGMS taking the lead in MOR programming, KGDM flipped again during that period, this time to KRAK as a country station. KXOA's main rival became KROY (1240), which flipped to top 40 in February 1960.
KXOA and KROY battled for double-digit market shares throughout the sixties. This period featured KROY night jock Mike Larsen, who went on to write a book called Three Score and More about California radio. Future country star Lynn Anderson actually worked as KROY's receptionist in the early sixties. Another future star who did mornings at KROY during this era was Gary Owens, who went on to be a comedy act on the television series Laugh In. Owens left town in 1961 and went on to work at KFWB then KMPC in Los Angeles. Owens worked at KMPC from 1962 to 1981 before moving on to a series of other L.A. radio gigs.
KROY's on-air line-up in 1963 included Don Mac Kinnon in mornings, Hap Hopkins in middays, Tony Bigg in afternoons and Mark Ford at nights. Tony Bigg, who later became Tony Pigg, moved on to San Francisco radio at freeform rocker KSAN before moving on to the bigger New York market at WPLJ and WNEW in the seventies. From there he became the announcer for the TV show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and then Live with Regis and Kelly. Robert W. Morgan, who would eventually become a big time Los Angeles jock until his death in 1998, briefly worked on the air at KROY in the early sixties as "Bob Morgan."
Mike Larsen talks about KROY in the early sixties
Mike Larsen describes his time at KROY in the early sixties this way: "When I came to Sacramento Ralph Kiner was the general manager at KROY. Ron Lyons was the Program Director. My friend Ted Randall left radio as a jock, to do programming for a number of stations in Northern California. He was signed to do the programming for KROY and wanted to change the old style pop music they were playing, to rock & roll. He sent me to the station and Ralph hired me for part time. My first shift was 6 to midnight, but it turned into full time. A year later I went to the opposite, midnight to 6. Both were great. Our top 40 survey was called the 'Color Radio Tunedex.' Cool Huh?"
In 1963 there was a major shake-up in the market. Larsen says, "All of the jocks were fired. I went to KSEE in Santa Maria as PD. Tony Bigg went to San Francisco and changed his name to Tony 'Pigg.' Mark Ford went to Oakland, 'Happy' Hopkins went to Montana. Gary Owens had already left for Los Angeles. By the way, KROY's address was 1010 11th street, just a few blocks from the State Capitol building." In the late sixties KROY moved its studios to 977 Arden Way, a decade before moving to Old Sacramento.
Musical chairs between KROY and KXOA
In 1962 KROY's Program Director was Mark Ford. The on-air line-up that year was Dick "Buffalo" Burch (6a-9a), Sam Danos (9a-12n), Mark Ford (12n-3p), Tony Bigg (3p-7p), Hap Hopkins (7p-12m) and Mike Larsen (12m-6a). It was Dick Burch who lined Robert W. Morgan up with a gig at KROY. Burch says, "I knew him from the Monterey Bay Area. I drove down to Fresno to tell him of the upcoming job. He was at KMAK with Ron Jacobs at the time." Burch left KROY in 1963 to be number one in the mornings at KXOA. Burch says, "Morgan and I exchanged tapes many times over the years. I sent him a tape of my 'Good Morning Karate Chop' which he changed and made it his own thing...'Good Morganization.' We joked about it when we met in L.A. for drinks."
Buck Herring took the programming reins of KROY in 1963 but left that same year to program crosstown competitor KXOA. Robert W. Morgan was then briefly KROY's PD through 1964 then left for Los Angeles. During his brief tenure, Morgan hired Johnny Hyde a month before Hyde moved on to work for Herring at KXOA. Hyde went on to have a progressive rock feature called "The Gear Hour." After Morgan left Sacramento for bigger success in Los Angeles, Don MacKinnon took the KROY morning slot. MacKinnon had come from KWEB in Oakland. MacKinnon moved on to L.A. radio at KFWB (KEWB's sister station), but was killed in a car accident in 1965. He was considered a very innovative and energetic entertainer of his time.
In 1964 KROY went through a series of musical chairs with PDs. Ron Lyons, who had done top 40 radio at KEWB in Oakland and on-air at KROY before that, became KROY's PD in October 1964, but took the reins of San Francisco station KNBR the following January. Hap Hopkins was his successor then Bill Keffury, who went on to program KYA San Francisco and KRLA Los Angeles in a two year period. Keffury later programmed oldies KCBS-FM and news/talk KPIX in San Francisco. Buck Herring shook up the Sacramento radio market again in 1965 when he returned to KROY as PD.
Johnny Hyde remembers KROY and KXOA during the British Invasion
Johnny Hyde was a jock at KXOA when the Beatles first big American hit "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was number one in early 1964. KXOA had actually played the Beatles song "Please Please Me" in May 1963, several months before the group had their first big American hit. Johnny recalls in 2004, "KXOA played every candy ass record ever recorded. Remember, these were the days of The Singing Nun, The Mermaids, and the closest anybody came to rock was The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and The Chords. That's when I started searching for something new and pulled out some of the old Beatles stuff that I had been playing at KYNO, Fresno in 1962. Those songs, 'She Loves You,' 'Till There Was You,' etc. were later released on the VeeJay label. My copies were on the old Swan label. That's also when I started importing The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Long John Baldry, etc. and playing them on the 'Gear Hour' every night at 9:00 on KXOA. The audience was ready and grew by leaps and bounds. That's when Buck and KROY announced they would not play any song until it was available at Tower Records. That was a gift from God."
KJAY goes Motown
By the end of the sixties several more stations joined the evolving Sacramento radio dial. Country music came to town on KRAK (1140 AM) and soul music arrived with KJAY (1430 AM), run by Rick Dumm and Jack Powell. Their venture into r&b in the mid-sixties coincided with the rise of the Motown sound. Previously they had been running an MOR format. But with the hot soul format, KJAY became one of the ratings leaders in town right behind KXOA and KROY. KJAY even led the other two hit stations in certain dayparts, but because KJAY went off the air at sundown, it didn't rank as high overall. In 1966 Peter B came on at 5pm and shut the transmitter off at sunset. He did the job for a year and then was hired at KROY for various shifts. By the seventies KJAY had drifted back to its MOR roots. By the end of the seventies it was a religious station.
KPOP pops up as MOR then goes soul
In a similar story, KPOP (1110 AM) debuted out of Roseville in 1968 as an MOR station in which former KGMS PD Jim Hadlock helped put the station on the air under a group of owners which included GM Gene Ragle, Sales Manager Hank Gonzales and PD Wes Myers. "I can't describe the format," former jock Tom Buck says. "It was supposed to be middle of the road. It was more like flipsides of new records that bombed because the A side was a bit too rocky for them, I guess." The overall sound, though, reflected artists like Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and Nancy Wilson. Then in 1970 they started doing a soul show, which Tom Buck briefly hosted the following year. The format moved toward soul full-time throughout the seventies.Tom went on to do commercial voice work for television and radio and now has his own production company at TomBuck.com.
Memories of the most unusual KHIQ
One of the many unique stations that came and went in the sixties was KHIQ (105.1 FM) on the future frequency of KEWT, KRAK FM and ultimately, KNCI. Georgia Institute of Technology Professor of ECE Marshall Leach was stationed at Mc Clellan Air Force Base from 1965 to 1968. At that time the 105.1 FM call letters were KHIQ. The studios were in the lobby of the Carl Greer Inn, just off I-80. Marshall recalls this adventurous station he listened to in those days:
"KHIQ's programming was exclusively from LPs. They used no signal processing, and the light on the Hewlett Packard modulation monitor that was mounted on the wall routinely flashed 100% modulation. The transmitter and tower were located behind the Sacramento Inn.
Leach says the hotel "had a large restaurant and bar adjacent to the lobby which had an authentic theater pipe organ that was played at night. During the night one could hear the organ and the rattling of dishes and silverware from the restaurant and bar when the KHIQ announcer opened the microphone. The programming was easy listening until 7pm. From 7:00 to 9:00 the fare was more upbeat with some novelty tunes. Then from 9:00 to signoff, they played classical music. It was the most unusual station I have ever heard. They had by far the best fidelity signal in Sacramento. I have heard few stations that had a cleaner sound."
Les Thompson's Memories of Programming KXOA
KXOA's only lead over KROY in the battle of top 40 listenership from the mid-sixties through the rest of the decade came in June 1966 under PD Les Thompson. "It was the best time of my life," Les recalls in 2008, "Not a care in the world and getting paid for something that was great fun. When I came back from building KPLS in Santa Rosa for the Polaris Corporation (who owned KXOA at the time), KROY had been the top dog for a long time and they had gotten lazy."
Les turned things around quickly as PD of KXOA when he re-organized the staff and crafted a tight "wheel" format that everybody followed. "I had a contest every hour," says Les. "In those days you could trade top ten records at Tower Records. So I would give away a hit (new or oldie) every hour. It took one rating book to knock them off. The June 1966 book was the best. Let me say this, I was just an instrument. The jocks were very important, and I couldn't have done it without the talent there. But I will always contend that it's the format, not the jocks that make success. How we did it without a signal I'll never know. We had the worst signal pattern in radio. It was great beating KROY. But KROY had one thing we didn't, and that was their manager Dwight Case. He was a talented guy with insight to sales."
Early in his career, Les had worked at KGMS in 1960 then was hired at KXOA a few years later. In 1964 he took off for Santa Rosa, CA radio. In 1966 he returned to KXOA as Program Director. He stayed with the station through several shifts in station direction through 1974. It was Les who hired Don Imus from KJOY Stockton, CA to do morning drive in 1970 on KXOA. Although Imus never made a ratings splash during his brief stint, his career elevated after leaving the station. First at WGAR Cleveland in 1970 then at WNBC New York the following year, his career skyrocketed. In 1993 his show Imus In The Morning became nationally syndicated.
KROY spends six years at the top
Under the reign of GM Dwight Case, KROY had an incredible run at the top in which Case remained the mainstay, hiring the top decision-makers. William E. Bauer, who did on-air news for the station for two years, became Operations Manager but then the station's consultants were blown out shortly afterward and the station drifted toward limbo. Then Johnny Hyde soon arrived as Program Director with a plan. In 1968 KROY began to use the identity "music power" in their slogans. That year KROY was the number one rated radio station in Sacramento for the 12+ audience. KROY remained on top for six straight years. The winning sound was patterned after "Boss Radio," a format credited to radio consultant Bill Drake at stations KHJ in Los Angeles and KFRC in San Francisco three years earlier.
The Drake-Chenault consulting firm influenced several stations around the country in the RKO chain. KROY was not an RKO station, nor was it consulted by Drake-Chenault, yet it was emulating the very structured high-rotation high-energy presentation that characterized the successful consultancy. The jock was very tight and fast-paced with an upbeat personality. Basically it trimmed the playlists and the chatter, resulting in an accelerated feeling of hearing the most exciting hits most of the time, based on research. The upbeat sound was candy-coated further with sweet jingles, wild slogans and bigger than life contests.
In 1969 Lincoln Dellar sold KROY to partners Ralph Guild and George Fritzinger under the name Atlantic States Industries. They owned other stations such as KFAC Los Angeles and some stations in Ohio. KROY's station manager throughout their heyday was Dwight Case, the future RKO President who in 1994 would purchase the 1240 AM dial position.
The Program Directors at KROY who pulled off the incredible accomplishment of a six year run at the top were Johnny Hyde (1967-1970), Bob Sherwood (1970-1971) and finally Chuck Roy (1971-1973). After Hal Murray ("The Big Stallion") succeeded Roy, the station continued to have success but wound up in a tighter battle with KNDE as both top 40 outlets began to lose ground to the emerging FM dial. In its heyday as a number one station, KROY had big name jocks like Johnny Hyde, Bob Sherwood, Wonder Rabbit (Martin Ashley), Terry Nelson, T. Michael Jordan, Gene Lane, Dave Williams, Dr. Tom Becker, Donovan Blue, Bob Castle (The Blue Whiz) and others.
Other stations playing contemporary hits in the market in the seventies were KPOP and KJAY. KCRA (1320 AM) and KGMS were considered "middle of the road" stations, playing more adult-oriented hits. Two Bay Area top 40 stations whose signals clearly reached Sacramento were KFRC (610 AM) and KYA (1260 AM).
Inside the KROY Machine
Even though top 40 song rotations created a repetitious merry-go-round of the same hits being heard over and over, KROY was still much different than what top 40 inevitably became. PD Johnny Hyde believed in mixing art with commerce as a way of establishing station identity. Bob Sherwood says in 2004 that Hyde allowed air talent "to make music programming decisions based on their individual abilities to sense and react to what they were doing on the fly. In my view, his management of that, while extraordinarily difficult to quantify, played a significant role in the reaching of Dwight's targets and their maintenance during John's time as PD." So the station did what it needed to do to get ratings, but it also took on artistic directions not known to top 40 radio. For extra flavor Hyde let college students come in on Sunday nights and play whatever they wanted.
KROY had a hand-crafted sound compared to how strict top 40 playlists became in the eighties and afterward. Jocks still had a certain degree of musical input even though tight playlists began sweeping the industry since the early sixties. Dave Williams reflects in 2004, "I think it was pretty standard in the sixties and seventies for top 40 stations to keep their current hits in a rotation while allowing jocks to choose oldies, generally determined by dayparts. What was NOT standard was that KROY played 50% oldies! Rebounds is what we called them. And yes, indeed, you could tell who was on the air by hearing the music selection only. Wonder Rabbit was famous for loving bubble gum rock which worked well for midday housewife time. T. Michael Jordan and later Gene Lane were masters of the much harder fare at night (Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Stones, etc.) along with some other night-only selections both old and new from artists who never became huge but whose music fit the sound of the station at the time. This is not to suggest, however, that you couldn't play Iron Butterfly in morning drive or middays. You certainly could and we did. An aside -- you would be shocked to hear how nice Barbara Streisand's 'People' could sound right next to 'Honky Tonk Women' or that Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World' blended beautifully into 'Suzie Q' by Creedence."
FM begins to attract listeners in the sixties
After an FCC ruling in 1965 that FM stations had to have separate programming from their AM sister stations, the dial became more diverse. Popularity of the FM band was still in its infancy throughout the sixties due to two major factors: most people did not have FM receivers and FM signals had spotty coverage, especially in cars. Advancements in technology helped create a growing demand for FM receivers throughout the seventies. By the end of the decade the FM stations were in position to surpass AM for music listeners. This was true nationally as well as locally.
KZAP plays freeform for a decade
At 98.5 FM, KXRQ had offered a wide open format (lite pop in the day, jazz at night) but went dark in early 1968 as the FCC ordered the owners to sell it due to poor management. It re-emerged later that year in November as KZAP under the new ownership of Lee Gahagan. He was a pioneer in three and four channel FM stereo. Gahagan, who came from a wealthy family and attended Princeton University, owned KZAP until his apparent suicide at age 27 in 1972. The family then sold off the station to New Day Broadcasting, headed by Ed Beimfohr, who kept the station artistic, but had programming people such as Robert Williams gradually move the station in a more commercial direction, which was part of a national trend among freeform stations. A big reason freeform was transforming into a more streamlined presentation was the rise of national radio consultant Lee Abrams, who is credited as the creator of the format known as "album oriented rock." Abrams would ultimately consult KZAP starting in 1979, when the KZAP freeform era clearly ended. The station's entire history is documented in the story The Legend of KZAP.
Drake-Chenault moves in
The team of Drake-Chenault, once a proven success, went beyond their consulting services and actually began purchasing stations. The KXOA (1470 AM and 107.9 FM) combo had changed hands in the sixties from Polaris Broadcasting to Fukua. In 1970 both the AM and FM stations were sold but to different owners. Drake-Chenault acquired automated country station KXOA-FM (107.9 FM) and changed the format to automated "solid gold oldies." The format was delivered via reels of tape from Los Angeles as the station was called "Stereo 108."
KXOA-AM was acquired by an investment group out of San Jose headed by Scott Elrod. In December 1970 the AM then changed call letters to KNDE. At first the station flipped to progressive rock as "Rock KANDIE" on January 8, 1971. Briefly that year KNDE was consulted by Rick Carroll and played underground music with a top 40 presentation. Even though Carroll brought KNDE its best ratings ever, KNDE General Manager Bob Sobelman ironically fired him. KNDE then moved more toward album rock before making a gradual transition back to top 40 throughout the first half of 1973. After Carroll left KNDE, he then began working as a consultant for the Drake-Chenault team, which included consulting KXOA-FM in the early seventies while it was an experimental syndicated underground format with a top 40 presentation called "Earth Rock."
But due to listener complaints from fans of the "solid gold oldies" format, KXOA-FM switched back to regular oldies in 1973. The station was later taken over by Brown Broadcasting led by Mike and Willard Brown, who had been associated with the Drake-Chenault team. The station became "K108" in 1974, while keeping the KXOA call letters.
Remember KANDIE?
Don Wright worked on-air at KNDE in the early seventies during its venture into album rock. "KNDE was a genuine album rock/underground format when it made its debut," says Wright. "All of the jocks, except for Jack Hammer, John Peters (aka The Kandie Man) and yours truly, were directly from the staff of KSJO in San Jose, the leading underground FM station in the South Bay at the time. Out of alleged neccessity, the station became more and more commercial over time, eventually becoming a straight ahead top 40 station programmed by Dave Williams and Kevin Manna by mid 1973 through 1974 and beyond until its unnoticed demise. KNDE was at its best musically, airstaff-wise, ratings-wise and most fun to work at during the all too brief reign of Rick Carroll/Neale Blase/T. Michael Jordan, etc."
KROY Veterans Advance Nationally
By the mid seventies one of the top radio chains in the country was RKO General, which owned monster hit stations like KHJ/Los Angeles and KFRC/San Francisco. Dwight Case, who had been GM at KROY since the mid sixties, left KROY in 1972 to become President of RKO. The connection between KROY, RKO (which never owned KROY) and a rising industry trade magazine called Radio & Records is incredible. The magazine was founded in 1973 by Bob Wilson, a KROY employee under Dwight in the sixties. Wilson went on to be PD at KDAY/Los Angeles, where he transformed KROY's Dr. Becker into Bo Donovan for afternoons. Wilson later hired Paul Drew, who had programmed RKO stations KFRC and KHJ in the early seventies and became RKO's National PD. The magazine's first location was on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles in the same building as the RKO people such as Bill Drake, Gene Chenault and Dwight Case. As the seventies unwound, the radio industry began to regard Radio & Records as the "industry bible," while Billboard became thought of more as a street publication. It was R&R more than any other trade that began coining format terms such as "Contemporary Hit Radio" "Adult Contemporary." R&R also became the definitive trade magazine in the industry that grouped stations in panels and assigned "reporter status" to stations whose airplay contributed to their national charts. Wilson sold the magazine in 1979. It eventually fell under the ownership of Westwood One and then Perry Capital.
KCRA: A Haven for News Talent
"KCRA Radio was an amazing place in the '70's," says Dann Shively, who had previously worked at KROY, KXOA, KRAK and Channel 10. Although Dann would make a bigger mark over the years as a news reporter with KCRA TV, he still has fond memories of his years at KCRA Newsradio 132, which was a unique mix of news and pop music. "It was a great place to work with a talented and fun staff and we were number one for several years. We did news in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon drive. In between and at night there were live personality driven DJ's and pop music. You might not think a mixed format would work, but work it did. I was there from '72 to '79." Virge Clemons was General Manager and Larry Page was the news director and morning anchor. Gil Krause was the afternoon news anchor. DJ's included Dave Darin, Lee Kirk, Randy Comstock, Tom Romano and Chuck Roy from KROY and Hal Murray.
Shively remembers, "Johnny Hyde later joined the staff as PD and host of a popular afternoon talk show, The Love Line where mostly women called in to talk their love lives. This was a great time in my life. Other news people included Bob Van Roy and Keith Adams and a lot of the Channel 3 news staff with whom we shared a newsroom. Harry Geise, Harry Stockman and Tom DuHain shared TV and radio weather duties. Bud Zumwalt came aboard as production director. It's funny that we were up against the giant McClatchy-owned KFBK whose studios were in the Bee building. Despite the fact they were a 50,000 watt station and we were only 5000/1000 watts, we were the dominant news station. When we reduced our power at sunset we couldn't even reach Roseville! Eventually we built a second transmitter site (the first was on the Garden Highway) near the Antelope area. This allowed us to stay at 5000 watts at night and improved out coverage area. There was one transmitter site for day and another for night."
Also part of the KCRA family was the FM simulcast of the AM, KCRA FM. Then the FM changed to KCTC as "The California Sound," playing a mix of pop music programmed by Dean Cull. The KCTC call letters reflected the name of a sister company called California Television Corporation, which was the Zenith distributor for much of Northern California. The automated KCTC-FM consisted of air team Dean, Gil Bouchet and Bill Zimlich. Throughout the sixties and seventies the KCRA dynasty of the AM, FM and TV stations was owned by Kelly Broadcasting. In 1977 Kelly Broadcasting sold the AM and FM to the Chicago Tribune for $5.6 million and the AM's call letters changed to KGNR. Before Dann Shively left in 1979, he was joined by Dave Williams. Shively went on to be a familiar television news personality in Sacramento as morning anchor for KCRA-TV most of the eighties.
Sacramento Radio Dial August 1974
based on a listing in The Sacramento Union.
AM
950 KAHI - country music
1110 KPOP - soul music
1140 KRAK - country music
1240 KROY - top 40
1320 KCRA - conversation (news/talk)
1380 KGMS - contemporary (middle of the road)
1430 KJAY - contemporary (middle of the road)
1470 KNDE - top 40
1530 KFBK - conversation (news/talk)
FM
90.7 KERS - CSUS/variety
91.5 KDVS - UCD/variety
92.5 KFBK - classical music
93.5 KPIP - Spanish
96.1 KCTC - contemporary (easy listening/instrumentals)
96.9 KEZS - country music
98.5 KZAP - rock music
100.5 KEBR - religious
101.1 KAFI - country music
102.5 KSFM - rock music (eclectic "Earth Radio")
105.1 KEWT - contemporary (easy listening/instrumentals)
107.9 KXOA - contemporary (pop/rock "K108")
Cross media ownership in the market was highlighted by the McClatchy family, who not only owned the leading daily newspaper The Sacramento Bee, but radio stations (KFBK AM and FM) as well as television station KOVR Channel 13. Meanwhile, Jon and Bob Kelly owned television station (KCRA TV Channel 3) as well as KCRA AM and KCTC FM (formerly KCRA FM).
A town full of rockers: KZAP, Earth Radio, K108, KNDE, KXOA, KERS, KDVS
The rise of FM radio in the market was led by KZAP in 1968 under the ownership of Lee Gahagan. KZAP introduced the freeform rock sound that was beginning to spread around the country, in which jocks such as Cary Nosler and Jeff Hughson picked their own music and based their choices not on popularity, but on artistic considerations of music flow from one song to the next. In the early seventies KNDE AM briefly experimented with a similar format under consultant Rick Carroll and then KXOA FM did as well. In 1974 KSFM (102.5 FM) introduced another album rock format as Earth Radio, programmed by Don Wright, who worked closely with former KZAP jock Michael Sheehy to craft its initial sound.
Also in 1974 KXOA-FM adjusted its rock format and became K108, which started out as hit-oriented but soon called its format "mellow rock" and had a mascot on the streets called "The Mellow Beaver." Another draw to the station was that it carried popular syndicated shows such as Dr. Demento and Casey Kasem's American Top 40. KERS (90.7 FM) was the hip college station coming out of Sac State (CSUS) that rivaled KZAP in terms of adventurous experimentation. Many students who went through KERS ended up as jocks on KZAP. Another hotbed for Sacramento air talent was the U.C. Davis campus station KDVS (91.5 FM).
Earth Radio's first News Director Ken Beck succeeded Wright in 1975 after most of the station including Wright moved to San Jose freeform rocker KSJO following an incredible ratings book that yielded little reward from upper management. Karen Hadlock, Ken's future wife, did mornings opposite KZAP's Marla. Ken Beck was able to increase salaries for jocks to a respectable level, but his leadership only lasted about a year. Patrick Moore tried to tighten up the station's programming in 1976, but his stint also lasted only a year. The station's final PD was Dennis Newhall, who had previously worked at KZAP and KSJO. Newhall shifted the station back to a free-spirited nature and emphasized creative segues, which became the station's hallmark, along with unpredictable jocks. Ken went on to continue radio work in several major markets including Los Angeles, San Francisco and eventually he became an executive VP for Entercom in Seattle.
The seventies mark the end of the AM top 40 giants
KROY's exciting six-year ride at the top of the Sacramento ratings ended in 1974. Interestingly, the KROY PD Chuck Roy left KROY at the end of 1973 and joined adult contemporary station KCRA for middays in early 1974, under the programming of former KROY PD Johnny Hyde, who became head of KCRA's programming in 1971. At that time Hyde brought in sixties KROY personality Lee Kirk. In many ways, the success of KCRA in the seventies was built on the prior success of KROY. In 1971 Hyde hired Cary Nosler from KZAP, who he had tried to hire while PD at KROY, but the rock jock preferred freeform. It was Hyde who gave Cary the nickname "Captain Carrot." More familiarity was brought to KCRA when Dave Williams, in a two year period, jumped from mornings at KROY to Los Angeles to PD/3-7p jock at KNDE to a short stint in Memphis, then landing at KCRA in 1975. He did production, news and a talk show before moving to mornings in 1981, which became a top rated show in town for four years that marked a preview to even bigger career achievements.
In 1976 KROY picked up a sister FM station KROI (96.9 FM), which had previously been country station KEZS. For awhile it was nicknamed I-97, but in 1979 it was renamed Y-97 as the call letters shifted to KROY-FM. To be different from the AM top 40 station KROY-FM focused on a more adult-approach to top 40 rock hits. But the format never seemed to stay consistent as it shifted several times, sometimes leaning more pop and sometimes more rock.
On September 30, 1978, Brown Broadcasting, who had already owned KXOA-FM for five years, turned their new property KNDE back into KXOA-AM, once again returning the format to album rock. For awhile it was called "AM 14, the Rockin' Home." In January 1980 KXOA played with their identity again by starting to call themselves "The New 14K." People either didn't get it or simply were too busy listening to the same music on FM. So the station kept fishing for a format. By the fall of 1981 they were back to 50s/60s oldies, which failed. To make a long story short, their status as a leading AM station was the forties through the seventies.
KROY FM went through a series of Program Directors in its first few years that included Robert John (late 1976-September 1977), Steve Michaels (1977-1978) and Terry Nelson (1978). Then on Halloween 1978, Richard Irwin arrived as head of programming. The morning show on KROY-FM at the end of the decade was Russ Martin and Barry K. Fyffe (who had previously done mornings with Terry Nelson on the AM). During this period Ann Schmidt rose from receptionist to newscaster and later went on to work at KPOP and then afternoon drive at KFBK with Ken Yearwood. She dabbled in television for awhile at KCRA-TV, producing a news magazine show called "The West," before moving on to a series of Public Relations jobs including work at the California Farm Bureau in the 2000s. She also launched her own company, Ann Schmidt-Fogarty Communications.
In 1978 the KROY AM & FM combo changed ownership from Atlantic States Industries to Jonsson Communications. The AM sold for about $3 million and the FM sold for about $1 million. Mark Jonsson had convinced his father Kenneth to buy a couple Sacramento stations, a couple Reno stations, Sacramento Magazine and Heavenly Recording Studios. Both stations were still big players in the market at the time (the AM had an eight share), but within two years KROY AM had bitten the dust. Some say it was Mark's tinkering with the programming that led to the fall, but the rise of FM was probably the biggest factor. Still, it was a good investment because when KROY-FM sold seven years later it went for $11 million.
Tony Cox tells how FM took over
Tony Cox did middays on KROY AM in 1976 under PD Steve Rivers, who later went on to become a big industry name as a radio consultant across the country. Other personalities on KROY at that time were Uncle Byron and T.N. Tanaka in the mornings, Dave Michaels in afternoons and Jeff "Mutha" Robbins in evenings. Brian White did late nights and would go on to program KSFM in the late eighties. A few years later Cox left to do Chicago radio. When he came back to do mornings at KROY-FM in 1979, he sensed the sudden popularity of FM due to the new technology that improved FM reception in cars. Cox says in our exclusive 2000 video interview, "Prior to 1978 there was too much ghosting and shadowing of (FM) signals in cars. It was corrected by MPX multi-path. When you were on an AM radio station back in '79 during this transition to FM, you could actually hear a vacuum of people tuning out." Cox, a popular voice in town, stayed with KROY until its ownership change in the mid-eighties and then did middays at FM 102 through the early nineties.
The commercialization of FM
With the improved technology of FM reception which dramatically increased the band's popularity, radio owners began to move away from eclectic programming and shift to tighter programming of popular hits, which had been the hallmark of AM radio. In January 1979, after an ownership change at KZAP from New Day Broadcasting to Western Cities, they fired Program Director Robert Williams and replaced him with Chris Miller. One by one they fired most of the jocks except for Charlie Weiss, who ended up working off and on for the station in every decade from the sixties through the nineties. KZAP immediately moved away from its wide-open rock format of thousands of songs and cut the list to just hundreds of songs by the most popular rock acts. The result was that KZAP became one of the top-rated stations in town for the next decade.
Earth Radio also dumped their eclectic rock format in September 1979 in favor of disco. Program Director Dennis Newhall was let go and took the same position at KROY-FM under Operations Manager Richard W. Irwin (who has an interesting radio history site at www.reelradio.com). Several other staff members were let go as the station dropped the "Earth Radio" name and took on the identity of "FM 102" while retaining the KSFM call letters. The format followed the pop charts, which had become flooded with dance hits. The new regime, consulted by Jerry Clifton, delivered ratings that not only put FM 102 ahead of KROY and all other top 40 competitors within a year, but also among the top stations in the market for years to come.
The Crossroads of Jazz
In January 1977 Royce International Broadcasting, owned by Ed Stolz, launched a jazz station at 106.5 FM with the call letters KWOD. Previous owners programmed syndicated soft instrumentals. The frequency signed on in the late fifties and went through a freeform period in the late sixties with the call letters KJML. Kevin Childs was KWOD's first Program Director. Childs reflects in 2006, "Ed and I discussed the local Dixieland Jazz Festival and I suggested that a more logical mention of that event would include the more diverse areas of jazz in general." The station then began airing a mix of easy rock and jazz, aimed at mainly 25 to 49 year old males. Childs put the music library together after compiling more than 2500 albums.
Early air talent at KWOD during its first few years as a jazz station included Kevin Childs, who did the morning show, Jim Ayers, Jeff Kepley, Pete Peterson, Dave Keon, Donna Perry and former KZAP morning host Helen Meline. During the daytime hours KWOD included popular adult rock hits by artists such as Joni Mitchell, The Eagles, Boz Scaggs and James Taylor. Then at night the station went completely jazz with the program "Crossroads of Jazz," hosted by Jim St. John. The name of the show came from the station's location, which was at the Crossroads Shopping Center, across from Executive Airport.
KWOD got its name from a new technology that never really caught on. It was quadrophonic stereo. KWOD actually broadcast four signals - which could only be heard as quadrophonic sound on four speakers. Since most people were happy with two speakers, quadrophonic sound took a backseat to other emerging technology of the time, which included the advent of "spacial" technology. In 1979 KWOD kept its call letters but flipped the format to contemporary hits as a challenge to the fallen AM top 40 stations and the new hit music leader, FM 102.
The last AMs standing are KFBK, KCRA and KRAK
By the early eighties, FM had become the desired band for music listeners while AM mainly remained strong as a talk medium with KFBK and KCRA as the leaders in local talk and news. KCRA, which had flipped from adult contemporary to news/talk in 1975 with Larry Page as the morning anchor, changed call letters to KGNR in the early eighties. Although they initially stuck with news/talk, KGNR went through a series of format changes that included big band music in 1985 and then later in the decade it went oldies. Eventually in 1990 it became KCTC AM and played elevator music before swinging back to the swing era.
KRAK (1110 AM) remained strong in the ratings as a country music station throughout the eighties. Morning man Joey Mitchell, who came to the station in 1975 and stayed through the early nineties, helped keep the numbers up. Another big name on KRAK that lasted just as long was Big Jim Hall. As late as the Spring of 1985, KRAK AM was beating sister country station KRAK FM in the Arbitron ratings. KRAK AM even consistently beat challenger KAER (92.5 FM) to the bloody end until 1986 when KAER dropped country for "love songs." KRAK AM's ratings finally began to drop off in 1987, although it did not change its identity to KHTK ("Hot Talk") until the Winter of 1994.
The turning point in which KFBK took the lead over KGNR was the mid-eighties. KFBK did talk shows in the past such as Gil Krause in the seventies and Erik St. Johnn in the early eighties. But starting in the eighties, KFBK began to feature more controversial talk hosts.
Whatever happened to KANDIE and KROY?
The eighties opened with two dying AM top 40 relics scrambling for identity. KNDE had switched back to the old KXOA call letters and billed itself as "The New 14K." It was the same format of high rotation hits and high energy delivery - they just made a hoopla about their new identity. It didn't make sense to the audience and it withered away, becoming an oldies station. One of the jocks who bounced from KROY to KZAP to KXOA-AM was Bryan Davis, who stayed with KXOA until 1982, when he moved to Los Angeles to work at KOST as Bryan Simmons, where he continues to work in the 2000s. Also in 1982, KXOA-AM flipped to big bands.
Another jock who worked at both KROY and KNDE/KXOA in the 78-80 era was Rob Tonkin. At age 15 and a half, he became the second youngest radio personality in Sacramento history when he began doing a show on KROY in 1978. Previously, Toby Browning had set the record for youngest DJ at age 15 when he joined KNDE for weekends and fill in the fall of 1974, staying through 1978. Browning went on to do voice work for the radio industry and has his own website at TobyBrowning.com. Rob Tonkin went on to become Promotions Director for 91X San Diego in the eighties during their run as one of the top modern rock stations in the country. Rob then moved on to a series of L.A.-based music industry positions involving talent acquisition, sponsorships and television production.
KROY-FM challenged KZAP for the rock audience throughout the early eighties, but flipped to adult contemporary as KSAC in late 1984. As for KROY-AM, in 1981 it flipped from top 40 to adult album rock as KENZ. KROY-FM also ventured deeper into album rock at the same time. A year later KENZ flipped to automated adult contemporary/oldies via satellite. Then in 1984 the KROY call letters left the market as the FM became adult contemporary KSAC. In the spring of 1986 the FM was sold and the call letters shifted back to KROY and the format returned to contemporary hits. Richard Irwin remained OM of KENZ AM, which moved out of the building as the combo was split by different owners.
On Labor Day of 1986, Irwin and his assistant moved the KENZ automation from 620 Bercut to the second floor of 1021 Second Street in Old Sacramento, where Sacramento Magazine had already relocated. Around that time KENZ changed to KSAC as the KENZ call letters, named after owner Ken Jonsson, disappeared from the dial in Sacramento. Richard Irwin recalls in May 2005, "Ken Jonsson went to a lot of trouble to get those KSAC call letters, and they were shocked when Commonwealth dropped them and wanted the KROY-FM call letters instead. We continued with the Transtar 41 format on KSAC for quite a while from upstairs. But Ken Jonsson wanted to do something new with his remaining radio station. (GSM) Don Early and I tried to talk him into jazz. But he wanted classical, and sent John Stolzenberg and me to San Francisco to talk to the GM of the long-time classical station (KDFC) there."
The result was KSAC flipping to classical in 1987. "We built all new studios downstairs and ordered these giant CD jukeboxes and a PC to run them," Richard continues. "Then there was another night I remember when we moved the automation from upstairs to our new basement digs, where 1240 KROY had been when I came to Sacramento in 1978. For awhile, Sacramento Magazine operated upstairs and KSAC was in the basement. Eventually, Jonsson sold the magazine to Mike O'Brien and they moved out. And of course, eventually KSAC became All Sports. KSAC was Sacramento's first all digital radio station. We were running everything on a PC with a giant $1000 hard drive by 1992 and the transmitter ran 'unattended' overnight and on weekends. I could control all of it with a dial-up connection from my 486 at home."
As for KXOA-AM, it continued its long decline into obscurity, with occasional renewed interest. On Saturday, March 15, 1982, it flipped to big bands and other 40s-styled MOR music with the syndicated "Music of Your Life" format. KGMS failed to compete with a similar format they launched a few months later. Then in the summer of 1988 KXOA-AM flipped to an unsuccessful attempt at "Business News." So in 1990 the station shifted to 50s/60s oldies as "Cruisin' 1470." By the end of the decade the frequency had gone country as KRAK but became KIID in 2001 as an outlet for the syndicated "Radio Disney" format.
KHYL relives the fifties and sixties
The oldies format highlighting the fifties and the sixties made KHYL (101.1 FM) out of Auburn a top choice for the people who had grown up with KFRC, KROY and KANDIE but had now outgrown the teen scene. The station's star morning announcer in the early eighties was Sue Ryan, who stepped off the air in 1984 to take the PD position, only to wind up out of work a year later over "philosophical differences" according to the Sacramento Bee. In 1986 KHYL/KAHI owner Auburn Broadcasting decided to sell the combo to Parker Communications for $8 million. For awhile KHYL drifted into the "soft sounds" format but inevitably began calling itself "Oldies 101" and then "Cool 101."
Mark Lennartz worked at KHYL from the summer of 1989 through January 1995. For awhile he was the PD. In 2008 he recalls, "I was there at the transition when Parker Communications took it from a mid-tempo AC station to Oldies. Before that KHYL had a colorful history with some talented players, but it was always considered 'the Auburn station' and few in Sacramento took it seriously until Parker began tweaking it. I was the second PD under Parker, brought aboard to help make the move to Oldies 101. It was a hybrid station. John Parker and I felt we could live with a bigger 70s influence than your average oldies outlet, but after about a year realized what every oldies station needs to realize: concentrate on the 60s."
The air staff of the early nineties included Lennartz in the morning, JR Jackson in middays, Ric Santos in afternoons, Ken Hunter in evenings and Ron West did overnights. John Clark Fourtner did morning news with Lennartz, who says, "Few PDs could find a better group of pros, considering our working conditions. We were 30 miles out of market in a run-down building linked to our transmitter by a fragile microwave beam." Meanwhile, the sales staff worked in Sacramento. When Arbitron numbers came out, the Auburn team would visit the Sacramento office to watch the numbers download and print. In the early 90s Parker moved the entire station to Marconi Avenue in Sacramento.
Other air talent that surfaced later in the decade included Terry Nelson, Bob "The Godfather" Galli, Tony Cox, Bobby Angel, Dean Stevens and newsman Mike Reynolds, who had done mornings with Chris Collins on FM102's Morning Zoo in the eighties. Lennartz says, "The oldies format had been honed to probably 350 to 400 songs with the majority of them in the format's wheelhouse of 1964-1969." The Oldies 101 Super Picnic was a huge summer event that featured oldies mainstays such as Johnny Rivers and Paul Revere & The Raiders.
Parker inevitably sold KHYL to American Media out of San Francisco in 1993, marking the station's end of its mom and pop era. New ownership, however meant new management, as the story frequently goes. Brian Chase, a successful oldies programmer from Arizona, took the PD job while Mark Lennartz moved to middays and Production Director. Around that time Oldies 101 changed into Cool 101. Another innovative move was to carry San Francisco 49er games. Chase left after a year and Jon Brent aka Johnny B came in as the new PD while Lennartz went to mornings for awhile until Joey Mitchell arrived in early 1995. In 1994 the station sold to Chancellor, who also picked up KFBK and Y92.
Two weeks after Lennartz was let go in early 1995, Arbitron numbers for the quarter were released that showed Chancellor had the top three stations in town: KFBK, Y92 and Cool 101. "The station worked because we were blue-collar guys in a demo-rich format," explains Lennartz. "We were personalities that all truly loved the music. It wasn't a job for us, it was a way of life. That's what we tried to get across each and every day."
The station became a strong force in the ratings for many years. One of the most memorable and entertaining talents on the station was singer John Young, who would bring his guitar in on the morning show in the nineties and perform cover songs of classic hits. Young eventually became a regular figure on the show. After the station went through its ill-advised late nineties facelift that ended its rein as oldies leader in the market, Young moved on to do mornings on the "John and Jen Show" in nearby Vacaville at KUIC-FM, which bleeds into the Bay Area. After Clear Channel dropped the "Cool 101" handle in 1999, it opened the door for a slightly different frequency to call themselves "Cool 101.9."
K108 grabs the baby boomers
For those who preferred a more classic rock sound and didn't like the bouncy bubble gum oldies on KHYL, the choice tended to be K108 throughout the eighties. The station had a very ingrained "mellow rock" image in Sacramento, which had been their heritage. What was different in the eighties, however, was that they took on a more calculated hits approach and kept the flavor of the music a blend of pop and rock recurrent hits along with a vast library of oldies. Perhaps the hardest record they played was "Listen To The Music" by the Doobie Brothers.
The station consistently wound up in the top five, which was helped by the familiarity of long-time talent Dusty Morgan, Tom Nakashima, Dave Allan and Phil Brooks. Some may recall Craig Andrews, who did weekends and fill-ins in the late eighties. Art Schroeder programmed the station from the mid-seventies through the mid-eighties before moving on to a similar position in San Diego.
The K108 story began in June 1974 when KXOA-FM debuted its newest format -- "Super Stereo K-108." The original air staff included Dusty Morgan (by way of KMEN San Bernardino), Les Thompson (their first PD), Ed Hamlin (from Salinas) and Jim "Night Train" McLain (just in from KAFY Bakersfield).
Dusty Morgan says, "Super Stereo was put together by legendary Program Director Ron Jacobs, who at the time was programming Willet and Mike Brown's two stations (KGB AM and FM) in San Diego. The format was basically Top 40, but the listeners could enjoy...evolving FM radio. That was pretty much the planned concept. After a few unsuccessful months of playing the hits - 108 evolved into what was to become a heritage legend in Sacramento radio during the last part of the seventies and the early nineties. During its run as one of Sacramento's big dog stations - General Manager Phil Melrose and Program Director Art Schroeder were steady, guiding hands at getting and keeping 108 always in the top numbers."
In the mid-eighties, Art Schroeder had left for a programming gig in San Diego, while Melrose was promoted to President in charge of all the expanding Brown Broadcasting stations from San Diego to San Francisco and Utah. K108 continued to show strong ratings in the late eighties, but after the winter of 1988, they only hit an eight share one more time a few years later.
One of the things that made K108 stand out from other stations, was the use of their mascot the "Mellow Beaver." It was actually a beaver costume worn by many. Dusty confirms: "There were many, many guys and one woman who suited up as the Mellow Beaver. Our very first Beaver was a young kid who'd just moved up from San Diego where he'd done some chores for Ron Jacobs at KGB. Another of our early Beavers was a young guy who'd just come into our shack on Loma Vista Drive to do some 'go-fer' assignments for Art Schroeder. That skinny fellow went on to be the other half of the successful KGNR and (later) KFBK morning news duo - Dave (Williams) & Bob (Nathan)."
Bob Nathan actually told stories on KFBK about an event in the mid-seventies involving a PR appearance of Linda Lovelace at an adult movie theater in North Highlands. "I recall," says Dusty, "there was this long line of guys waiting to get her autographed picture. When Bob (the Beaver) stepped up to Linda's table...she busted up laughing so hard she had to stop signing for a few minutes. Everybody just cracked up at the sight."
FM102 and KWOD play the hits in the eighties
The king of all formats throughout the eighties was still considered top 40 in the music industry, although rock radio had proven to be a legitimate culture existing outside of the mainstream. In the industry top 40 was now called Contemporary Hit Radio or CHR, coined by the industry trade magazine Radio & Records. The CHR showdown in town was between FM 102 and KWOD (106.5 FM), which debuted as a jazz station in 1977, but within a few years was playing the latest hits on the pop charts. KWOD was one of the last independently-owned stations in town under the Ed Stolz company Royce International Broadcasting. Several of the jocks had spent time on the air at KROY including Tom Chase, Mr. Ed, Dave Diamond, Dean Stevens and Russ "Mooseman" Martin. Sports reporter Ken Gimblin had also done KROY sports in the seventies before starting his own service for several media outlets including KWOD. In 1983 KSFM's morning show was Billy Manders up against KWOD's Doug Masters. Within a year both stations would create new morning shows, with Chris Collins and the Morning Zoo on FM 102 while Doug Masters teamed up with Marty Johnson as the "Masters & Johnson Morning Radio Clinic" on KWOD.
KPOP plays new wave "rock of the eighties"
In 1983 KPOP (93.7 FM) dropped its long-time soul format and began flirting with the format that Rick Carroll had invented at KROQ called "Rock of the '80's." Carroll, who programmed KROQ, started a consultancy in which KPOP was a client along with a handful of other alternative stations around the country and MTV. It was based on new wave, punk and techno/pop music, with a heavy emphasis on British acts. But after a year of failed ratings KPOP flipped to regular top 40 to compete with KWOD and FM 102. KWOD and KPOP started having a similar pop sound while FM 102 played beats. The battle of morning shows in 1984 became FM102's Morning Zoo, KWOD's Masters & Johnson and KPOP's Robbins, Kinney and Cowan.
Fuller-Jeffrey in the pre-consolidation era
For awhile Fuller-Jeffrey ruled the golden state when radio chains weren't so gigantic. The radio group was started by Bob Fuller. After moving to California from Maine in 1967, Bob began selling advertising for KROY in 1969. By the eighties he was a radio owner. The company bought KPOP (93.5 FM) and KPIP (1110 AM) on Jan. 1, 1984 from Don Reeves, an original founder of the station who also was a broker in the sixties selling radio properties for Hamilton/Landis. Reeves also launched KWUN AM in Concord, CA.
Shortly after Fuller-Jeffrey moved in, KPOP's format flipped to teen oriented top 40 and a few years later to rock, which marked the birth of 93 Rock. KPIP became KRCX, which stood for "Radio Capital." In the nineties Fuller-Jeffrey sold off those stations and put Talk 650 KSTE on the air. It started as a Spanish station at the same studios once used by KQPT The Point in Rancho Cordova. KPOP operated out of Quail Lane off Eureka in Roseville then the FM moved to Madison Avenue in 1984.
Bob Fuller remembers in 2005, "In the summer of '88 we finally got our upgrade from 3,000 watts and moved to 93.7. In order to upgrade the power of KRXQ I had to purchase South Lake Tahoe and Chico (stations) and work out an arrangement with an Anderson, CA station. They were all on co-channel or adjacent channels to 93.7. It took four years." In addition to moving the signal, power was raised to 25,000 watts. This new upgraded signal was transmitted from the old KFIA 710 towers near Old Auburn Road.
"When we bought KPOP as a 3kw in '84," Fuller continues, "it had massive interference in Downtown Sacramento from 92.5 KAER. Running over 100kw from a very short tower, when they moved out to the Rio Linda area with more height and less power, the interference went away. KPOP was then transmitting from Citrus Heights off of Auburn Blvd."
The power increase certainly helped the station's ratings from that point on, as KRXQ cornered the rock market and drove their heritage competitor out of the market. But Fuller-Jeffrey didn't just make waves in Sacramento. As Fuller says, "Hard to believe now, but before deregulation, for awhile Fuller-Jeffrey was the largest owner of stations in California in the late eighties, as far as number of stations, not revenue, obviously." The group's roster of stations beyond Sacramento included KHOP/Stockton-Modesto, KHOV/Mariposa, KFMF/Chico, KSCO and KLRS/Santa Cruz, KRLT/South Lake Tahoe, KSRO and KHTT in Santa Rosa. They also had stations in Iowa, Colorado, Maine and New Hampshire.
Dave Skyler's morning stunt turns KPOP into 93 Rock
Dave Skyler probably holds the record for working at the most stations in Sacramento. He came from Southern California to Woodland to do evenings at FM 102 in late 1984. Six months later he jumped to KWOD to fill the overnight show vacancy due to Melanie Evans taking his shift at FM 102. But after KWOD's incredible three point jump to 8.9 (KWOD's all-time high) in the Spring Arbitron 1985 12+ ratings, KWOD went from long shifts to four hour shows as Skyler found himself doing 10p-2a.
On August 7, 1985 the Sacramento Bee reported that KPOP morning team Robbins, Kinney and Cowan were leaving for Detroit radio. Soon after, Skyler was contacted by KPOP about doing the morning show. Skyler says in our March 2000 video interview, "KPOP got a new Program Director from WZOU in Boston, who I had met previously, Dave Gariano. He called right away and offered me morning drive." It was an offer for a prime shift, more money and even health insurance, so he couldn't refuse.
The new KPOP morning show was called the Rude Awakening, anchored by Dave with Andy Roberts. Despite a funny show with lots of phone bits, KPOP continued to trail FM 102 and KWOD in the ratings. So one day Skyler was called to a meeting at a local hotel that involved Gariano and consultants who began to discuss format change. Skyler says, "I was invited to the hotel room. We discussed what we were gonna do with the format. We had definitely said yeah, top 40 ain't workin' for this station. It never has. So they thought well, let's play rock...but not just rock music because you have legendary KZAP, you know, a heritage radio station and it would probably be suicidal to go up against them. So why don't we give them a rock hits type format? Originally it was designed like the Arrow in Los Angeles. I remember I'm the one who suggested 93 Rock. Bill Cloutier wanted it and Gariano didn't have a preference."
Then on January 10, 1986 KPOP decided to go after KZAP. Morning man Dave Skyler barracaded himself in the station with his new partner Rusty Humphries for six hours during their "Rude Awakening" show until management agreed to switch the format to rock, which actually began during that show. They made fun of their own call letters and jingles and severely criticized the competition even saying "KZAP sucks." According to Skyler this was a staged event. Nevetheless, it got local television coverage. After that, the new station went through an identity crisis and continued to have low ratings the next few years.
FM 102 becomes the Valley's hit leader
FM 102 dominated the ratings, sometimes reaching double digits, while KWOD usually trailed with single digits. KWOD actually had an edge in the ratings in 1982 but following an FCC fine and a penalty that lowered KWOD's power for a couple years stemming from KWOD's signal bleeding over onto an adjacent signal (KRAK 105.1 FM), FM 102 took the lead and almost never looked back. Once KWOD's power was restored to 50,000 watts in 1984, the race began to tighten again as KWOD started making steady gains for several books. KWOD's all-time peak was when it hit 8.9 in the Arbitron (12+) ratings for the Spring of 1985. It didn't quite eclipse FM 102's 10.4 share, but it created shock waves in the market when KWOD jumped three points, only to fall three points in the next book. KSFM's all-time ratings high was 12.5 in the Spring of 1986, hitting number one in the market for the fourth straight book. Much of FM 102's popularity of this period can be attributed to the controversial and entertaining Morning Zoo.
FM 102's success was certainly attributed to Program Director Rick Gillette, a former KROY jock, who said in trade magazines that the station was "the pulse of American dance music." Some called the format churban because it was a cross between CHR and urban (soul music). The station had a fairly consistent line-up through the Gillette years including the Morning Zoo's Chris Collins and Mike Reynolds, Roy Kinji in afternoons and Lisa Kay in evenings. Kay, who had worked at KROY in the late seventies, briefly moved to Florida and was ultimately replaced by KWOD's overnight host Melanie Evans in 1985. FM 102 Late night jock Greg Lane moved to KWOD during this time to do overnights and would later move up to late nights. Lisa Kay returned to Sacramento in 1986 to host the morning show on KNCI. She was joined by Pat Still in the early nineties. In 1994 she moved to afternoons on the country station.
A National Concept from Roseville
Several Sacramento and Bay Area air personalities were heard all over America from the mid-seventies through the early nineties via Concept Productions. It was a national radio syndication firm based in Roseville founded by former Fresno PD Dick Wagner. The firm delivered full programming to dozens of radio stations with big reel to reel tapes sent by mail each week. Jocks would come in once a week and lay down voice tracks for an entire week based on pre-programmed music logs. In other words, they had to pretend they were talking over music and the vocal tracks would be mixed with music later.
"It was the hardest work I've ever done," reflects Dave Williams in 2004. "I had to track a full week's worth of 'shows' with nothing whatsoever to work with except my name and the titles of the records. No time, no weather, no local flavor, no news references...nothing except the vague and occasional holiday season to talk about. Just the name of the record and the artist. I did know a little about country music at the time and it helped but God, I dreaded those sessions!"
Many of the jocks actually got fan mail. "I, too received fan mail from all over the country," says Martin Ashley, who worked for the company from 1975-1988. "But one of the strangest things I encountered was the interview I did for a Fordyce, Arkansas newspaper. A feature writer called with questions about the station, yet I couldn't really blow the 'syndication' cover by telling him I didn't even know where Fordyce, Arkansas was! Then, there was the time I visited one of the Concept stations near Key West, Florida while I was on the air! It was very strange to hear yourself doing a full radio show in some town you've never been to, talking about Big Pine Cay and road marker 95!"
The return of KROY
After over a year of failure, KSAC-FM became KROY-FM again in the spring of 1986, returning to top 40, now calling themselves "Hot 97." Under PD Bob West the station began taking on the same type of churban sound that had put FM 102 on top. KWOD continued to take on the more white suburban pop/rock sound under Program Director Tom Chase, who tended to let Music Director "Mr. Ed" Lambert guide the sound of the music. Mr. Ed went on to program stations around the country, including the number one Dallas station in the nineties, KHKS (Kiss FM). He returned to his hometown of Sacramento to program KZZO (100.5 The Zone) in 2002 before moving on in 2004.
The new KROY, unlike their two competitors, became very aggressive with new music and jumped on rap records early such as "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC, the first rap-rock record to score high on the charts. KROY quickly leaped from the absolute bottom of the Sacramento ratings to a tight race between FM 102 and KWOD. West lasted until a market shake-up in November 1987 as Tom Chase went from programming KWOD to KROY. Mr. Ed followed Chase to KROY in early 1988 as MD. Greg Lane had already moved from KWOD to KROY prior to Chase's arrival as Promotion Director. Lane ultimately went on to do mornings at a country station in Fresno. Jeff Hunter had left KWOD for a few years to program KDON in Monterey and was now back as KWOD's PD. For the next six months KWOD was hot in the ratings, even beating FM 102.
KROY shifts, FM 102 drifts and then returns
After Rick Gillette left for Detroit in 1987, the station's sound then began moving toward more variety, which started to resemble KWOD. FM 102 also made a series of personnel changes that brought Mark S. Allen into nights and Shelley Morgan into late nights. But as the station moved away from the familiarity and consistency that took the station to the top of the market, FM 102's ratings fell dramatically from double to single digits. KWOD even beat FM 102 for the first time in the spring of 1987. KWOD again scored the market crown in the three way battle for the hits in the winter of 1988, with KROY being the runner-up in both cases.
In 1989 KROY led the CHR race in town under the ex-KWOD team of PD Tom Chase and MD Mr. Ed Lambert. Chase also hired Jay Walker aka "Iceman," who had worked for him at KWOD. But personnel changes struck KROY under new ownership of Great American Broadcasting and programming went to Sean Lynch, who was a successful programmer out of Portland, OR.
Scott Mitchell (pictured left), remembers, "Was at KROY 1980-1982...FM102 in 1983 Middays and Production under Billy Manders, then under Gillette before going to KITS (Hot Hits 105) in San Francisco. Came back for a brief stint to asst PD/music research/pm drive at KROY 1987-1989. Under Commonwealth, the best year (1987) I ever spent in radio was beating FM 102 in target demos 18-34 women with no promotional budget at all-the only thing we had was a team that came together in promotions, street presence and the on-air trips we gave away provided by the record companies. I remember the GM at FM102 asked me just what we were doing over there cuz they were throwing MONEY away in their promotions and KROY had nothing. Then Great American bought KROY and systematically dismantled everything we had done. Gotta tell ya-that HURT." Mitchell eventually moved on to KSAN in San Francisco and in 2008 does mornings at KRSH in Santa Rosa.
In 1989 PD Brian White took FM 102 back to its churban dance roots as market dominance returned to FM 102. KWOD began falling far behind FM 102 in 1988. By the end of 1989, both KWOD and KROY had fallen far behind FM 102. Lynch was replaced in 1990 by Jeff McCartney, who had programming success in other large markets. McCartney became KROY's final Program Director before the station flipped formats later that year. In the early nineties FM 102's programming team of PD Dr. Dave Ferguson and MD Chuck Fields came close to posting double digit Arbitron 12+ numbers for the station again.
After KWOD's ratings collapse in the Spring of 1988, it only had a few hot months as a CHR including July 1989, but for the most part failed to compete. Hunter left in September 1989 for KHQT (Hot 97) in San Jose and was succeeded by a new programming team headed by Gerry Cagle. He had programmed RKO stations including KHJ Los Angeles (in the 70s) and KFRC San Francisco (in the early eighties). He also had notoriety in the radio industry from writing a novel called Payola. Cagle kept the format at KWOD straight CHR until the spring of 1991 when his Program Director Adam Smasher convinced him to start mixing in modern rock tracks. The format officially went "modern rock" or "alternative" in 1993 after Cagle's departure.
Elevator music dies at the top
The most listened to radio stations in Sacramento in the seventies and eighties played more to the subconscious mind. Background instrumental music for doctors' offices known as "beautiful music" or most commonly known as "elevator music" helped put KEWT (105.1 FM) at the top of the ratings in the late seventies. But KEWT changed to KRAK-FM ("KK105") in the early eighties, leaving the format all to KCTC (96.1 FM), which had competed with KEWT and KGMS for years. Through most of the decade until 1988, KCTC was often the number one station in the Arbitron 12+ ratings for Sacramento. One of the keys to this success was morning man Terry Nelson, who did mornings at KROY in the seventies. KCTC dropped the instrumental format in 1990, however, while the station still placed high in the ratings. The problem, according to industry experts, was that the station's audience was "dying off." They aimed at senior citizens and advertisers wanted younger audiences. So the KCTC call letters moved to the AM dial in place of KGNR while the old KCTC-FM became KYMX ("Mix 96") and concentrated on the softer side of the adult contemporary format.
The age of rock: KZAP vs. KRXQ in the 80s/90s
93 Rock finally caught up with KZAP in the ratings by 1988. For the next few years it was a see-saw battle as 93 Rock, under the direction of PD Judy McNutt and MD Pamela Roberts, catered to a younger rock audience while KZAP moved toward adults who had grown up with the station. But it became obvious by January 1992 that KRXQ had won the war when KZAP flipped to country and became KNCI-FM (only to change in a swap to KRAK-FM two years later). The air line-up would remain solid for years at KRXQ featuring Pat Martin in middays, Charlie Thomas in afternoons and Pamela Roberts in evenings. KZAP had consistency with Bob Keller in middays and the Godfather Bob Gallie in afternoons. Other KZAP personalities of the era included Bill Prescott in mornings, who was succeeded by Pat Still. Bob Keller eventually ended up on The Eagle, the Godfather went to Cool 101 and Pat Still went to KWOD and then KNCI. In the early to mid-nineties Laura Ingle was a popular evening voice on KRXQ. Being the host of the local music show, she was also well-known by local bands.
KWOD plays with modern rock in the early nineties
KWOD began experimenting with modern rock under Operations Manager Gerry Cagle and Program Director Adam Smasher in April 1991 after a consistently losing battle with FM 102. KWOD remained at the bottom of the ratings (despite a brief initial surge in the Spring 1991 Arbitron ratings) until the station officially switched to alternative in 1993 then dominated all the rock stations in the ratings for the next few years. This is my story about how I took over programming of a dark horse independent station with limited resources and we were able to take the market by surprise in the ratings. Read my story called The Rise of Alternative Radio. The line-up in which KWOD had its best success ever as an alternative station included Shawn and Jeff in mornings, yours truly Alex Cosper ("A.C.") in middays, Giles Hendriksen in afternoons and Ally Storm in evenings.
Ally left in 1996 to do middays at KOME in San Jose, which in 1998 turned into the midday show at Live 105 in San Francisco. She remained there through the mid 2000s. Another KWOD personality who ended up on Bay Area radio was Morris B, who was my original co-host of the local show The Sound of Sacramento. Now he goes by Morris Knight on Bay Area urban station KISQ (98.1 Kiss FM) in afternoon drive. Giles, who demonstrated incredible creative energy especially when doing bits with the market's traffic goddess Julie Ryan, left in 1997 to pursue web design and teaching. I left KWOD in 1996 and went on to do radio in Milwaukee, San Francisco and Palm Springs. In 1995 KWOD was among the highest rated alternative stations across the nation. That was the alternative rock format's heyday, when it looked as though it might become the new mainstream.
The Eagle takes off
The amazing resurgence of KROY in the late eighties was thwarted by a takeover that drove ratings into a downward spiral. KROY had topped KSFM and KWOD at a time when stations all over America were confused as to the direction the mainstream was headed, as some stations leaned to beats while others sounded more pop/rock. KROY had remained steady playing the biggest crossover hits and jumping on the latest beat-oriented music. When Great American took over in 1989, PD Sean Lynch made sweeping changes to the music, which included a lot of pop/rock "gold" from the eighties. It didn't work - it was probably too much identity change for a station that had been working. KROY's ratings sank and never recovered.
In November 1990 Great American Broadcasting dropped the legendary KROY call letters and flipped the station to classic rock as KSEG (The Eagle 96.9 FM). According to Dave Diamond, who worked on-air for both KROY and then The Eagle, the first song played on the new classic rock station was "Fly Like An Eagle" by The Steve Miller Band. Dave went on to do middays at Mix 96. The Eagle was part of the beginning of the end of the KZAP story as they stripped away their "upper demo" audience. In the late nineties The Eagle was programmed by Station Manager Larry Sharp, who went on to program classic rock station The Bone (107.7 FM) in San Francisco. The Eagle was usually among the top ten stations in Sacramento throughout the nineties, many times making the top five.
What's the Point?
A few weeks after the disappearance of KZAP came a new adult alternative album rock station. KQPT (100.5 FM), which had been a jazz/pop hybrid station since 1988 after decades as religious station KEBR, continued to call themselves "The Point" but began to shift toward an obscure wide-open playlist for adults under the ownership of Brown Broadcasting. However, it would be years before the station would rise again in the ratings. At one point the station had billboards all over town proclaiming "bands you've never heard of" and "songs you don't know" but the marketing scheme didn't connect with the underground or whoever they were trying to reach. The station's main bright spot was air personality Monica Lowe, who has been one of the few mainstays at the station for years, even through the mid-2000s. Another eclectic rock station, but with a little more edge, was KRFD (99.9 FM) in Marysville. It was programmed by Pamela Roberts but had a short life. Despite not showing up in the Sacramento radio ratings, it was cherished by diehard music fans until new owners flipped it to Spanish in March 1994. The Point, of course, became The Zone.
The overlapping rock sounds of KWOD, 93 Rock and The Zone
In September 1995, while KWOD was at its ratings peak as an alternative station and leading all rock-oriented stations in the market, The Point changed their name to The Zone and eventually took on the call letters KZZO two years later. They also began playing the most pop-sounding alternative hits in high rotation and began to challenge KWOD for the alternative audience. The Zone, however, went for adult females. While this was going on, 93 Rock began playing more music from KWOD's playlist to the point where you could hear the same song on all three stations at the same time. The Sacramento Bee even did a piece on how the three stations sounded similar in February 1996.
Jim Trapp was programming the Point and then the Zone, but left in early 1997 and ended up programming a very successful alternative station in Houston, KTBZ ("The Buzz"). Carmy Ferreri became the new Zone PD and made the station even more like a CHR station with high rotations and fast-paced energy from the jocks. This was different from how KWOD had been for many years, which was very conversational with minimal hype. With the return of night jock Nick Monroe to KWOD in late 1996 and new PD Ron Bunce in early 1997, KWOD shifted to a more energetic presentation. Read more about how the KWOD-KRXQ-Point/Zone battle developed in The Rise of Alternative Radio.
By 1997 the stations had moved in separate directions as 93 Rock returned to its heavier rock roots, KWOD played the top hits on the alternative charts and the Zone went after females. The Zone skyrocketed to number two in the market behind KFBK in 1997 under PD Carmy Ferreri, who had programming experience in Sacramento in the eighties and Los Angeles in the nineties. Around 1998 KWOD began aiming at a younger 12-24 male audience as it started taking on a punchier and crunchier alternative rap/rock sound similar to 93 Rock, who dominated the competition. After the departure of the Rise Guys in 1999 from KRXQ, the new morning team became Rob Williams, Arnie States and Dawn Rossi. Known as Rob, Arnie & Dawn, the show has been syndicated in some other markets including Seattle, WA. Night jock and local music scene leader Laura Ingle was replaced by Kylee Brooks in 1995. She held the position through the late nineties and then went to work at rocker KISW in Seattle until October 2003.
The Zone only stayed near the top of the ratings for a few years and began its descent back toward the bottom after the departure of Ferreri in April 1999. Part of the decline may have been that the station started expanding its musical selection criteria to be less-defined and more leaning toward whatever the mainstream adult contemporary hits were - something already being overdone in the market. During its run the Zone was the top rated "modern AC" station in the country, but by the early 2000's the format suffered across the country as many modern AC stations went pure adult contemporary, like the Zone.
Another possibility to the Zone ratings decline, was the lack of consistency with frequent line-up changes. One short stint was Rick Chase in afternoons in 2000. Chase had been a popular San Francisco radio personality for years (afternoons at KMEL 1986-1999). He tried to stir up controversy as a conservative shock jock (which seems like an oxymoron, but became an actual trend thanks to Morton Downey Jr. then Rush Limbaugh), but he inevitably was forced out by complaints, particularly from the gay community. In 2002 Chase went to do mornings for KWIN in Stockton, CA but died unexpectedly at the age of 45 that December.
Names like Monica Lowe, Marshall Phillips, Carlos Campos and Jay Walker shuffled around the clock in the late nineties and early 2000s at the Zone. Marshall Phillips has provided the news at the station since 1995. He had worked at legendary stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco over the years. In the seventies he did an all night talk show and afternoons at KLOS. He also worked at KMET, KWEST and KLSX. He was part of the final crew that worked at KSAN in San Francisco before it flipped from rock to country in the early eighties. Other Bay Area stations where Marshall did news included KOME, KFOG and KNBR.
Jim Matthews stayed at the 100.5 frequency for over a decade in middays, which is the typical shift that an Assistant Program Director takes in order to deal with the industry and carry out station responsibilities during normal business hours. Matthews finally left the station in 2003 and moved into radio sales. Kim Kaplan was a great sounding female jock who ended up starting her own production company Kim Kaplan Productions.
The end of K108 and the beginning of The End
For years it seemed the station least likely to change was K108. It was a top-rated station in town for most of the eighties, although ratings began to decline slightly in 1988. But by 1992 the ratings began to decline sharply. In May 1993 the station began to gamble with a new identity, "Xtra 107.9" in which the format turned more upbeat adult contemporary pop and started playing artists like Madonna under Operations Manager Don Daniels. Just 18 months earlier K108 was the leader among adult-oriented music stations, but began to lose audience to Y92 and Mix 96. The XTRA idea didn't work, as the "Hot AC" market had already been cornered. In March 1994 the format flipped to "Arrow 108," which meant "all rock and roll oldies" featuring mostly sixties through eighties pop/rock hits. Jim Carmichael had done mornings since 1993 but was replaced on the Arrow for four weeks in May and June of 1994 by Mark S. Allen. After the short stint, Allen then went back to FM 102 for mornings in June. After another round of musical chairs, the Arrow morning show became Sander Walker.
Brown Broadcasting, which had held the 107.9 frequency since the early seventies, finally sold the station in 1996 to Entercom. In July 1998 Entercom made some changes at a few of its stations. The Arrow and its call letters KXOA moved to 93.7 FM while a new contemporary hits station called "The End" debuted at 107.9 FM with the call letters KDND. They found it difficult to compete against FM 102, but in 1999 The End actually briefly took the lead. In 2000 The End's morning host was Dave Skyler, who had just completed a short-lived morning stint at KHYL with Crystal McKenzie, who had worked with Sander Walker mornings on Arrow. Skyler had also worked at FM 102, KWOD, KPOP and KAER in the eighties. He also worked on several stations in Los Angeles. This time at The End he just went by "Skyler." Crystal moved on to a programming position at XM Satellite Radio in Washington D.C. before returning to radio in her home state Indiana.
In the summer of 2001 KXOA dropped the Arrow format and shifted to the slogan "The Talk That Rocks" with Howard Stern in the mornings and another controversial syndicated show called Opie & Anthony in afternoons. Opie & Anthony were dropped from syndication in 2002 over a sexual stunt in a religious facility. The new "spicy" talk station, as Program Director Steve Garland called it, also carried NFL games of the Oakland Raiders. Another controversial show that only lasted a year was KiddChris.
In late 2002 after a year of low ratings and controversy that led to minuses, "93.7 KXOA" repositioned its format as "Sacramento's Hard Rock." The station still carried Howard Stern in mornings, but for the rest of the day Infinity was challenging Entercom for the town's hardest rocking audience. Entercom, which had cornered the rock market in Sacramento with active rocker 98 Rock (KRXQ 98.5) and classic rocker The Eagle (KSEG 96.9), won the contest easily, perhaps from inheriting so much heritage.
The KXOA call letters disappeared from the market in 2004 when 93.7 FM became KHWD known as "Howard" at a time when Howard Stern's show came under intense FCC observation for possible indecency. Irony struck later in the year when Stern announced he would be moving on to Sirius Satellite Radio in a few years. The KXOA call letters had been among the four earliest in Sacramento, lasting from 1945 through the new millennium. Brown Broadcasting turned out to be the company that made the call letters work simply by focusing on the dial position instead, as K108 was the all-time champion of the various KXOA incarnations.
KFBK rides at the top through the nineties
KFBK was number one (12+) in every Arbitron book throughout the nineties except one. The news/talk station began hitting the top regularly in 1987 after the demise of competitor KGNR (1320 AM). Even with new competition in the nineties from KHTK (1140 AM) and KSTE (650 AM), KFBK remained unbeaten as a news station throughout the entire decade. In fact, the only station to top KFBK throughout the whole decade was KRAK-FM in the Fall of 1990, but just by a hair. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned that the oldest call letters in the market remain the strongest. KFBK is without a doubt, the most successful radio station in Sacramento history, just as KGO is for San Francisco.
Joe Bayliss was Market Manager for Clear Channel's Sacramento cluster of stations including KFBK in 2000 after moving up in sales at KFBK and Y92. He went on to hold a similar position for Infinity in San Francisco before purchasing his own Bay Area station with other investors in 2004, under the name Flying Bear Media. The station was formerly KJAZ, then a Spanish station, then KPTI, then KBTB in a constant merry-go-round of ownership and format changes. It became KNGY "Energy 92.7," an electronic dance/hits format, in October 2004.
Once part of McClatchy Broadcasting for decades, KFBK switched owners to Group W in the eighties. KFBK's long-time sister station was KAER, which was previously KFBK-FM, playing classical music. KAER started as a country station then flipped to "love songs" and ultimately became KGBY ("Y92") in 1991. Gina Miles had an acclaimed talk show at night that dealt with relationships. In 1994 the combo was sold to Chancellor Media, which marked the beginning of what would become the world's biggest radio empire.
The rise of big corporate radio
For several decades the FCC mandated strict ownership rules for radio and other media, in order to keep programming diverse. These rules began to loosen during the Reagan Administration in the 1980s as part of an overall deregulation policy. Then in 1992 a new law gave radio owners, for the first time, the opportunity to own two AMs and two FMs in a market. Four years later, the Telecom Act further loosened ownership limits to eight stations per market.
The race among radio owners to start buying up as many stations as possible began immediately after the signing of the Telecom Act in February 1996. By the end of the year Jacor suddenly rose to be a top 3 radio empire with 95 stations across America after the billion dollar purchase of stations owned by Citicasters and Regent Communications. Jacor grew even bigger the next year with the purchase of several syndicated shows including Rush Limbaugh, who had the most listened to show in the country. By 1998 Jacor owned over 200 stations. The following year Clear Channel purchased Jacor for $6.5 billion and became the second biggest radio chain at that point. What put Clear Channel over the top was the 2000 purchase of AMFM, previously known as Chancellor Media.
Chancellor started in Sacramento, although owner Thomas Hicks operated out of Texas. The company expanded nationally and went on to become AMFM, which became the largest radio chain in the nation by the end of the nineties. In 2000 Hicks sold his empire so that he could acquire George W. Bush's percentage of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team. AMFM's buyer was a company that had been around for years called Clear Channel. Upon purchasing the biggest radio chain, Clear Channel thus became America's biggest radio chain. By the early 2000s, Clear Channel owned Sacramento stations KFBK, KGBY, KHYL and KSTE and a few others that were sold off.
Infinity had also become a huge company through mergers and opened the decade owning KSFM, KMYX, KNCI, KHTK, KZZO, KRAK and KXOA. The other giant in Sacramento at the turn of the century was Entercom, which owned KSSJ, KSEG, KDND, KRXQ and KCTC. The year 1998 saw radical changes on the dial that affected Infinity and Entercom. In March KRAK-FM and KRXQ swapped dial positions, resulting in 93 Rock becoming 98 Rock. Then later that year Entercom debuted a new top 40 station called "The End" while KXOA ("The Arrow") moved from 107.9 to 93.7 and the KRAK call letters were picked up by Infinity at 1470 AM as "Gold Country." But it only lasted a few years as it was sold to Disney who debuted its "Radio Disney" format for children and teens as KIID in 2000. In 2003 Entercom added KWOD to their list after a long legal dispute with Ed Stolz, who unsuccessfully tried to back out of a sale initiated in 1996.
Frequent ownership changes in the nineties
Group W owned KFBK and KGBY since the eighties through 1994 when the combo was acquired by Chancellor. Chancellor later became AMFM then merged with Clear Channel in 2000. Genesis Broadcasting owned FM 102 and the 1380 AM frequency (KSMJ Magic 1380, a Motown-based oldies station) from the eighties through 1994 when Secret Communications acquired FM 102. Once the Telecom Act was in effect, the first big company to buy a lot of stations in Sacramento was American Radio Systems (ARS). By the end of 1996 ARS owned FM 102, KRAK-FM (105.1), KMYX (96.1), KSSJ (101.9), KCTC (1320 AM) and Hot Talk (KHTK 1140 AM). In 1997 the Justice Department allowed ARS to merge with EZ Communications as long as ARS sold KSSJ and a station in another market because the company had too much market share of advertising revenue. All Sacramento ARS stations were bought by CBS Radio in September 1997. Note: In 1995 CBS had been purchased by Westinghouse, which bought Infinity in 1996. In 1997 Westinghouse sold all their non-broadcast properties and became CBS, which was acquired by Viacom for $37 billion in 2000. When the merger was complete CBS Radio became Infinity Broadcasting. Then in January 2006 Viacom and CBS became separate companies and Infinity changed its name back to CBS Radio.
KRXQ had been owned by Fuller-Jeffrey since the eighties through 1994 when the station sold to Citicasters, who also acquired The Eagle (KSEG 96.9) that year from Great American. The rock combo then was briefly owned by a rising radio group in 1996 called Jacor. Then it was purchased by Entercom in 1996. When Fuller-Jeffrey sold KRXQ in 1994, they acquired the new 650 AM frequency and launched it as KSTE. In 1996 this AM news/talk station was sold to its competitor, Chancellor, who already owned news/talk KFBK. KSTE ultimately became a Clear Channel station.
The Point (KQPT 100.5 until 1996) was owned by the same company who owned legendary Washington D.C. alternative station WHFS, which was Duchossois Communications (pronounced Duchess swa) through 1993 when it was acquired by Brown Broadcasting, who already had owned the 107.9 frequency as KXOA since the early seventies. The Point became the Zone in 1995 and was aquired the next year by ARS and was part of the cluster that wound up with Infinity. KZAP was owned by Nationwide since the eighties and was acquired by EZ Communications in 1993, a year after it had become KRAK-FM (98.5). EZ also owned KRAK-AM (1140), which it turned into Hot Talk (KHTK) in 1994. Both EZ stations were gobbled up by ARS in 1996 and then sold to CBS Radio the next year and became Infinity stations by 2000.
KCTC-FM, the "beautiful music" station playing instrumental pop standards, in the winter of 1990 became Mix 96 under Tribune, who owned the frequency from the eighties through 1996 when it was acquired by ARS, then by 2000 it was an Infinity station. Cool 101 (KHYL 101.1) was owned by Parker Communications from the eighties through 1992 when it was acquired by American Media, who sold it to Chancellor in 1995, therefore, it became a Clear Channel station in 2000. KWOD held the record for longest independent ownership at the start of the new millennium, under Ed Stolz's Royce International Broadcasting. He had owned the license for 106.5 since 1977, but had to give it up to Entercom in 2003 after a long court battle about a signed deal made in 1996. Stolz then concentrated on his other radio property, KRCK in Palm Springs, CA. However, he continued to appear in radio trade headlines, by challenging the licenses of Entercom stations around the country in petitions to the FCC.
New stations in the 90s/00s
The FCC gave Sacramento some new frequencies in the nineties. One was KSSJ, which debuted at 101.9 FM in 1995 as jazz station "The City" but moved to another new frequency, 94.7 FM, on Feb. 18, 1998. Entercom was granted the new 94.7 frequency licensed to Fair Oaks. The station came on strongly in the ratings as a Smooth Jazz station. In 1996 a new station debuted at 103.5 as KRYR, the first Spanish station to cover the entire market, carrying the network feed of the quickly rising Z-Spanish Network. The next year Paula Nelson, head of Diamond Broadcasting, dropped the feed and flipped from Spanish to hip hop as KBMB "The Bomb." One of the first moves the station made was hiring five year FM 102 jock Ibrahim Jamile (aka E-Bro) as the Bomb's afternoon host. The station skyrocketed in the ratings in its second book and became a leading player throughout the 2000s. KBMB was placed in receivership in October 2003 as Entravision was allowed to acquire the station.
With KSSJ moving to Entercom's new frequency, the 101.9 position went Spanish for awhile as KRRE ("Radio Romantica") under the ownership of Entravision, but the company took advantage of the name "Cool" after Clear Channel changed the successful KHYL from "Cool 101" to "Magic 101." KHYL dropped the "Cool" name in 1999 and Entravision picked it up a year later with call letters KCCL as the format changed to oldies. While KHYL shifted to R&B oldies, the new Cool 101.9, brought back the wider variety of sixties oldies that had made the original Cool a winner. KCCL quickly moved ahead of KHYL in the ratings and stayed ahead for years. Several jocks on KCCL had been familiar voices on Sacramento radio including Joey Mitchell and Rick Shannon. Tony Cox took the morning slot in September 2005 as the station moved away from 50s and 60s oldies and began to play mostly 70s rock under the new station identity "Boss Radio." But the nostalgic experiment only lasted through the next summer, as the format shifted to country and the station began calling itself "The Wolf" with the call letters KNTY.
KFBK's rise began with controversial talkers
Sacramento has had very controversial talk hosts on various sides of the political spectrum. Morton Downey Jr., who co-wrote the Surfaris hit "Wipe Out" in 1963, went on to national television after being shaken out of KFBK in 1984. Downey made headlines for using the term "China man" on his show, which outraged City Councilman Thomas Chinn, forcing Downey to resign. He was replaced by Rush Limbaugh, a college drop-out coming from Kansas City radio. Like Downey, Limbaugh was sympathetic to ultra-conservative political views and showed no love for the opposition.
In early 2005 Barry K. Fyffe explained the early winds of change between the two talk stations: "In 1982 I was working at KGNR when KFBK publicly stated they wanted to make a run in the market with a new approach and new talent (they retained Erik St. John). They had just hired a new PD, Chet Cassleman, formerly of KSFO (in San Francisco). I had worked on a couple of telethons with Chet and he called and asked if I would be interested in coming on board as a talk show host. We had a couple of meetings, they offered me more money than I was currently making so I signed on. They did some slick direct mail, some TV and billboards. In the year I was there we showed slight increases in the ratings but nothing to shout about. It was shortly after that McClatchy sold and they brought in Morton Downey Jr."
Under new owner Group W, KFBK began to shake up the market in the mid-eighties thanks to personnel and programming changes. The ratings were ignited when the market's number one morning team of Dave Williams and Bob Nathan moved from KGNR to KFBK in early 1985. They brought along their editor and future News Director Betsy Braziel. Once the Dave and Bob audience figured out where they had gone, that crowd stayed with KFBK for mornings and the rest of the day as well.
On top of doing the morning show, Dave Williams briefly served as Program Director throughout most of 1985. He ultimately decided to go with the four-hour work day five days a week instead of what he calls "seven 24-hour days." The new General Manager Rick Eytcheson and consultant Bruce Marr further accelerated the station toward its surge to number one in the market. One of their moves that proved highly successful was their acquistion of the rights to broadcast games of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team, who had just arrived from Kansas City.
Reflecting on that era, Dave Williams says in 2005, "I do not take all the credit for KFBK's success. There were a lot of good people who found each other and a lot of important pieces which fell into place nicely. Kismet. But I'll accept my share of the credit. To say Rush saved AM radio is a bit much but he certainly rescued a lot of stations that had become directionless in the new era of FM domination. Music on AM was collapsing but nobody could figure out what to do instead. News and/or talk were the obvious answers for many stations but the historical way of doing those formats was in for a drastic change and Rush was largely responsible for that. He brought world and national politics to local radio. Ridiculous notion! It had never been done before and there was no reason to believe it could succeed on any level."
Dave remembers a funny story about a meeting he had with Rush: "As PD of KFBK I took him to lunch one day and said, 'I'm not going to tell you what to do. But I will warn you: If you don't find something to talk about besides the Soviet Union and national politics, your career is going to go right down the toilet.' He thanked me for the first part - not telling him what to do."
Within a year midday man Limbaugh was the most popular talk host in Sacramento. In 1988, a year after the deregulating Reagan Administration eliminated the Fairness Doctrine (the equal-time rule), and shortly after The Morton Downey Jr. Show became a nationally-televised talk show, Limbaugh took his one-sided radio show national and became the megaphone for the right-wing. He went on to host a television show and write best-selling books. By 1993 he was the most listened to voice on American radio coast to coast. Eight years later he became the highest paid radio personality in the industry. He would eventually come under harsh media scrutiny in 2003 for racial remarks made on ESPN, which cost him a job on the popular sports cable channel.
As 1985 progressed, KFBK began to clobber KGNR in the ratings, leading the former AM giant to flip from news to big bands and when that didn't work they tried sixties pop oldies for awhile. Another KFBK talk host of this period was Joyce Kreig, who leaned liberal in her views. She joined the station in 1978 and stayed until 1993. She went on to write an award winning novel set in Sacramento called Murder Off Mike (published by St. Martin's Minotaur). Mary Jane Popp was another well-known female talk host on KFBK who worked at the station in the seventies and eighties. In the 2000s she hosts a 1p-3p talk show on 950 KAHI.
Christine Craft was a KFBK afternoon host from 1990 to 1993. She had previously been a television anchor in several markets. Since 1992 she has done fill-in anchoring at KQED-TV in San Francisco. She has also done fill-in work at KGO Radio (810 AM) since 1993. In the seventies she did a one year reporter stint for CBS-TV after working at CBS affiliate KPIX-TV San Francisco. In 1983 she was the plaintiff in a landmark federal case versus MetroMedia involving sexist practices. She attended McGeorge School of Law in the nineties, while working at KFBK. The Museum of Broadcast News in Washington, DC has an exhibit of the historic case. In 2004 she began doing an afternoon show on 1240 KSQR (Talk City).
Kitty O'Neal is also a long running female voice on KFBK in the 2000s, working close to two decades for the station. She started out as a local singer. In the eighties she was producer for Morton Downey Jr. and Rush Limbaugh. She then spent seven years at sister FM station Y92 as morning drive news anchor. In the 2000s she is entertainment feature editor for KFBK and does an afternoon show 4-7p, and in 2004 teamed up with Fox 40 TV personality Jay Alan. Kitty also does news updates for the Tom Sullivan show. She has been consistently voted "best afternoon drive radio personality" in Sacramento Magazine.
Dave Williams and Amy Lewis left their stellar number one morning show in 2000 for talk station KABC in Los Angeles. Williams then moved on to KFWB and now mornings at KNX, both of which are L.A. talk stations. He has also been a playwright who has won several national awards. KFBK's current morning team is Kelly Brothers and Chris Lane, weekday mornings 5-9am. Chris joined the morning show in 2000. Kelly, who came to the show in December 2003, also anchors the news on KCRA-TV Channel 3. Kelly began his broadcasting career while attending the University of Notre Dame in the eighties, as he did play by play for their football and basketball games. Although originally from Sacramento, his first TV news job was in Nebraska. In 1989 he returned to his hometown to work at KCRA-TV.
Air traffic reporter Commander Bill Eveland stayed with KFBK and its sister FM (KAER then KGBY) combo from 1979 until he retired in February 2005 at the age of 75. He had previously served in the U.S. Air Force for 27 years. He's been one of the all-time most heard voices in the history of Sacramento radio. Commander Bill's Co-Pilot for nearly two decades was Joe Miano. Also on the list of most heard voices in Sacramento radio history would include Tom Sullivan, now doing afternoons 1p-4p on KFBK as well as business reports throughout the day. Sullivan joined the station in December 1980 doing business reports. In July 1988 he moved up to talk show host replacing Rush Limbaugh, who moved to New York and went into national syndication. His afternoon show is consistently the top rated talk show in Sacramento. Sullivan is also the Financial Editor for KCRA-TV. KFBK has been the home of many personalities who have made a mark in Sacramento including evening host Mark Williams, sports reporter Pat Walsh and former afternoon host Rick Stewart.
From Boomer & The Boys to Rise Guys
Other controversial figures on Sacramento radio tended to be morning shows such as Kevin Boom Boom Anderson. Anderson was fired from KZAP in the early eighties for staging an offensive "Jimi Hendrix choke-off contest" on the air. "Boomer" then bounced to afternoons at KPOP, which was top 40 at the time. But that stint didn't last very long as he was fired for offending too many people one day for mixing together crying baby and machine gun sound effects. By the end of the decade Boomer was back in morning drive, this time at KRXQ, competing against his old buddies at KZAP. The show blossomed into Boomer and the Boys featuring Whitey Gleason and Justin Case. It was a show that dominated the morning ratings in the early nineties. It lasted until July 1993 when Boomer just decided to quit one day. Case and Gleason then started calling themselves the Rise Guys and a new popular morning show was born. Boomer resurfaced at 100.5 The Zone in the late nineties for another short-lived stint and then an even shorter comeback at KSTE. The Rise Guys left KRXQ in 1999 after making several novelty CDs for the station and resurfaced on Sports Talk (KHTK 1140 AM) as the new morning show that October. They replaced the Don Imus syndicated radio show, which moved to Gold Country (KRAK 1470 AM).
Boomer's sudden disappearance from KRXQ in 1993 shook up the market. Vince Simon, who did overnights at the time and was followed by Boomer and the Boys, remembers, "Boomer calls me at like 3am and then says 'I'm not coming in.' I thought he was saying he was sick, maybe just that day, then he does come by and gets all his stuff from the office and made it final. I called (PD) Judy McNutt and let her know so I did take over as a flippin' board op till The Rise Guys were formed." Simon, who had also worked at KWOD and Metro Traffic, went on to do radio in San Luis Obispo then Hawaii.
Chris Collins & The Morning Zoo
From 1984 through the early nineties Chris Collins was the host of FM 102's morning show, which at one time was called "The Morning Zoo." Chris' sidekick and news man was Mike Reynolds. At times it was the top rated morning show in town. Some of the stunts he did included spending 12 days at Country Club center on top of a twenty foot tower as a benefit for Families First, Inc., and getting involved in a wrestling match with personnel from the Syrian embassy in Washington D.C. after he tried to burn a Syrian flag. One of the many funny features on the show was "toss the boss" in which listeners would call in venting their anger at their bosses, and then Collins would play the sound effects of a body falling down a flight of stairs.
Collins wound up prevailing in a lawsuit with KWOD over supposed slanderous remarks on his show about KWOD made in 1989. Three years later, after twelve years at the station, Collins filed a huge wrongful termination suit against KSFM, claiming drug abuse among management personnel, which he did not conform to, but the parties ended up settling out of court. Collins briefly did a talk show on KSTE (650 AM) but later became a sports commentator for the San Jose Sharks on KFRC. He wound up being the CEO of Digicast Corporation in Seattle.
Masters & Johnson and the aftermath
Throughout the eighties, KWOD had countered the Morning Zoo with a more tame but witty show called The Masters and Johnson Morning Radio Clinic. Hosted by Doug Masters and Marty Johnson, who was a man of several characters, the show started out in 1984 as a satire on the famous sex researchers but gradually became a regular bells and whistles morning show full of fast-moving skits and multiple character voices. After Marty left the show in 1988, Doug moved to middays and then disappeared from the schedule. It marked the beginning of KWOD's five year crisis to find a consistent morning show. Sterling and Steele was the immediate quasi-band-aid, but the team bolted for San Jose radio within a year. Sterling was none other than Charlie Simons, who had done nights at KPOP in its "rock of the eighties" phase. Steele was Jeff Hunter, who worked at KXOA-AM in the early eighties and then did afternoons at KWOD in the mid-eighties as Terry Steele. He had also programmed hit station KITS in San Francisco before it became alternative station Live 105. The least successful post-Masters & Johnson team was "The Renegades" in late 1989, but new Operations Manager Gerry Cagle put an end quickly to the unfocused, irreverant and out of control novice show. Another brief morning host was Pat Still, who had been successful in mornings at KZAP and as PD. He then went on to have a long-running successful morning show at KNCI.
Robbins & Cowan
One of the longest running morning shows in Sacramento has been Paul Robbins and Phil Cowan (aka Paul & Phil) on Y92. They began as Robbins, Kinney and Cowan at KPOP in 1984. The three-man team had at least made names for themselves while working at KPOP despite the station's consistent down numbers. But in August 1985 Paul Robbins, Paul Kinney and Phil Cowan announced they were leaving town to do Detroit radio. Unfortunately for them the gig didn't last long. In 1987 the team returned as the duo of Robbins & Cowan, this time landing mornings at KAER (which became KGBY or "Y92" in the early nineties). They celebrated their ten year anniversary on the air a decade later. Although they became well-known in town, they also have on their record the Wilton North Report on Fox, which in 1988 set a television record for getting axed the quickest, after just a month. In 2003 they started doing the 10a-12noon talk slot on sister station KSTE in addition to their Y92 morning show. Beginning in January 2006 Phil began doing the KSTE show solo and announced that he would be leaving the Paul & Phil Show on Y92 on June 15, 2006 after nearly two decades.
Shawn & Jeff jump from KWOD to the Zone
Shawn Cash teamed up with Jeff Jensen in 1993 at KWOD to do mornings for the station the rest of the decade. They were never very controversial, just talkative about mainstream pop culture and personal stories. On April 9, 1994 they introduced INXS at Arco Arena in front of over 10,000 modern rock fans and were well received. In early 1995 the team was able to score two slots as extras on the television series Star Trek: Voyager. On Jan. 2, 2001 they moved on to do mornings at 100.5 The Zone. On April 26 that year they were featured as the top story of the Sacramento Bee Scene section. In that article Jensen said, "We don't have a lot to say to the 12-year-old skateboard rats that listen to KWOD" as the team shifted to targeting the Zone's more adult female audience. The team was let go in 2005 as the Zone was unable to generate high ratings in the market.
The long-running story of Joey Mitchell
Joey Mitchell has made an impact on Sacramento radio in every decade since the seventies. He started as the morning man at KRAK AM in 1975 and held the position until the early nineties. During that time he became a leading figure in Sacramento's country music scene. In the nineties he moved to mornings at KRAK FM. He also did mornings at KHYL then KRAK FM again then KRAK AM (Gold Country 1470) in the late nineties. In 2003 he did mornings at KCCL. In 2004 Mitchell jumped on a new station just outside of the Sacramento listening area. During the week he was on from 3-6pm on KCEE 103.3 in Grass Valley, a new talk station that signed on in May 2004 with a wide-open format. Joey then briefly moved to mornings with Mark Standriff on religious station 105.5 The Fish until October 2005. He then moved on to mornings at 92.1 KCCL (K-Hits). His website is www.JoeyMitchell.com, in which he offers a book he helped write called "How To Break Into Broadcasting."
How Howard came to town
On Feb. 5, 2004, KXOA (93.7 FM) Program Director Byron Kennedy announced the station had a new identity as "Howard 93.7." The long-running call letters KXOA finally left the market without protest or celebration. The new call letters became KHWD. Howard Stern had already been carried in the morning slot since the summer of 2001. Stern said on his program it was "a genius move...a brilliant move." These comments were in sharp contrast with Stern's earlier staunch demands that stations do not use his name in promoting themselves. As the new Howard 93.7 was getting off the ground, Janet Jackson had flashed her nearly-bare breast at the Super Bowl earlier that week on live international television and a controversy over decency broke out in which watchdog organizations began to target Stern's show as indecent. Clear Channel even dropped Howard in a few markets, but Howard survived in Sacramento.
Stern predicted his show would soon be over, yet it kept on going...for awhile. The show was carried from 3am-10am weekdays and was followed by classic alternative rock hits, mainly from the nineties, but the station also played current alternative rock. Stern shocked the industry again in October 2004 when he announced that he would be leaving terrestrial radio at the end of his Viacom contract to do his show on Sirius Satellite Radio starting in January 2006, where he wouldn't be pressured by the FCC about his show content. In November 2005 Infinity (which went back to the name CBS Radio shortly afterward), flipped the station to the "Jack" format and changed call letters to KQJK. In early 2006 CBS Radio radio filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Stern for breach of contract, but the parties settled later in the year. In 2009 KQJK was acquired by Clear Channel.
Air America flip flops
The 1240 AM position had historically been music and then briefly "All Sports" up until its most legendary General Manager (from the sixties and seventies) Dwight Case purchased the station in 1994 and changed the call letters from KSAC to KSQR ("Super Q"). Richard Irwin, the Operations Manager then at KSAC says, "I turned off the 1240 AM transmitter and it was off for a month before they turned it back on." It came back as a Spanish station that sold a year later to Spanish group Silverado Broadcasting, who kept the KSQR call letters but changed the name to "La Bonita." In September 1997 Sacramentan Amador Bustos expanded his rising Z-Spanish Network by announcing the purchase of KSQR, which later went to Moon Broadcasting.
In May 2004 the station took on the name "Talk City" and began airing the national feed of "Air America," the first radio network to position itself as "liberal talk radio." Air America featuring morning show The Morning Sedition followed by host Al Franken kicked off its network about a month earlier on March 31 in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. KSQR became one of the first eleven stations in the country to air the new network. Michael Kramer, who had worked at KROY-FM in the eighties, became Operations Manager for Talk City 1240. The call letters then changed back to KSAC.
But despite initial ratings spikes and continued loyalty, Air America found a new home in November 2005 on KCTC (1320), which flipped from nostalgia to progressive talk. Charlie Weiss, who was a mainstay at KZAP for years, became head of programming for the new talk station. However, another change was made by Entercom in February 2007 when they dumped Air America for an all sports station via ESPN programming. Meanwhile, KSAC remained a liberal-leaning talk station until it flipped to religious programming in early 2008 with new call letters KRJY.
Amador Bustos demonstrates how to create a radio empire
Sacramento has had some interesting radio entrepreneurs over the years, but none quite as successful as the guy who built the biggest Spanish radio chain in America in the nineties and then sold it to the emerging corporate giant, Entravision. Amador Bustos was originally from Mexico. His radio background prior to owning stations was in radio and television advertising sales. In 1992 Amador Bustos launched Z-Spanish Network, a privately held company, with an initial $150,000 investment. At the time eleven percent of the U.S. population were Hispanic and Bustos had a dream of bringing that community together through radio. The flagship station where the programming originated was "Z92" (KZSA 92.1 FM). Over the next eight years he was able to attract venture capitalists to investing in the network, which grew to 33 owned stations nationally along with 42 affiliates. It became the largest Spanish radio group in the country. It had grown to 15 stations the first four years and then doubled within the next four years. In August 2000 Bustos sold Z-Spanish Network to Entravision for $475 million (Entravision assumed the $109 million debt loan as part of the purchase price).
Bustos has served on many boards including Entravision in 2003. In 2004 he launched a new radio group called Bustos Media. In its first year the chain quickly put together a roster of 18 stations. In May 2004 the new group bought OM Media Radio Network, which produces Spanish language formats for national syndication from its studios in Sacramento. The following month Bustos Media announced it was acquiring Sacramento's top-rated Spanish station KTTA ("Buena 97.9") from Aztec Media and the very popular KEJC in Modesto. These two acquisitions marked Bustos' return to California radio. Bustos re-entered the Sacramento market in May 2005 with the acquisition of KXCL (103.9)/Auburn from First Broadcasting, which Bustos flipped to Spanish adult contemporary KVMG ("Magia"). Then in 2005 Bustos made a deal to swap KVMG with Salem's KSFS 94.3, becoming Magia 94.3. It looks as though Bustos is creating another empire.
The ownership battle for KWOD
Feburary 1996 marked the signing of the Telecom Act, which would inevitably raise the property value of radio stations. Also that month Royce International Broadcasting President Ed Stolz signed a letter of intent to sell KWOD for $25 million to Entercom. A few years later Stolz backed out of the deal and filed a countersuit against the buyer, claiming racketeering. The case dragged on until 2003 when the court dropped the racketeering case and forced Royce to hand the station over to Entercom. PD Ron Bunce, MD/night jock Violet, morning man Boomer and midday man Capone were all let go in March 2005 as the station began calling itself KWOD Version 2.0 and shifted from a guitar-driven Alternative station to a guitar-driven Triple A station.
The result was a continued downtrend toward the bottom of the market. KWOD then returned to a more current-based alternative format in early 2005, but continued to suffer low ratings, perhaps due to inconsistency and the overall ongoing national downtrend of the alternative format. By this point many of the leading alternative stations of the 1990s had dissolved into other formats. Even KWOD disappeared from the dial in May 2009 when Entercom decided to kill the station, as it never enjoyed the high ratings KWOD had as an independent station the previous decade. The irony of an independent station outperforming a corporate station remains an amazing story in Sacramento radio history. Entercom parked the KWOD call letters in Salem, Oregon and turned 106.5 into "The Buzz" with an all 1990s hit music format that mixed alternative hits with hip hop hits.
KQED expands to Sacramento
America's most popular public radio station, KQED/San Francisco, the sister to the Bay Area public television station, piped its programming into Sacramento beginning in May 2003. At that time KQED acquired religious station KEBR (89.3) from Family Stations then changed the call letters to KQEI and switched the programming to a simulcast of the legendary Bay Area station. KQED can be heard on three frequencies in the Bay (88.5 San Francisco, 88.3 Santa Rosa, 88.1 Martinez). Even though it is not rated by Arbitron, it is the most listened to station in the Bay. KQED was founded in 1968 and became an all news station in 1987. When combining all the signals and areas the station covers, the station estimates on its website in 2005 that it reaches 745,000 listeners each week. KQED also expanded its online audience, as it began streaming in 2002.
Tragedy at The End becomes industry wake-up call to rethink crazy radio contests
One of the saddest episodes in American radio history occurred in Sacramento on Friday, January 12, 2007 when a contestant on 107.9 The End (KDND) died shortly after an on-air promotion at the station. The contest was called "Hold your wee for a WII" in which contestants challenged to win the popular video game unit, Nintendo WII. The object was to see who could drink the most water without urinating. The second place winner was Jennifer Strange, who was found dead in her home later that day and initial reports were that the cause of death was water intoxication, a result of drinking too much water. The following Monday, Entercom Market Manager John Geary announced that the "Morning Rave" show had been terminated and that ten people connected with the promotion, including Program Director Steven Weed, were let go. As the story began to unfold on national news, the Sacramento Sheriff Department learned from a recording of the event that while the contest was in progress the jocks aired a warning from a listener named "Eva" that "those people that are drinking all that water can get sick and possibly die from water intoxication." One of the jocks replied, "Yeah, they (the contestants) signed releases, so we're not responsible." Then another jock said, "And if they get to the point where they have to throw up, then they're gonna throw up and they're out of the contest before they die, so that's good, right?"
The recording also revealed that one of the jocks even cited an example of a Chico student who had died of water intoxication a few years back. On Jan. 25, 2007, attorneys for the family of the victim filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the station. The incident created a wave of discussion around the country from radio listeners to radio personnel that the radio industry needed to back off from crazy radio stunts that may endanger the community, in its pursuit to boost ratings. The original purpose of radio, as defined by the FCC in 1934, was to serve the community, because it's actually the public who owns the airwaves.
The New Era: Radio must face barrage of challenges from new media
In the 2000s the radio industry and the music industry both face uphill challenges from various new media. One can clearly see, by studying the history of media, patterns that have shaped the current media landscape. AM radio dominated people's lives until the fifties when television became the dominant medium. Then the new technology of the transistor made radio an appealing portable companion from the fifties on. AM radio then faced major competition when FM technology was improved in the late seventies. The mad rush for FM receivers transformed FM into being the desired band for music fans by the early eighties. The computer revolution that followed has led us to where we are today. We are at an empowering vantage point with an unbelievable amount of choices to consume information and entertainment besides radio: cable, the internet, satellite radio and now something called "podcasting."
The combination of corporate consolidation and new competition from new media has changed the music and radio industries from what they were prior to the mid-nineties. In some cases radio owners have gained huge advantages because of conditions of the Telecom Act. Examples include cornering a market, increasing radio property value and increasing spot rates. Disadvantages to industry consolidation have been less localization and a decline in the "human element" of broadcasting as computer automation systems have taken over to ensure "no dead air" or jocks accidentally playing an unscheduled song. The role of the air personality at several music stations has been further diminished to liner-cards, time and temperature, artist and title, and occasional tidbits thrown in.
The radio stations that survive the contest that lies ahead in the new millennium will likely be the ones that merge with - instead of compete with new technology. Those that take their local programming to an international audience will likely do better than those that try to offer national programming for just a local audience.
Where have all the call letters gone?
Here's a look at where classic Sacramento call letters ended up in the 2000s:
KAER - St. George, UT
KCRA - nowhere in radio, but still used by TV station Channel 3 in Sacramento
KEWT - nowhere in radio
KGMS - Tucson, AZ
KGNR - John Day, OR
KNDE - College Station, TX
KPOP - Sapulpa, OK
KQPT - Colusa, CA
KRAK - Hesperia, CA
KROI - Seabrook, TX (covering Houston)
KROY - Palacios, TX (on the Gulf Coast)
KSMJ - Shafter, CA (the station is in Bakersfield)
KWOD - Salem, OR (parked call letters by Entercom)
KXOA - nowhere in radio
KZAP - Paradise, CA (covering Chico)
Sacramento Radio Dial 2009
Note: if you were part of Sacramento radio history as a pro or a listener and you think something needs to be added to this ever-growing page, please feel free to send info.
Please note that this history report is focused more on the on-air content that led to significant radio followings in Sacramento. It does not attempt to explore people who worked behind the scenes, except in some cases, prominent Program Directors who were in charge of on-air content and influential owners who made acquisitions that affected the market.
SOURCES
1. My own experience, growing up in Sacramento and working in radio (KWOD, KLCQ, KROY, KZZO) - Alex Cosper
2. Interviews/emails with several radio personalities including (but not limited to): Jack Androvich, Martin Ashley, Karen Beck, Tom Buck, Gerry Cagle, Tom Cale, Dwight Case, Kevin Childs, Jok Church, Tony Cox, Bryan Davis, Dave Diamond, Richard Dunk, Ed Fitzgerald, William Fuller, Dick Burch, Barry K. Fyffe, Phil Glatz, Jim Hadlock, Norm Hankoff aka Norm Hanley, Jim Hilsabeck, Travus T. Hipp, Jeff Hughson, Johnny Hyde, Richard Irwin, Curtiss Johnson, Mike Larsen, Jeff March, Mick Martin, Helen Meline, Scott Mitchell, Dusty Morgan, Dennis Newhall, Cary Nosler, Bill Rase, Michael Sheehy, Bob Sherwood, Dave Skyler, Les Thompson, Viola Weinberg, Charlie Weiss, Jim West, Dave Williams, Robert Williams, Don Wright, Bob Fuller, The Legend of KZAP and Earth Radio)
3. ReelRadio.com
4. 1240KROY.com
5. History of American Broadcasting by Jeff Miller
6. The Sacramento Bee
7. 440int.com
8. Radio-locator.com
9. The Hits Just Keep On Coming by Ben Fong-Torres, Miller Freeman Books, 1998
10. Sacramento Business Journal
11. Other contributors: Robert Zivkovich