KNEW (960
AM) is an American biz news
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
licensed to
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, and serving the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
. It is owned by
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
and most of the programming comes from
Bloomberg Radio
Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...
. KNEW also carries
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
games. The
radio studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large en ...
s are located in the
SoMa district of San Francisco.
KNEW transmits 5,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s using a three-
tower array
A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...
directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performan ...
at all times. The
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...
is located in Oakland at the eastern end of the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. KNEW can also be heard on the
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...
of 103.7
KOSF-HD2.
History
KFWM and KROW
On July 8, 1925, the station
signed on
Signing may refer to:
* Using sign language
* Signature, placing one's name on a document
* Signature (disambiguation)
* Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice
* Digital signature
A dig ...
as KFWM. It was owned originally by the Oakland Educational Society. The ''Oakland Post-Enquirer'' wanted a radio station to compete with the
Oakland Tribune
The ''Oakland Tribune'' is a weekly newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group.
Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' rose to become an influential daily newspaper. With the decli ...
s
KLX. This station became KROW in June 1930, and used those call letters until 1959. It was a full-service station known for launching the career of comedian
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and ...
and for helping the career of "the world's greatest disc jockey"
Don Sherwood Don Sherwood may refer to:
* Don Sherwood (politician) (born 1941), American politician
* Don Sherwood (DJ) (1925–1983), American radio personality
* Don Sherwood (cartoonist) (1930–2010), American cartoonist and illustrator
{{hndis, Sherwo ...
, prior to his long career at
KSFO
KSFO (560 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format. The station's studios and offices are on Battery Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco, along with f ...
.
In 1947, the station built a new transmitter on a 20-acre island leased from the
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2011 it was the f ...
. The new transmitter was accompanied by an increase in power from 1,000 watts to 5,000 watts full-time.
KABL
This station is best known as the longtime home of KABL, the successor to KROW and one of the first
beautiful music
Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...
stations in the United States. It was owned by 1950s radio pioneer
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986Texas State Historical AssociationMcClendon, Gordon Barton/ref>) was a radio broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio", McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during the 1950s ...
. According to longtime McLendon national program director,
Don Keyes, in his book ''Gordon McLendon and Me'', McLendon wanted to own a station in the San Francisco market, and 960 KROW seemed ideal because of its relatively low dial position and strong coverage of the San Francisco market.
Beautiful Music
McLendon had success with
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...
stations and the original plan had been to launch a similar, youthful format on KROW. But after McLendon and his team visited the market and discovered there were already several Top 40 stations, they decided there wasn't room for another one. As a result, they looked to KIXL, a beautiful-music station in the
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, market that was enjoying a fair amount of success despite being
daytime-only. They decided to launch a similar format on KROW using KIXL's formula of quarter-hour blocks of familiar musical selections (three instrumentals, arranged by tempo, and one vocal) as a template. The new
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...
was to be KABL, as in San Francisco's legendary
cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
** ...
s.
In early May 1959, KROW began "stunting" with a continuous loop of a song called "Gila Monster," the theme song from a
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...
that Gordon McLendon had co-produced that year. Based on this stunt, it was assumed by the general public — and by the competition — that KROW was to become a Top 40 station along the lines of McLendon's
KLIF
The Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency ( no, Klima- og forurensningsdirektoratet, Klif), named Norwegian Pollution Control Authority ( no, Statens forurensningstilsyn), SFT) until 2010, was a Norwegian government agency from 1974 to 2013 when ...
in Dallas,
WAKY in Louisville or
KILT
A kilt ( gd, fèileadh ; Irish: ''féileadh'') is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish H ...
in Houston. But the station took everyone by surprise by debuting KABL as a beautiful music station. KABL quickly captured a more mature listening audience that disliked rock and roll. KABL soon became the number one radio station in San Francisco, and would remain at or near the top of the ratings for years afterward.
KABL's format
As KABL, the station combined a mixture of easy listening string and orchestra music with light classics and an occasional Latin cocktail hour tune. KABL was known for presenting poetic vignettes about San Francisco life, a harp interlude between songs, and a cable car bell to announce the news.
Licensed to Oakland, with a transmitter near the east end of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ve ...
, KABL often skirted the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...
(FCC) rules on
station identification
Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, ...
and
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American b ...
. While KABL could have legally identified as "Oakland/San Francisco," it instead deliberately tried to identify with San Francisco rather than Oakland. It was notorious for using slogans such as "KABL Oakland, serving San Francisco on your San Francisco radio dial, in the air, everywhere over San Francisco". This raised the ire of FCC officials, resulting in a fine and an admonishment to all broadcasters that they were licensed to serve a particular community, not surrounding ones.
The final years
In 1997, the station switched to an
adult standards format of traditional pop and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
music. At one point, presumably inspired by the "swing dancing/zoot suits" craze of the late 1990s, KABL added a nightly "swing/dance" show several hours in length, which played music by the retro swing groups of the period such as
Brian Setzer
Brian Robert Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with ...
's and the
Cherry Poppin' Daddies, as well as standard material such as
Glenn Miller
Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...
's "
In The Mood
"In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition " Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by ...
". This program didn't last very long.
KABL also carried the syndicated ''
When Radio Was'' Old-Time Radio anthology series, tending to move its time slot around. In 2000, KABL briefly switched to a 1960s-1970s
soft rock
Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...
format, but went back to older music after complaints from their regular audience. In fact, later-years KABL tended to go back and forth on including greater amounts of more "modern" softer pop-rock material then not identified with "traditional" adult standards -
Peter & Gordon and
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dra ...
from the '60s, even
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted m ...
and
Air Supply
Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975. It consists of Englishman Graham Russell (vocals, guitar) and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five h ...
from the turn of the '80s.
On September 28, 2004, 960 AM dropped the adult standards programming and the KABL call letters. The KABL call sign subsequently reemerged at then co-owned
92.1 FM in
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...
. The station had a very limited signal beyond its immediate broadcast area, however, and in July 2005, switched to an
adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
format.
KABL reborn on the Internet
KABL then began broadcasting as an
internet radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitte ...
station. This lasted until January 31, 2007, when
Clear Channel Conmmunications discontinued KABL's streaming music.
On June 1, 2007, under license from Clear Channel, th
Bay Area Radio Museumlaunched a streaming tribute to KABL on the Internet, which featured
Beautiful Music
Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...
, Easy Listening, Adult Standards, Big Bands, traditional pop and middle-of-the-road music, to represent the various musical styles presented during the station's forty years on the air. The URL that was used now directs to Clear Channel Corporation's
iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHear ...
website.
Progressive talk as KQKE and KKGN
Replacing KABL on September 28, 2004, were new call letters KQKE and a
progressive talk format, branded as "960 The Quake".
The Quake's tag lines are "The Bay Area Home of Air America", "Talk Radio for the Rest of Us" and "Talk Radio from the Left". The station carried a mix of
Dial Global
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The company w ...
programs, such as
Ed Schultz,
Stephanie Miller and
Thom Hartmann, and other distributors. At one time it also carried programs from the now-defunct
Air America network.
The station also aired some local weekend programming. One weekend show, ''Shake!'', aired on Sunday nights and was targeted toward the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
's
gay and
lesbian community. The show also aired on co-owned
KLSD in San Diego until November 2007.
In 2006, KQKE introduced a local morning show featuring political satirist
Will Durst and former San Francisco mayor
Willie Brown. ''Keeping it Real with Will and Willie'' aired from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. The show was canceled, and aired its final regular broadcast on September 29, 2006. At that time, the program director indicated that "the pair will still do special broadcasts and appearances for the station."
John Scott was hired as AM operations manager for both KQKE and KNEW in 2007, and introduced new shows and elements into the programming mix. He would be the last local manager of the stations, with those duties now handled by Clear Channel corporate.
In 2009, the station introduced another weekend program, An Organic Conversation, airing Saturdays at 10am PST. Presented by Helge Hellberg, executive director of
Marin Organic, and Mark Mulcahy, organic produce consultant, An Organic Conversation features ecology-based thinking and insight into the
organic food
Organic food, ecological food or biological food are food and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological ...
and
holistic health
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...
movement.
''The Progressive News Hour'' with John Scott once aired weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., leading into ''Keeping it Real with Will and Willie'' and was a rundown of local and national news, as well as weather and traffic reports. Shortly after Will and Willie disappeared, Stephanie Miller's morning show arrived to take the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot on KQKE. The remodeled show ''The Progressive News'' then moved to 4-6PM, and its content was more focused on the Bay Area, including more interviews and news about Bay Area people and politics, with less repetition of national stories.
"AM 960 The Quake" was not related to
KQAK, a San Francisco station that was on the air from 1982 to 1985 that also called itself "The Quake". However, Paul "Lobster" Wells holds the distinction of working for both "Quake" stations, as he served as producer and on-air contributor for KQKE's former morning show.
KKGN
On August 13, 2007, Clear Channel changed the KQKE
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...
to KKGN, with a repositioning as "Green 960" and initially with programming focused on environmental issues.
KNEW
On January 3, 2012, Clear Channel management changed KKGN to KNEW and shifted to a wider-based talk format. The move was part of a broader restructuring of talk programming in Clear Channel's San Francisco cluster. While still predominantly progressive talk for most of the day, KNEW also carried the decidedly conservative ''
Glenn Beck Program
''Glenn'' (previously titled ''The Glenn Beck Program'') is a news talk and political opinion show on TheBlaze hosted by Glenn Beck. It is produced and recorded at TheBlaze studios in Dallas, TX. The show originally ran on CNN Headline News ...
'' during morning drive as well as ''
The Dave Ramsey Show'' in middays.
On January 2, 2014, Rush Limbaugh's daily syndicated program moved from KKSF to KNEW. At this point, KNEW dropped all progressive talk programs, as it flipped to
conservative talk
Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enoug ...
and rebranded as "The Patriot".
Affiliation with Bloomberg Radio
On September 29, 2014, KNEW dropped conservative talk for business talk programming provided by New York City-based
Bloomberg Radio
Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...
. Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity's programs were moved to
KSFO
KSFO (560 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format. The station's studios and offices are on Battery Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco, along with f ...
. On July 30, 2020, KNEW reached an agreement with the
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...
to broadcast their games for the remainder of the 2020 season, after having initially forgone a radio home in Oakland in favor of streaming only.
References
External links
FCC History Cards for KNEW*
KABL tribute on the Internetâ€
KABL tribute stream
{{IHeartMedia
NEW
Radio stations established in 1925
1925 establishments in California
IHeartMedia radio stations
Business talk radio stations
Business mass media in the United States