In case anyone cares today or rather this evening was the 100th birthday of KFRC signing on the air in 1924.....Happy Birthday and thanks to all that made this radio station a success over the decades. Shout out to all that passed through the studios. Special thanks to Dr. Don Rose, Bobby Ocean, Jim Carson, Marvelous Mark Mckay, Joe Conrad, Frank Terry, Dave Diamond, Sue Hall, Joe Ike, Jay Steven's, Bobby Dale, Tom Rounds, Gerry Cagle, Mike Phillip's, Ron Parker, Dave Sholin, Sebastian Stone, Paul Drew, Les Turpin, Charlie Van Dyke, Michael Spears, Les Garland, John Mac Flanagan, and one of my favorite ladies Shana, Howard Clark, Bob Foster and Father Harry, and the list just keeps on coming! And a very very very special thanks to Bill Drake, KYNO, KGB, KHJ, WOR, and to Don Lee & RKO General for making it all possible. I believe Bill Drakes legacy will never be surpassed. Happy Birthday to 610 KFRC/KEAR. Thanks for the memories. Feel free to add to the list of Hall of fame names.
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610 KFRC/KEAR
- Thread starter K108 Sacramento
- Start date
I'll add Don Sainte-Johnn, Big Tom Parker, Mucho Morales, Bill Lee, Sue Hall and Jackson Armstrong to that list.
And a reminder: The KFRC Mobile Sturgeon will be in the parking lot at the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame Luncheon on Saturday, October 19:
bayarearadio.org
610's Marvelous Mark McKay and Sturgeon Captain Kent Hedburg will be inducted this year.
Make @BossRadioDJ a happy fella, register and show up (but don't expect a Cowpoke Radio t-shirt out of the deal)!
And a reminder: The KFRC Mobile Sturgeon will be in the parking lot at the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame Luncheon on Saturday, October 19:
Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame's Class of 2024 Announced
JULY 20, 2024 – The board of directors of the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame is proud to announce t
bayarearadio.org
610's Marvelous Mark McKay and Sturgeon Captain Kent Hedburg will be inducted this year.
Make @BossRadioDJ a happy fella, register and show up (but don't expect a Cowpoke Radio t-shirt out of the deal)!
Mark McKay went on to have a great career in the Kansas City market and had been doing voice work for years. I understand he retired to Florida a couple years ago.
I have it on good authority Mark will be flying out for the luncheon, and may even get behind the mic in the Sturgeon for old time's sake.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Nitpick: Jay Stevens and Mike Phillips did not have apostrophes in their names.
And let's give special credit to Tom Rounds, the first Drake era PD, who not only got the format started but did the first of the multi-day open air artist events. The KFRC "Fantasy Fair" was TR's idea and run by the same person who went on to be the show manager for that little event in the East called.... Woodstock!
TR was, of course, the creator of AT40.
Mike Phillips. I am certain he also was on KJR in Seattle for a while. I remember hearing KFRC playing hot hits in 1986 when driving through the Bay Area at the time, was interesting to hear an AM radio holdout for CHR/Top 40.
That, of course changed.... They're KEAR now, of course, and I hear them every now and then at night.
That, of course changed.... They're KEAR now, of course, and I hear them every now and then at night.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That night pattern was pretty powerful. I remember listening to them back in 1973-74 in Ventura (just north of Los Angeles). I was just far enough outside the night signal on 610 from Lancaster to receive KFRC clearly.
There is no night pattern nor a day pattern. 610 is omnidirectional, day and night. The tower is next to Aquatic Park near the Berkeley-Emeryville city line.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Hmmm. Now I wonder why I couldn't get them in the daytime. Must have been skywave.
Just firing up a flare that we are now a week and a half away from the rare opportunity to meet Marvelous Mark McKay, Bobby Ocean and other KFRC personalties, as well as @BossRadioDJ (just don't introduce yourself as Verne White and everything will be fine) and get up close and personal (Dr. Don Rose drop: "oooooooooooo") with the Mobile Sturgeon:
Bobby Ocean has details in this custom video promo:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/pBwZqXAp94Npk52B/?mibextid=CTbP7E
Bobby Ocean has details in this custom video promo:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/pBwZqXAp94Npk52B/?mibextid=CTbP7E
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Unfortunately, Dr. Don is unable to attend, owing to a previous engagement with his Blessed Lord.
But Ray Lenhart is sure to attend.
(Bonus points for anyone who can identify where that quote in my first line is from. Unless you cheat and use Google.)
But Ray Lenhart is sure to attend.
(Bonus points for anyone who can identify where that quote in my first line is from. Unless you cheat and use Google.)
Just seeing this now. The daytime signal fell apart south of Big Sur on the coast and King City along 101. I couldn’t hear them in San Luis Obispo during the day, so no way you would have in Ventura.
I once picked up KFRC/610 on our car radio about 20 miles *south* of King City. It was on the 101, around the San Luis Obispo County line -- and in the daytime. I was amazed. But that was I think in the late 1970s or early 80s. With the increased noise levels on AM, not sure that reception is still possible today.
I’m going to overuse the introductory phrase “ironically”, but, ironically, I’m currently sitting less than half a mile from the 610 transmitter site. But I’m going back to Colorado this weekend, assuming all goes well - and, if it does, I’ll be back in three weeks for another short stay. So I’m going to miss this opportunity. I’d love to be able to talk Kansas City radio with Mark since he was such a success there around the time I lived there, but maybe there will be future opportunities….
610's signal booms in day and night up in the Lake/Mendocino Co. area. Of course, this was fun back when it was still KFRC with its oldies format, but nowadays with all the religious talk and chorusing, it's little more than a pest.
It seems to broadcast with a full 10 kHz of bandwidth, as there is quite a lot of spillage onto 600 and 620 which most of the time comes across as a loud whooshing sound. It's very annoying in the immediate SFBA, but farther north toward the fringes of its coverage area, it's not so bad.
c
It seems to broadcast with a full 10 kHz of bandwidth, as there is quite a lot of spillage onto 600 and 620 which most of the time comes across as a loud whooshing sound. It's very annoying in the immediate SFBA, but farther north toward the fringes of its coverage area, it's not so bad.
c
I'll add Harry Nelson. In fact Harry, and Don Sainte-Johnn, continued on with KFRC after the Top 40 days, through the years as Adult Standards, and the following Oldies period, when Bobby Ocean rejoined KFRC.
When I was hired at KUKI in Ukiah in early 1976, I arrived in town at night, so I wasn't surprised that KFRC came in so strongly.
But the next morning I was stunned---it came in like a local (especially then, when the noise floor was much lower). So did KSFO, KNBR, KCBS and KGO.
Two weeks later, when I became Music Director, and two weeks after that, when I became PD, the first thing in my mind was "We have to not sound like a small-time radio station, because people are going to be punching between us, KSFO and KNBR (then Adult Contemporary)....and especially KFRC.
As I've told here before, I put the music in between KSFO/KNBR and KFRC (really playing everything but KFRC's five or six hardest records), did essentially the same with the Gold category (KFRC's and ours began with the Beatles in '64) and worked with the brilliant David Williams (our 19-year-old engineer----hey, he was five months older than me!) to clean up the audio.
David more than succeeded at that, convincing Mike Durrough to lend us one of his earliest six-channel processing units "for evaluation". I don't know what the deal was, but it was still in the rack and sounding great when I left 22 months later. Bob Kanner's homemade nine-channel unit was better, but I think you'd have to be analyzing the sound instead of just listening to tell. We were as loud as they were on the dial, which made us louder than KSFO and KNBR, and had that same rich sound with no pumping.
I knew Don Sainte-Johnn did Magic 61 (as did Dave Sholin, for a while), but I did not know Harry did.
Was KFRC the last major market CHR? Or perhaps was WLS in Chicago the last one?
Did KFRC move towards AC before giving into the inevitable like WABC and WNBC?