I don't understand why KBRT would keep KGB 760 from upgrading their day signal to 50kw. They're 20khz apart from KBRT, with nothing but poor-conductivity land between them. Yet for decades, we've had 50kw KNX and XEPRS with the same khz separation, and mostly salt water between those two flamethrowers.
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99.7 KFRC-FM San Francisco
- Thread starter MarioMania
- Start date
Two different countries and a little bit larger distance in air miles. 83 miles San Diego to Corona, 126 miles Torrance to Rosarito Beach.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
If I may add, for the sake of completeness: The KNX/XEPRS arrangement was negotiated with Mexico long ago, and any daytime power increase for KGB would also have to be negotiated, even if KBRT would not be adversely affected.
Application for the "new" (current) site.
To give KBRT some credit, as one of the two remaining SoCal AM stations still operating in Digital. KBRT chops off the upper digital sideband to reduce interference to 760 in wide band receivers. BTW KMZT 1260 is the other one.
I sometimes listened to 99.7 as a kid in the early 2000s (approx. 4th-7th grades). For music on car rides my parents would only let us listen to KDFC, KBAY, KOIT, or KFRC. Of course behind their backs I usually listened to Radio Disney (4th-5th grades) and later Wild 94.9 and 106 KMEL (6th-8th).
Off of memory these are parts of the essential oldies repertoire I'd learned about through KFRC:
"Get Ready" by The Temptations
"Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night (I think I heard both the above songs on the same trip to San Francisco in December '03)
"Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" by The Four Tops
"My Girl" by The Temptations
"This Old Heart of Mine" by Isley Brothers
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Stones
"Ticket to Ride" by the Beatles (Let It Be was one of the few popular albums my immigrant parents owned - it was in vinyl too!)
"Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds
"No Time" by the Guess Who
(I was about say "essential American oldies", but left out "American" out of respect for the British and Canadian bands listed.)
I think around 2015 or '16 did I start going deeper in '60s and '70s music, probably because I felt dissatisfied with a lot of current hits by then, and had become interested in many of the original songs sampled by rappers.
And from the Internet Archive, here is KFRC's "Top 997 Oldies of All Time" list from 2004.
Off of memory these are parts of the essential oldies repertoire I'd learned about through KFRC:
"Get Ready" by The Temptations
"Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night (I think I heard both the above songs on the same trip to San Francisco in December '03)
"Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" by The Four Tops
"My Girl" by The Temptations
"This Old Heart of Mine" by Isley Brothers
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Stones
"Ticket to Ride" by the Beatles (Let It Be was one of the few popular albums my immigrant parents owned - it was in vinyl too!)
"Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds
"No Time" by the Guess Who
(I was about say "essential American oldies", but left out "American" out of respect for the British and Canadian bands listed.)
I think around 2015 or '16 did I start going deeper in '60s and '70s music, probably because I felt dissatisfied with a lot of current hits by then, and had become interested in many of the original songs sampled by rappers.
And from the Internet Archive, here is KFRC's "Top 997 Oldies of All Time" list from 2004.
You and I apparently listened to it at about the same time! I remember they played many of these songs all the time. Especially "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch", often to the point that I grew somewhat tired of them.
"My Girl" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", on the other hand, are among my all time favorites.
I really miss the fact that one can't hear music like this over the air in San Francisco anymore, except incidentally (such as when one of the AC stations plays, say, The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" (another favorite) every now and then).
Yes, we have streaming and all that, but it's just not the same.
c
From what I could find, demographics is a major factor whether "boomer music" is profitable on local radio. A HCOL like SF is going to have its retirees move to LCOL places like Arizona and Florida.
Last summer I visited Seattle to visit friends. On the AM dial I found not one but TWO stations playing '60s/'70s pop. Washington state has no state income tax, so that's an incentive for people to keep their residency and money there after retirement. Even on its FM "80s and more" station sneaks in an occasional Beatles song.
Similarly in Tucson, there is an oldies station on an AM signal strong enough I could pick it up at Piestewa Peak in Phoenix. This year it remains in Nielsen Audio's top 10 in Tuscon.
Somehow in Buffalo, 60s kids who haven't yet moved to Florida can choose between WECK or Toronto's Zoomer Radio for their old time faves.
Back on topic: From KFRC's YouTube channel here's their 1981 TV commercial with a special version of Journey's "Lights":
Nevada is another state that has no state income tax, along with Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Florida and Alaska.
A minor point about state income tax. In my final full year before retirement (my last day was January 31, 2024), I had a very good year between my income from CapRadio and from my automotive journalism.
My California State income tax was $2,000. That's $5.47 a day.
Every little bit counts, I suppose, but unless you're a very high earner, not paying state income tax isn't the savings it sounds like.
And we have to remember that KGB (then KFMB or "cuff mub") was moved from 540 to 760 to conform with a renegotiation with Mexico about the use of 540. KFMB would never have been allowed on 760 under any other circumstance but this was a political situation.
And many states make up for no income tax with very high property taxes, among other areas where they derive revenue.
And let us not forget about the sales tax. Or the various business taxes, or franchise taxes, or (in the case of a state like Delaware) the fees that all those "Incorporated in Delaware" companies pay for that privilege.
Mike, I've been listening to CapRadio since 2013.
So it turns out I've been hanging out online with the CapRadio anchor? Well, since this is an oldies thread, this GIF from a certain Ed Sullivan Show segment is a fitting reaction. (Made with GIFrun.com - not a paid endorsement.)
I didn't think I'd kept it a secret, 408listener. Yeah, I'm him, or he's me. Or I was...from July of 2020 until the last day of January, 2024. And before that, at KFBK.
I mean, it's not like I'm Devin Yamanaka...that would be a big deal.
Back on topic: Las Solanas Consulting has a list of KFRC weekly surveys from 1966 to 1985.
While listening to WNAV (the Annapolis AM that used to be Pat Sajak's side hustle) a few weeks back, I discovered a song from 1974 that randomly mentioned my hometown: "We couldn't wait for graduation day / We took the car and drove to San José":
I'd never heard it before. Turns out it was performed by a British group and peaked not just at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 but no. 13 on the UK Singles Chart! On KFRC, it peaked at no. 18 on October 8, 1974.
While listening to WNAV (the Annapolis AM that used to be Pat Sajak's side hustle) a few weeks back, I discovered a song from 1974 that randomly mentioned my hometown: "We couldn't wait for graduation day / We took the car and drove to San José":
I'd never heard it before. Turns out it was performed by a British group and peaked not just at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 but no. 13 on the UK Singles Chart! On KFRC, it peaked at no. 18 on October 8, 1974.
And you would never know that it peaked that low, because "Beach Baby" stayed on KFRC's air, first as a recurrent and then as Gold, until 1978.
Here it is in afternoon drive in January of 1977, right after a long "image song" from KFRC's "You" package:
A fellow millennial.
The First Class was a studio group and the lead singer on "Beach Baby" was Tony Burrows. He was also the singer on "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" by Edison Lighthouse.
I'm not a real old aircheck fan, but I listened because I saw the pic of John Mac. He was good when we had him at KRUX, but under people more skilled than me at KFRC, he was terrific. I think I mentioned that I drove him from Phoenix to his interview with "the people" in LA a day before a Billboard convention. He was hired, no doubt due to my pep talk on the 5 hour drive (just kidding... but he was very nervous about moving from Phx to SF).
He didn't need to be. He was killer right out of the gate.
A friend and I were listening to his first show. They broke him in on an overnight shift.
He did a straight legal ID at the top of the hour over the intro to the first song. The jocks did them live in those days---"KFRC AM and FM, San Francisco. Twelve midnight with John Mack Flanagan." So the first time he actually said anything was over the intro to the second record:
"K-F-R-C. 12:03. This is John Mack Flanagan. Happy to be in San Francisco. They Bay Area has been on my mind a lot lately. And If God is listening...I'd just like to thank her."
My friend and I, two 17-year-olds in Bishop, California, looked at each other and said---"Hey, this guy's edgy."
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