Re: KNEW background
> > >> >
> > I'm pretty sure KEWB went all talk in 1967 and changed
> calls to KNEW.
>
>
> I believe KEWB was still a pop/hit station but turned their
> call letters to KNEW to match their sister station in New
> York. It wasn't much longer before they switched country.
> But I think that didn't take place till the early 70's.
>
>I'm always hazy on dates, and I didn't get to the Bay Area until 73. But I know Metromedia bought KNEW around 67, so it wasn't just a call-letter change, it was an ownership change. Metromedia was having a huge success with "Two Way Radio" (Talk) in L.A. on KLAC - their big gun in LA was Joe Pyne. I don't know what their WNEW in New York was doing at the time. But Talk was NOT a success on KNEW. They were probably one of the first Talk competitors to be toppled by KGO. When I got here in 73, KNEW was an Oldies station - possibly the first in San Francisco. To cash in on KEWB nostalgia, they used the same jingle tune, and the "Channel 91" bit. They ran Don Chamberlin's "California Girls" talk show in the midday, a blatant copy of the Bill Ballance "Feminine Forum" show in LA...but not on KLAC. KNEW's afternoon jock in this Oldies period was Tom Campbell, of Comfort Zone Waterbeds, and Matthews "top-of-the-hill-Daly-City" fame. KNEW switched to "California Country" around 75, again copying their KLAC in LA which was a popular country station by then. When they switched to Country, they dumped the high rated Chamberlin show, though he resurfaced a few years later for awhile on the ill-fated KGO-FM.