Wow, I surprised that a small station like that would have live and local news like that, I guess it was just a different time
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KGO Off The Air...
- Thread starter BossRadioDJ
- Start date
Bill King and Lon Simmons, over at Candlestick to broadcast the ballgame, ended up "anchoring" KSFO's coverage, with the power to 300 Broadway cut off. If I remember correctly (and because it would take me more than ten seconds to check the tape), Dave Henderson was the conduit back in the studios that evening once communication was re-established.
BossRadioDJ said:
Can you explain further for the real "tech geeks" on the board?
Assuming 300 Broadway was the KSFO studio--sans power--how did the Candlestick remote site
get on the air? Was it linked (microwave?) to the transmitter site, either per normal (then fed
back to the studio) or by an on the fly hookup, and someone at the transmitter was able to
put the 'Stick feed on the air?
BTW, isn't/wasn't the 560 tower site at the east approach to the Bay Bridge? And 610 is a
bit further north, near the shoreline?
Don't know how it was done. If I remember correctly, there wasn't power at 300 Broadway, so the feed was jerry-rigged directly to the transmitter site.
I'm sure one of the KSFO engineers is lurking here and knows the true gen...
The 560 transmitter site is at Islais Creek, south of AT&T Park, in San Francisco, and has been since 1937. The 610 transmitter was housed in the same facility with KSFO from 1958 until 1968, then was moved to its present site at 601 Ashby Avenue at the southern edge of Aquatic Park in Berkeley; it's that gigantic radio tower near Ashby off I-80.
I'm sure one of the KSFO engineers is lurking here and knows the true gen...
The 560 transmitter site is at Islais Creek, south of AT&T Park, in San Francisco, and has been since 1937. The 610 transmitter was housed in the same facility with KSFO from 1958 until 1968, then was moved to its present site at 601 Ashby Avenue at the southern edge of Aquatic Park in Berkeley; it's that gigantic radio tower near Ashby off I-80.
BossRadioDJ said:
Actually, it sounds like it was R.J. Peruman and Ron Barr back at 300 Broadway. I'm listening to the tapes now and will post them later, in case anybody might be interested.
J
JEREMIAH
Guest
I was reporting traffic for KSFO from a helicopter that fateful day.
I saw everything, the emptying of Candlestick Park, the bay bridge collapse, the marina fire etc.
We stayed up for 10 hours that day.
KSFO's transmitter is south of candlestick in a cove...I forget the name. It had power. I assumed they were able to patch Lon and Bill directly to the transmitter....till they could get their motor home from the Oakland Coliseum to 300 Broadway...and used the motor home's generator to power the studios (for days) lots of trips for gas to keep the generator going. They didn't get it running till the day after the quake....I was the first one to anchor from the studios the next night. They set me up with a battery operated console in the middle of the recording studio where the jocks and I filled in until the generator kicked in to power the studios and they could play music again. Yeah we did have to use a flashlight for awhile. BTW it was KSFO & KYA-FM.
What they did on KSFO the actual nite of the quake after the Lon & Bill stint is a blur...I just don't remember.
Oddly, enough I was in the KGO chopper reporting (thru metro traffic) for KSFO and others.
Metro lost power at china basin till 10 PM. So there wasn't much I could do but sit there.
We had to land a couple times for gas (Concord & Oakland< which had power).
We fed a lot of statiions all over the country coverage of the quake's aftermath, from the chopper, for the next week.
A heavy time.
Jerry Gordon KNUU Las Vegas
I saw everything, the emptying of Candlestick Park, the bay bridge collapse, the marina fire etc.
We stayed up for 10 hours that day.
KSFO's transmitter is south of candlestick in a cove...I forget the name. It had power. I assumed they were able to patch Lon and Bill directly to the transmitter....till they could get their motor home from the Oakland Coliseum to 300 Broadway...and used the motor home's generator to power the studios (for days) lots of trips for gas to keep the generator going. They didn't get it running till the day after the quake....I was the first one to anchor from the studios the next night. They set me up with a battery operated console in the middle of the recording studio where the jocks and I filled in until the generator kicked in to power the studios and they could play music again. Yeah we did have to use a flashlight for awhile. BTW it was KSFO & KYA-FM.
What they did on KSFO the actual nite of the quake after the Lon & Bill stint is a blur...I just don't remember.
Oddly, enough I was in the KGO chopper reporting (thru metro traffic) for KSFO and others.
Metro lost power at china basin till 10 PM. So there wasn't much I could do but sit there.
We had to land a couple times for gas (Concord & Oakland< which had power).
We fed a lot of statiions all over the country coverage of the quake's aftermath, from the chopper, for the next week.
A heavy time.
Jerry Gordon KNUU Las Vegas
JEREMIAH said:
Thanks for filling in the blanks, Jerry. It sounds like you had as incredible an experience that night as Ron Barr did (he made his way from Candlestick to 300 Broadway) to go on the air.
As I noted previously, the KSFO transmitter is actually south of AT&T Park (not Candlestick), near Islais Creek (or Islais Creek Channel), at what is designated as Pier 92 (Amador Street) by the Port of San Francisco.
SFStatic said:
As I said in an earlier post, I was listening to KCBS's excellent coverage - but I've also heard that KNEW was still on the air, and broke from their country music format to provide excellent coverage with their drive time DJ - Frank Terry (d 2007) - then a country DJ, but former Bill Drake (KHJ) Boss Jock.
J
JEREMIAH
Guest
Boss:
You are correct about the KSFO xmitter location. I remember now.
If Barr was able to broadcast from 300 b'way the nite of the quake he would have to have done it with battery power. If he was at 300 the next night after we fired up the generator I didn't see him.
I don't know what time his show aired, I could have been gone by then.
Jerry G.
You are correct about the KSFO xmitter location. I remember now.
If Barr was able to broadcast from 300 b'way the nite of the quake he would have to have done it with battery power. If he was at 300 the next night after we fired up the generator I didn't see him.
I don't know what time his show aired, I could have been gone by then.
Jerry G.
JEREMIAH said:
It sounds like Ron Barr made it back to 300 Broadway at about 6:15 PM that evening (based on the stitched-together recordings). He co-anchored at KSFO/KYA-FM World Headquarters with Ravi Peruman while Bill and Lon handled coverage (in significant detail) from the ballpark. Dave Henderson and Larry Brownell also reported from various locations.
Here's an excerpt of the broadcast from that evening, beginning at about 7:20 PM, after studio power was lost again:
http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/ksfo/1989/KSFO_1989-10-17_Earthquake-Excerpt.mp3
(PC users: Click to listen, or right-click to save. Mac users: do something else.)
On Google Earth I found the KSFO twins by the inlet, and the single stick for KFRC KEAR,
but what station uses the three sticks in a marsh on the water's edge just north of the
Bay Bridge toll plaza in Oakland?
but what station uses the three sticks in a marsh on the water's edge just north of the
Bay Bridge toll plaza in Oakland?
J
JEREMIAH
Guest
BOSS:
I just heard the audio of the big nite...now I know what happened the quake nite. they were in the dark and obviously working from the battery operated board that I had the next nite as the Motor Home generator was being fired up. Thanks to you the pieces are coming together.
Jerry G.
I just heard the audio of the big nite...now I know what happened the quake nite. they were in the dark and obviously working from the battery operated board that I had the next nite as the Motor Home generator was being fired up. Thanks to you the pieces are coming together.
Jerry G.
oldiesfan6479 said:
The three stations adjacent to the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza are KKGN (960 AM), KIQI (1010 AM) and KMKY (1310 AM), each with separate sets of towers. Both 960 (in its days as KABL) and 1310 (in its days as KDIA) also had fulltime studios at their transmitter sites.
oldiesfan6479 said:
Here are the central Eastbay AM sites:
The single stick in the Berkeley Marina hosts both KEAR 610 and KVTO 1400. It was originally just for the 1400 station (originally called KRE, later KPAT). KFRC (now KEAR) moved to the tower in the 1960s after spending several years on one of KSFO's towers.
The two sticks at the foot of Central Avenue in El Cerrito, near Richmond belong to KNEW 910, sharing with KDIA 1640's daytime signal.
On top of the warehouse building along West Grand in West Oakland sit the 4 towers of the former KPIG 1510, now what?
There are 3 sets of 3 sticks at the Bay Bridge toll plaza.
The furthest west belongs to KMKY 1310 (formerly KDIA, KWBR, etc); the middle group (which is also further north than the other two) belongs to KKGN 960 (formerly KABL, KROW, KLS, etc); and the easternmost belongs to KIQI 1010 (formerly KSAY).
As Boss says, 1310 and 960 each ran their studios from there, but 1010 also did as well until James Gabbert bought it and remoted it to downtown SF with KIOI.
When the earthquake hit, Embarcadero Center lost power and KCBS went silent for about a minute until the studio generator came on line. About 30 minutes later, the generator died. It was on the roof of 1 Embarcadero and no fuel was getting there from the storage tanks were in the basement.
Also on the roof was the main 200 Kw building safety generator. It powered the elevators and emergency lighting and ventilation for the skyscraper. KCBS came back on as soon as someone got to the roof and transfered the studio feed to the building generator.
However, the building generator was likewise not getting fuel and had less than 15 minutes of fuel remaining in it's day tank. The building crew hand-carried diesel in 5 gallon water jugs from the basement tank to the roof to keep it running, and continued the bucket brigade until PG&E power came on a week later (1 Embarcadero was on the Marina grid, so power stayed off until that section of town was stabilized).
Meanwhile, out at the transmitter, we were in the middle of replacing all 4 of the 500 ft. towers. We'd just finished putting up one new tower to replace the one that had been knocked down by a windstorm earlier that year and were running 12.5 Kw Non-DA into it while we prepared to knock down and replace the other three. That work was was scheduled to begin the next day - of course those plans went out the window.
KCBS stayed at 12.5 Kw until about 6:30 the next morning. Then we went off the air for 60 seconds while we re-connected the plumbing to restore the directional operation.
BTW - those rusted-out, 50 year old towers rode through the quake just fine.
Also on the roof was the main 200 Kw building safety generator. It powered the elevators and emergency lighting and ventilation for the skyscraper. KCBS came back on as soon as someone got to the roof and transfered the studio feed to the building generator.
However, the building generator was likewise not getting fuel and had less than 15 minutes of fuel remaining in it's day tank. The building crew hand-carried diesel in 5 gallon water jugs from the basement tank to the roof to keep it running, and continued the bucket brigade until PG&E power came on a week later (1 Embarcadero was on the Marina grid, so power stayed off until that section of town was stabilized).
Meanwhile, out at the transmitter, we were in the middle of replacing all 4 of the 500 ft. towers. We'd just finished putting up one new tower to replace the one that had been knocked down by a windstorm earlier that year and were running 12.5 Kw Non-DA into it while we prepared to knock down and replace the other three. That work was was scheduled to begin the next day - of course those plans went out the window.
KCBS stayed at 12.5 Kw until about 6:30 the next morning. Then we went off the air for 60 seconds while we re-connected the plumbing to restore the directional operation.
BTW - those rusted-out, 50 year old towers rode through the quake just fine.
Lou_S said:
Was there a reason why KCBS put up ten-year-old towers at the Black Point site when it was built around 1950, rather than using new ones?
OK, make that 40 year old towers.... dilapidated, rusting 40 year old towers.
They were made just after WWII, and there was a severe shortage of zinc so the steel wasn't galvanized. Instead, the tubular legs were formed inside a pressure chamber to put dry nitrogen at +2 PSI inside the tubing to keep moisture out. However, since the outside was likewise not galvanized the only protection against rust on the outer surfaces was the paint itself.
As the towers gained multiple coats of paint over the years, moisture collected in the nooks and crannies and began to attack the steel where the cross-braces joined the leg tubing. As soon as a single pinhole penetrated the tubing wall the nitrogen leaked out, the moist bay air got in and the rust greatly accelerated. In effect the legs were rusting from the inside out.
Even so, they rode out the earthquake just fine.
They were made just after WWII, and there was a severe shortage of zinc so the steel wasn't galvanized. Instead, the tubular legs were formed inside a pressure chamber to put dry nitrogen at +2 PSI inside the tubing to keep moisture out. However, since the outside was likewise not galvanized the only protection against rust on the outer surfaces was the paint itself.
As the towers gained multiple coats of paint over the years, moisture collected in the nooks and crannies and began to attack the steel where the cross-braces joined the leg tubing. As soon as a single pinhole penetrated the tubing wall the nitrogen leaked out, the moist bay air got in and the rust greatly accelerated. In effect the legs were rusting from the inside out.
Even so, they rode out the earthquake just fine.
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