Northern California KQKK KSJQ 96.7 Manteca - anybody know the history of these stations

[Old Grey Coyote]

I worked at this station twice under two different owners and two different call letters. Both times it was the same location out in a cow pasture on Brady Road south of Manteca. They also had a business office in Downtown Manteca, but nothing was there but sales and billing. The station was out in a cow pasture at the end of Brady Road in a double wide mobile home right in front a 340 foot tower. Jack McFadden who was also manager of Buck Owens and a creator of the TV series Hee Haw built the station back in the 1980s as KQKK. It had a country western format. My boss was a guy named Randy who was also station engineer and whose father owned the nearby station KYOS. All the stuff was brand new and top of the line, from the transmitter to the control board to the production studio and it was all housed in a double wide in a cow pasture 5 miles out of town. Later on, McFadden sold the station to Jonsson Communications that was owned by some relatives of Texas Instruments founder J. Erik Jonsson. Strangely enough, many years later I moved to Dallas and ended up working for the Legal Department at Texas Instruments, but Erik Jonnsson had retired from the company by then and ended up as the Mayor of Dallas. The Jonsson's owned several stations in the area including KROY-AM and FM, as well as the upscale Sacramento Magazine. The Manteca station would simulcast with KROY-FM during the morning show through a microwave link and both stations had the same playlist. I remember the microwave link went down a lot. At one point, our fancy control board got moved to KROY FM and replaced by a cheaper one from one of KROY's production studios. The station manager at that time was a woman named Guadalupe who doubled as newsperson. I was doing overnights, daytime board op, cutting commercials in the production studio and doing everthing else there except feeding the cows. I know that call letters and formats changed back and forth under the Jonnsons, but when I worked there the second time the Sacramento Station was KSAC and our station was KQKK after being KORY for a while. We were both called 97 FM. It was an adult rock format called "Music to Suit your Taste" and they tried to tie it in somehow with their Sacramento magazine. They were doing TV commercials in the Sacramento market that would have a fancy waiter serving a radio with a silver serving platter and a lid.

I was part of a mass layoff that happened shortly before they sold the station to Commonwealth so I believe they were getting rid of people to clean up the books for the sale. I then moved to Colorado and lost track of the station. I had heard they were playing rock and then had a spanish format for a while. They were also called the Fox at one point. At one point in August of 1997, vandals took down the 340 foot tower. There were a lot of rumors but I remember when I was working there at the middle of the night that we had somebody in a four wheel drive pickup trying to hit guy wires one night. If you know anything about Manteca, you know that it's a small town filled with bored rednecks who might just want to take out the tower for kicks. Sort of like a "hold my beer and watch this" sort of thing.

Is there anybody here who used to work there, listen to the station and so on who might know something I don't?

 

[HenryOchs]

I remember listening to 97FM KSJQ in 1985 when I was finishing up High School. I loved the variety of music they played and would frequently call the station to make requests. Here was their on air lineup from back then.

6-10am Judy and Gary
10am-3pm JD Hamilton
3-7pm Tony Kirkland
7pm-midnight Mark DeAnda

The station was sold in August 1985 to Commonwealth Broadcasting and would soon change it's format to Rock Top 40 and it's branding to Q97 "The San Joaquin Rebel" That format was very short lived!

 

[Old Grey Coyote]

I remember listening to 97FM KSJQ in 1985 when I was finishing up High School. I loved the variety of music they played and would frequently call the station to make requests. Here was their on air lineup from back then.

6-10am Judy and Gary
10am-3pm JD Hamilton
3-7pm Tony Kirkland
7pm-midnight Mark DeAnda

The station was sold in August 1985 to Commonwealth Broadcasting and would soon change it's format to Rock Top 40 and it's branding to Q97 "The San Joaquin Rebel" That format was very short lived!

KSJQ was a simulcast with KSAC for most of the day so if you called them to make a request, a phone would ring at the KSAC studio in Sacaramento. They told us to use "97 FM", instead of the call letters whenever possible. KSJQ was 96.7. KSAC was 96.9. 97 FM was close enought. On the Manteca side we would run the board, insert local commercials during breaks and read the local news at the beginning of the hour. Every so often a KSAC ID would slip out on KSJQ. When that happened we had to log it as a misidentification on the FCC log and somebody got yelled at. When we lost the microwave link between the two stations, it would be time to grab a record off the playlist and pretend the DJ took a long bathroom break. We had a lot of problems with that microwave link at the beginning but it was later sorted out and they kept making the station more and more automated to the point that when Commonwealth took over, there were only two employees left in Manteca and they had fewer staff in Sacramento as well. I had no idea what happened to either station after Commonwealth took over.

In the beginning as KSJQ the station operated on it's own without the mothership in Sacramento. That came later when the Jonssons bought the station. I had heard they also owned a place called Heavenly Recording Studios and one or more stations in Nevada. They had something in Sparks, Nevada, but they may have incorporated there for tax purposes. It could have just been a mailing address.

 

[HenryOchs]

KSJQ was a simulcast with KSAC for most of the day so if you called them to make a request, a phone would ring at the KSAC studio in Sacaramento. They told us to use "97 FM", instead of the call letters whenever possible. KSJQ was 96.7. KSAC was 96.9. 97 FM was close enought. On the Manteca side we would run the board, insert local commercials during breaks and read the local news at the beginning of the hour. Every so often a KSAC ID would slip out on KSJQ. When that happened we had to log it as a misidentification on the FCC log and somebody got yelled at. When we lost the microwave link between the two stations, it would be time to grab a record off the playlist and pretend the DJ took a long bathroom break. We had a lot of problems with that microwave link at the beginning but it was later sorted out and they kept making the station more and more automated to the point that when Commonwealth took over, there were only two employees left in Manteca and they had fewer staff in Sacramento as well. I had no idea what happened to either station after Commonwealth took over.

In the beginning as KSJQ the station operated on it's own without the mothership in Sacramento. That came later when the Jonssons bought the station. I had heard they also owned a place called Heavenly Recording Studios and one or more stations in Nevada. They had something in Sparks, Nevada, but they may have incorporated there for tax purposes. It could have just been a mailing address.

After Commonwealth Broadcasting purchased KSJQ in the Summer of 1985, the station changed formats to Rock Top 40 using the brand name Q97! They used the on-air slogan "The San Joaquin Rebel" It was a satellite delivered format. That format only lasted several months, then I think in early 1986, they flipped to an automated music format. In late 1987, the station was sold again, this time to Martin Media(I think) and they changed formats to CHR/Rhythmic using the brand name "The Rhythm Of The Valley" The format lasted just a little over one year then flipped to a Pop format in late 1988 known as "96.7 KISS-FM" After that, the station tried several formats including Classic Rock(The Fox) and Rhythmic Oldies(Mega 96-7). The station now programs an Active Rock format known as Rock 96-7 and is now owned by iHeart Media.

 

[brettbutlerisok]

After Commonwealth Broadcasting purchased KSJQ in the Summer of 1985, the station changed formats to Rock Top 40 using the brand name Q97! They used the on-air slogan "The San Joaquin Rebel" It was a satellite delivered format. That format only lasted several months, then I think in early 1986, they flipped to an automated music format. In late 1987, the station was sold again, this time to Martin Media(I think) and they changed formats to CHR/Rhythmic using the brand name "The Rhythm Of The Valley" The format lasted just a little over one year then flipped to a Pop format in late 1988 known as "96.7 KISS-FM" After that, the station tried several formats including Classic Rock(The Fox) and Rhythmic Oldies(Mega 96-7). The station now programs an Active Rock format known as Rock 96-7 and is now owned by iHeart Media.

Some time in the late 90s or maybe in was in the early 2000s Rock 96.7 would share the morning show from KRZR in Fresno, it's always been kinda puzzling to me that iheart keeps this active rock station in Modesto, but one day, out of the blue wasn't interested in operating they same format in Fresno.

 

[MarinRadioRocks]

Music only works if people wanna listen

 

[Paul]

I remember a lot about that station when it was built. What I remember most is the 97 FM phase of its life when simulcast with the powerhouse 96.9 out of Sacramento. More than once, I would hear them running a contest asking for caller 10 or whatever. I would call, it would ring, and I was caller 10. Like more than just a couple times. I presumed they had little to no listenership. I still have the LP I won.

When the tower went down, I was driving back to the KWG studio after leaving the KYBB (now KMIX) FM site, and noticed the lights for that tower were missing. I tuned in and it was off the air. I presumed the power was out. So, for fun, I diverted over there to see if anyone was there or I could help. Engineers used to help each other out a lot. It was a code between just us that owners didn't really know about. Anyway, I showed up and the tower was everywhere. I took some pictures but only had a couple pics left on that camera, so got out of there. No cellphone in those days, so figured I would call someone when I got to the studio. Heard the call go out on the Sheriff frequency on the scanner so figured someone already knew anyway.