KWST

[Crevecoeur123]

Back in the mid 70s, KWST played a wide variety of rock that rivaled KSAN.
I remember them playing the first Journey album before they got really big in the 80s.

It's really too bad they changed to a top 40 format in the early 80s.

What ever happened to the KWST radio personalities from that time?

 

[TheBigA]

What ever happened to the KWST radio personalities from that time?

We were talking about KSAN on the San Francisco board, and actually Tom Donohue's wife Raechel Donahue was one of the KWST personalities after Tom died. She worked at several stations in LA, and did some shows at Sirius for a while. Another DJ, Bob Gowa, was last heard doing news in San Francisco.

 

[Hot Hits]

In my group of friends during High School you weren't cool if you didn't listen to K-WEST 106, Turn it UP! One of my favorites was Chuck Marshall. Paul Crosswhite did news and they played the best Progressive Rock in the Southland

 

[Bryan Simmons]

We were talking about KSAN on the San Francisco board, and actually Tom Donohue's wife Raechel Donahue was one of the KWST personalities after Tom died. She worked at several stations in LA, and did some shows at Sirius for a while. Another DJ, Bob Gowa, was last heard doing news in San Francisco.

If you go to Reel Radio dot com you can hear an aircheck of the change from AOR to CHR on K-WEST and Rachel can be heard doing a bit about the new morning show. She sure did sound good.

 

[admrnelson]

I remember the commercial they use to run in the theatres in the late 70's. It featured a surfer and I believe it was 15 secs or less.

 

[michael hagerty]

Back in the mid 70s, KWST played a wide variety of rock that rivaled KSAN.
I remember them playing the first Journey album before they got really big in the 80s.

It's really too bad they changed to a top 40 format in the early 80s.

What ever happened to the KWST radio personalities from that time?

Last I heard, Bob Gowa was living up near Santa Rosa, doing voiceovers and occasionally filling in as a traffic reporter in San Francisco. Terry McGovern is teaching acting up in SF, China Smith passed away of a heart attack in 2005, Dave Trout became better known as Freddy Snakeskin and is on SiriusXM First Wave.

The format change was kind of inevitable. They were in the bottom five of stations with a 1.0 or better most of the time. The last book (Spring of 1981) looked better...18th place with a 2.3, until you realize KMET was third with a 4.6 and KLOS was 8th with a 3.6.

 

[Hot Hits]

Last I heard, Bob Gowa was living up near Santa Rosa, doing voiceovers and occasionally filling in as a traffic reporter in San Francisco. Terry McGovern is teaching acting up in SF, China Smith passed away of a heart attack in 2005, Dave Trout became better known as Freddy Snakeskin and is on SiriusXM First Wave.

The format change was kind of inevitable. They were in the bottom five of stations with a 1.0 or better most of the time. The last book (Spring of 1981) looked better...18th place with a 2.3, until you realize KMET was third with a 4.6 and KLOS was 8th with a 3.6.

Wasn't Freddy's real name Scott Campbell although he used the alias Dave Trout. I listened to KWST day and night and don't remember him in 1978, about the time KWST morphed into American AOR dumping the great progressive English sound. Snakeskin hasn't been with XM in about a decade to the best of my knowledge. K-WEST 106 had Dan Carlisle, John Clark (The "Believe in us, we're Music Plus guy) Chuck Marshall, Rachael Donahue and started getting crappy when Phil Hendrie, Steve Downs, Bobby Ocean, China Smith, Shadoe Stevens and others took over

 

[michael hagerty]

Wasn't Freddy's real name Scott Campbell although he used the alias Dave Trout. I listened to KWST day and night and don't remember him in 1978, about the time KWST morphed into American AOR dumping the great progressive English sound. Snakeskin hasn't been with XM in about a decade to the best of my knowledge. K-WEST 106 had Dan Carlisle, John Clark (The "Believe in us, we're Music Plus guy) Chuck Marshall, Rachael Donahue and started getting crappy when Phil Hendrie, Steve Downs, Bobby Ocean, China Smith, Shadoe Stevens and others took over

I lost track of Freddy. Turns out he's living in Wickenburg, Arizona and programming a web radio station---KDIL. Never knew his real name.

 

[semoochie]

That was when AOR was geared to 18-24 and you could still sell it!

 

[TheBigA]

That was when AOR was geared to 18-24 and you could still sell it!

Primarily because it was a large and very unified group. These days that age is large but not unified. Harder to sell.

 

[seatownmedia]

I remember KWST when I lived in SoCal in the early 80's. Didn't Andy Barber do a stint there? (Andy was last heard in Tulsa, perhaps still there). I do remember the station sounded really good in '81.

 

[michael hagerty]

I remember KWST when I lived in SoCal in the early 80's. Didn't Andy Barber do a stint there? (Andy was last heard in Tulsa, perhaps still there). I do remember the station sounded really good in '81.

I believe Andy was there...but that was after the flip to Top 40 in late July of 1981.

 

[Hot Hits]

I believe Andy was there...but that was after the flip to Top 40 in late July of 1981.

Michael that link from yesterday did not lead to anything Snakeskin and was last updated in 2015. Those are the 'Radio Brandy' people who have more websites than anyone, teaching the girls Radio and feminine hygiene. Freddy is still hosting about 200 hours of unscoped 103.1 MARS FM broadcasts featuring Ms. Rae as well!

http://www.freddysnakeskin.com/marsfm/

 

[david]

I discovered KDIL via this thread and have been listening (and enjoying) via TuneIn. http://www.kdil.com sends you to https://tunein.com/radio/KDIL-FM-666-s259467

 

[LKellerIII]

Last I heard, Bob Gowa was living up near Santa Rosa, doing voiceovers and occasionally filling in as a traffic reporter in San Francisco. /QUOTE]

I heard Bob Gowa - I want to say fairly recently - doing Metro Traffic. I probably heard him on KQED, but of course, Metro runs on a number of stations. This makes me wonder if Metro reporters still have to change their names for KGO. This was a thing back in the 90s and early 00s. So Joe McConnell on every other Metro station was "Joe Vincent" for "KGO Traffic." They weren't fooling anybody...

 

[michael hagerty]

Michael that link from yesterday did not lead to anything Snakeskin and was last updated in 2015. Those are the 'Radio Brandy' people who have more websites than anyone, teaching the girls Radio and feminine hygiene. Freddy is still hosting about 200 hours of unscoped 103.1 MARS FM broadcasts featuring Ms. Rae as well!

http://www.freddysnakeskin.com/marsfm/

Hot Hits: I got it from Freddy's Facebook page. According to him, KDIL is his, and he's collecting contributions for it as of late last fall.

 

[michael hagerty]

Last I heard, Bob Gowa was living up near Santa Rosa, doing voiceovers and occasionally filling in as a traffic reporter in San Francisco. /QUOTE]

I heard Bob Gowa - I want to say fairly recently - doing Metro Traffic. I probably heard him on KQED, but of course, Metro runs on a number of stations. This makes me wonder if Metro reporters still have to change their names for KGO. This was a thing back in the 90s and early 00s. So Joe McConnell on every other Metro station was "Joe Vincent" for "KGO Traffic." They weren't fooling anybody...

Llew: KGO and Metro split a couple of years back. Their traffic comes from Texas, now, I believe.

 

[LKellerIII]

Llew: KGO and Metro split a couple of years back. Their traffic comes from Texas, now, I believe.

Really? What good does it do Bay Area listeners to know about gridlock in Dallas?

Yes - I know, video cameras, the internet, bla, bla.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Really? What good does it do Bay Area listeners to know about gridlock in Dallas?

Actually a lot, since that is where a lot of them are and will be moving to:

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/...xodus-the-citys-liberal-policies-are-to-blame

http://www.politifact.com/texas/sta...erry-correct-trucks-cost-half-much-rent-goin/

As the Politifact article says, you can check out the disparity for yourself. I just did the check now: U-haul, One way from downtown SF to downtown Dallas ranges from $2000 - $4500. One way from downtown Dallas to Downtown SF range from less than $1,000 to $1300. The numbers don't lie. And that is before Mr. Newsom gets elected governor.

 

[Hot Hits]

Hot Hits: I got it from Freddy's Facebook page. According to him, KDIL is his, and he's collecting contributions for it as of late last fall.

Thanks on that, I must be wrong. I wonder why he doesn't use his existing site to stream his Station? That man had a big impact on me in the early 80's, actually stopped watching TV to absorb every second of KROQ I could get!