Salute To James Gabbert

[BossRadioDJ]

The next Broadcast Legends lunch will be on Thursday, September 20, in Berkeley at the Doubletree Inn, featuring a wide-ranging tribute to James Gabbert and his many exploits.

Already, it's shaping up to be a great afternoon, with special guests on hand and some surprises that are in store.

As always, you don't have to be a member to attend, but reservations are required so start coming up with your excuse to get out of work for the day!

For more info and to make reservations, please visit www.BroadcastLegends.org.

DJ

 

[LKellerIII]

I'm going to try to make this one, DJ. I work in Oakland, and a lot of professional meetings in my field (HR) are held at that same Doubletree...so maybe I can call it work related...

Though Gabbert is not universally loved (a number of jocks and programmers on the other side of "The City"-KOFY-FM controversy resent him, and felt his behavior was duplicitous), he is no doubt one of the pioneers of FM radio.

I'm curious about a couple things Gabbert has been credited for in radio lore. Perhaps your status as the world's greatest living radio historian can confirm or deny:

1. That his KPEN was either the first, or one of the first FM stations to recognize the future potential of FM and go STEREO in the mid 50s.

2. That he was the first in the nation to market his station with other than call letters when he received the call letter change from KPEN to KIOI, and called the station K-101. The story has it that after granting the new calls, the FCC objected to the handle "K-101," but could not do anything as long as he abided by the required top of the hour legal station ID. Before that time, stations would sometimes make words out of their call letters, (for example: K-Bay, K-Jaz, and there was "Kadio Radio" -KDEO - in San Diego), but otherwise stuck with call letters. If true, this alone gives James a coveted place in radio history, since he would get credit for sending us down the path to the "Wolfs" and "MOViNs," that we're inundated with today.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I'm curious about a couple things Gabbert has been credited for in radio lore. Perhaps your status as the world's greatest living radio historian can confirm or deny:

1. That his KPEN was either the first, or one of the first FM stations to recognize the future potential of FM and go STEREO in the mid 50s.

2. That he was the first in the nation to market his station with other than call letters when he received the call letter change from KPEN to KIOI, and called the station K-101. The story has it that after granting the new calls, the FCC objected to the handle "K-101," but could not do anything as long as he abided by the required top of the hour legal station ID. Before that time, stations would sometimes make words out of their call letters, (for example: K-Bay, K-Jaz, and there was "Kadio Radio" -KDEO - in San Diego), but otherwise stuck with call letters. If true, this alone gives James a coveted place in radio history, since he would get credit for sending us down the path to the "Wolfs" and "MOViNs," that we're inundated with today.

Llew, first of all, I'm not even in the top 500 of radio historians, living, dead or somewhere in between.

I put together the text that appears on the front page of the Broadcast Legends website (www.BroadcastLegends.com) about Gabbert which notes that KPEN was reputedly the first station west of the Mississippi to convert to multiplex stereo, which it did in 1961.

According to one website, Major Armstrong and John Bose developed the multiplex system in 1954, sets started to appear in 1961, and the standards for FM multiplex were approved in 1962, which, if anything, would qualify Gabbert at the very least as an early adopter.

A cursory glance through my notes shows that a few other San Francisco FM stations didn't go stereo until a bit later. For example, KAFE 98.1 (later KABL-FM, now KISQ) went in late 1962, as did KMPX 106.9 (now KFRC). KOIT 93.3 (now KRZZ; not the current KOIT) didn't go stereo until 1967.

As to call letters, I can't think of any station that used a straight dial position reference as K-101 did at that time. (It was also serendipitous that Gabbert bought KSAY/1010 here and made it KIQI -- K-101 AM; there are very few markets where such a thing would be possible.)

Someone here once posted that Gabbert got around the FCC requirement by having the "K-101" ID sent through the right stereo channel and the legal "KIOI" through the left channel simultaneously (or vice versa). I'm sure I've got a recording of it done that way somewhere in the archives...

 

[radio dx]

Not that it matters but don't forget that James Gabbert once owned KIKI in Honolulu and sold that one too.

 

[LKellerIII]

"Someone here once posted that Gabbert got around the FCC requirement by having the "K-101" ID sent through the right stereo channel and the legal "KIOI" through the left channel simultaneously (or vice versa). I'm sure I've got a recording of it done that way somewhere in the archives..."

I'd like to hear that...by the time I lived in the Bay Area, it was just "K-101," except for the top of the hour legal ID. Thanks for the historical perspective, David. But are you both the 500th most important radio historian, and the 423rd most imporant person in Bay Area radio?

Gabbert was lucky when he bought 1010 AM that the KIQI call letters were still available...by that time (72 or so), he had already spawned imitators, including K-100 (KIQQ) in LA. There was also a Houston K-101, which was legally KLOL, as I remember.

Another bit of trivia I heard years ago - when the Big 610 became "Magic 61"...a couple years prior to the purchase of 99.7, Gabbert openly coveted the KFRC call letters and offered RKO a significant amount of money for them - but RKO declined the offer. RKO management seemed to have a real sense of its radio heritage, because they also turned down Ron Jacobs flat in 1965 when he tried to get management to dump the fuddy-duddy KHJ call letters for something that sounded more...uh...boss.

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

James Gabbert and his many exploits.

Er... you might wanna re-phrase that, Mr DJ. But I'm sure you've heard at least as many stories as I have...

 

[callofthewild]

As a child I went to a KPEN open house with my parents. I think the studio was on el camino real in menlo park or atherton...Gabbert opened the closet and showed us the news ticker-tape machine

 

[OldVWs]

Found a comment about KPEN being the first to try circular polarization. Also another reference to the studios being in Atherton. I grew up there, but never knew this. I saw the station when it was in the "Old Mill" shopping center in Mountain View, CA - next to the San Antonio Sears center.

URL - scroll down to FM Grows Up section in the URL below:

http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/RADIO_HIST_WHITAKER.html

 

[paulsecic]

I'm curious about a couple things Gabbert has been credited for in radio lore. Perhaps your status as the world's greatest living radio historian can confirm or deny:

1. That his KPEN was either the first, or one of the first FM stations to recognize the future potential of FM and go STEREO in the mid 50s.

2. That he was the first in the nation to market his station with other than call letters when he received the call letter change from KPEN to KIOI, and called the station K-101. The story has it that after granting the new calls, the FCC objected to the handle "K-101," but could not do anything as long as he abided by the required top of the hour legal station ID. Before that time, stations would sometimes make words out of their call letters, (for example: K-Bay, K-Jaz, and there was "Kadio Radio" -KDEO - in San Diego), but otherwise stuck with call letters. If true, this alone gives James a coveted place in radio history, since he would get credit for sending us down the path to the "Wolfs" and "MOViNs," that we're inundated with today.

Llew, first of all, I'm not even in the top 500 of radio historians, living, dead or somewhere in between.

I put together the text that appears on the front page of the Broadcast Legends website (www.BroadcastLegends.com) about Gabbert which notes that KPEN was reputedly the first station west of the Mississippi to convert to multiplex stereo, which it did in 1961.

According to one website, Major Armstrong and John Bose developed the multiplex system in 1954, sets started to appear in 1961, and the standards for FM multiplex were approved in 1962, which, if anything, would qualify Gabbert at the very least as an early adopter.

A cursory glance through my notes shows that a few other San Francisco FM stations didn't go stereo until a bit later. For example, KAFE 98.1 (later KABL-FM, now KISQ) went in late 1962, as did KMPX 106.9 (now KFRC). KOIT 93.3 (now KRZZ; not the current KOIT) didn't go stereo until 1967.

As to call letters, I can't think of any station that used a straight dial position reference as K-101 did at that time. (It was also serendipitous that Gabbert bought KSAY/1010 here and made it KIQI -- K-101 AM; there are very few markets where such a thing would be possible.)

Someone here once posted that Gabbert got around the FCC requirement by having the "K-101" ID sent through the right stereo channel and the legal "KIOI" through the left channel simultaneously (or vice versa). I'm sure I've got a recording of it done that way somewhere in the archives...

Was KSAY the first country station in SF?

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Re: First SF Country Station

Was KSAY the first country station in SF?

Full-time? Yes.

KYA and KGO, notably had "country" morning shows in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, in the pre-dawn hours, playing Western music directed toward farmers and ranchers in the area. (Remember, most of the Eastbay and Southbay was still very rural in those days.)

KEEN/1370 in San Jose was mostly Western music in the 1950s, and KVSM/1050 in San Mateo had periods in which they were Western-formatted, but before KSAY, no San Francisco station dedicated their entire schedule to this style of music. (Keep in mind that KSAY, like KVSM, was a daytime-only station then.)

There was an entire culture built around Western music clubs and radio during that time, with people like Dude Martin, Cottonseed Clark, Black Jack Wayne and Red Murrell working as disc jockeys on the air at several stations (often at the same time) and as musicians, putting out records and playing in local clubs.

Black Jack Wayne, for example, had his own record company, hosted a TV show on KTVU, was a DJ on KEEN and ran the Garden of Allah club on Mission Blvd. in the Niles district of what is now Fremont, where his band also appeared.

DJ

 

[jprg]

I remember KPEN when it was at the Old Mill Shopping Center in Mtn View. It was like 1981 or 1982 and I was 12 or 13 at the time. I remember looking through the DJ window and seeing two truntables, the rack of equipment and a long-haired DJ, barefoot and playing contemprary jazz music. Way too cool!