[BC] Local Celebrities

[Steve]

KOBY was originally KEAR which is now occupying 610...the former KFRC. (sigh) At any rate Dave Siegel was the owner. Bought the station in 1956 and gave it the call letters KOBY. The studios were originally in the Bellevue Hotel then they moved to 340 Mason Street. Transmitter was in (still is until they go 50Kw) Belmont, just South of the SF Airport. They are/were 10Kw with 3 Towers. Their South tower was considered almost (but not quite) a parasitic tower. KOBY was at 1550. I forget the call letters they have now. They went from nowhere to the number one station in town in 2 months in 1956. Amazing. That signal didn't make such a good trip to where I lived at night and I was out by the ocean in the Sunset District but did they have the audience. It's always been amazing to me looking back at how stations moaned about their signals but each and everyone of them had great ratings at one time or another. When more stations (FM) came alive they blamed the signal for the lack of ratings. I'm sure you've heard this story MANY times. 

I have fond memories of KOBY. I was a 13 year old kid and would stand and watch the operation for hours. They operated (as did all stations in San Francisco and the larger cities) with an engineer in one booth and announcer in the other. (split operation) When I built my little home radio station I didn't know about "combo" operations so I set mine up the same way. Never had a mic at the board. Friends from school would help run the station. We always had someone on the board and someone announcing. I don't think I saw a combo operation until many years later. I just thought that's how radio operated. Fun times.

Steve
Steve Walker Productions

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: ACN 
  To: Broadcasters' Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 10:47 PM
  Subject: Re: [BC] Local Celebrities


  Steve, what was the frequency and facility of KOBY?

  Tom
  ACN