[BC] KKHI and KCBS

[ACN]

No, Steve this is important historical info.   Keep it up.  No, it 
was announcing for KKHI.   As I kid I had done classical announcing 
and had a voice they liked with authority for classical.

I also remember when KCBS was in a hotel in SF.    The name slips my 
mind. A friend had come down from Tacoma and was in charge of 
traffic.   He called me said they were looking for a staff announcer 
who sounded "network".

They were not news, still running mostly CBS network programs and the 
announcing was primarily giving local IDs and reading a few 
commercials.  It was really summer relief as I had to get back to school.

Nice operation.   Very professional.

Thanks,

Tom

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve" <shnewman at alaweb.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 2:02 AM
Subject: Re: [BC] Local Celebrities


Tom:

I take it the job offer was in engineering? I'm 25% tech but lean 
more towards programming. My interests are in audio tech.

Yes...KOBY became KQBY for a while. They had an easy listening/MOR 
format. In, I believe 1966 or 1968 Buckley Broadcasting bought the 
station and it became KKHI (the High spot on your dial)..that was the 
gimmick. Now it gets a bit foggy here but suffice it to say the 
majority of the time they were KKHI they were Classical. They 
eventually got an FM. (the transmitter was on Mt. Beacon where KDFC 
is located to this day. I worked for KDFC twice. First while in 
college in 1966 then as P.D. in 1980. The late Ed Davis owned KDFC 
and didn't like even renting space for the KKHI-FM transmitter being 
his station was their direct competitor. They eventually moved to San 
Bruno Mountain.

Now about the mikes. When I was hanging around KOBY in 1958 they used 
the RCA 77's and they would shove them way off in the corner and you 
know what? They sounded great. The booths were built just right. You 
didn't have any bounce. It was amazing to me. But what does a 13 year 
old know, eh? Fred Krock was an engineer for KOBY and followed them 
over to the St. Francis and got behind the mike and did afternoon 
drive. He called the show "Eine Kleine Commute Muzik". Corny. What's 
interesting is Fred doesn't like to talk about the KOBY days for some 
reason. I think it's because of all the IBEW union crap that went on 
over the years and followed them to the St. Francis. In fact, I 
believe when KOBY finally got beat by KYA and KEWB they went dark 
then went back on the air as KQBY. KQBY didn't last long and it 
became KKHI. So that's the long and short of it.

I'll add this from your other post:
As for the 3 tower array. It was designed and installed by Al Towne. 
(I could be wrong on the spelling) and he's no longer with us so I 
can't ask him. As far as keeping the pattern in I can't speak to that 
but I would imagine it had something to do with that South tower. It 
was hardly fed...as I said, almost parasitic in nature. They had a 
10Kw RCA rig down there in Belmont. That I remember. Never did go to 
the transmitter building but I do know they did have an RCA. (at 
least I think they did) Could be wrong on that.

One final thing (well at least for this email) When I was P.D. at 
KDFC we beat KKHI for the first time in the ratings. Well, Ed Davis 
broke out the Champagne....literally in the afternoon and we partied. 
He was a strange bird but I learned a lot from him. Others on this 
list probably think I'm crazy. He was a good businessman. Owned a 
good part of Sausalito. His wife, Helen, sold the station to Brown 
Broadcasting then they, in turn, sold it to Bonneville for a pretty 
penny. They're like 5th in the market. But, then again, getting good 
numbers in Classical radio in San Francisco is like shooting fish in 
a barrel. They basically have the combined share since KKHI left 
town. The City always had about a 4.5 to 5.0 share available for the 
Classical music listener.

See, you shouldn't ask me about radio in my home town. I'll stay up 
until 4am typing. :) Hope I didn't bore you with all the details. I 
have more war stories where these came from.