Dude Martin’s Sunrise Roundup
KGO Radio, San Francisco
Wednesday, February 11, 1948
ABOVE: Dude Martin’s Roundup Gang from a KYA Radio promotional photo
The early morning wake-up program on San Francisco’s KGO (810 AM and 106.1 FM), featuring local Western Music entertainer Dude Martin.
The California-born Dude, who came into this world as Steve McSwain, hosted Western-themed radio programs locally during the 1930s and 1940s at KYA, KLX, KSFO and KGO, as well as on early television with KGO’s “Hoffman Hayride.” He was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2008.
After his success in the Bay Area, Dude headed to Southern California where, as Steve Martin, he hosted a variety of local programs on Los Angeles television in the 1950s and 1960s.
At the time of this recording, KGO had only recently – at the end of 1947 – begun broadcasting its upgraded 50,000-watt AM signal from its new transmitter facility near the Dumbarton Bridge in Newark.
KGO-FM, which simulcast its AM twin’s programming across the board, sent its signal out to the region from KGO’s original site on East 12th Street in Oakland, where it would remain until the Summer of 1949, when it was moved to Mount Sutro in San Francisco. KGO-FM could be found at 106.1 megacycles until January 14, 1955, when it was repositioned at 103.7 FM.
Dude Martin’s Sunrise Roundup on KGO (February 11, 1948)
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