Santa Rosa’s KVRE and KVRE-FM are fondly remembered as examples of locally-owned, locally-focused radio stations that blazed their own paths. Between 1965 and 1978, the stations were owned by Ed LaFrance and Bill Colclough. The Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame is pleased to share images and memories of those years, provided by Ed LaFrance.
Among his memories about the application for KVRE-FM: “We had to provide an environmental impact report on the proposed installation of the towers – this was a brand new thing at the time, and there was very little guidance. Bill Colcough and I went to Straw Hat Pizza near the Farmers Lane studio, got a carafe of wine, and set about writing up answers to a 20-question survey as ‘knowledgeably’ as we could. We submitted it, and it was accepted.”
KVRE carried The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy, a syndicated series from Chickenman creator Dick Orkin. Listeners could get a “Tooth Ranger” membership card, and LaFrance recalls, “At one point, we did a promotional stunt in which we drove a convertible down Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa, with John Bigby dressed in a purple ‘Molar Marauder’ outfit sitting in the back and tossing toothbrushes to spectators, many of whom had no idea what it was all about.
Listen to KVRE jingles and bumpers
Like many radio stations of the era, KVRE put out “music surveys”. Ed LaFrance remembers, “There was a period of time when we produced these hit sheets, distributed them to record stores as freebies for the public. People could pick them up and collect them or do whatever they wanted with them. It was a promotional piece for the station. We only did it for a couple of years.”
A minor correction – the Whistler Ave site was KVRE AM 1460 not KVRE-FM. The towers and transmitter were moved there when Caltrans took the land behind the Farmers Lane building for the Hwy 12 freeway interchange. The Whistler Ave building started life as the sales office from a used car lot and like a mobile home it was split into two pieces and transported there. The picture of the orange trimmed studio was taken through the window from the AM transmitter room at that site. KVRE AM and FM simulcast from that studio on Whistler Ave until the stations were sold to John Detz. He moved the studios back to the Farmers Lane building and ended the AM/FM simulcast. The AM became KQTE with live DJs and big band music from Al Ham’s Music of Your Life tape syndication service. The photo of Ed Anderson and the stereo Autogram console was taken in the new KVRE FM studio at Farmers Lane after the split. The FM transmitter was (and still is) on a 200 ft communication tower above Rincon Valley owned by Bill Colclough. Besides KVRE he ran a mobile radiotelephone and paging company in those pre-cellular phone days. The transmitter building was a 30 ft. box trailer towed to the site behind a Caterpillar tractor as they blazed the road up the mountain.
I was Chief Engineer at KVRE/KQTE for several years for John Detz.
Lou,
Many thanks for your information!