Dana Jang got his start in commercial radio serving as a board operator at KREP 105.3 in Santa Clara and then got his first on-air job with KSJO in San Jose. He was promoted to full time morning host and Public Affairs Director for KSJO after a year of working part-time. Throughout a decades-long career in radio, Jang served as on-air talent for KSCU, Santa Clara; KFJC, Los Altos Hills; KSJS, San Jose; KPSR, Los Altos; KREP, Santa Clara; KSJO, San Jose; KOME, San Jose; KITS, San Francisco; KCAL, Redlands; KUFX, San Jose; KBAY, San Jose; K-ZAP, Sacramento; and KKUP, in Cupertino. Jang served as Operations Manager at KSJO/KHTT in San Jose from 1985 to 1986. Jang was Music Director at KOME, and the Program Director for Bay Area radio stations KSJO, KBAY, KUFX, and KEZR, staying at each station for a decade or more, managing many future Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame inductees.
Dana was born in San Francisco in 1948. Dana’s parents, Etta and James, were first-generation Chinese immigrants. In Jang’s early childhood, the family moved with his father’s employment from San Francisco to Texas to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, James perished in a multiple-plane crash over the Grand Canyon when Dana was 8 years old. Etta moved the family to Palo Alto where Dana graduated from Cubberley Senior High School.
Jang’s interest in radio began when he was living in Southern California and the Giants and Dodgers moved from New York to California. Jang played Little League baseball himself. He was inspired by legendary Dodger sportscaster Vin Scully, who used his voice to paint images of the game in real time. Jang’s mother was supportive and bought him several AM transistor radios, his first tape recorder and a shortwave radio. Jang was also interested in radio dramas using sound effects to create what he refers to as “theater of the mind”.
At Santa Clara University, Jang began following his father’s footsteps by studying to become an engineer, but he eventually switched to marketing. He volunteered at the school’s radio station, KSCU 860 AM, where he was a DJ. He worked his way up to becoming KSCU’s program director. Then, while working towards his Master’s degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University, he joined the school’s radio station, KSJS as a DJ. After that, he became a DJ at Foothill College’s KFJC while taking a Radio Production class.
After being selected for an on-air shift at KPSR 91.5 FM, a 10 watt radio station at the Pinewood Private Schools in Los Altos, Jang was promoted to Program Director. Three years later, Jang founded KKUP, a non-commercial community radio station based in Cupertino, CA on the frequency 91.5 which formerly belonged to the Pinewood Private Schools. In June of 1972, KKUP debuted as one of the first community radio stations not affiliated with an educational institution or religious organization. Jang served as KKUP’s first General Manager and was a long-term Board Member. In 2022, KKUP celebrated 50 years of broadcasting operating entirely on listener donations.
After several ownership changes at KSJO and KUFX, Jang left to oversee the programming of a group of ten radio stations in suburban Chicago in 1999. Several years later, after an ownership change in 2005, the new owners transferred Jang back to the Bay Area to their newly acquired San Jose stations, KBAY and KEZR, where Jang would oversee the programming and perform afternoon drive on-air at KBAY.
After a series of ownership changes at KBAY and KEZR in 2016, Jang left the stations and became a programming consultant for The Lund Media Group in Millbrae, California advising stations internationally in a variety of radio formats.