Gene Nelson is a graduate of Syracuse University whose San Francisco radio career cemented him as one of the Bay Area’s broadcast legends.
Nelson was one of a number of radio voices who arrived in San Francisco from Buffalo, NY in the early ’60s. Installed as KYA’s morning man, Nelson pulled off the seemingly-impossible: he bested KSFO’s Don Sherwood in the ratings.
KSFO management was paying attention, and when Nelson became a “free agent”, he moved down the dial to 560 and continued to hold a strong position in Bay Area ratings.
“The Emperor” would wind up working on both KSFO and KYA (the FM version) after the 1983 sale of KSFO by Golden West Broadcasting to Seattle’s King Broadcasting. In that transaction, King also sold KYA to Bonneville International but retained ownership of KYA-FM, leading to a KSFO/KYA-FM simulcast.
Nelson was the first Bay Area broadcaster to hold forth daily with football legend John Madden, launching Madden’s run of more than 30 years on morning local radio.
Gene Nelson retired from broadcasting in 1994.
RELATED EXHIBITS:
The Emperor Gene Nelson Show, April 1965
Gene Nelson 30th Anniversary Show