James Gabbert is a singular figure in Bay Area broadcasting history. When Gabbert was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences “Gold Circle” for 50 years of service, the organization’s San Francisco/Northern California Chapter wrote, “He changed the way people listened to radio and watched TV in the Bay Area.”
Gabbert was born in Chico but spent much of his youth in Costa Rica, where his father had a foreign service posting. Gabbert’s radio career began there with teenaged work as a Spanish-speaking disc jockey and salesman. He would move to Southern California to attend UC Santa Barbara, working in Spanish-language radio in Ventura and Los Angeles.
A decision to pursue a master’s degree at Stanford University brought Gabbert to the Bay Area, where he had DJ slots, again in Spanish, at San Jose’s KLOK and KEEN. In 1957, Gabbert and fellow Stanford student Gary Gielow put KPEN on the air. It would be the beginning of Gabbert’s media empire.
KPEN left behind its modest beginnings on Kings Mountain for facilities atop Mount San Bruno in 1959, increasing the power of its transmitter and in 1961, becoming the first station west of the Mississippi to broadcast in multiplex stereo. Gabbert began hosting a Sunday afternoon show called Anything Goes which broadcast pretty much anything from sound effects to orchestral recordings, so long as they vividly demonstrated the stereo effect.
In 1968, now transmitting with 125,000 watts of power, KPEN became KIOI, branded by Gabbert as K-101. It would become an important Bay Area station for many years.
In 1980, Gabbert sold K-101, using the cash to get into television. UHF station KEMO’s call letters were changed to KOFY, and Gabbert would acquire AM and FM stations, each with the same call letters.
KOFY-TV was decidedly a Gabbert enterprise. He appeared on the air frequently, often with his dogs, and had a hand in memorable programming like Dance Party, on which adults would show up in ’50s and ’60s garb and dance to oldies music.
Gabbert would eventually sell off the KOFY stations, briefly own KDIA, and appear as a fill-in talk show host on KGO.
RELATED EXHIBITS:
Original KPEN Transmitter Site
Excursions in Stereo & Sound: KPEN-FM