Richard “Dick” Block’s long career in broadcasting left a major imprint on the Bay Area’s airwaves. Block passed away on September 30, 2024 at the age of 97 of cardiac issues related to amyloidosis.
Born in San Francisco in 1926, Block served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II and in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War. He graduated from Stanford University in 1953. His first broadcasting job was at KDFC-FM in San Francisco, where he was Program Director.
His connection with Bay Area industrialist Henry J. Kaiser was central to Block’s Bay Area broadcasting legacy. Working as an executive for Kaiser Broadcasting, Block oversaw the acquisition of KBAY-FM (104.5) in 1963. The call letters were changed to KFOG and a bellowing foghorn became the station’s audio signature. As noted by the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in bestowing its Legendary Station award on KFOG in 2019:
Under the ownership of Kaiser and the management of Richard Block, KBAY became KFOG on March 1, 1963, beginning multiplex stereo broadcasts of its Good Music format with a fortified 82-kiloWatt signal – thus making Dick Block the original “Foghead.”
Block led Kaiser Broadcasting through another important change in the Bay Area broadcasting landscape. The passage of federal legislation in the early 1960’s allowed the licensing and construction of a new kind of television station: UHF. Kaiser Broadcasting leaped into the UHF business, establishing stations in several major markets. San Francisco’s KBHK-TV signed on on January 2, 1968, broadcasting on channel 44. The station occupied an address that was legendary in its own right: 420 Taylor Street, the former NBC Radio City.
Dick Block went on to many more accomplishments in a career that saw him play a role in launching The Travel Channel and the Game Show Network. He taught at Stanford and UCLA and was still an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts at the time of his death. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences San Francisco/Northern California Chapter lists Block in both its Silver Circle (25 years) and Gold Circle (50 years) for his years of service to the broadcast industry.