For information about the better-known Oakland station that carried the KDIA call letters, please go here.
This KDIA came into being in 1998, a few months after the legendary call letters were jettisoned by the Walt Disney Company. Disney had acquired KDIA from James Gabbert and installed its “Radio Disney” family-focused format, using the call letters KMKY.
Vallejo’s 1640 AM station had been on the air since 1996, when a new Federal Communications Commission “expanded band” policy opened up frequencies between 1600 and 1700 on the AM dial. KXBT ownership grabbed at the opportunity, becoming the first AM broadcasters west of the Mississippi to utilize the new radio real estate. Initially, the station was also known as KXBT, and carried the same “solid gold soul” format heard on the original KXBT.
A big difference: the original KXBT was a 1,000 watt daytimer, while the new expanded-band station had a 24-hour, 10,000 watt license, allowing its signal to penetrate the Bay Area, Stockton and Sacramento.
In early 1998, the two KXBTs were purchased by new owners, Baybridge Communications, which grabbed the abandoned KDIA call letters for the 1640 AM station. General manager Ron Jordan told the Oakland Tribune, “Our thrust will be serving the black community.” Jordan promised that the gospel programming which had been a Sunday staple on the Oakland version of KDIA would find a home on the Vallejo station.
The new KDIA maintained offices in Oakland and cast itself as a greater East Bay station, co-sponsoring and offering a live broadcast of a forum for Oakland mayor candidates in April 1998.
By June, KDIA had shifted its musical focus from soul oldies to gospel music, with general manager Jordan saying it was the first station west of the Rockies to make that move. The station began to market itself as “The Light”.
In the 2000s, the station picked up a number of sports, including broadcasts of Oakland A’s baseball, San Jose Sharks hockey, and St. Mary’s College men’s basketball. Metropolitan Opera broadcasts were also heard on the station. The overall format shifted toward more overtly religious programming.
In 2021, religious broadcaster Salem Media Group bought KDYA and KDIA from Baybridge Communications for $600,000. The station known as “The Light At the Top of the Dial” and “The Light for San Francisco” continued to provide religious programming.
