Note: the KEAR call letters have been used on several Bay Area radio stations on differing frequencies at different times. This display deals with the station at 610 AM, known as KEAR beginning in 2005.
The story of Family Radio dates back to 1958, when broadcaster-evangelist Richard Palmquist joined with evangelical pastors Harold Camping and Lloyd Lindquist to set up an organization that would start acquiring FM radio licenses.
Their first purchase was KEAR, an FM station then in the hands of Stephen Cisler. For $100,000, Family Stations Inc. was in the broadcasting business.
Family Radio was involved in a 1978 frequency swap that moved its programming to 106.9 FM.
By 2005, Family Radio, operating out of facilities on Oakland’s Hegenberger Road, held a portfolio of 55 stations, mostly on the FM band. Camping had for years been the organization’s president and a regular on-air voice. His religious teachings, including predictions of the end of the world, had become more controversial.
In 2005, there would be another change of frequencies, this time placing KEAR on the AM band at a historic San Francisco radio address. 610 AM had been the home of KFRC since the station’s founding in 1924.
Here’s how the deal came to pass: Late in 2004, in order to meet an FCC requirement that would allow its parent company Viacom to acquire KOVR-TV (Channel 13) in Sacramento, Infinity Broadcasting (owner of KFRC/610) and Family Stations (owner of KEAR/106.9) entered into a deal to “trade” the two facilities.
At midnight on April 29, 2005, Viacom transferred ownership of 610 AM to Family Stations; in a few months, as part of the same deal, Viacom would take possession of Family Radio’s 106.9 FM signal. Until then, 610 would still be known as KFRC, and 106.9 remained KEAR.
Why the delay in changing call letters and programming? KFRC had a contract to carry Oakland A’s baseball broadcasts during the 2005 season.
On October 17, 2005, the KFRC call letters were removed from 610, and the station officially became KEAR.
Thus, it was on 610 AM–the signal that once carried the raucous Top-40 stylings of Dr. Don Rose–that listeners heard Camping proclaim the coming end of the world yet again. His 2011 pronouncements were accompanied by a billboard campaign.
In the social media-driven landscape of 2011, Camping’s predictions of a “Great Rapture” heralded by earthquakes on May 21 and the end of the world on October 21 gained widespread attention.
When the sun came up on October 22, a new day arose for Family Radio. Within a year, Camping would post a letter acknowledging the obvious. “We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return,” Camping wrote. “We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing.”
Meanwhile, Camping’s health was declining and Family Radio’s finances were leading the organization to sell off a number of stations.
Harold Camping died on December 15, 2013. In the aftermath of his death, Family Radio made it clear that while Camping was gone, his teachings would remain central to the organization’s message. Among those teachings: all traditional churches have gone apostate and true believers should leave their congregations.
In 2018, Family Radio changed course. President and general manger Tom Evans told the Christian Post that recorded broadcasts of Camping’s teachings were being discontinued. “Family Radio has come out of self-imposed isolation,” he told the publication, “and we’ve repented from many of our former positions, date-setting the end of the world and all that, as well as the condemnation of the church.”
In 2019, the organization moved its headquarters from Oakland, where it had begun 61 years earlier, to Franklin, TN. A 2024 restructuring erased Family Stations from the organization’s radio licenses.
Loam Media, which was incorporated in June 2024, merged with Family Stations with Loam as the surviving entity. The ownership and management of the two organizations is identical.
Loam Media’s mission statement says its “intent is that the listener would
receive hope, strength, and encouragement from this [radio] programming.”
RELATED EXHIBITS:
610/KFRC: Family Radio Takes Over
Historical Timeline of 106.9 FM in San Francisco
