San Jose’s KEEN hit the airwaves on June 21, 1947, operating out of studios at the DeAnza Hotel. It was a star-studded launch for a station that would become a South Bay mainstay at 1370 on the AM dial for the next five decades.
KEEN’s ownership entity, United Broadcasting, was made up of veteran broadcast executives George D. Snell Jr. and B. Floyd Farr along with colorful San Francisco restaurateur George Mardikian. At the start, the station operated at 1,000 watts of power. Eventually, the station was granted authority to boost that to 5,000 watts.
In its early years, KEEN broadcast a “full service” format with popular music, news, and sports. By the mid-50’s, KEEN had shifted to country-western music, which was its hallmark into the early 1990’s. KEEN was named 2025 “Legendary Station” by the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame.
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Biography of KEEN co-founder B. Floyd Farr