KGBA wasn’t around for long. The station’s license was obtained in 1963 by a veteran radio man named George B. Bairey. Bairey had operated radio stations in North Dakota and Minnesota in the 1930s, served on the Federal Communications Commission staff in the 1940s, and hung out his shingle as a consulting engineer in the 1950s.
By the 1960s, Bairey had figured out a way to carve some space out for a new AM station in the crowded Bay Area market. He spent several years on the project and finally received FCC approval for a station at 1430 on the dial in September 1963. The call letters would be KGBB (almost certainly to select Bairey’s initials), but within a month, he sought and received permission to change the new station’s call letters to KGBA, reflecting the licensee name: Greater Bay Area Broadcasters, Inc. The station signed on for the first time on December 15, 1963.
By 1964, KGBA was on the air but not getting much respect. San Mateo Times radio-TV columnist Bob Foster mentioned the station twice, getting the frequency wrong both times (he had the station at either 1440 or 1450 on the dial). He also sniffed at what he heard on KGBA in a March 1954 piece:
“I would venture to say the station is doomed–unless, of course, some changes are made in a hurry,” wrote Foster. He went on to write, “Program wise, it doesn’t belong in the metropolitan broadcast picture. There is no rhyme or reason to the music. There seems to be no policy at all.” And that was before Foster got around to pillorying the on-air talent. He did allow that the station had an “excellent and high-quality signal.”
KGBA carried the 1964 season of the California League’s San Jose Bees baseball team. In a May article about a game between the Bees and the Santa Barbara Dodgers, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported, “All San Jose games, both home and away, are broadcast live by radio station KGBA in Santa Clara,” noting that the Bees were the only California League team that could claim such complete radio coverage.
In fact, Bees home games were called from San Jose Municipal Stadium by Roy Storey, but away games were handled through the dying art of radio re-creation. Storey would receive a running teletype report and with the help of an engineer who mixed in sound effects, provide a semi-fictional account of the game being played elsewhere.
KGBA also carried University of Santa Clara sports and broadcast numerous high school games, focusing on schools in northern Santa Clara County and southern San Mateo County.
In September 1965, the FCC approved transfer of the station’s license from Bairey’s Greater Bay Area Broadcasters to Royal Bear Broadcasters, Inc. for $182,000. The purchasing group was made up of a number of people with Hollywood ties, including Norman MacDonnell and Martin Hill. MacDonnell was producer of the popular television series The Virginian while Hill produced Art Linkletter’s House Party. Royal Bear already owned Stockton station KWG.
The new owners immediately changed the call letters to KGNU, ending KGBA’s brief stay on the Bay Area radio scene.
