KGNU’s call letters were first heard in September 1965, after Royal Bear Broadcasters, Inc. acquired the station previously known as KGBA from its founder, George B. Bairey.
The new ownership was heavy in individuals with Hollywood connections, including announcer Johnny Jacobs and Bob Eubanks, who hosted The Newlywed Game on TV for decades.
Royal Bear, which also owned Stockton station KWG, installed Irv Phillips as general manager. Phillips had previously been general manager of Los Angeles 50,000 watt station KDAY and was a veteran of San Francisco’s KYA.
Phillips retained a number of sports-broadcasting arrangements the station had already made, including University of Santa Clara games covered by Jack Healey, and moved to add more. In November, 1965 the station began carrying a live broadcast of the daily feature thoroughbred race at San Mateo’s Bay Meadows racetrack. Track announcer Joe Hernandez became a radio announcer in the process. Phillips also announced plans to carry a daily race call from Southern California’s Santa Anita racetrack.
That same month, KGNU hired a helicopter to provide pre-game and post-game traffic reports for the annual football “Big Game” between the University of California and Stanford University, played that year at Stanford Stadium.
KGNU trumpeted its affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System, allowing it to pick up major national sports events. Former Cal and Major League Baseball star Jackie Jensen was heard twice each afternoon with a sports commentary segment.
Coverage of San Jose Bees baseball in the Class-A California League carried over from previous ownership. Roy Storey continued to call home games at San Jose Municipal Stadium from the ballpark, while offering re-creations of road games.
By 1966, well-known Bay Area talent Doug Pledger was holding down the morning drive shift on KGNU, going up against Bay Area heavyweights the likes of Don Sherwood, Frank Dill and Dave McElhatton. Other announcers included Tom Leland, Bill Dodd, Skip Conover, Jack Costello and Tom Barberi, who would later be heard on KLIV as Tom Barry before launching a lengthy career at Salt Lake City’s KALL.
In 1967, KGNU added to Storey’s duties when it picked up the rights to broadcast the games of the California Seals hockey team. The Seals were playing their final season in the Western Hockey League before joining the National Hockey League the following season. A report that the station had “the inside track” to hang onto the Seals’ rights when they joined the NHL proved to be wishful thinking.
1967 was also the year that KGNU carried the games of a semi-professional football team that became legendary. The Continental Football League’s San Jose Apaches had hired Bill Walsh, the future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, to be their head coach and general manager.
KCBS and KPEN veteran Bob Donnelly served as program director and would become station manager in mid-1967. Peter Cleaveland, who would go on to appear for many years as a reporter at KGO radio and KGO-TV in San Francisco, was on the news staff. Bob Haulman, later well-known for his weather forecasts on KNTV television and KCBS radio, was news director.
KGNU would occupy numerous studio locations, including a period at a building on Stevens Creek Boulevard near the Valley Fair Shopping Center.
Royal Bear cashed out of the radio business in the summer of 1969, selling KGNU and its Stockton station KWG to Barnes Enterprises for $900,000. The buyer was headed by B. E. Barnes, who owned a construction company and had controlling interest in a chain of jewelry stores.
Barnes immediately changed the call letters to KEGL and installed a Country and Western format.
