“The Nifty Eleven Fifty” was first heard at 11:50 a.m. on December 7, 1958. The license had been granted to Joseph Gamble and his brother Lew Gamble. Joseph Gamble was an experienced station operator, having owned stations in Merced and Palm Springs as well as Stockton’s KJOY.
The new station was authorized to transmit with 5,000 watts of power during daytime hours and 500 watts at night. Studios were in the downtown Santa Rosa Hotel and the transmitter location included three 210-foot towers in East Santa Rosa, near today’s Spring Lake Park.
Sonoma County had just over 100,000 residents in 1958. Until KJAX went on the air, the county seat’s only broadcast signal came from venerable KSRO. Farther south, KAFP (later KTOB) had been broadcasting from Petaluma since 1950.
KJAX came out swinging, dropping leaflets from an airplane flying over Sonoma County on the first day of broadcasts. The holder of the winning number was to win a two-week cruise for two to Hawaii aboard the S.S. Leilani. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reported that PG&E employee William Reiman of Santa Rosa nabbed the winning leaflet.
The inaugural staff included KYA veteran Harry Holland and news director Jane Cullen. Newspaper radio listings show a puckish sense of humor on the part of KJAX management: program hosts included quite a handful of “Jacks”– Jack Angel, Jack Horner, Jack B. Nimble, and Jack B. Quick.
KJAX went dark on July 1, 1962. An attempt to merge with another struggling Santa Rosa station, KHUM, was reported in 1963 but never came to fruition. The Gamble brothers transferred ownership to Polaris Broadcasting, owner of several radio and television stations including Sacramento’s KXOA in August of 1963. Polaris changed the call letters to KPLS and put the 1150 signal back on the air in April of 1964.
You missed the reason the Gamble Bros. started KJAX. They owned 1000 watt KJOY in Stockton. One of their Stockton competitors was KRAK 1140, also licensed to Stockton with 5,000 watts non-directional. KRAK had plans to go 50Kw Non-D and extend their coverage to Sacramento. The Gambles filed for and built KJAX on the first adjacent channel in Santa Rosa to throw a monkey wrench into the works. KRAK eventually did get their 50 Kw, but it was with a 6 tower array to the northeast of Sacramento, beaming their power to the southwest in a precisely drawn pattern to avoid prohibited overlap with adjacent channel KJAX.
And this wasn’t a one-off. When KSTN wanted to increase their power to 5Kw, the Gambles filed for a 500 watt daytime only directional station in Sacramento which became KJAY. This forced KSTN to install a directional antenna that limited their power towards Sacramento to what they already had with their 1000 watt license.
The real reason the Gamble Bros. started KJAX was to thwart their Stockton cross-town rival KRAK (1140) from increasing their power from 5 Kw to 50 Kw. KRAK eventually did get 50 Kw but it was from a 6 tower directional site northeast of Sacramento with a pattern precisely drawn to avoid overlap with adjacent channel KJAX.
And this wasn’t a one-off. When their other cross-town rival KSTN (1420) wanted to increase their daytime power from 1000 to 5000 watts non-directional the Gambles proposed a 500 watt directional daytime only station in Sacramento, coincidentally first adjacent to KSTN. This forced KSTN to restrict their coverage towards Sacramento to what they already had at 1000 watts using a directional pattern created by adding a third tower to their existing 2 tower nighttime array.