KJAZ went on the air on August 1, 1959, claiming to be the nation’s first commercial station carrying only jazz music. The founders were Dave Larsen and Pat Henry (BARHOF 2006), who had played jazz records on Oakland station KROW in the 1940’s and ran KJAZ for years with a keen personal sense of what was “in” and what wasn’t.
The station’s original transmitter site and studios were on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, with additional studios in the then-new South Shore Shopping Center in Alameda.
Over the years, KJAZ attracted visits from numerous jazz artists. In 1962, it moved its transmitter to San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, increasing its coverage area. At the same time, studios were moved to Webster Street in Alameda.
A protracted licensing battle in the 1970’s led Henry to sell the station to Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson and Ron Cowan, the developer of Alameda’s Harbor Bay Isle community. Cowan soon bought out Wilson and would move the station to Harbor Bay Isle.
By the early 1990’s, Cowan was looking for a buyer for a station that he said was losing money. A listener-led fundraising drive fell short, and in 1994, KJAZ was sold to Z-Spanish Radio Network. On August 1, 1994, Z-Spanish began Spanish-language programming and the call letters were changed to KZSF.
