Known earlier as KGO-FM, KSFX, and KLOK-FM, KKSF would build a memorable chapter in Bay Area radio history.
Brown Broadcasting acquired the station from Davis-Weaver Broadcasting in 1987 for a reported $15 million. San Francisco Chronicle radio columnist Ben Fong-Torres reported that the new owner hired two consulting firms to map out a new course for the station.
Under the leadership of general manager Dave Kendrick and program director Steve Feinstein, KKSF unveiled its new sound on July 31, 1987. Targeting an audience of listeners between the ages of 25 and 44, the musical mix seemed to borrow bits and pieces from competitors like KBLX, KJAZ, and even KKCY. Kendrick said their research had identified an audience that wanted more variety and less repetition in their music. Feinstein described the result as “polished, very textured, atmospheric, smooth and flowing.”
It was clearly something new on Bay Area airwaves. Oakland Tribune media columnist Bill Mann wrote, “I’m not quite sure what its format is, but it’s the kind of station you keep punched in on your car’s FM radio, and 30 percent of the time you hear a listenable song.”
Derided by critics as “Yuppie wallpaper”, the KKSF sound nevertheless hit a sweet spot in the market, showing a quick move up in the ratings. Program director Feinstein was just fine with the snarky comments from competitors; he was quoted by Fong-Torres as asking, “What? You haven’t heard ‘All Wimpy, All The Time’ yet?” The station would settle on “Smooth Jazz” as a way to describe its programming.
In 1989, KKSF issued the first of what would become a lengthy series of annual compilation CDs, the KKSF Sampler for AIDS Relief. The album contained 14 tracks that were getting heavy airplay on KKSF, each donated by the artist. The station guaranteed a minimum of $3 from the sale of each CD or cassette would go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The Sampler would become a phenomenon in its own right: the millions of dollars raised made the station the largest corporate contributor to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation at one point, and the popularity of the album drove it into Billboard magazine’s national jazz recording sales charts, though it was only available in the Bay Area. The Sampler series would eventually raise more than $4 million for charity.
By the early 1990s, KKSF was a solid player in the Bay Area radio ratings. Listed as a “NAC” (New Adult Contemporary)-formatted station, KKSF regularly sat in the top ten stations among the coveted 25-54 year old demographic.
KKSF’s smooth ride was jolted by two events in 1996. The first was the decision by Brown Broadcasting to sell KKSF and co-owned KDFC to Scott Ginsburg’s Chicago-based Evergreen Media. Before the deal would close, a shattering event occurred: program director Steve Feinstein leaped to his death from the St. Francis Hotel. Feinstein was 40 years old. “This came as a complete shock to all of us,” said KKSF general manager Dave Kendrick. “This is a truly devastating loss of a great friend to all of us here and of a very talented person.”
KKSF would dedicate the 1996 edition of its Sampler for AIDS Relief, its seventh, to Feinstein–the acknowledged architect of the station’s success.
Evergreen’s acquisition of KKSF closed in 1997. By that summer, Evergreen and Dallas-based Chancellor Media would merge in a $2.7 billion dollar deal that created the nation’s second-largest radio ownership group. The mega-company owned 10 stations in the San Francisco market alone. The consolidation wasn’t over: a year later, Chancellor and Capstar Broadcasting engineered a $4.1 billion stock-swap deal that created the biggest radio ownership group in the country, named AMFM Inc. Within months, Clear Channel Communications would acquire AMFM and evolve into iHeartMedia.
Through all of this, KKSF cruised along as an exemplar of the “Smooth Jazz” sound, though the playlist grew more like those of other stations across the country that had adopted the format, by then being championed by the consulting firm Broadcast Architecture. While the station had created a bond with listeners in 1987, those listeners were aging and KKSF wasn’t finding a newer, younger audience
Management tried to deal with the erosion by installing syndicated programming: first, The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show and later, The Dave Koz Radio Show in the afternoon time slot. Miranda Wilson’s midday show was the last vestige of local programming before the inevitable format change.
In May 2009, “Smooth Jazz” was gone and KKSF re-branded itself as “103.7 The Band”, airing classic rock. Most of the air talent lived elsewhere and contributed voice tracks. Clear Channel’s “Smooth Jazz Network” continued to be available on the station’s website and via its HD-2 FM channel.
“The Band”, with former KFOG program director Dave Logan at the helm, edged away from its initial theme of legendary classic hits into a broader spectrum of rock music, very little of which would ever have been heard on the original KKSF. “To remain static,” Logan told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2010, “is to assure your demise.”
A year later, KKSF pivoted again–this time to a pure oldies format, playing pop, rock and R&B hits. By then, Ricci Filiar was the program director, and his conception of “oldies” included music up through the 1980s. The station now referred to itself as “Oldies 103.7”.
In January 2012, yet another format change was accompanied by a change in call letters. The KKSF call letters were reassigned by owner Clear Channel to its AM station at 910 on the dial (formerly known as KNEW). KOSF came into being, calling itself “The New 103.7”.
