Born as KNBC-FM in 1949 and later known as KNBR-FM, NBC’s San Francisco FM station became KNAI in 1975 when the parent company launched America’s first nationwide all-news radio service. KNAI’s call letters were a nod to the service’s name, NBC News and Information Service (NIS).
NIS sent out its first programming on June 18, 1975 (the call letter change to KNAI occurred on August 7). Not quite two years later, on May 29, 1977, it was all over.
The creation of NIS came at a time when the so-called “7-7-7 rule” was still in effect: no entity could own more than 7 AM, 7 FM, and 7 TV stations nationwide. Thus, while NBC could install the NIS format on a relative handful of owned-and-operated stations (like KNBR-FM), it also needed to sell the service to other station owners–aiming for 200 nationwide. Ultimately, fewer than 70 stations signed up.
There were warning signs from the start: NBC executives had said the service needed to be heard in 75 of the top 100 markets to be effective. On launch day, only 33 stations were airing the service.
At KNAI, a local news operation initially directed by KNBR‘s Gene D’Accardo was responsible for ten minutes an hour of local news (that would grow to as much as 20 minutes). Hap Harper, already appearing on sister station KNBR, provided local traffic reports. The rest of the hour was filled with the NIS feed.
Jo Interrante, Mark Provost, Ed Brady and Curtiss Kim were among the local staff when KNAI launched. Gil Haar, formerly of KNEW, would later arrive as news director.
Of course, San Francisco already had an all-news station, 50,000 watt AM powerhouse KCBS, which had launched its all-news format in 1968. The station’s superior signal and entrenched market position were an obvious challenge for the NBC operation, which tried to take on KCBS directly in its advertising (the station budgeted a reported $300,000 a year for newspaper, billboard, and other advertising).
A frequent question at the time of KNAI’s launch was whether listeners would expect to find news on the FM band. NBC installed NIS on its O-and-O FM stations in Chicago and New York as well as San Francisco.
Despite positive reviews from San Mateo Times radio columnist Bob Foster, KNAI never made a serious dent in San Francisco radio ratings. It did wind up being the only station in the market to carry the unforgettable 1975 World Series, in which the Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
NBC claimed an annual budget of $10 million for NIS; KNAI general manager Bill Dwyer (who had heralded the launch of NIS as “the greatest thing since rock-and-roll”) told the San Francisco Chronicle that the local budget was more than $1 million a year.
Unlike many radio format changes which happen with no warning to staff or listeners, KNAI and NIS had a long goodbye. NBC announced in November 1976 that NIS would be shut down in May 1977. The announcement came as KNAI was running a major newspaper ad campaign asking listeners to compare its programming with that of KCBS.
In a further bit of irony, as noted by San Francisco Chronicle legend Herb Caen, the NBC announcement came the same day that KNAI launched newspaper ads touting a November series about unemployment. The ads were headlined, “Your radio can help save your job–or get you a new one.”
NBC chose to dump the all-news format in San Francisco on January 1, 1977. It was the end of KNAI, and the launch of KYUU.
