Originally broadcasting as KGYW, Vallejo’s first radio station went on the air on November 29, 1947. The feisty newcomer called itself “The Voice of Vallejo” and “Vallejo’s Own Radio Station”. Its first-day programming included a broadcast of the football game between Vallejo Junior College (now Solano Community College) and Menlo College.
The station was launched by the owners of Reno’s KOLO, Hubert Q. Joucken and David McKay, and was initially daytime-only with a licensed power of 250 watts. McKay served as station manager.
KGYW served notice a few years later that it would defend its home turf. Luther Gibson, a prominent North Bay newspaper publisher (and member of the State Senate), purchased Napa station KVON in 1950. His newspapers carried the story, pointing out that KVON’s full-time signal could be heard easily in Vallejo.
That led KGYW station management to fire off a telegram to the Federal Communications Commission, which seems largely to have been an effort to generate a reply from the FCC that could be used in a KGYW promotional campaign cementing its “hometown” bona fides.
In 1957, the station was sold for $65,000 to the owners of Merced station KYOS, Ellsworth Peck and A. J. Krisik.
Barely a year later, they sold the station again. The buyer, Mary Ashbacker-Gunberg of Michigan, was the daughter of pioneer radio broadcaster Karl Ashbacker. On September 1, 1958, the call letters KNBA were used for the first time.
In 1960, ownership of the station passed into the hands of Lou Ripa of Modesto. Ripa was a hands-on owner-operator of “The Mighty 1190” until his death at age 81 in early 1992. Click the “play” arrow below to hear Ripa hosting a live remote broadcast from the Payless Sleep Shop in Vallejo in the spring of 1976.
After Ripa’s death, the station was sold to North Bay Broadcasters, the operators of Vacaville’s KUIC, for $50,000. KNBA became KXBT in December 1993, switching to a “soul oldies” format and billing itself as “The Beat of the Bay”under the guidance of general manager Stefan Ponek.
In 1996, KXBT became the first AM station west of the Mississippi River to sign on in the newly-authorized expanded AM band, adding a signal at 1640 kHz.
In 1998, KXBT’s 1190 AM signal changed to the call letters KDYA under the ownership of Richmond-based Baybridge Communications. The expanded-band signal at 1640 kHz was assigned the call letters KDIA, which became available in 1997 when the legendary Oakland version of KDIA became KMKY. KDYA was airing urban gospel music and branding itself as “The Light 1190”.
In 2021, the Christian broadcaster Salem Communications cut a $600,000 deal to buy KDYA and KDIA.
