KNBR-FM came to life as KNBC-FM on May 15, 1948, simulcasting the signal of legacy National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) station KNBC. The call letters would be changed to KNBR and KNBR-FM in 1962.
The FM station’s original 3,000 watt transmitter was at a temporary site in Belmont, where the KNBC AM transmitter was situated. That would be replaced in the fall of 1949 by a permanent FM facility atop San Bruno Mountain, where a 45,000 watt transmitter and the higher terrain gave the station a solid signal and coverage area. The changeover took KNBC-FM off the air for 16 days.
Within months of its launch, NBC executives had signed KNBC-FM up with the Broadcast Measurement Bureau, an early attempt by the advertising and broadcasting industries to create reliable audience-measurement statistics. FM radio was still in its infancy, but broadcasters had high hopes; a few weeks after the launch of KNBR-FM, the New York Times reported, “The new art of frequency modulation radio has had a rapid growth since the war. In 1945 there were fifty-two stations on the air and some 495,000 receivers in use. Today-less than three years later-there are 517 commercial FM radio stations and twenty non-commercial, educational outlets making FM service available to an estimated audience of 60,000,000 [nationwide].”
The business reality of early FM radio was that broadcasters weren’t making money on the new stations. Quite a few stations launched in that boom after World War II went dark; even the network-owned efforts like KNBC-FM were bets on a brighter future rather than an immediate profit. As proof, one could look at published advertising rates: in 1949, KNBC-FM, KGO-FM and KCBS-FM were all listed as offering “bonus” advertising. This meant a client who aired spots on the main AM station got the FM ads for free.
Through the 1950s and early ’60s, there was no need to consult newspaper radio listings to find out what was on KNBC-FM. It was exactly what was airing on the AM side. The listings did, however, differentiate the stations in one way: while KNBC operated 24 hours a day, KNBC-FM went off the air at 1 a.m. each night, returning to the air around daybreak.
Two things happened in 1962 to change KNBC-FM’s future. One was immediate: on November 11, 1962, KNBC became KNBR and the sister FM station’s call letters were accordingly changed to match. NBC wanted to assign the KNBC call letters to its Los Angeles television station, and it was left to KNBR and KNBR-FM general manager William Decker to explain that the new call letters stood for “National Broadcasting Radio”.
1962 also saw the start of a movement to force FM broadcasters to air something other than a simulcast of the programming on co-owned AM stations. The “FM Non-Duplication Rule” would be adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1964 with enforcement to begin in the fall of 1965. NBC was among a number of owners to apply for and receive brief extensions for compliance.
KNBR-FM’s programming under the new rules was automated “beautiful music” and the station typically lagged in local radio ratings behind KABL and KFOG, both also airing similar content. NBC seemed to have wasted little energy or money promoting the station.
One notable moment in KNBR-FM history occurred on September 23, 1973. Preparing for an Oakland Raiders broadcast from the University of California’s Memorial Stadium (the Raiders were caught in a scheduling conflict at their usual home, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum), KNBR program director Ron Fell had the idea to set up a stereo feed from the broadcast booth. General manager Heber Smith signed off on the idea, and KNBR-FM broadcast what may have been the first NFL game ever heard in stereo (it was certainly the first in the Bay Area). The Raiders beat Miami that day, 12-7, ending the Dolphins’ historic 18-game winning streak.
KNBR-FM vanished from the 99.7 spot on the FM dial in 1975, when NBC’s new News and Information Service turned the station into a full-time all-news outlet with new call letters: KNAI. The KNBR-FM call letters would return to Bay Area airwaves in 2019 when owner Cumulus Media, by then the owner of KNBR, opted to strip the KFOG call letters from its station at 104.5 on the FM dial and use the “new” KNBR-FM to simulcast KNBR’s sports-focused programming.
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