The initial application for a station on FM channel 232 (94.3 MHz) in Gilroy was filed in 1967 by the owners of Gilroy’s daytime-only AM station, KPER. The license was finally granted in April 1970.
That license would be held by South Valley Broadcasters, a group of seven partners. Immediately recognizable among the partners: Ed Barker and his wife Florence. Ed Barker had put San Jose’s KLOK on the air in 1946 and nurtured its growth before selling the station in 1966. The same group had purchased KPER in 1966 (they would soon change the call letters to KAZA). Another key member of the ownership group was Richard Ryan, the majority owner of Fresno’s KGST.
After initially proposing a transmitter location in downtown Gilroy, the application was amended to place the transmitter at a higher elevation on Mt. Madonna, west of Gilroy. The license was for a Class A FM station–a less powerful, more local signal than the regional Class B category.
Before the station began broadcasting, Ed Barker passed away at the age of 69 (Florence, who had met Ed when she was hired as a copywriter at KLOK, would live to the age of 95).
There was another challenge for the nascent station. With test broadcasts underway in the fall of 1969 and goals of a mid-December launch, listeners to Berkeley’s KPFA began to complain about interference. KPFA broadcast on FM channel 231 (94.1 MHz). Apparently, KPFA had a loyal listenership on the Monterey Peninsula who were just able to pick up the station’s signal, and the new station’s nearby signal was a problem for them. They began a letter-writing campaign, asking the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to step in.
While the frequency issue simmered, KPER-FM went on the air and immediately made news, signing a deal to carry every Oakland A’s game during the 1971 season, joining a relative handful of FM stations in the nation to broadcast Major League Baseball. The A’s deal would extend through 1972.
While the baseball was big-league, it was small-market radio, to be sure: an early advertising deal with the E’s Ranch Milk store in nearby Hollister had KPER-FM calling bingo numbers on the air. Studios were in downtown Gilroy.
In 1973, South Valley Broadcasters prepared to sell its Gilroy stations. In the process, the Ryan/Barker group placed KPER-FM under the control of Entertainment Radio Incorporated and changed the call letters to KSND.
As a note: In late 1974, after the sale, the FCC decided to solve the interference complaint by scooting the station a bit up the dial, to FM channel 233 (94.5 MHz). In early 1975, the station made the shift.
The new ownership made the case to the FCC that expected growth in the South County (at the time, half the geographical area of Santa Clara County with but 2% of the county’s population) merited a switch to a Class B FM license. The FCC agreed and the change, allowing a more powerful signal and larger coverage area, would set the stage for a much bigger future for Gilroy’s FM frequency.
