KRVE became the third set of call letters to grace the 95.3 FM frequency in Los Gatos when it launched its new programming schedule in July 1974. Now a 24-hour station, KRVE would split the day between English and Portuguese language content.
The new owners, Ethnic Radio, Inc., had paid maverick community radio figure Lorenzo Milam $250,000 to acquire the station. Ethnic Radio had three equal owners: Joe Rosa, Batista Vieira, and Joaquin Esteves. Of the three, Esteves was the only one with broadcasting experience. He’d spent nearly 25 years on the air in the Bay Area, appearing on KLOK, KAZA, and KEGL as well as a UHF television station in Modesto, where his program Portugal De Hoje (Portugal Today) ran for many years.
The station began to carry live broadcasts of Los Gatos Town Council meetings. Studios were moved to a new building that filled a long-vacant lot in a very visible location on the “main drag” of Los Gatos, N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Passersby could look directly into the on-air studio from the sidewalk.
In 1980, Esteves’ one-third ownership of Ethnic Radio was bought out by his partners, Rosa and Vieira. They would go on to buy a station in Los Banos, KLBS.
Esteves continued his Portuguese television broadcasts. He would also hold a share of ownership in Fresno radio station KGST. And then he disappeared.
A week before Christmas in 1988, Esteves’ family reported him missing. He’d failed to make his usual call home from his real estate office, where police found his ID and money. The mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.
Meanwhile, there’d been a big change at KRVE. The Portuguese programming was gone and with new call letters, “The Cat” (KATD) growled its way onto the airwaves in 1985.
