Attempting to trace the historical impact of San Francisco’s legendary “Jive 95” KSAN-FM quickly presents a conundrum: how much of what the station became was the result of its time and place, and how much did the station itself influence San Francisco in the late 1960’s and the 1970’s?
The 94.9 FM frequency was first heard in the Bay Area on March 11, 1958, carrying the call letters KSFR. Calling itself “The Concert Music Station”, KSFR targeted an audience of classical music aficionados. A multiplex stereo signal and an increase in transmitter power came in the early 60’s.
Original owner H. Alan Levitt, who owned a San Francisco record store, sold KSFR to New York City-based Metromedia in 1966. Metromedia planned to continue the classical music format, but what was happening at another San Francisco radio station would change the course of Bay Area radio history.
KMPX program director Tom Donahue (BARHOF 2006) was battling station management over his increasingly freeform (and increasingly popular) progressive rock music format. When Donahue resigned in March 1968, many of his staff members walked out in support and took up picket signs in what San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason called “the first hippie strike”.
Metromedia executives saw an opportunity and within two months, Donahue and many of his former KMPX staffers had taken up residence at KSFR, bearing the new call letters KSAN-FM and soon calling itself “The Jive 95” (never mind the fact the frequency was just that far below 95 on the FM dial).
What would play out over the next dozen years is as fresh in the minds of listeners and KSAN staff members as if it had happened yesterday. This station would be accorded Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame “Legendary Station”status in 2014. A long list of creative and memorable broadcasters found a home at a station that gave the impression that anything could happen at any moment…which often actually turned out to be true. The station broadcast hundreds of live shows, introducing local listeners to acts like Elvis Costello and Dire Straits, to say nothing of an epic set by Bob Marley and the Wailers at Sausalito’s Record Plant recording studio.
Donahue’s 1975 death of a heart attack as well as changing musical tastes hel[ed bring an end to the Camelot of KSAN. By 1978, a tighter playlist meant the freeform sound was part of history.
And in 1980, KSAN-FM switched a country music format, broadcasting in tandem with sister station KNEW-AM. The country combo would enjoy another 17 years of solid ratings before the 94.9 frequency entered yet another new era in 1997: Wild 94.9.
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