KSND was a brief occupant of two frequencies assigned to Gilroy. Entertainment Radio Incorporated’s station (then KPER-FM) was a Class A FM station with a limited signal at 94.3 MHz on the dial, as well as a nagging interference problem. Berkeley’s KPFA was on the adjacent 94.1 MHz frequency and there’d been complaints from KPFA fans in the Monterey area when KPER-FM went on the air in 1970.
Gilroy and the surrounding areas of Santa Clara, San Benito and Monterey Counties were largely agricultural and an early KSND initiative was to join anew program of the National Weather Service, offering frost warnings to farmers.
In late 1974, 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. The decision would allow the station to broadcast at higher power and cover a much larger area.
In the fall of 1974, Entertainment Radio applied to transfer control of the station–still at 94.3 on the dial–to Wheatstone Bridge Engineering for $100,000, setting the stage for a memorable chapter in Bay Area radio history.
Wheatstone Bridge was controlled by community radio activists Lorenzo Milam (owner of KTAO in Los Gatos) and Jeremy Lansman. An application was also filed to change the call letters from KSND to KFAT. The change was approved in May 1975, launching a legendary Bay Area station.
