KSRO 1350 AM Santa Rosa, CA

For most of the 1930s, “local” radio wasn’t all that local in Sonoma County. 

Santa Rosa residents had a choice of seven signals from San Francisco, four from Oakland and one from Berkeley. They were the nearest, but not all of them were powerful enough to be heard clearly at a distance of nearly 60 miles. Only KPO, KGO, KFRC and KSFO made the local newspaper listings on a regular basis.

The pioneering KQW, San Jose was 100 miles away and still broadcasting at 1,000 watts. It was almost certainly inaudible so far north during daylight hours.

A local Santa Rosa radio station was an idea that had been tried once before. In 1924, Mr. and Mrs, L.A. Drake, owners of the L.A. Drake Battery and Radio Supply shop, started station KFNV from a room in the Santa Rosa Republican newspaper building with five watts at 1300 on the AM dial.  In October of 1925, the Republican, referring to KFNV as its own station, reported it had signed off permanently, noting:

“Obviously, it was impossible for a broadcasting station in a little city like ours to compete in quality or completeness of service.”

By 1936, Santa Rosa had more than 10,000 residents, as well as services and businesses that could form an advertising base for a radio station.

It was time to try again.  This time it would be done with money.  It would be done with power—250 watts, more than enough to cover the area from Petaluma to Healdsburg with a clear signal.

It would be done by the Santa Rosa Republican’s arch-rival in the newspaper business back in the days of KFNV, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which bought the struggling Republican back in 1927 (it would be merged into the Press Democrat in 1948).

The banner news ran above the Press Democrat’s masthead on Thursday, November 19, 1936, in all caps:

PRESS DEMOCRAT WILL HAVE NEW MODERN RADIO STATION

It was a teaser.  There was no accompanying story. 

In fact, the Press Democrat’s owner, Ernest L. Finley, had been pursuing Federal Communications Commission approval for a new Santa Rosa station for most of the year.  He’d been granted a hearing in February, wound up in a four-way license application battle in June and lost, and finally had that decision reversed in November.

The following Sunday, November 22, 1936, saw another all-caps headline:

RADIO STATION PLANS LAUDED AS COMMUNITY BENEFITS SEEN

The piece had quotes from more than 30 local residents, mostly politicians and businesspeople excited over the prospect of a truly local radio station for Sonoma County. 

Fred Cairns, Secretary of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce was quoted as saying, “I’m looking forward myself for a chance to sing ‘My Wild Irish Rose’ over the station when it opens.”

Fred would have to be patient. Building a radio station takes time. In April, Finley ordered all-new RCA broadcast equipment and told Broadcasting magazine he hoped to have the station on the air by early June.

But come late June, graders were just arriving to level a four-acre plot of land in southwest Santa Rosa.  The transmitter tower wouldn’t begin to go up until mid-July (and wouldn’t be completed until the third week of August), and studios were still being built in what was the Press Democrat’s upstairs “social hall”. 

In fact, KSRO didn’t sign on until Sunday, September 19, 1937.  The dedication program lasted all day, with prayers from local clergy, salutes from elected officials throughout the Redwood Empire, and musical performances.  

There is no record of Fred Cairns singing “My Wild Irish Rose”.

The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement of 1941 could have been problematic for a young station establishing itself, but for KSRO, it was a government sanctioned boost in power, moving just down the dial from 1310 to 1350 kilocycles, but quadrupling its power, to 1,000 watts day and night, making it the most powerful radio station between San Francisco and Portland.  It could now be heard easily over all of Sonoma County, as well as Napa, Marin and Mendocino Counties, which did not have their own local stations and would not for several years.

Throughout the next few years, KSRO would be the area’s go-to source for news about World War II, but as the 1950s began, a military mishap almost silenced the station.  On January 2, 1950, a Navy VF-8 fighter brushed its wing against the top of one of the KSRO towers, bending the top 10 feet. No one was injured, the pilot maintained control of the airplane, and the Press Democrat reported that “…station attendants were unaware of the accident until mid-afternoon when shifts were changed and nearby residents carried over some of the wing pieces that fell from the plane.”

The station was able to continue broadcasting and nine days after the crash was off the air for just 24 minutes while a new top section of the tower was bolted into place.

In the early 1950s, KSRO programmed a blend of local and network programming from Gordon McLendon’s short-lived Liberty Broadcasting System, which also brought major league baseball games to the Santa Rosa airwaves.  Given the area’s vast agricultural resources, KSRO provided regular farm-related news and information. 

By the mid-1950s, Santa Rosa was growing rapidly, with a population of about 25,000, but KSRO continued to be community-focused, broadcasting events like the Redwood Empire Spelling Bee finals in 1956.

As KSRO approached its 20th anniversary in 1957, its music programming had streamlined from a something-for-everyone mix of shows featuring country, pop and classical music to an all-day format of adult-oriented popular music. Originally, that was a day-long show called Bandstand with staff announcers, which then evolved into individual shows hosted by personalities.  

By the fall of 1958, KSRO had moved into the Flamingo Hotel and morphed into a Top 40 station, promoting itself as “The Big K”. The earliest group of KSRO deejays, in 1958, included Chuck Carson, Al Pearson, and Chet Martin with newscasters Ken Minyard and George McLain.  The “Evening Concert” classical program, which had aired every weeknight at either 9 or 10 p.m. for 21 years, was moved to a five-hour slot on Sunday nights. 

In 1961, KSRO increased its power to 5,000 watts and by 1963 had dumped “The Big K” and the big beat, becoming a middle-of-the-road (MOR) station, playing music by artists like Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand. 

The personalities of the new, more adult approach included Jim Grady (who had been doing mornings since 1960), Bruce Allen, Tom Timko, and Barry Shannon. Soon-to-be-familiar names like future KSRO Program Director Woody Hanson, Jack Ballance and Dick Van Cleave would join the station over the next few years.

The Press Democrat celebrated KSRO’s 30th anniversary in 1967 with a full-page Sunday story with pictures and—unthinkable today—the actual street addresses of the KSRO personalities’ homes.

After 13 years at the Flamingo Hotel, KSRO needed more space for its growing staff. In 1971 it moved into its third studio location, a former Dutch Boy paint store on College Avenue (the building still stands and is now a title company office).  The move involved a $100,000 remodel and mostly new, state-of-the-art broadcast gear. A photo in the Press Democrat story about the move shows a shockingly modern control room for an AM radio station in a town of 50,000 people.

KSRO also proved itself to be forward-thinking when it moved then-20-year-old Kathy Hlebakos from the reception desk to the newsroom in early 1973.  She was the first woman radio newscaster in Sonoma County and among the first in Northern California.  The Press Democrat was somewhat less forward-thinking.  Three years later, in a station profile, the newspaper said Kathy was part of a “three-man” news department.

KSRO celebrated its 40th anniversary in late 1977 the way radio stations did in those days, not with a big community event, but with a giveaway. The station gave away $40 a day for 40 days, with the grand prize winner getting $1,350 (the station’s dial position) in cash.

As the 1970s became the 1980s, KSRO was fighting the same battles as most AM music stations, so it began promoting its 21 newscasts per day with a series of print ads in 1979, and by 1980, its ads in the Press Democrat were no longer attempting to attract listeners, but advertisers—a campaign that ran for several years. 

In early 1982, KSRO decided to double down on its local news reputation by doubling the amount of news it broadcast each day. Its new positioning statement: “The News People”.

Still, even rapidly-growing Santa Rosa was too small to go all-news against a giant like KCBS or offer news-talk against the legendary KGO. So the adult contemporary hits continued to be sprinkled in along with the news, and in the spring of 1985, KSRO tried to make music the focus with “The KSRO $50,000 Secret Song”.  Up for grabs: $50,000 in cash prizes, a seven-day Hawaiian vacation and a brand new BMW 318i.

That same year, cracks were beginning to show in KSRO’s foundation of community service.  It ended a roughly 30-year tradition of carrying Santa Rosa Junior College football games, citing increased production costs and a “lack of interest in local sports.” With a population nearing 100,000, many of whom were San Francisco commuters who came to Santa Rosa in search of (slightly) more affordable housing, the tight-knit community that had sustained KSRO for nearly 50 years was quickly fading.

1985 also saw KSRO buy an FM station, Healdsburg’s KREO (92.9, now KFGY).  The deal, which cost Finley Broadcasting an estimated $2.6 million, would give the company the ability to compete with increasingly dominant FM music stations. Finley sold the Press Democrat to the New York Times that same year.

But KSRO wasn’t ready to let the music die just yet.  In the spring of 1986, the “KSRO Secret Song Sweepstakes” was back, but with less than $50,000, with Puerto Vallarta instead of Hawaii and with a Ford Taurus instead of a BMW.

Finally, in October of 1987, just a couple of weeks after KSRO’s 50th anniversary, it made the inevitable change. The music was gone. The station changed formats to local news and talk from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the NBC Talknet satellite service in evenings and overnights. 

By the summer of 1988, there were rumors that Finley Broadcasting was ready to sell KSRO and KREO, rumors Finley denied.  Five months later, though, it was official. Fuller-Jeffrey, a broadcast group from Sacramento, was buying the stations for a reported $8 million. 

In April of 1989, even worse news at the top of the front page of the Press Democrat: All 45 employees of KSRO and KREO would be laid off, with only the possibility that some might be re-hired.

By the end of the month, the new owners softened the blow for the staff—there would be only 12 layoffs, but caused outrage among listeners by announcing that apart from the four-hour morning news, an hour-long local newscast at 1 p.m. and two-minute hourly local newscasts, the rest of KSRO’s programming would be replaced by syndicated satellite-delivered fare. 

KSRO’s tradition of ”Local First” was over. The new owners said it was “too expensive” to do 14 hours of locally-produced programming and suggested that Finley Broadcasting had been propping up a station that couldn’t make it under other owners.

Less than a year in, more cuts—this time a 30-year news veteran. The local news staff was back to three people, the same as twenty years before.

There were a few bright spots under KSRO’s new ownership. One was the addition of Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins to the local airwaves on Saturday night in late 1991 (though he would return to non-commercial KCSM in San Mateo in less than two years).

In 1992, Fuller-Jeffrey announced KSRO would leave its College Avenue studios and offices after 21 years. KSRO moved in when it had 55 employees working for one radio station.  By ‘92, that number was 25 working for two (KSRO and KHTT, the former KREO).  The building, at 8,000 square feet, was too big for what KSRO had become.

By 1994, KSRO was trying to add local programming back into the mix again—two hours in middays, a local doctor with a nutrition and diet show from 11 to noon, and a two hour evening program hosted by former and future California Governor Jerry Brown.  Both shows were a far cry from the local news and issues programs KSRO had been broadcasting for decades.

In 1996, Fuller-Jeffrey sold KSRO to Lawrence Amaturo.  He flipped it and its co-owned FMs to a Washington D.C.-based company called Emerald City Radio Partners four years later for $30 million. Amaturo’s Sonoma Radio Group bought the stations back in 2013 for $4.5 million. 

KSRO was lauded for its coverage of the 2018 Tubbs Fire and in that disaster and recovery proved to be the important community resource Ernest L. Finley envisioned 81 years earlier. But that was short-lived.  In 2023, its long-running local afternoon show was replaced with syndicated programming and one year later, KSRO ended its local morning news show. In the aftermath, KSRO would offer 24-7 syndicated talk programming with short local newscasts scheduled through the day.