KUFY joined the mix of Bay Area radio stations in 1963, five years after paperwork had first been filed seeking a new FM license at 107.7 on the dial. The station’s original city of license was Redwood City; that was changed to San Mateo in the last months before the station went on the air.
The construction permit for the station, among the last frequencies available in the region, had been acquired by Scott Killgore’s Inter-Continental Radio from Franklin James. Killgore’s parent company Tele-Broadcasters held a portfolio of stations that included KOFY, and the new station’s studios were to share space with KOFY’s downtown San Mateo facility.
James had received Federal Communications Commission approval to put the station on the air as far back as 1960, prevailing when competitor Grant Wrathall (owner of KSAY) withdrew his application. But James was unable to get to the finish line. He’d reportedly purchased a used transmitter from KPEN and had even discussed leasing that station’s original studio building in Woodside, to no avail.
Not only was there an ownership change before the station got on the air; the original call letter grant of KCUF had been altered to KUFY in 1962.
The station’s background music format, billed as “Music Unlimited”, was common among FM stations of the era.
A year after putting KUFY on the air, Killgore’s holding company Tele-Broadcasters Inc. reported a net loss of $152,000 on operations involving its Bay Area stations as well as properties in Los Angeles, El Centro, Guam, and elsewhere. Killgore was a colorful figure nicknamed “Chief” and “Big Daddy” by his staff. His wife was once quoted as saying, “The greatest tragedy of Scott’s life is that he is continuously 10 years ahead of his time. His vision often outreaches that of more timorous bankers.”
In early 1967, Killgore hit pay dirt, selling KUFY as well as a San Gabriel, CA radio station and a construction permit for a TV station in El Centro, CA to United Broadcasting Company for $1.9 million. Killgore also got a five-year consulting deal worth $30,000 per year from United Broadcasting and held onto his other Bay Area station, KOFY.
United Broadcasting was owned by Richard Eaton, who owned numerous radio and TV stations and was enmeshed at the time in a license renewal battle involving his Washington, D.C. station WOOK.
The new ownership filed for permission to change KUFY’s call letters to KLUZ and soon thereafter requested KVEZ. When those calls were granted on October 15, 1967, KUFY became a short chapter in Bay Area radio history.
