Concord’s KWUN, licensed to Service Broadcasting Co., began its regular broadcasts on September 30, 1961.
The station made news the hard way a few days earlier when chief engineer Tony Russell drove a car into an antenna guy wire, causing the 200-foot tower to crash down on his vehicle. The Martinez News-Gazette reported Russell “escaped death or serious injury by inches.”
Two years later, KWUN was sold. The new license-holder, KWUN, Inc., made its first broadcast from a 500-watt transmitter near the Concord Naval Weapons Station on November 17, 1963.
Though the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the tiny station would serve as a training ground for ground for many broadcasters on their way to bigger stations.
By the early 80’s, Richard Helzberg was fulfilling a lifelong dream by owning a radio station. The son of a prominent local jeweler, Helzberg’s foray into radio didn’t last long; he sold KWUN at a loss to Chester Coleman and Joe Buerry within five years of buying it.
This would begin a series of call letter and format changes, as well as the 1993 loss of the lease for the land on which the transmitter site was located.
For several years, the station–now known as KABN–operated from a minuscule 25-watt transmitter.
The end came in 2004 when the station went silent. The Federal Communications Commission revoked the station’s license and terminated the call letters effective December 21, 2005.
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