Gordon Zlot’s Sonoma County broadcast empire started with KZST, which went on the air from a transmitter on Mt. Taylor on April 18, 1971. It was the culmination of a dream for Zlot, who said upon induction into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2018 that he’d started in radio as a 9-year-old with a homebuilt transmitter. “I had one listener,” Zlot admitted, “the girl next door.”
Zlot, a Vallejo native and San Jose State College graduate, was listed with his wife Susan “Suzy” Zlot as the owners of Redwood Empire Stereocasters when they filed for a new Federal Communications Commission license.
By the time the station went on the air, ownership of Redwood Empire Stereocasters had been amended to reflect investments by Zlot’s father Dr. Morris Zlot, a Vallejo optometrist, Jewish community leader, and former city council member; as well as his father-in-law, San Francisco tobacco and candy wholesaler Marvin A. Sosnick.
The original studio location was on College Avenue, across the street from Santa Rosa Middle School. The station marketed itself as “K-Zest”, offering an automated format that Zlot described as “soft sounds for easy listening”. An ABC FM Radio Network affiliation provided hourly three-minute newscasts.
Even before the station hit the airwaves, Gordon Zlot was busy managing an anticipated complaint. An experienced broadcast engineer, he foresaw gripes from North Bay residents who often used boosters to improve their reception of far-off Bay Area TV and FM signals. In a letter to the editor published in the Press Democrat, Zlot explained that the new FM signal could overwhelm their devices.
Zlot explained that, technically speaking, this was not “interference” on the part of KZST. He suggested people experiencing the problem could either install an FM filter on their booster system, or perhaps do without the booster entirely.
In November 1971, KZST became a 24-hour station. From 11 PM to 6 AM, the station broke from its “easy listening” format to program album rock, blues, jazz and folk music. Suzy Zlot served as the station’s program director through the early years as KZST added in symphonic music, old-time radio shows such as The Shadow, local weather forecasts, and other elements to break up the automated flow of easy-listening music.
KZST claimed a “first” in 1972, receiving FCC approval for a booster transmitter sharing the station’s 100.1 FM frequency. When the booster on Sonoma Mountain was fired up in mid-1973, Zlot said it was the first licensed FM booster in the nation. It improved the station’s coverage in southern Sonoma County and helped add potential listeners in Marin County.
At the start of 1977, KZST added its first local talk show. Former Chicago broadcaster Stan Dale (who’d also had brief stays at KGO and K-101) launched a Sunday night program he said would focus on philosophy, sex, and other human relationships. Dale lectured on human sexuality at Sonoma State College and, with his wife Helen, was promoting an “open marriage-open relationship workshop, party and dance” at El Rancho Tropicana.
In 1978, on-air talent included morning host Charles Johnson (also the station’s production director), afternoon host Tony George (who doubled as operations manager), and Juli Cortino, billed as “the Redwood Empire’s only woman News Director”.
By 1980, KZST was sitting comfortably in third place in Arbitron’s first-ever Santa Rosa ratings survey, not far behind upstart KREO and legacy broadcaster KSRO. The station was offering local newscasts, hosting city council candidates’ roundtables, and generally doing what local broadcasters do: paying attention to the community.
That same year, the Sonoma County Fair gave the station an unexpected promotional opportunity. KZST reporter Robb Deignan was interviewing one of the Fair’s featured acts and got her to say on tape, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Loretta Lynn and when I’m in Santa Rosa, I always listen to KZST.”
By the spring of 1981, KZST was laying claim to a #1 12+ rating in the Santa Rosa market among Sonoma County stations, though its 6.5 share still trailed San Francisco powerhouses like KFRC, KGO, KCBS and KNBR. That local ratings dominance would continue for many years; into the 1990s, KZST reliably posted double-digit Arbitron shares.
Ten years after its launch, KZST was still the kind of station that could place a newspaper ad, as it did in 1981, pitching an opening for an account executive–and inviting applicants to call owner Gordon Zlot at the station on a coming Sunday afternoon to arrange an interview.
In 1985, Zlot hired a new morning host. Brent Farris had worked at a number of Northern California stations but he never added another set of call letters to his resume, sticking with KZST until his 2023 retirement. Ferris’ personality-driven show meant the transition from the early automated version of KZST was complete. In later years, Ferris would double as KZST’s program director.
In the spring of 1986, as Sonoma County recovered from record Russian River flooding, KZST had plans to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. A $5,000 giveaway was halted when the volume of telephone calls overloaded Santa Rosa’s exchange and caused 20,000 customers to lose service. Published reports said the local Pacific Bell manager had to drive to the radio station to ask it to call off the contest, since there was no way to dial in.
A year later, a different KZST promo tied up traffic for three hours when a treasure hunt drew crowds to the Stony Point Value Center. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and while a newspaper photo depicted a lucky winner crying with joy, plenty of shoppers and merchants were unamused.
The grumbling got even louder in late 1988 when yet another KZST promotion (this one offering 15 gallons of gasoline for $1) triggered a massive line of cars near the Coddingtown shopping center, blocking access to the center during a major storm. When police ordered the gas station to shut down, KZST was unable to get the word out; the storm had knocked the station off the air. The shopping center threatened to sue KZST and the mayor of Santa Rosa asked the city attorney to study remedies.
A 1987 analysis of Sonoma County’s radio business in The Press Democrat found KZST was not only the ratings leader in Santa Rosa, but with an estimated $1.9 million in 1986 revenue, was matching the combined operation at KSRO/KREO. The story noted that KZST was charging a market-leading $48 for a one-minute commercial.
KZST hired “Captain Phil” Perrin to become Sonoma County’s first airborne traffic reporter, and in 1987, the station joined the newly-launched Traffic Central organization to expand traffic coverage. That year, Sonoma County’s population passed the 350,000 mark, representing a growth of 67% since KZST’s 1971 launch.
In 1988, Zlot announced that construction was underway on a new home for KZST. The 10,000 square foot facility on Santa Rosa’s Mendocino Avenue would be dubbed “Broadcast Park”. Zlot said the new facility would operate entirely with digital audio, then a new trend in the radio industry.
Entering the 1990s, KZST had occupied the new building, sticking to its longstanding Adult Contemporary format, and defending its number-one position among local stations with an annual promotional budget of what Zlot said was “in excess of $300,000”.
Some portion of that budget was paid to insure a heavily-promoted million dollar giveaway in 1993. For weeks, KZST talked up a contest that would make someone a millionaire at 7:10 AM on May 26, 1993. All the winner had to do was say the magic words, “KZST, make me a millionaire” within ten seconds of receiving a random phone call. When morning hosts Brent Farris and Rob Taylor reached someone named Lisa at the appointed hour, she couldn’t come up with the magic words. Contest over.
1994 saw KZST finally part ways with Jerry Murray, a controversial author whose license to practice psychotherapy had been revoked. Murray had hosted a Sunday evening relationships show called For Lovers Only for more than three years when he was arrested–not for the first time–on charges of practicing without a license and sexually exploiting a female patient.
KZST marked its silver anniversary in 1996 with a familiar stunt: cheap gas. This time, listeners were told they could fill ‘er up at the Chevron station near the Coddingtown Mall for 36.9 cents a gallon–the price of gas when KZST went on the air in 1971. The station said it had a plan to avoid repeats of the gas-giveaway gridlock it triggered in the ’80s; this time, the mall parking lot would be used to line up drivers seeking the discount. By 9 AM on giveaway day, the allotted 150 tanks had been filled and no complaints were heard.
At the turn of the 21st century, KZST was still the dominant station in the Santa Rosa market, routinely posting ratings that dwarfed other Sonoma County stations. Brent Farris remained a morning-show fixture.
Few broadcasters can claim to have owned and operated a radio station for fifty years. Gordon Zlot marked that milestone in 2021, and a year later, sold KZST to Amaturo Sonoma Media, led by Lawrence Amaturo and Michael O’Shea. The reported $6 million dollar deal included KZST and one of Redwood Empire Stereocasters’ other stations, KWVF. Zlot’s company retained ownership of KBBL (Cazadero) and KJZY (Sebastopol).
Brent Farris’ September 2023 retirement marked the end of another era for KZST. But some things don’t appear to change. By the summer of 2025, KZST was still airing the Adult Contemporary format it launched 54 years earlier, and it was still atop Santa Rosa radio ratings.
