KYA Radio

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KYA Radio originated as KYA in 1926, and is noted as having had the most owners of any radio station in the history of California, USA radio. Many owners had the station for less than a year in its early days, but even at its height, a three-year ownership was typical before changing hands once again. KYA 1260 was owned by everyone from Hearst Corporation to AVCO Broadcasting of California, a subsidiary of the jet and aerospace contractor.

Having moved to various locations around the radio dial during the chaotic early days of broadcasting, KYA was assigned permanently to 1260 kilocycles (now kiloHertz) by the Federal Communications Commission in 1941.

KYA was always tuned into the local community. In the mid-1950s, KYA made its mark as a rock and roll station. KYA was, in fact, the leading Top 40 music radio station in the Bay Area, until cross-town KFRC (with a superior signal) switched to top 40 music in 1966. From time to time, up through 1970, KYA would again beat KFRC in the Arbitron ratings, but KYA's dominance was truly over after the mid-60's. Ironically, former KYA morning man and legendary radio programmer Bill Drake went on to consult KFRC to its ratings success; in fact, it was at KYA that Drake first made his mark as program director. KYA was also instrumental in the careers of future sportscaster Johnny Holliday, audio and electronics store pitchman Tom Campbell, Hall of Fame disc jockey and underground radio pioneer Tom Donahue (a/k/a "Big Daddy"), and Tommy Saunders, who retired from KYA's descendant, KOIT, in 2006.

KYA, which became KOIT-AM in 1983 under the ownership of Bonneville International Corp., still transmits from the station's classic Julia Morgan-designed transmitter building on Candlestick Point, with studios at 2nd and Howard in San Francisco. Julia Morgan was on retainer for Hearst, and the building has the trademark Hearst eagle above the front door.

In 2006, the low-powered FM radio station KCFL-LP near Seattle — which had been operating as a tribute to Chicago's WCFL — switched to become a tribute to KYA, complete with vintage KYA jingles.

As of 2005, Verne Judson White of Clovis, California (who uses the on-air name Chris Edwards, but is not related to the original KYA disc jockey of the same name) created an Internet radio revival of KYA, kyaradio1.com, utilizing the archival jingles and imaging from KYA. White subsequently placed the kyaradio1.com Oldies format on three terrestrial FM stations in rural Central California, including KYAF-FM in Firebaugh.

A KYA jingle can be heard at the beginning of the movie Zodiac. A commercial for a now defunct local San Francisco Bay Area retailer, Gensler-Lee Diamonds, can be heard preceding the jingle.

Archival recordings of KYA radio can be played online at the Bay Area Radio Museum website.