| City of license | San Jose, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Jose/Oakland/San Francisco, California |
| Branding | China 92.3 FM |
| Slogan | The Bay Area's only 24/7 Chinese FM |
| Frequency | 92.3 MHz |
| First air date | 1947 |
| Format | Chinese |
| ERP | 32,000 watts |
| HAAT | 136 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 4117 |
| Owner | Universal Media Access |
| Sister stations | KCNL, KLOK |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | china923fm.com |
KSJO is a commercial radio station in San Jose, California, and broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area on 92.3 FM. KSJO currently airs a Chinese format branded as China 92.3 FM.
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KSJO is the second call sign assigned in San Jose, California, initially applied to both an AM station (KLIV) and an FM station. The FM station began in 1947 and became the only radio station in the United States with an all-female staff playing jazz music.
Prior to 1968, KSJO was owned by SRD Broadcasting, consisting of Scott Elrod of San Francisco; Don was Don Bekins of Bekins Van Lines and R was Richard "Dick" Garvin. As freeform rock was growing in popularity, with Tom Donahue's KMPX in nearby San Francisco becoming a national trendsetter, KSJO dropped jazz, starting in the evening only with Mark Williams and Jim Hilsabeck. After a few months Elrod and team brought in Bob Sobelman, a radio veteran, to GM the station and Larry Mitchell a top L.A. program director took over the helm. "The Light from Below" was one of the early slogans but did not live long ("below the San Francisco Bay"), the format was pure free-form progressive rock. The previous simple female-sex-symbol logo morphed into a red-white-and-blue logo and bumper sticker designed by Diane Roberts in Los Gatos, and the announcing staff was all-male for many years Brief stint program directors included Bill Slator and Dick Kimball but for 5 plus years Douglas (Droese) was the program director remaining so until the Sterling buy out in 1974. The station was later sold to Sterling Recreation Organization (SRO) of Seattle, Washington.
For much of its history, KSJO was locked in a bitter rivalry with KOME, which also flipped to rock in 1968. At one point, in the early 1970s, KSJO briefly flipped to a Top 40 format, before returning to rock. By the end of the decade, KOME had surpassed KSJO in the ratings.
The rock war heated up when stations in San Francisco started changing to the format. KSAN was the main San Francisco competitor throughout the 1970s, and more stations arrived. In the mid to late 1970s KSJO was known for its outrageous morning show. Advertising Director Perry White (Hartline) partnered with Michael "Mother Deal" to make morning news fun for the 'rocker' audience. At one point, in late 1982, four different stations in San Francisco alone were programming the format, in addition to KSJO and KOME.
However, in 1982 led by broadcast veteran, Jack Chunn, KSJO 92.3 FM started to dominate the Rock Radio scene in San Jose (and with respectable ratings to the north in San Francisco and to the south in Monterey/Santa Cruz). Program Director Larry 'Baby Lee Roy' Hansen assembled a strong group of air personalities including Trevor Ley and Jim Taylor (mornings), Ken Anthony (afternoons), Nicki Stevens (evenings) and Jim Seagull (overnights). Combined with strong marketing and a guerrilla street presence from promotions director Bob Jenkins and assistant Rodney Whitaker, KSJO dominated as 'The Bay Area's Home for Rock & Roll' for most of the 1980s.
KSJO is credited with airing the first-ever AIDS radiothon in 1987, raising $25,000 for a San Jose AIDS hospice. Considering their reputation as a macho rock station, this was a complete departure for a day, but audience response was upbeat and KSJO promoted a candid dialogue about HIV/AIDS with their 18-34 audience, the most sexually active group in the U.S. Program Director Ken Anthony and morning personality Paul 'Lobster' Wells organized the event with mid day host Zeb Norris, afternoon personality Laurie Roberts, promo director Bob Jenkins and assistants Martyn Wright and Mike Russell. Several rock stars donated their time and merchandise to help raise funds, including Neil Young, Ronnie Montrose, Mark Andes of Heart, Neal Schon of Journey, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane and Jimmie Vaughan of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
By 1994, KOME had flipped to modern rock and KSJO was the stand-alone AOR station in Santa Clara Valley. Also, many of the San Francisco rock stations had long changed to different formats as well. KSJO rode a wave of popularity during the decade due primarily to the appeal of morning personalities Lamont and Tonelli. By 1998, KSJO's signal was simulcast on three other separate stations (located near 92.3 on the dial) around the San Francisco Bay Area: 92.7 KXJO in Alameda/Oakland, 92.7 KMJO in Marina and 92.1 KFJO in Walnut Creek.
As the new millennium arrived, KSJO's fortunes started to slide. Lamont and Tonelli were signed away by KSAN-FM in late 2002, and KXJO was sold to a separate entity that same year, flipping to a CHR format. KSJO's ratings started to slide as the demographics of the Bay Area changed. An increasingly large local Hispanic population and the rise of Hip Hop helped to chip away at the heritage rock station. [1] Radio veteran Dave Wohlman was named PD in 2004 and began the task of re-inventing the rock legend with a new staff, sound and direction.
KSJO's owner, Clear Channel Communications, had instituted an ambitious initiative to introduce more Spanish-language programming into various markets across the country. When the Walnut Creek simulcast station, KFJO, became KABL in 2004, many speculated that KSJO would soon drop rock for a Spanish-language format. The end came unannounced at 7PM on October 28, 2004, when KSJO, after 35 years as a rock station, played its last song, "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo, and immediately launched a new Mexican oldies format as "La Preciosa". Longtime listeners were angered at the sudden loss of the Bay Area's last remaining active rock station.
The "La Preciosa" identity is also used by a few other Clear Channel Spanish-language, Mexican music stations.
On August 4, 2008, Clear Channel placed the station's assets into an entity called the Aloha Station Trust in order to sell off the station. This was due to Clear Channel being above the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limits. These limits were imposed when Clear Channel was officially taken private by Bain Capital Partners on July 30, 2008.
On September 18, 2009 KSJO picked up the "Channel 104.9" modern rock format from KCNL 104.9, branded as "Channel 92.3". The staff consisted of Joe Sib in the mornings, Jessie on middays, MegaTanner (formerly on KITS in San Francisco), and Teddy and Chris.
Unlike many Alternative stations, Channel 92.3 focused on new music and Alternative classics from the '70's and the '80's, with not as much emphasis on the '90's.
On November 10, 2010, RadioInsight announced that Principle Broadcasting, which owns brokered ethnic stations in various cities, made an agreement with Clear Channel's Aloha Station Trust to buy KSJO. Principle also owns KCNL and KLOK AM in San Jose.[2] The sale was completed on February 28, 2011-- the staff of Channel 92.3 was let go, and the station ran without airstaff, playing music while promoting savealternative.com.[3]
On March 16, 2011, former Channel 92.3 hosts Teddy and Madden were invited back to give the station and its alternative rock format a proper send-off. At 10 AM, KSJO launched a new Chinese-language format branded simply as 92.3 KSJO. Save Alternative is now streamed online at savealternative.com and on 104.9 HD-2. In addition, Save Alternative is broadcast on 104.9 KCNL every Saturday and Sunday night from 8 PM until midnight.
KSJO has recently been broadcasting dance music on its HD2 sub-channel since sometime in June.
Arbitron average share, total age 12-plus, 06:00 - midnite, seven days:
Apr/May 78 Jul/Aug 78 Oct/Nov 78 Jan/Feb 79 Apr/May 79
KSJO 2.6 --- 2.4 3.2 4.0 KOME 2.7 --- 2.8 4.4 5.2 KSAN 1.3 --- 0.7 0.7 0.7
KSJO 0.8 1.8 1.0 1.1 1.2 KOME 0.8 0.9 0.8 1.6 1.9 KSAN 1.9 2.1 1.8 1.9 1.8
It appears that KSJO's dominance in Santa Clara Valley rock began to fade against KOME in January/February 1979. Although KSJO came close to beating KSAN in July/August 1978 nine-county, KOME actually did so in April/May 1979.
Before he launched his acting career, Ron Hayes worked for KSJO in the middle 1950s.
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