KSFB

KSFB is an AM broadcasting station licensed on 1260 kHz at San Francisco, California. It broadcasts Immaculate Heart Radio, a Roman Catholic radio format, to the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. It was previously known as KYA (AM) until 1983, and KOIT (AM) and KXLR after that.

The AM station was a simulcast of the former sister station KOIT-FM, and unlike that station, continued to be owned by Bonneville International until February 1, 2008, when it was officially sold to IHR Educational Broadcasting.

History

KYA

The station originated as KYA in 1926, and has had 14 owners and 4 different callsigns in 85 years. KYA was owned by everyone from Hearst Corporation to Avco Broadcasting of California, a subsidiary of the jet and aerospace contractor.^[1]

KYA went on the air on 18 December 1926, with 500 watts on 970 kHz from the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. The owners were Vincent I. Kraft of Seattle, who had started KJR (AM) there; and Frederick C. Clift of San Francisco. It got a license for 1000 watts on 850 kHz in November 1927. Its studios moved to the Warfield Theatre Building at 988 Market Street, but the transmitter stayed at the Clift Hotel.^[1]

In November 1928 moved to 1230 kHz as part of a nationwide frequency reshuffling, and joined the Columbia Broadcasting System. By May 1929 its transmitter was reported to be at 680 Geary Street at Taylor Street. The station licensee went bankrupt in August, and KYA was transferred to a new corporation by the end of 1929. The transmitter facility was moved again, on 25 June 1930, to the Whitcomb Hotel.^[1] Having moved to various locations around the radio dial during the chaotic early days of broadcasting, KYA was assigned permanently to 1260 kHz as a result of NARBA in 1941.^[1]

Rock and roll era

In the mid-1950s, KYA made its mark as a rock and roll station. KYA was for many years the leading Top 40 music radio station in the Bay Area, until the stronger-signalled KFRC switched to the format 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. 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 successor, KOIT, in 2006.

Other notable disc jockeys that plied their trade on KYA's airwaves in the 1960s included Casey Kasem, Jim Stagg, Bobby Mitchell, Norman Davis, "Emperor" Gene Nelson, Peter Tripp, Tony Bigg, Russ "The Moose" Syracuse, Chris Edwards, Ed Hider, Johnny Holliday, Bill Holley (a cousin of Buddy Holly), Bwana Johnny and Ron O'Quinn. In the mid-1960s, a group of KYA DJs, led by Holliday, formed a basketball team known as the KYA Oneders (pronounced "Wonders"). The team played many Bay Area high school faculties, helping the schools raise funds for a variety of programs. Perhaps the most famous of the Oneders was Rick Barry, who played for the team during the 1967-68 campaign before jumping from the NBA's San Francisco Warriors to the ABA's Oakland Oaks.

During the 1960s, the radio station issued a weekly tabloid newsletter, KYA Beat (also known as The Official Top 30), which was available at Bay Area record stores. The station also boasted a first-rate news team, which included Larry Brownell (air name of Larry Buller), Tony Tremayne (air name of Mel Fritze) and Brad Messer, who would later be inducted in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

KYA's dominance was truly over in the late 1970s when King Broadcasting took over on November 1, 1977, and changed format to Adult Contemporary.^[1]

KOIT and KXLR

KYA, which became KOIT 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. Morgan was on retainer for Hearst, and the building has the trademark Hearst eagle above the front door.

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.

In mid-2007, Bonneville reached an agreement to sell the 1260 AM frequency to IHR Educational Broadcasting. IHR took over the station's operations in December of that year under a time-brokerage agreement, and officially closed on the station on February 1, 2008.

In 2007, KOIT-AM, the former 1260/KYA, became KSFB, a Catholic-oriented station owned by Immaculate Heart Radio. Ironically, KYA's chief Top 40 rival in the 1960s and 1970s, KFRC (610 AM), is now the Christian-oriented KEAR (the KFRC call letters would return in January 2009, this time at 1550 AM replacing KYCY and the station is owned by CBS Radio).

Catholic radio

On December 10, 2007, a religious format came to 1260 AM; the call sign was changed to KSFB. KSFB is part of one of the largest Catholic radio network in America, and its daily broadcasts include daily mass and rosary. Many other programs such as Life is Worth Living with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Fr. John Corapi, and Mother Angelica are also on the air.

See also

• 93.3 KRZZ, which began as co-owned KYA-FM and simulcast AM 1260 during several periods
• 96.5 KOIT-FM, which was co-owned from 1983, was the source of AM 1260's KOIT callsign, and simulcast AM 1260 for a time

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for KSFB
• Radio-Locator Information on KSFB
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for KSFB
• Radio station KYA technical/owner history
• The History of KYA from "Voices Out Of The Fog"
• Archival KYA broadcast recordings from the Bay Area Radio Museum