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KSFO
KSFO (810 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, featuring a conservative talk radio format. Owned by Cumulus Media, KSFO's studios are on Battery Street in San Francisco's Financial District. KSFO used the call sign KGO from 1924 to 2024.
KSFO's transmitter site is in Fremont, near the Dumbarton Bridge, where its prominent towers are used by pilots as a landmark when navigating. KSFO broadcasts with 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted for AM stations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. Most of its signal is sent north and south to avoid interfering with the other Class A station on 810 AM, WGY in Schenectady. Most nights, using a good radio, KSFO can be heard throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Due to its extensive groundwave signal, its daytime coverage extends into many areas of Northern California.
After several late-night test broadcasts, using the experimental call sign 6XG, the station signed on, as KGO, on January 8, 1924. It broadcast from General Electric's (GE) Oakland transformer manufacturing plant. (The original two-story brick building, constructed specifically for the station on East 14th Street, was demolished sometime in the 1980s.) The station was authorized for a then-impressive transmitting power of 1,000 watts. KGO was part of GE's three-station holdings, in addition to WGY in Schenectady, New York and KOA in Denver, Colorado. At its debut it was known as the "Sunset Station", because it was GE's West Coast outlet.
As was the custom with early radio stations, the programming consisted of performances by local talent, including the KGO Orchestra. which provided some of the music, and a dramatic group known as the KGO Players, which performed weekly plays and short skits, often under the direction of Bay Area drama instructor Wilda Wilson Church. The station's music, which was also performed by other local orchestras and vocalists, included classical selections as well as popular dance music the next night. Due to GE's association with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and RCA's 1927 launch of the NBC Red Network, KGO was soon operated by NBC management out of studio facilities in San Francisco.
The March 28, 1928, reauthorization of the Radio Act of 1927 included a provision, known as the Davis Amendment, which mandated an "equality of radio broadcasting service" within the United States. This specified an "equitable allocation" among five regional zones. On November 11, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) implemented a major broadcasting station reallocation, based on its General Order 40. Included in this band plan was the designation of what became known as "clear channel" stations, which were high powered stations with extensive nighttime coverage. This plan designated 40 U.S. clear channels, divided eight to each region, with KGO, on 790 kHz, included as one of the Region 5 assignments. The only other station assigned to 790 kHz was WGY. KGO and WGY were both owned by GE, with WGY considered the company's showcase station. GE was able to effectively transfer KGO's clear channel assignment from Region 5 to WGY's Region 1, by increasing the power of WGY to 50,000 watts, while limiting KGO to 7,500 watts. (Directional antennas were not developed until the early 1930s, so both stations operated with non-directional antennas.) Any question about the propriety of this action became moot after the Davis Amendment was repealed on June 5, 1936.
In 1941, stations on 790, including WGY and KGO, were moved to 810 as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required NBC to sell one of its two networks (and that network's owned-and-operated stations), KGO's license switched from Radio Corporation of America to the Blue Network, Inc., effective January 23, 1942. The NBC Blue Network initially simply dropped "NBC" from its name to become the "Blue Network", then in June 1945 became the American Broadcasting Company. KGO became one of the founding stations of the ABC Radio Network as a result.
In the post World War 2 period, KGO produced many live music programs, including that of Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills, whose music was a staple of the time. KGO was instrumental in bringing the first exercise show to broadcasting, hosted by Jack LaLanne, a fitness instructor and gym operator in nearby Oakland. LaLanne conducted his radio fitness show for many years on KGO, moving in the late 1950s to KGO-TV and a successful TV syndication career.
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KSFO
KSFO (810 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, featuring a conservative talk radio format. Owned by Cumulus Media, KSFO's studios are on Battery Street in San Francisco's Financial District. KSFO used the call sign KGO from 1924 to 2024.
KSFO's transmitter site is in Fremont, near the Dumbarton Bridge, where its prominent towers are used by pilots as a landmark when navigating. KSFO broadcasts with 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted for AM stations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. Most of its signal is sent north and south to avoid interfering with the other Class A station on 810 AM, WGY in Schenectady. Most nights, using a good radio, KSFO can be heard throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Due to its extensive groundwave signal, its daytime coverage extends into many areas of Northern California.
After several late-night test broadcasts, using the experimental call sign 6XG, the station signed on, as KGO, on January 8, 1924. It broadcast from General Electric's (GE) Oakland transformer manufacturing plant. (The original two-story brick building, constructed specifically for the station on East 14th Street, was demolished sometime in the 1980s.) The station was authorized for a then-impressive transmitting power of 1,000 watts. KGO was part of GE's three-station holdings, in addition to WGY in Schenectady, New York and KOA in Denver, Colorado. At its debut it was known as the "Sunset Station", because it was GE's West Coast outlet.
As was the custom with early radio stations, the programming consisted of performances by local talent, including the KGO Orchestra. which provided some of the music, and a dramatic group known as the KGO Players, which performed weekly plays and short skits, often under the direction of Bay Area drama instructor Wilda Wilson Church. The station's music, which was also performed by other local orchestras and vocalists, included classical selections as well as popular dance music the next night. Due to GE's association with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and RCA's 1927 launch of the NBC Red Network, KGO was soon operated by NBC management out of studio facilities in San Francisco.
The March 28, 1928, reauthorization of the Radio Act of 1927 included a provision, known as the Davis Amendment, which mandated an "equality of radio broadcasting service" within the United States. This specified an "equitable allocation" among five regional zones. On November 11, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) implemented a major broadcasting station reallocation, based on its General Order 40. Included in this band plan was the designation of what became known as "clear channel" stations, which were high powered stations with extensive nighttime coverage. This plan designated 40 U.S. clear channels, divided eight to each region, with KGO, on 790 kHz, included as one of the Region 5 assignments. The only other station assigned to 790 kHz was WGY. KGO and WGY were both owned by GE, with WGY considered the company's showcase station. GE was able to effectively transfer KGO's clear channel assignment from Region 5 to WGY's Region 1, by increasing the power of WGY to 50,000 watts, while limiting KGO to 7,500 watts. (Directional antennas were not developed until the early 1930s, so both stations operated with non-directional antennas.) Any question about the propriety of this action became moot after the Davis Amendment was repealed on June 5, 1936.
In 1941, stations on 790, including WGY and KGO, were moved to 810 as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required NBC to sell one of its two networks (and that network's owned-and-operated stations), KGO's license switched from Radio Corporation of America to the Blue Network, Inc., effective January 23, 1942. The NBC Blue Network initially simply dropped "NBC" from its name to become the "Blue Network", then in June 1945 became the American Broadcasting Company. KGO became one of the founding stations of the ABC Radio Network as a result.
In the post World War 2 period, KGO produced many live music programs, including that of Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills, whose music was a staple of the time. KGO was instrumental in bringing the first exercise show to broadcasting, hosted by Jack LaLanne, a fitness instructor and gym operator in nearby Oakland. LaLanne conducted his radio fitness show for many years on KGO, moving in the late 1950s to KGO-TV and a successful TV syndication career.