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KMEL
KMEL (106.1 FM) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia.
KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadcasts a "superpower" Class B signal of 69,000 watts from a transmitter atop the San Bruno Mountains south of San Francisco. The station's powerful signal is heard all over the Bay Area and covers areas as far north as Santa Rosa and as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is currently one of the highest-rated stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the largest listening audience in the males 18-to-34 year-old demographic.
106.1 FM began as KGO-FM, sister station of KGO. The FM station was originally licensed at 96.9 FM in 1946. KGO-FM moved to 106.1 FM on November 3, 1947, with facilities at a former General Electric plant on East 12th Street in Oakland. On January 14, 1955, KGO-FM moved from 106.1 to 103.7 and today is KOSF.
On May 7, 1958, RKO General, owner of Top 40 powerhouse KFRC 610 AM, was granted authority to construct a new station at 106.1 FM and on July 20, 1961, it became officially licensed with the call letters KFRC-FM. The station's call letters changed to KFMS in November 1968, then KKEE in October 1972. In September 1973, the KFRC-FM call letters were reinstated, and the station began a "nostalgia rock" format, playing oldies and soft rock as "K106".
On July 2, 1977, after Century Broadcasting purchased the FM station, KFRC-FM changed call letters to KMEL, and flipped to album-oriented rock ("AOR"). Psychedelic poster artist Victor Moscoso created the station's mascot: a camel wearing headphones. The station used the KMEL call letters to name itself "Camel 106".
KMEL was a top-rated station in 1980, with a tightly formatted approach, and along with newer rival KSFX, helped force legendary rival KSAN to switch to country music. That same year, KMEL signed popular New York radio personality and San Francisco native Alex Bennett. Bennett anchored the morning position which was followed by well-liked veteran Tony Kilbert covering mid-day, music director Paul Vincent covering the afternoon, then Mary Holloway and Michael St. John in the evening. The station played mostly cuts from about 30 top rock albums, interspersed with a few lesser known songs such as on the "Fresh Kamel Trax" feature highlighting new albums at noon and at 8 p.m. With news reporter/sidekick Joe Regelski, Bennett built a large following over the next two years, becoming known as a "benignly nasty" morning DJ, "the guy everybody loves to hate", according to Promotion Director Ken Wardell.
In 1982, there were many changes at Bay Area rock stations. In January 1982, KMEL obtained a new rival when KCBS-FM transformed itself from an adult contemporary-format station into rock-formatted KRQR. In May 1982, AOR competitor KSFX dropped rock and went to a talk format as KGO-FM. Bennett and Regelski left KMEL in June after the station hired Sebastian, Casey & Associates as programming consultants to increase ratings. Bennett said that programming consultants were "the single most cancerous force in our industry." In August, Bennett and Regelski went to work at KQAK. KMEL lost market share to its competition—KQAK, KRQR, KOME and KSJO. In September 1982, KFOG entered the battle for rock-listener market share after dropping its beautiful music format in favor of an eclectic mix of rock. With so many album rock stations in the Bay Area, KMEL faced stiff competition.
Despite KQAK switching away from its album rock format in April 1983, changing to modern rock, the Bay Area AOR scene was still highly competitive. KMEL finally dropped the album rock format at noon on August 25, 1984. After playing "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean, followed by the national anthem performed by Huey Lewis and the News, KMEL flipped to a mainstream CHR format designed by new program director Nick Bazoo, brought in for the purpose from WEZB in New Orleans. The first song under the new format was "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson. Bazoo took on the young Keith Naftaly as music coordinator. Bazoo was credited with breaking the song "One Night in Bangkok" in May 1985. Bazoo left KMEL for Los Angeles in June 1985, and Steve Rivers was hired from Tampa to take his place as program director. Naftaly continued underneath Rivers. Despite the format switch, the KMEL callsign was retained as a holdover to this day. KMEL was also an affiliate of The Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown with Scott Shannon.
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KMEL
KMEL (106.1 FM) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia.
KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadcasts a "superpower" Class B signal of 69,000 watts from a transmitter atop the San Bruno Mountains south of San Francisco. The station's powerful signal is heard all over the Bay Area and covers areas as far north as Santa Rosa and as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is currently one of the highest-rated stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the largest listening audience in the males 18-to-34 year-old demographic.
106.1 FM began as KGO-FM, sister station of KGO. The FM station was originally licensed at 96.9 FM in 1946. KGO-FM moved to 106.1 FM on November 3, 1947, with facilities at a former General Electric plant on East 12th Street in Oakland. On January 14, 1955, KGO-FM moved from 106.1 to 103.7 and today is KOSF.
On May 7, 1958, RKO General, owner of Top 40 powerhouse KFRC 610 AM, was granted authority to construct a new station at 106.1 FM and on July 20, 1961, it became officially licensed with the call letters KFRC-FM. The station's call letters changed to KFMS in November 1968, then KKEE in October 1972. In September 1973, the KFRC-FM call letters were reinstated, and the station began a "nostalgia rock" format, playing oldies and soft rock as "K106".
On July 2, 1977, after Century Broadcasting purchased the FM station, KFRC-FM changed call letters to KMEL, and flipped to album-oriented rock ("AOR"). Psychedelic poster artist Victor Moscoso created the station's mascot: a camel wearing headphones. The station used the KMEL call letters to name itself "Camel 106".
KMEL was a top-rated station in 1980, with a tightly formatted approach, and along with newer rival KSFX, helped force legendary rival KSAN to switch to country music. That same year, KMEL signed popular New York radio personality and San Francisco native Alex Bennett. Bennett anchored the morning position which was followed by well-liked veteran Tony Kilbert covering mid-day, music director Paul Vincent covering the afternoon, then Mary Holloway and Michael St. John in the evening. The station played mostly cuts from about 30 top rock albums, interspersed with a few lesser known songs such as on the "Fresh Kamel Trax" feature highlighting new albums at noon and at 8 p.m. With news reporter/sidekick Joe Regelski, Bennett built a large following over the next two years, becoming known as a "benignly nasty" morning DJ, "the guy everybody loves to hate", according to Promotion Director Ken Wardell.
In 1982, there were many changes at Bay Area rock stations. In January 1982, KMEL obtained a new rival when KCBS-FM transformed itself from an adult contemporary-format station into rock-formatted KRQR. In May 1982, AOR competitor KSFX dropped rock and went to a talk format as KGO-FM. Bennett and Regelski left KMEL in June after the station hired Sebastian, Casey & Associates as programming consultants to increase ratings. Bennett said that programming consultants were "the single most cancerous force in our industry." In August, Bennett and Regelski went to work at KQAK. KMEL lost market share to its competition—KQAK, KRQR, KOME and KSJO. In September 1982, KFOG entered the battle for rock-listener market share after dropping its beautiful music format in favor of an eclectic mix of rock. With so many album rock stations in the Bay Area, KMEL faced stiff competition.
Despite KQAK switching away from its album rock format in April 1983, changing to modern rock, the Bay Area AOR scene was still highly competitive. KMEL finally dropped the album rock format at noon on August 25, 1984. After playing "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean, followed by the national anthem performed by Huey Lewis and the News, KMEL flipped to a mainstream CHR format designed by new program director Nick Bazoo, brought in for the purpose from WEZB in New Orleans. The first song under the new format was "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson. Bazoo took on the young Keith Naftaly as music coordinator. Bazoo was credited with breaking the song "One Night in Bangkok" in May 1985. Bazoo left KMEL for Los Angeles in June 1985, and Steve Rivers was hired from Tampa to take his place as program director. Naftaly continued underneath Rivers. Despite the format switch, the KMEL callsign was retained as a holdover to this day. KMEL was also an affiliate of The Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown with Scott Shannon.