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KZDG
KZDG (1550 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve San Francisco, California, and services the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by Satish Chandra, through licensee Factorial Broadcasting, LLC, the station broadcasts a South Asian format known as "Radio Zindagi". Its transmitter facilities are located in the nearby suburb of Belmont. In addition to a standard analog transmission, KZDG is available online.
Established in 1947 at San Mateo as KSMO, the station ran into a turbulent history between 1951 and 1961 with a myriad of financial and labor union issues. As KKHI between 1961 and 1994, it and FM adjunct KKHI-FM 95.7 distinguished themselves as the commercial fine art/classical music voice for the Bay Area. Thereafter, the station underwent multiple format changes under subsequent owners Westinghouse Broadcasting, Infinity Broadcasting, CBS Radio, and Entercom (forerunner to Audacy, Inc.), including—as KYCY—becoming the first terrestrial radio station to devote the entire broadcast day to playing podcasts in 2005. Along with being a simulcast of KKHI-FM's successor, sports-formatted KGMZ-FM, the station—as KGMZ—carried Audacy's Channel Q service of LGBTQ-oriented talk and electronic dance from 2019 to 2021.
CBS Radio/Entercom originally leased out the station to Factorial Broadcasting from 2011 to 2018, where it carried a South Asian format under the "Radio Zindagi" name and KZDG calls. This format and call sign returned in January 2022 when Zindagi operator Factorial Broadcasting entered another lease arrangement, ultimately agreeing to purchase the station. Since KZDG's 1947 sign-on, the station's call sign has changed a total of eleven different times.
On March 20, 1946, the Federal Communications Commission granted Amphlett Printing Company, publisher of The Times newspaper, a construction permit for a new 1,000-watt radio station on 1550 kHz at San Mateo. Initially designated KHWA for the late Horace W. Amphlett, the station went on the air as KSMO on the evening of March 17, 1947. The station was a full-service outlet for listeners in San Mateo, though its musical programming tended toward the classical compared to other local stations. The station was notable for having several staffers that would go on to careers in the market and at later incarnations of the 1550 frequency, including Bob Day, Bill Edwards, Bill Agee, and Doug Pledger.
After owning the radio station for four years, Amphlett sold KSMO in 1951 to Bay Radio, Inc., owned by Stephen A. Cisler; advertising had evidently been poor on the station. On January 1, 1952, KSMO became KEAR, representing the human ear; Cisler also owned FM station KXKX (97.3 FM), licensed to San Francisco, which would become a simulcast of KEAR.
In 1953, Cisler made radio history when he went on the air to offer listeners a total of 1,000 shares of stock in the station at $50 a share, noting that the station's classical format was unprofitable. Bigger changes were on the way; the FCC granted an application to increase power to a directional 10,000 watts that April. General manager George C. Atkinson, who had been hired away from WQXR in New York City, committed suicide in the final days of 1953 and was discovered days into the new year, evidently having worked long hours to try and get the station to turn a profit. In May 1954, the station activated its upgraded facility and built its first San Francisco studios at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. As Cisler had warned, a broadening of the station's format followed that August; the station that "brought classical music to the Bay Area" had changed its sound for the first time.
The good music came to a halt on October 5 when members of AFTRA and NABET went on strike in search of higher wages, setting up picket lines at the San Francisco and San Mateo studios and the transmitter at Belmont. The station returned to the air after nearly five hours of silence, but the pickets continued, and talks broke down two weeks later. Labor conciliators from the state failed to break the deadlock, prompting the station to sue in December. The strike was not resolved until early 1955.
In February 1955, alongside the resolution of the strike, the FCC authorized KEAR to change its city of license from San Mateo to San Francisco, with the station making its Mark Hopkins Hotel facility its main studio. When a $9,100 tax lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service threatened to force changes, classical music supporters stepped up to raise $27,000 and keep the station in its classical format. However, top names stayed away from the station due to its financial woes.
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KZDG
KZDG (1550 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve San Francisco, California, and services the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by Satish Chandra, through licensee Factorial Broadcasting, LLC, the station broadcasts a South Asian format known as "Radio Zindagi". Its transmitter facilities are located in the nearby suburb of Belmont. In addition to a standard analog transmission, KZDG is available online.
Established in 1947 at San Mateo as KSMO, the station ran into a turbulent history between 1951 and 1961 with a myriad of financial and labor union issues. As KKHI between 1961 and 1994, it and FM adjunct KKHI-FM 95.7 distinguished themselves as the commercial fine art/classical music voice for the Bay Area. Thereafter, the station underwent multiple format changes under subsequent owners Westinghouse Broadcasting, Infinity Broadcasting, CBS Radio, and Entercom (forerunner to Audacy, Inc.), including—as KYCY—becoming the first terrestrial radio station to devote the entire broadcast day to playing podcasts in 2005. Along with being a simulcast of KKHI-FM's successor, sports-formatted KGMZ-FM, the station—as KGMZ—carried Audacy's Channel Q service of LGBTQ-oriented talk and electronic dance from 2019 to 2021.
CBS Radio/Entercom originally leased out the station to Factorial Broadcasting from 2011 to 2018, where it carried a South Asian format under the "Radio Zindagi" name and KZDG calls. This format and call sign returned in January 2022 when Zindagi operator Factorial Broadcasting entered another lease arrangement, ultimately agreeing to purchase the station. Since KZDG's 1947 sign-on, the station's call sign has changed a total of eleven different times.
On March 20, 1946, the Federal Communications Commission granted Amphlett Printing Company, publisher of The Times newspaper, a construction permit for a new 1,000-watt radio station on 1550 kHz at San Mateo. Initially designated KHWA for the late Horace W. Amphlett, the station went on the air as KSMO on the evening of March 17, 1947. The station was a full-service outlet for listeners in San Mateo, though its musical programming tended toward the classical compared to other local stations. The station was notable for having several staffers that would go on to careers in the market and at later incarnations of the 1550 frequency, including Bob Day, Bill Edwards, Bill Agee, and Doug Pledger.
After owning the radio station for four years, Amphlett sold KSMO in 1951 to Bay Radio, Inc., owned by Stephen A. Cisler; advertising had evidently been poor on the station. On January 1, 1952, KSMO became KEAR, representing the human ear; Cisler also owned FM station KXKX (97.3 FM), licensed to San Francisco, which would become a simulcast of KEAR.
In 1953, Cisler made radio history when he went on the air to offer listeners a total of 1,000 shares of stock in the station at $50 a share, noting that the station's classical format was unprofitable. Bigger changes were on the way; the FCC granted an application to increase power to a directional 10,000 watts that April. General manager George C. Atkinson, who had been hired away from WQXR in New York City, committed suicide in the final days of 1953 and was discovered days into the new year, evidently having worked long hours to try and get the station to turn a profit. In May 1954, the station activated its upgraded facility and built its first San Francisco studios at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. As Cisler had warned, a broadening of the station's format followed that August; the station that "brought classical music to the Bay Area" had changed its sound for the first time.
The good music came to a halt on October 5 when members of AFTRA and NABET went on strike in search of higher wages, setting up picket lines at the San Francisco and San Mateo studios and the transmitter at Belmont. The station returned to the air after nearly five hours of silence, but the pickets continued, and talks broke down two weeks later. Labor conciliators from the state failed to break the deadlock, prompting the station to sue in December. The strike was not resolved until early 1955.
In February 1955, alongside the resolution of the strike, the FCC authorized KEAR to change its city of license from San Mateo to San Francisco, with the station making its Mark Hopkins Hotel facility its main studio. When a $9,100 tax lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service threatened to force changes, classical music supporters stepped up to raise $27,000 and keep the station in its classical format. However, top names stayed away from the station due to its financial woes.