Radio

Abrupt End to Legendary KGO Radio’s 80-Year History; News-Talk Format to be Replaced Oct. 9

San Francisco’s KGO-AM 810, a legendary fixture for more than 80s years on that position of the radio dial in the San Francisco Bay Area, abruptly left the air Oct. 6 without any warning, promising a new format that is set to launch Oct. 9.

At approximately 10:16 AM Oct. 6, KGO-AM 810 abruptly ended the news/talk format in the middle of midday host Mark Thompson‘s show; following a final station identification, the station began a loop featuring songs and promotional announcements referring to betting, money and winning. The promotions stated that a new format, billed as “The most unique radio station in the Bay Area”, would launch on Oct. 9, assuring listeners that they “can bet on it”. The station’s website was replaced with an announcement saying “Today we say goodbye to the legendary KGO,” thanking longtime listeners and supporters of the station and similarly promoting a “new era” to come Monday.

Though the station originally signed on in January 1924 using the experimental call sign 6XG, eventually becoming KGO.

KGO was part of a planned three-station network comprising WGY in Schenectady, New York, and KOA in Denver, Colorado. KGO was first known as the “Sunset Station” since it was General Electric’s West Coast outlet. At that time it operated with a then-impressive 1000 watts.

 

Gil Haar, Longtime Bay Area Radio Newsman, Dies at 92; Worked at KCBS-AM and KYUU

By KEVIN WING | Chairperson, Media Museum of Northern California

Gil Haar, a beloved Bay Area radio pioneer considered a legend in the broadcasting industry who became best known for his memorable, signature sign-off after every radio newscast with “And that’s the news.. so now you know. I’m Gil Haar”, has died at the age of 92.

Gil Haar

Haar, of Millbrae, died Sept. 12, according to his friend and Bay Area radio colleague, John Evans. Haar passed away at Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame.

Born Eugene Lewis Gelhaar on April 18, 1930, in Kansas City, Missouri, his burgeoning radio career brought him to San Francisco in 1958. He began as a teen radio broadcaster in Kansas City before heading off to Wyoming in 1952, when he worked as a program director at KVWO in Cheyenne.

Remaining there for two years, Haar was the station’s program director. He then worked at KFBC radio and KFBC-TV in Cheyenne in 1956. His career eventually brought him to California in 1958. He became a newscaster at KMJ radio in Fresno, where he would remain until 1966.

That year, Haar was hired as news director at KNEW radio in Oakland, where he would remain for nearly a decade, until 1975.

Before retiring in the late 1990s, Haar became known to a new generation of radio listeners with long tenures at San Francisco’s KCBS-AM and KYUU.

A multi-award-winning radio journalist, Haar was the recipient of numerous honors, including best newscast from the California Associated Press Television Radio Association and best spot news from the California United Press International Broadcasters Association. He was a longtime member of the Northern California Radio Television News Directors Association, to which he also served on its board as secretary and vice president. Haar also served as president of the Northern California Chapter of Sigma Delta Chi.

Evans described Haar this way: “Under that tough exterior was a gentle giant, a gracious mentor and teacher, a man with a deep respect for journalism, radio news, storytelling.”

Haar was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Noralee, whom he cared for faithfully for many years after she became ill.  He is survived by his children, Meredith LaFlesh and her husband, Thomas, of Tacoma, Washington; Anastasia Pfluke and her husband, John, of Kihei, Hawaii; and Ned Gelhaar and his wife, Christina, of Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania; and by grandchildren Anthony Pfluke and Faith and Genevieve Gelhaar.

BREAKING: Bill Moen, Bay Area Radio Institution, Dies At 93; Longtime KABL-AM Morning Air Personality for 33 Years

By KEVIN WING | Chairperson, Media Museum of Northern California

Bill Moen, who became a Bay Area radio institution during his 33 years as the morning drive personality at KABL-AM, has died at the age of 93, it was announced May 9. Moen died at his home in Lake County on Easter Sunday, April 17.

During an era when the AM band ruled radio’s airwaves, Moen became a broadcasting legend in the San Francisco Bay Area, spending 33 years in the 7 to 9 a.m. morning drive time slot at KABL from 1960 to 1993. Moen was among Bay Area radio broadcasting’s greats of the ’60s era, which included Don Sherwood at KYA and later KSFO, Gene Nelson at KSFO and Frank Dill and Mike Cleary at KNBR, among others. But, while the others would eventually retire, Moen stayed on through the early ’90s in a Bay Area career that began when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the final year of his presidency.

Moen, who was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2006, came to the Bay Area in 1960. The Minnesota native moved to California in the early 1950s to attend broadcasting school in Hollywood, then went in search of a way to get his foot in the door in radio.

His first job came in 1954, when he joined KFGO in Fargo, North Dakota. That was followed by gigs at KDAL in Duluth, Minnesota, and WDSM, also in Duluth. From there, he was off to a station in Houston before landing at KABL. It was there where Moen not only found stability, but immense success. His work at KABL afforded him recognition through the decades as one of the best in the business.

After 33 years, Moen left KABL in 1993 during a rebranding of the station that year and retired to Lake County. There, he was lured back to radio at Lakeport’s KXBX-AM for a 20-year run before retiring for good. He also entertained his Bay Area radio followers by joining “Classic KABL 960”, an online tribute to his former Bay Area station, on the Bay Area Radio Museum website, accepting an invitation by the museum’s own David Jackson.

KABLRadio.com will stream a tribute to Moen from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 20, and from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 22.

 

Where It All Began: Looking Back at 1966, When KFRC Became “The Big 610” in San Francisco

Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area witnessed a monumental change in 1966, when KFRC — 610 on the AM dial — took to the airwaves with an all-new format that would, through the years, revolutionize radio in northern California and throughout the rest of the country. Here, courtesy of John Catchings, is the “Big 30” song list (or hit sheet) from the week of May 25, 1966, when KFRC became “The Big 610” and Bay Area radio would never be the same. Catchings, the retired longtime chairperson of the Archive & Museum Committee, worked at KFRC throughout the 1960s and was there when the station became “The Big 610”. This is from his personal collection. Thank you, John, for sharing this with us.

 

 

 

 

A Reporter’s Guide to Police Transparency

Two bills that took effect in 2019 dramatically expand the rights of journalists and the public to learn of police misconduct. Law enforcement has gone to court to resist disclosures under the bills, but open-government supporters have blocked many of…

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