- KKSF
Radio station
name = KKSF
branding = KKSF 103.7
frequency = 103.7MHz HD Radio
area =San Francisco Bay Area
city =San Francisco, CA
format =Smooth Jazz
HD2:Jazz
airdate = 1947
erp = 7,200 W
haat = 461 m
callsign_meaning = KK+ SF for San Francisco
class = B
owner =Clear Channel Communications
webcast = [http://www.kksf.com/listenlive.html Listen Live]
website = [http://www.kksf.com KKSF 103.7— The Bay Area's Smooth Jazz Station]
sister_stations =KIOI ,KISQ ,KKGN ,KMEL , KNEW,KYLD KKSF, known as "KKSF 103.7", is a
smooth jazz radio station inSan Francisco, California . The station is owned and operated byClear Channel Communications . KKSF often bills itself as "The Bay Area's Smooth Jazz Station." Under original Program Director Steve Feinstein, KKSF was a groundbreaking eclectic "New Adult Contemporary " station that shied away from cover versions and pop jazz, and avoided specific musical labels. In the late '90s new ownership moved the station to the consultant-drivenSmooth Jazz format, and the station's ratings have declined steadily since that time. Through such drawback, KKSF is the only commercial jazz station in the region only after long timeUrban AC archrivalKBLX ditched the R&B/Jazz eclectic mix for a straight-ahead current and old school R&B-styled format as described.KKSF is one of the original affiliates for the new syndicated morning show, "The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show", featuring pianist
Ramsey Lewis .History
The former
ABC Radio -owned station started as KGO-FM. In earlier days, it simulcast its AM sister station of the same name, occasionally airing a stereo version of theLawrence Welk show. By the late 1960s, as FM stations were required to offer separate programming from that of their AM sisters, KGO-FM, like other ABC-owned FM stations, was an outlet for "ABC Love", an automatedprogressive rock format.KGO-FM became KSFX in the early 1970s, with a dance-flavored "Musicradio" approach. During the late 1970s, KSFX had a brief run with a
disco music format.In 1980, KSFX flipped to an
album-oriented rock format modeled after sister stationKLOS inLos Angeles . This lasted until May 1982, when stiff competition forced them to drop AOR for talk, featuring the ABC-syndicated 'Talkradio' network, again as KGO-FM.ABC sold the station January 1st 1984 to Weaver, Davis, Fowler (WDF) and it became KLOK-FM as WDF already owned KLOK-AM in San Jose. KLOK-FM had an Adult Contemporary music format and the slogan "Yes/No Radio" where listeners would vote on keeping some songs in the playlist.
In 1987 the station was sold to
Brown Broadcasting Corporation , the call sign was changed to KKSF and the format was switched to New Adult Contemporary (NAC), a predecessor to theSmooth Jazz genre. KKSF 103.7 FM "Smooth Jazz" debuted July 31, 1987 at Midnight, with the first song playing bySteve Winwood . KKSF sister station under Brown Broadcasting wasKDFC 102.1, a classical station. The General Manager from 1987 to 1997 was David A. Kendrik. KKSF was developed by a small group of local radio veterans, backed by the family-owned Brown Broadcasting Company (listed in the KKSF Sampler notes as Willet Brown, Mike Brown, Steven L. Feinstein (1956–1996), Dave Kendrick, and Phil Melrose.)Steve Feinstein of Radio and Records was the first Program Director and up until his death in 1996, helped KKSF to be one of the leading stations in the NAC format. KKSF was also the first commercial radio station to have a web presence, putting up a web site in October 1993 as kksf.tbo.com and eventually www.kksf.com. Feinstein was open to listener comments and suggestions for music, for example introducing Hawaiian Slack Key guitar from
Keola Beamer and the duo Hapa, to Bay Area listeners.In 1988 the station teamed with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation with David Kendrik and Michael Feinstein producing their first KKSF Sampler for AIDS Relief. With songs contributed by the artists KKSF donated all the net proceeds from the sale of the Sampler albums to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. There were seven KKSF Samplers produced by Kendrick and Feinstein, with Sampler 7 being dedicated to the memory of Steve Feinstein who died before final production and release of the album.
After Feinstein's death in 1996, the station began to change. In May 1996 the station website was registered with
ICANN , the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers under [http://www.markmonitor.com MarkMonitor] , a San Francisco-based company specializing in brand protection, and Clear Channel. In September 1996Evergreen Media purchased KKSF and KDFC. In 1998 the liner notes for KKSF Sampler 8 no longer mentioned Brown Broadcasting Corporation or members of the Brown family. Douglas F. Sterne is listed as the station's Vice President and General Manager on the Samplers from 1998 to 2000. In KKSF Sampler Volume 12 Clear Channel is listed as the station's owner, with Kd Krampf Executive Vice President/Mark Market Manager for Clear Channel representing KKSF. KKSF Sampler 17 was released in 2007.The year 2001 brought many changes to KKSF. During the year many announcers left, a number of them going to what had been KKSF's sister station KDFC 102.1. Announcer Maria Lopez, "the voice" of the evening "
Lights Out San Francisco " left the station in Fall of 2001, but not after helping to make Bay Area radio history.On September 11, 2001, like many other music stations, KKSF aired news all that day. In the evening, Lopez asked KKSF listeners to call in and let her know if they still wanted news, or a return to music. Callers requested a return to music, and requests were accepted for comforting Smooth Jazz, such as Hiroshima's "Thousand Cranes". She returned to KKSF in early 2008.
Technical facts
KKSF is a Class B FM station, transmitting from
Sutro Tower at aneffective radiated power of 7200 watts. The station is repeated by a low-powered translator inPleasanton , to fill in coverage gaps caused by topography issues.This FM radio station is currently broadcasting digital radio using the HD Radio system from
iBiquity . KKSF's HD broadcast also makes available a "second" channel that can only be received with an HD receiver. The KKSF HD-2 Channel features the Traditional Jazz program 'Jazz Cafe' 24/7.From the time that KKSF started it NAC format in 1987 to mid 1996, the station used very light audio processing in order to create a signature sound. It was based in the idea of the
Shilkey Beautiful Music format to have a very light touch to the audio. KKSF's Chief Engineer,Tim Pozar , who was also one of the co-founders of San Francisco's first ISP,TLGNet , installed anAphex Systems audio chain of a Compellor and Dominator along with aDigicoder which was one of the first digital stereo generators.External links
* [http://www.kksf.com KKSF 103.7— The Bay Area's Smooth Jazz Station]
*FMQ|KKSF
*FML|KKSFReferences
*EverGreen Media http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Sept_20/ai_18688621
*Biggest Radio Mogul http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/ccsj.html
*KKSF Domain http://whois.domaintools.com/kksf.com
*MarkMonitor http://www.markmonitor.com/company/index.php
*Clear Channel HD in San Francisco http://www.clearchannel.com/Radio/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1503
* KKSF CD Sampler For AIDS Relief Liner Notes 1–12 http://kksf.com/pages/previous_samplers.html
* SFAF Sampler 17 http://www.sfaf.org/outreach/2006_10/kksf_17.html
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