Once upon a time there was a radio station like no other. For more than a decade starting in 1968, The JIVE 95, led by its patriarch Tom Donahue, fueled the flames of creative freedom on the airwaves and produced some of the most incredible, inspiring, outrageous radio ever broadcast.
1977Tom Donahue conceived the idea of Jive 95 while he was sitting around one night in the late sixties with Raechel and some friends, listening to a Doors album. He asked, "Why isn't there a radio station that plays this kind of music?" A light bulb went on inside his head. The next day he started calling FM stations in San Francisco and when he found one that had recently had its phone disconnected he told Raechel, "This is it!"
The station was KMPX and before long, Tom and a crew of zany, stoned-out radio freaks had taken over. It was the first time any station featured long sets of music and album tracks that weren't necessarily hits.
Disc Jockeys were encouraged to do weird and outrageous things on the air They were given the freedom to play and say nearly anything they wanted to and the idea caught on like free candy. Soon KMPX had the youth of San Francisco tuned in and paying close attention.
Tom DonahueBig Daddy Tom Donahue is at his very best working the turntable in 1968-69. [ LISTEN ] (1:01:28), and Donahue again during the same time period. [ LISTEN ] (49:47)
Buckle up and prepare for a Ginger Baker solo that is mind-blowing. Tom pitches a Lafayette Radio Electronics offer that includes a reminder to pick up a KSAN station poster for only 25¢.
After a few months, the KMPX owners and Tom disagreed over the format and when they tried to institute some "controls" over program content, Tom and the staff went on strike. The strike was resolved when Tom convinced Metromedia Broadcasting, a multiple station owner headquartered in New York, to let him and his crew of outcasts take over what had been classical station KEAR.
The Grateful Dead Live at Winterland Arena on October 4th 1970.
[ LISTEN ] (23:14)
[ LISTEN ] (23:14)
This is the radio broadcast of the set-break between the Dead's and Airplane's sets. The show was a quadraphonic broadcast (two radio stations and KQED-TV).
KSAN DJ Dusty Street wanders around interviewing various people backstage at Winterland about the show, including Marmaduke and Pigpen. There's some talk about the recording and broadcasting, and the experience at Winterland. Dusty finds out midway that Janis Joplin has just died.
This copy is incomplete, it fades at the end as the Airplane are getting ready to go on.
1971. Front: Stefan Ponek, Trish Robbins, naked girl (everyone forgot to ask her name), Ed Bear, Peter Laufer, Chan Laughlin. Back: Bob McClay, Richard Gossett, unknown, Willis Duff, Dave McQueen, Bobby Cole, Paul Boucher, Dusty Street, and Doug Dunlop
The new call letters were KSAN, once owned by an am station that catered to African-Americans, and for the next ten years, the lead station in a radio revolution that changed the way America thought and lived.
Since "real hippies" knew that the Summer of 1966 was the true Summer Of Love, and 1967 was just for tourists, KSAN celebrated in 1976. Perhaps this was a business mistake, as music listeners were getting tired of the same old thing, but KSAN was the hippie station for good or for ill, so they went all out with a three day radio special entitled "What Was That."
"What Was That" was a formally structured radio documentary. It lasted three nights, and took up the whole evening. Each evening began with an hour or two of formal taped documentary, with a narrator and a timeline, and snippets of interviews with all the important people. Since it was just 1977, just about everybody (except Janis Joplin and Pigpen) was still available.
Ben Fong-Torres at KSAN studios.
There was some music interspersed throughout the documentary, some of it off LPs and some of it live. I'm fairly certain they broadcast the Nov 19 '66 clip with the Charles Atlas intro again, but implied it was February 12, 1967 (by this time, they probably didn't know what it was for sure, but it made good radio).
AltamontAltamont Aftermath December 7, 1969. [ LISTEN ] (16:19)
In the wake of the cataclysmic free concert at Altamont Speedway (near Tracy, Calif.) one day earlier, Stefan Ponek hosts a post-mortem program on KSAN featuring several people tied to the event. In this recording, Sonny Barger, founder/president of the Oakland Chapter of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, phones in to the station to share his perspective of what happened that day.
Tenth Anniversary Simulcast 1979. [ LISTEN ] (1:01:03)
To celebrate its tenth year as KSAN, the station simulcasts "films made for television" (later known simply as "videos") of popular musical acts, including Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Rolling Stones and Santana. Includes intros by KSAN general manager Jerry Graham, Glenn Lambert, Norm Winer and Tony Kilbert.
Legends Luncheon June 5, 2014
Stephen Capen & Jack Popejoy November 14, 1980.
[ LISTEN ] (1:06:41)
[ LISTEN ] (1:06:41)
The final rock'n'roll morning show on KSAN before the switch to "Modern Country," featuring a phone call from KFRC's Rick Shaw, an interesting mixture of "farewell" songs, a collage of memories and a final list of thank-yous from Stephen & Jack. The recording concludes with a short segment of Billy Juggs' shift on "the station you'll never forget."
KSAN was pushed aside by more powerful corporate competitors in 1980, and the station switched to a country format. Much as its loyal fans lamented the station's departure, many things had changed since it began.
WHO WORKED AT KSAN? Here is the list: Richard Gossett, Victor Boc, Myles Cameron, Noman Davis, Tom Donahue, John Driscoll, Ben Fong-Torres, Willis Duff, Dave McQueen, Bob Gowa, Art Laboe, Stefan Ponek, Trish Robbins, Ed Bear, Peter Laufer, Chan Laughlin, Terry McGovern, Magnificent Montague, Shannon, Frank Terry, Bob McClay, Bobby Cole, Paul Boucher, Dusty Street, Doug Dunlop, and Charlie Wilde.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Bay Area Radio Museum, Internet Archive, Lost Live Dead.
