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The Rex Foundation
Awards CHRS With
A $5,000 Grant!

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“Furthering a Tradition of Grassroots Giving”

Good things continue to happpen for CHRS. Recently we were awarded the prestigeous Houck Award by the Antique Wireless Association. (See below). And now, the Rex Foundation, started in 1983 by the Grateful Dead, has awarded CHRS a $5,000 grant. Yea! CHRS is very Grateful to Rex and the Dead for this terrific donation. We would also like to thank CHRS supporter, KFOG’s Rosalie Howarth, (BARHOF Class of 2011), who is on the Rex Board, suggested CHRS for a grant and facilitated our request. Thank you Rosalie! This grant will be earmarked for the Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame display at Radio Central and towards production of our documentary, “KSAN Jive 95: The Movie”. This is too cool! CHRS just keeps getting recognized for what we love… the preservation of radio and radio broadcasting. 


The Antique Wireless Association
Honors CHRS With
the 2015 Houck Award!

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Mike Adams & Bart Lee with the Houck Plaque

Recently at the AWA Convention in New York, CHRS Chairman Mike Adams and General Counsel / Historian Bart Lee accepted the AWA Houck Award of behalf of CHRS. The Antique Wireless Association presents its annual Houck Award to an individual or organization that excels in historic preservation, research and publication. It is their most prestigious award. Here is video of Mike Adams and Bart Lee accepting the award for CHRS on August 14, 2015: SEE THE VIDEO. CHRS is honored to receive this award for all the important work our members do for radio history and preservation. It’s nice to have our passion and dedication recognized.

BARM – The Latest!

Longtime CHRS Member and IT specialist Alan Bowker has stepped up and accepted the challenge of updating and restoring many of the links on our Bay Area Radio Museum site. This is tedious work and CHRS is so pleased that Alan has been working on this important project. The BARM site gets lots of web traffic and it’s just terrific to have many links to audio clips working again. Check out our BARM site and enjoy the many audio clips that give us a glimpse into our past.Coming soon to BARM: “Sheila Rene Backstage”. 30 programs featuring in-depth interviews with the foremost rock bands of the early 1980s. These shows were heard once on KSJO and will soon be available on the BARM KSJO page. Stay tuned.

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Induction Ceremonies Posted

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The 2015 Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame Class – Dusty Street, Mike Colgan, Lissa Kreisler, Harvey Stone, Gil Haar, Bill Ruck for Ken Nielsen and Zia Schwartz for Peter Scott

The 2015 Radio Hall Of Fame Induction luncheon held at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco was quite successful. Over 120 were in attendance, enjoyed good food, good friends and a great induction celebration. Host Terry McGovern kept the crowd entertained and kept the event moving along. Watch for Ben Fong-Torres’ wrap up article to come in the pink section of the SF Chronicle.

But now…
WATCH THE BARHOF INDUCTION CEREMONY ON YOUTUBE

Thanks to Chairman Mike Adams for shooting and posting the video. 

Congratulations to All of Our Newest Members of the Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame!

Program Host – DUSTY STREET

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Dusty Street got her start in Bay Area radio as one of the fabled “chick engineers” at KMPX in 1967. She became a DJ when she moved over to KSAN after the KMPX strike.   She spent a few years at KTIM before moving to the LA market from 1979 to 1995. Dusty has spent the last 10 years with SiriusXM as radio host for Classic Vinyl.

 

Program Host – LISSA KREISLER

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South Bay native Lissa Kreisler started her career at KLOK in the news department after graduating from San Jose State. When the station switched formats, she jumped over to KBAY doing news before become co-host of the morning show with fellow BARHOF member Sam Van Zandt. The Lissa-Sam show has put KBAY on the top of the San Jose ratings.

 

News – MIKE COLGAN

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Mike Colgan has been part of the Bay Area radio scene for the past 40 years. He has covered most of the top news stories in the Bay Area during this period. He began his career at KFRC, the Big 610, as part of the great 20/20 news team. He then did some DJ work at KPEN in Los Altos before joining KCBS in 1988. Mike currently works out of the Silicon Valley Bureau.

 

Sports – JOHN MADDEN

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Coach John Madden is our inductee in the sports category. John started on KSFO with legendary Gene Nelson. Then John switched to KNBR when Gene retired, moved to KCBS when Frank Dill called it a day and since 1988, Coach Madden has worked with Al Hart and then Stan Bunger on the KCBS morning program. John’s insight into the world of sports (oh yah Football too) has made his show a must for radio sports listeners over the past 27 yrs.

 

Pioneer – GIL HAAR

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First of two pioneer inductees is Gil Haar. Gil was brought in from Denver to work at KOBY as a DJ in 1958. When the station fell to the KYA and KEWB promotional onslaught, he moved to Fresno’s KMJ for 5 yrs. When Gil came back to the Bay Area in 1966 he spent the next 22 year as a news director at KNEW, KNAI (news and information), reporter at KCBS and finally News Director of Magic 61 before retiring in 2001.

 

Pioneer – ELMA GREER

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Our second legendary pioneer is KSFO music director Elma Greer. Elma started her 28 year tenure with KSFO in 1960. During this period beside music director, she was also assistant program director. She was named music director of the year three times by the Gavin Report as well as receiving several gold records. One of Elma’s favorite duties was to help SF State students pull records for their DJ debut on “Records at Random”, Sunday nights on the ‘World’s Greatest Radio Station’.

 

Executive / Manager – HARVEY STONE

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Harvey Stone served 33 years as General Manager/President of KBLX; from the purchase of KRE by Inner Cities broadcasters until the sale to Entercom in 2012. He guided the “Quiet Storm” against the giant corporate stations to be rated in the top 3 on a consistent basis through the 1990s. He also is the godfather of CHRS for providing the historic KRE building in Berkeley as our first home.

 

Engineer / Educator – KEN NIELSEN

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Ken Nielsen is a true radio and TV pioneer. Ken came to the Bay Area from Denver in 1941 and convinced the San Francisco Unified School District to apply for an FM license and purchase the RCA demonstration FM transmitter used at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. The end result was KALW, the first FM station on the West coast. Later Ken convinced the school district to purchase TV cameras and related equipment for classes. The equipment was used after school hours to help start KQED-TV.

Ken Nielsen, the educator, set up and developed both programming and engineer classes at the school district. He conducted classes and managed KALW until his retirement in 1975.

 

Specialty – PETER SCOTT

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Peter Schwartz aka Peter Scott came to KSFO after several years at KSJO in San Jose. Peter worked his way up from production coordinator to production director to assistant program director under Al Newman and then Program Director in the middle to late 70’s. He kept the ‘World’s Greatest Radio Station’ on an even keel during the rise of underground and free form competition. After his KSFO days, he owned his own recording studio in San Francisco and did voice overs until his passing in April 2008.

 


 

The BAY AREA RADIO HALL OF FAME SELECTS

KPEN 101.3 FM

AS LEGENDARY STATION FOR 2015

The Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame, (BARHOF), a program of the California Historical Radio Society, is pleased to announce the selection of KPEN 101.3 FM, Atherton / San Francisco, as BARHOF Legendary Station for 2015. This is a great story. It’s a story of entrepreneurship, innovation and a passion for radio. KPEN’s history is legendary. It was created by two Stanford students named James Gabbert and Gary Gielow, and started broadcasting in 1957 from a 120 year old adobe hut.

KPEN was a station of innovations and firsts. It was the first station west of the Mississippi to broadcast in Multiplex Stereo, the first FM station in Northern California to broadcast 24 hours a day, the first to limit commercials to 6 per hour; KPEN produced the first Live Stereo remote broadcast. KPEN prided itself on airing fine quality programming with the highest quality FM, then FM Multiplex Stereo signal possible. The gear that generated that signal was constantly tweaked and improved, always making it state-of-the-art for the times. The two kids from Stanford who said, “Let’s build our own radio station” succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, and KPEN thrived and grew towards another first. In 1968 the FCC was petitioned to change KPEN’s call sign to KIOI, to be known as K101. Historic KPEN paved the way for the powerhouse K101 would become.

For more information and audio clips from KPEN please visit our Bay Area Radio Museum, (BARM), site at http://bayarearadio.org/site/audio/kpen/. Historic KPEN 101.3 FM proudly joins, KSAN Jive 95, KCBS, KGO, KFRC, KNBR and KSFO as the newest BARHOF Legendary Station.

Also, a new book, “The Story of KPEN” has been donated to CHRS. “The Story of KPEN” is the definitive book about the history of this pioneering station. Proceeds from “The Story of KPEN” will go to the California Historical Radio Society and its Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame and Bay Area Radio Museum on-line.

Noted author Ben Fong-Torres says:
“For fans of radio history, it’s a welcome chronicle of one of the most important stations in the Bay Area, a pioneer in FM broadcasting in introducing stereo (in fall 1961) and programming innovations.” 

To order visit: https://californiahistoricalradio.com/kpen-story-order/  $23.95 includes shipping.

See Gary Gielow’s presentation featuring the history of KPEN from his talk at CHRS Radio Central December 2014. CLICK HERE FOR GARY’S VIDEO

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