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comments from Jive 95 aficionados

Hello, Just wanted to drop a fond KSAN memory on you.
 
I worked at the post office in SF and commuted to Fremont.  Midnight till morning.  McGovern was doing the morning drive and I was able to rock out all the way home while sitting in traffic.  One morning he was playing such a tasty set, the only thing that could have made it better was a certain Beatle's song - which sure enough, McGovern popped up with.  Saying he was in tune with the audience was a huge understatement.  I had to phone him when I got home and thank him for the beautiful set.
 
I felt as if we were totally in sych and began wondering who he was.  I listened to the crap in between the tunes and found him to be single and began getting a little crush on him.  Until you all put up a giant billboard on the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge.  Let's just say McGovern had a face for radio and my crush ended.
 
I thank God for KSAN's theory behind the playlists.  Were it not for KSAN, there would have been no balance in my world and disco would have taken me over completely.
 
Bay area radio is ingrained in my soul from Doo Dah parades and kazoos to Dr Demento.  K-S-A-N San Francisco Radio played a big part in the soundtrack of my life (I hate to go all Dick Clark on you like that, but what's a girl to do?).
 
 CB


I think of KSAN (Jive 95) more often than you can imagine as I do believe that it instilled in me the great love of great music that I have today.  I love all types of music, but living in the Bay Area all my life and listening in the 70's to Dusty and Richard I just remember how they gave me the 'lessons' I learned in loving progressive radio and hearing music and artists that I would never have heard any other way I am certain.  My deep love of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, The Allman Brothers Band, B.B. King, Santana, Michael Bloomfield and all the other blues artists is because of you and I just learned to love and appreciate excellent guitar work and music way, way deeper than a person ever would from listening to a standard top 40 station. Where else could we hear extended versions back then, or ever even to this day?  I couldn't get rid of many of my records until a couple years ago because they were so "sacred" to me even though I hadn't listened to them for years and years (I got good money for them too as I kept them in excellent condition, which wasn't easy to do in the drug & party culture I/we lived in).  Almost everything has been replaced by CD and I have always had a top line stereo system. This was always "sacred" to me as well and I still love this music today and Winterland and Bill Graham and the memories of all these---and it is most definitely because of radio station KSAN and the fine programming. How many times would we run, not walk to Tower Records in Berkeley to buy the latest album after being tipped off on the radio.  It was all just great, and I am SO fortunate to have had KSAN in my life. Thank you. BERNARD JOHNSON, Santa Monica CA


Hi, Thanks for this site.  Some bits of memories of KMPX: I hung with the diggers at All Saints church in '67 and '68 and when we baked Digger bread every Tuesday night, we'd listen to KMPX 107.  In the Haight there was no other station really, and sometime in 1968, I met two brothers by the name of Reno Nevada and Buffalo Chips living on Masonic, who were DJ's at KMPX. At that time  the small station was down by the Busvan company (can't remember the street), and we fixed up a trip room next to the studio that was a wonderful place to go and 
"groove." 

I used to go down when Reno was doing his show and do the hippie weather report as "Windy Weather,"  I thought maybe George Carlin might have gotten Al, his hippie dippy weatherman from us.. .maybe. They moved the station sometime and I can't remember the year that we "occupied" the station and the owners and FCC dudes had to go out to the tower in Marin to shut us down.  People kept showing up and we just kept playing music, and letting people talk until we went off the air.

Some years later, Reno and Buffalo were doing another small station called The Secret Mountain Laboratory up in Lake Tahoe.  I lost touch with them after that, but they were great DJ;s and community minded souls. KMPX was the great mother of all alternative stations to come after. So glad I got to be a witness and bit player in that mix for  a moment of time.
peace,
Sandi Stein

I came to the Bay Area in 75’ after graduating from Washington University in Saint Louis. Fell in love with the Bay Area after growing up back East. Everything was so different and enjoyable. I had struggled with good radio back in Saint Louis and became enthralled with KSAN the moment I heard it. I listened to Terry McGovern in the morning, and I agree with others here who have said Terry was the best morning drive air personality San Francisco ever saw. I remember the Monty Python "Men Men Men" skits he would play as well as Johann Pachelbel Canon in D major. 

Other songs I remember were Gill Scott Herons Ridgetop and lots of Van Morrison. But the most memorable one for me was the live recording of Nils Lofgren in the studio – I still have the recording on tape (that you have to flip over as I ran out of space on one side) but Nils now has a cd of this "Bootleg" Recording. Of course how can I forget that KSAN introduced me to Marshall Tucker Band. They gave the first airplay to Huey Lewis and the News. There were times in the mornings where driving my 73’ 2002tii to work were so enjoyable listening to KSAN that it took great discipline to turn off Hwy101 at the Palo Alto exit.

When KSAN went off the air (with Elvis’s "Radio Radio") it was a great loss. No other station was ever as good. Blazie and Bob were fun and their cd "Acoustic Aids" is a classic release of their live recordings. Alex Bennett (I don’t do music- failed porn star) was funny and in some ways more original than Howard Stern (And probably was the example for Howard’s show from Alex’s NY days).  None of those shows were as complete in new music or in listening to the discussions of the DJs.

Those were great years and I consider myself lucky to have been around. Thanks for creating this website and all the memories. 

Reggie Short, Fort Collins CO


Until I was 12 (1966), I was never in one place, or with the same grownups for more than a year.  I (was) moved (again) in 1966 and ended up in suburbia in Livermore in a very religious (read “fundamentalist”) foster family.  Sometime in the next year I got an FM radio and listened to it at night, smothering it under a pillow because it was “against the rules.”   It became “Radio Free Livermore” for me.  I was pretty naïve about how the world worked, but knew something was wrong in my life.  I zeroed in on the news.  Dave McQueen and Scoop Nisker were lighting a path that I was eager to travel.  Even though I was a “kid”, I felt I was going to be a part of a family someday – something I hadn’t had at that point in my life.  And KSAN was the place where people gathered and spoke to each other. 

My memories?  KSAN Listeners took an airplane ride to Woodstock.  I was pulling weeds in a very hot sun and looked at jets flying eastward wishing I were with them.  I remember listening to Sonny Barger on an interview the night after Altamont; lots of darkness then.  It was just outside of town, but I hadn’t realized that the concert had been moved there (and couldn’t have gone anyway.) And then there was the day in 1972 when our Senior Class got on a bus and went someplace in Santa Clara  or Mountain View for a “ditch day” and I ditched further and hitchhiked to “211 Sutter” and got the tour by Dave McQueen.  The funky little AP teletype in a really tiny closet, bean bag chairs everywhere…it was all so right.  And as someone said already, I also liked Bob McClay just because of how he sounded – like everything was alright.   

As years went by, more and more of the people that I had thought were part of a culture shift were actually just in it for the thrills.  They grew up.  But I’ve carried KSAN with me all these years, and tomorrow I retire from 32 years as a public servant in the water and wastewater sector, always having tried to make the world a little better.  Reading all these other memories makes me realize that indeed we are one type of family that I was looking for back then, and my only regret is that we can’t somehow all connect again at that one spot on the dial.  But to paraphrase something I heard someplace, if I don’t like it, I guess I can go out and do something about it.

PS – the song Mark Karan was looking for?  I think it was a Stoneground song. (Or maybe Fifth Dimension??) I also remember this other verse… 

”Just one taste of my sweet loving,
Good as bread you can bake in your oven,
And it’s goooooood……and it’s good for you.’ 

Peace. 

Michael Abramson


I used to drive up to SF (I had grown up in SF in the outer Mission off Gutenberg but my folks moved to--ugh--Millbrae when I was 12) and walk into 50 Green Street and up the stairs to the studio and hang a little bit (at age 18-20)....KMPX was so very cool that I even dug the ads (I bought my first LP's at Gramophone Records on Polk Street and still own the clock radio--with FM!--that I bought there or next door back in '67) and when it morphed to KSAN I was a bit disappointed--Larry Miller was gone and I never really dug Bob McClay or Dusty Street that much--but Big Daddy T. Donohue, Tony Pigg (who ended up in Bellingham, Washington when I first lived on Orcas Island back in the early '80's) (edit note: I don't think so), Abe "Voco" Kesh were so very hip...I have lots of reel-to-reel tapes from that time...I still dig listening to "How to Speak Hip" by John Brent and Del Close and the bits of newscasts I recorded (Chicago cops beating demonstraters at the Democratic convention of '68) etc, etc...I was young, scared and bewildered but felt an accomodating hospitality in that "tribe" that broadcast on 92.7 (KMPX) and 94.9 (KSAN)....years later and now I play jazz guitar, host an open mic and teach/perform in the hinterlands of Amerika (Ukiah)....so whatever cultural damage was done to me turned out OK; hip never dies, it just fades away...
 
Jim Tuhtan/ never have forgooten my roots...
 

i'm mark karan (guitar w/bobweir & ratdog). i grew up cutting my teeth on KSAN & KMPX as an 11-15 year old SF native... what great memories and great music... and a time when radio REALLY mattered.
i stumbled across the website because i've been trying to identify an old song from that era that's running thru my brain of late. i can find nothing about on the 'net. here's what i remember...
 
"just a hair of the dog that just bit you
when it's done you won't know what just hit you
but it's goooooood... and it's good for you."
 
that's all i've got. any help?
btw, if KSAN is still accepting new music for airplay, as weir's lead guitarist for 2 years and having just survived throat cancer, i put out a record last year that i think fans of the music and feel of KSAN/KMPX would connect to.
 
here's my website w/streaming music:
www.markkaran.com
 
Was I a fan?, I lived off of it, just young -growing up in old Vallejo, I remember how it started with love radio , played only stone and beatles then morphed into KSAN- Tom, Dusty Street! and the rest, and all the live music which is forever stamped in my memory,  I live in Australia now and the community radio Bay FM (from Byron Bay NSW) is pretty cool and harks back to the spirit of KSAN,  they play more funky American rock stuff than the US stations do now with all the commercial crap.
Happy to find your website,
 
cheers, moya
 

We lived in San Francisco in the 60s and loved ksan  we still talk about it.What we remember sort of was a little thing we heard about do you have a dime for the morning paper and chewing on the the post.I know that's not much but if anybody remembers it,send it to me.We loved ksan 95 and I remember someone saying ksan 96 but for you I'll make it 94'50.Bob  hgnbobbyu@aol.com
 

I was a young airman stationed at travis afb in fairfield ca.in 1975 thru 77. It was tough to be away from home and young but I found a friend in ksan. (ONE OF THEIR SLOGANS I BELIEVE) It was the only Station I listened to while I lived in california. I mostly remember Terry Mcgovern's Morning show and Delighted at seeing him in a few movies after ksan. also loved the news at noon with Denice Bordett and Larry Lee. My old Pioneer 636 receiver from that era now sits in my garage with the dial set at 95. I also recently found two christmas cards with pictures of all of the ksan crew from that era. A great time, A great station and great music. I only wish I had recorded some tapes of that era.Is there any available.If anyone knows please contact me at ssdoody@msn.com thanks.

KSAN will always have a special place in my heart. Nothing will ever replace it. Thank you for this website. The music was the best but it was Terry McGovern and Howard Hessman (can someone please remind me what his radio moniker was? Sometimes it drives me crazy trying to remember it after 30 years). Terry would be downstairs in the street doing something wonderfully crazy at lunch time and make my day with laughter. Scoop and Dusty Street et.al. I still remember the day it went country--I couldn't believe it. Something so vital to my life was gone. Terry still looks pretty much the same. :-)

Karen
30 years later/older in Nova Scotia (where radio truly sucks)


I actually stumbled onto your WONDERFUL site while trying to find info on the Congress Of Wonders. Imagine my surprise to find this instead. I was a Ventura-born beach boy who moved to Grass Valley in 1960 at the age of 6. With two older brothers, 8 & 10, we would listen to KYA at nights when we could pick it up in the foothills. We moved to Benicia in 1964, the week before the Beatles first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and I grew up there until I enlisted in the Navy in 1972. I listened to KEWB, KFRC and KYA but my favorite DJs were Russ the Moose and Big Daddy Tom Donahue on KYA. For Christmas in 1966, I got an AM-FM radio as my dad was a former merchant seaman and short-wave hobbyist. One night the following February, I was going through the FM band and came across something I'd never heard before. It was a Roddy McDowell recitation of an H.P. Lovecraft short story. It was KMPX and I was hooked. As a growing kid through those years, it was KMPX and later KSAN that turned me on to artists as diverse as John Coltrane, Andres Segovia, The Incredible String Band and Lenny Bruce. All interspersed with "Commercials" from The Dead Cow and Magnolia Thunderpussy. I would take my paper route and later my after-school job money and take the bus into SF to the Fillmore West to see Quicksilver and the Dead, Speedway Meadows for the Airplane shows, The Peoples' Park Riots, Altamont and Winterland. I remember both DJ strikes at KMPX and KSAN and had the vinyl LP the Congress of Wonders put out. Those stations helped me shape my musical and political beliefs and were a major part of my education.
 
Since those days, I have hunted the Great Steel Whales as a tin-can sonarman all over the world, traveled from San Diego to Singapore to Suez to Savannah, worked telecommunications  in SF and Oakland from 1978 to 1994 and was personally responsible for keeping A.T.&T.'s long-distance service working in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta Quake when you may not have been able to call across town, but you could call across the country. That was when even God couldn't save the Giants(A's fan). In fact, my future wife and I saw Timbuk3 the day of the quake with M Dung as the emcee and noticed there were no pigeons in Union Square that lunchtime. I now live in New Mexico where I maintain microwave radio sites in the mountains here as a latter-day Jeremiah Johnson. My wife and I also manage an award-winning Writing/Critique group at http://groups.msn. com/UniversalWritersGroup . I have never heard any other radio station that was as diverse or enriching as the ones Big Daddy touched and we are all the poorer for it. So, to echo an old Tom Waits KSAN promo,
 
"I've listened to MANY radio stations over the years and KSAN San Francisco, The Jive 95, was certainly ONE of them."
 
Richard Scott
Belen/Bethlehem, New Mexico

without a doubt one of the greatest fm's of all time.  i remember growing up in novato, ca. and ksan was the complete after school and weekend radio station.  i have always loved broadcasting, having worked at stations in stockton, rohnert park and reno, nv.  ksan made it ok to be creative and daring.  thanks tom donohue for inspiring so many people who worked in fm.  times now are, of course, much different but at least a friend of mine and myself still operate, occasionally, a pirate fm in reno that encompasses the spirit of ksan, ksml, et.al.  thanks for your great site.....................kent w.


I was living at The Great Highway and Santiago in the early 70s...second floor flat, with a bay window overlooking the Pacific. There was a sizable oil spill making its way to the beach, and no one seemed to be able - or willing - to do anything about it.

I'm seeing birds start to show up, covered in thick, unrefined oil - just a matter of time before they die. Then I hear KSAN sound the alarm: anybody and everybody, get the beach. From where the old Sutro Baths were south to the Zoo, we need you! I went through a tunnel at Taraval to the beach and meet a small army of Freaks with rakes and pitchforks - and trucks are driving up and down the beach, dropping bales of hay.

We got the hay spread out to halt or absorb the flow of oil as best we could, and others, with the help of veterinarians, used solvents and towels to clean off the waterfowl until they could be taken to rescue centers.

There were thousands of freaks on the beach that day, and in days to follow. We didn't have the technology that's available now to control oil spills, but we had KSAN to mobilize its listeners.

I've spent my life in commercial radio. I never worked at KSAN, but I listened. Never have I seen a display of community service via radio to match what KSAN accomplished during that oil spill. Their "Speed Kills" campaign with the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic may have saved more human lives over time, but I'll never forget how hard those Freaks worked, for how long, because they were needed, and someone at their radio station figured out something to do when no one else had a clue.

That's power, baby!

-Jack Hines


I need hear some of the coolest radio dialogue and reports marking a time and feeling that was KSAN. They had a style of quirky slapstick audio feed that filled our heads and souls with joy and offered me a freedom to experience all the freshest music that titillated controversy in an ever expanding conservative city; it fed my generation with liberal expressions and desires.  We in the East Bay and surrounding hamlets had KSAN to thank for that!  What a shame we cannot BRING BACK to mainstream corporate radio, the old shows.  KSAN had some of the best impromptu radio.  

Terry McGovern was so freakin' great!  Those D.J.'s knew how to do a show.  Today's radio is soooo uninspiring and hopelessly dull with lame desperate sexual content that is not funny, they make fun of the disabled, mentally ill and etc. to breathe life into an already stale topic of clichés that never work. Young people today will never get a kick out of hearing today’s radio in 30 years. 

We moved to the bay area in 1971 and I was hooked to KSAN once I had my fingers rolling the knob on the ol’ radio in my room, searching for the best signal.  As a kid in the East bay, I used to have this old nineteen fifty nine General Electric AM-FM radio coupled with splicing wire to homemade speakers.  (My dad made them for us girls.  Talk about archaic in-the-day surround-sound).  We had them hanging from the ceiling of our attic bedroom with two sets of 6-panel black light posters of the universe and Mr. Natural struttin' with a wafting doobie. (Woah…I can almost smell it now!).  

At night... I'd turn on the purple neon, after coming home stoned and spend hours listening to the King Biscuit Flower Hour and those great entire whole new album releases "Side One" and "Side Two" determined what albums I would be buying in the future.  What I really enjoyed were the interviews with some of best bands and artist of the time.  And I loved, adored the skits, the genre was so before Saturday Night Live.  I was turned on to one of my favorite bands by KSAN...the Detectives.....raspy growling.....Competition baby...made of fool out of me....duduuudntdnt....dduuudntdnt.  That's rock.  Guitar licks and more!  Bass beats! Drum keeping time!  Who the hell does that now?  KSAN kicked-ass!  

I Remember...This KSAN...in San Francisco.  Sometimes We do it fast.....sometimes We do it slow.  But Oh! Oh! Oh! We always do it !!!  And then chorus melody would come in with.  And when...when... you do
it...Oh! Oh! (The kicker was that it was done with a Mae West sound alike.  Someone needs to get a hold of Terry McGovern and see if he has some of his old work on reel-to-reel.  Later on in the seventies KMEL was a pretty good radio station too, and when in range I'd always try to get KOME radio to receive.  NO radio stations rock like that anymore.   

Ruth Llorens (Alameda, CA)

 

gents, where to start. it was april 1975 and i had just arrived at fort ord, us army, after spending a cold in winter in missouri in basic training.i was always a music fan. im 53. so i bought a receiver for the barracks and discovered ksan. what an experience. ksan molded my musical tastes that still are being molded today. sounds from the alians was probably my favorite show and the outcast hour was also a favotite. i loved the imports and punk that ksan turned me onto. and i can say i was at the pistols concert at winterland. i used wake up at 2am on i think was a tuesday and record the 2 hour alian show. i loved when doug from rather ripped would sit. i have many (hundreds) of hours of ksan shows. sean d was probably my favorite. those saturday nites were great. he always played good, heavy, r&r. norman was a favorite. but i enjoyed most of the dj's. they all brought something different to the table and the music was varied. bonnie, bob mclay, terry, ben fong, bobby dale., the guy and girl team, the african american guy. of course many others which i have on tape  cant remember all the names. i was at fort  ord until dec 1977. i moved to a samll town of greenfield off  of 101S where i lost the signal. on occasion i would to go berkely for a weekend, maybe for a concert and i would bring my stereo equipment and record ksan. it was great. when i came back to nj in oct 78 i joind the college radio station. wher i would try to emulate ksan ,dropping station id's in between songs, segue songs a certain way or speak over a certain song. i probably could go but it is dinner time so i have to go.i stll have ksan t shirt which is alittle tight. anyway im glad i found this sight  and ksan will live on in memory until i die. it was a big part of my life as was the 4 years i spent in CA.  oh did i mention scoop??? bye for now rich



I was a regular listener of the Jive 95 from the early 70s until it changed to a country station in the early 80s.  Following are some favorite memories:

A few days after the Who played Winterland in the mid 70s, Bill Graham was a guest on Richard Gossett's show.  Bill asked "So Richard, how did you like the show?" to which Richard replied "Pretty good Bill, but I burned my lip on a roach."

The day the death of Sandy Denny was announced in the late 70s, Norm Winer spoke a heartfelt tribute to her and then played the timeless Fairport Convention song "Who knows where the time goes".

Dusty Street got totally stoned on her birthday, did her show anyway, and it was a riot to listen to.

The day they changed to country, the switch was made midday on a weekday.  The last song played before the switch was the Grateful Dead's "Scarlet Begonias".

Jive 95 lives on in the minds of all of us who were fortunate enough to be able to listen to it on a regular basis.

Scott Blake

Mountain View, CA

"There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress." ~ Mark Twain 
     ____________________________________________________________________________________

ksan fm in the 60's was the koolest, hippest fm station ever conceived, and was my staple for listening thru the late 60's and when i returned to the bay area in the early 70's. it broke my heart when free-form radio went to "shit-kicking" music. the sounds and ambiance of ksan will forever live in my brain. there has never quite been an fm station quite like it.
 
-craig

Good Day,
I’m sitting here in the woods, 20 miles outside of Seattle (SF wannabe) doing some morning computer chores and for some reason decided that the billion songs on in iTune’s wasn’t going to make it today.  Having been born and raised in the Bay Area I made the quick mental leap from local streaming radio to “home sweet home” radio.  Hmmm, I wonder what’s happening on KSJO these days?? I thought to myself.  Holy Shit, its gone...hmm politically correct here....Latin oriented..What happened to Sunday morning Sabbath or Sammy...and what ever happen to Tawn Mastry ...greatest ass in radio...Anyway,  my favorite station of all time is never far from my heart...which I left in..., well that’s another story.  I google KSAN, the mighty Jive 95, hit the link..And find...well lets move on.  I see a link to your site and eagerly click....
The memories and heart ache I felt as I sifted through page after page of group photo’s, old articles and the “where are they now and what are they doing” sections was an absolute joy.  Yes, the heartache even though tough was brought on by the memories of how special the Bay Area was growing up.  I was fortunate to experience the 60’s and 70’s living there and would not have wanted to be anywhere else on the planet during those years.  Nothing stays the same and on my occasional visits back there it has never been so evident as it is now.  I miss those times so much since I moved to the Seattle area in 89.  Nice place to raise kids but the food, music (for the most part) and the sports teams suck.   I yearn for a Casper’s dog in Hayward, Could kill for a Bob’s burger in Fremont and to have just one slice of Ramona’s pizza in Palo Alto would be sublime.  But you know what?  Being able to turn on the radio and listen to KSAN with the old gang at the mic’s for just one hour,  just one hour..commercial free letting them have at it....That would be joy.

Hope I didn’t bore you, I guess I just wanted to say Thanks,
Chris Kremkau
Formerly of Fremont, Vallejo, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Stockton & Santa Clara.

Go Giants!!!
Humm Baby

Rock On!!


Hey Jive 95
 
 i had an eight track tape of the last day of KMPX, i recorded when i was 10? i believe. but it melted long ago.  i think it was a loop of the ocean, but it's been so long ago, heck.
 i also remember the last few tracks ksan played and had a tape of that for a while. i ended up throwing it in the fire cuz it made me so sad to even think of it.  when the morning comes by hall and oates, summertime blues   blue cheer  and  nancy wilson's  I'm always drunk in san francisco   then that horrible music started.....
 
lov ya    tim peck

I returned to the Bay Area in August of 1980 and the first thing I did when I got within fifty miles was find KSAN, the world's greatest freeform radio.  In 1970, I had grown so terribly fond of locking onto it during those times of cerebral peril when a musical anchor was number two on the list right after Mr. Owsley. So it was with great joy that I was reunited with my favorite spot on the 'ole FM dial, christ that sounds so archaic now, and for three months or so everything was OKAY. I got a job with the Oakland Bay Cab Company and on that fateful day I was sitting  at a cab stand in Jack London Square when I heard the fateful announcement. First I thought it was a joke. "They must be joking," I thought in a panic. "They...they wouldn't, couldn't....would they?"

It didn't make sense. I remembered an April Fool's joke played on the public earlier that year and in the back of my mind, I tried to convince myself that this was some tomfoolery as well.  So I listened for an hour to some of the worst s**t to come out of that frequency. Okay, so I listened for an hour and five minutes until the brutal reality slithered into my brain and convinced me that the world was no longer the paradise of my youth. Hell, my youth had even turned on me! So in honor of its passing, I went home and got drunk and did every drug I could get my nose...I mean my hands on.... And I must say that my recollections of the good sh*t is that when KSAN left, it took the good head with it as well. It was a bad month all over...the same month that the idiot-citizenry elected an aging puppet to the lowest office in the Untied States. Sh*t happens and then its gone for good. Whattaya gonna do. Pass me that pipe and let's suck on some "windowpane."  [love that view!] Now you got me all nostalgic, in my mind's eye, I'm walkin' down Telegraph Ave. when some shady looking guy stops me and asks if I'd like to buy some "Hash! Grass! Acid!"  I say yes without hesitation. Now where is that KSAN, and all was well.

Thanks for some of the best FU*KING TIMES I EVER HAD, GROOVY MAN!

Love and respect for the good times to all you HEADS. Keep on Keepin' on...           

Rosie Schneider  AKA Sista Mary Jane Sativa



I logged on to your website for the first time, today, after a student in my special education classroom asked me to explain the pictures on an old KSAN poster I had laminated and placed on the wall. I actually found the poster in the Jive Art section of the website!  I enjoyed reminiscing about the KSAN years when I was an undergraduate at Stanford (1968-1972) and often fell asleep in my dorm with the station playing at a low volume on my clock radio. I also managed to attend events at Winterland, Fillmore West and the Avalon on a regular basis. My students are amazed that I actually saw the Stones, Led Z., Black Sabbath, It's a Beautiful Day, Santana, the Dead, the Airplane, Quicksilver, etc. Some of the groups they've never hear of -- what a shame -- like Country Joe, A.B. Skhy, Aum, Cold Blood, Canned Heat and others.
Thanks for keeping the spirit alive and having the pics and info for us "elderly" ambassadors of meaningful music and times.
 
Alan Yankus
Special Services
Redmond High School

Oh I've got lot's of good memories that are KSAN inspired.  But among my favorites is Scoop Nisker.  I have these flash backs to the good 'ole days when I hear mention of his name, or any of his current dialogs.

How can anyone forget his inspiring sign off "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own".  I hold that sentiment close to me, and though I don't act on the news as often as I can or should, I do act, and I do try to inspire those close to me to do the same.

Whether it is through volunteer work, peaceful protest, voting or raising money for a good cause.  There are many ways we can have an positive effect on what goes on around us, and work towards changing what we don't like that is around us.

Leslie in San Leandro

My KSAN Memories

I spent hours here. What a trip down memory lane. I enjoyed it all, especially the “Live” shows. I happened to be at some of those shows, and listening to them again had me sitting right back in “The Plant.” Those were some of the most memorable days of my life – and you helped me relive them. Through a “friend of a friend” I was invited to my first show (Camel) in ’73. I was absolutely blown by the experience (the studio, not the band!). Actually, our contact at The Plant, Kurt Kinsel, thought that it was Frampton’s Camel that was coming and we were very, very disappointed when Pete was nowhere to be found. I ended up attending the real Frampton show two years later.  

At the time, Peter was trying to decide (between the Plant & Wally Heider’s) which studio to use for recording dates at Winterland, his favorite place to play. Kurt, who was chosen as the engineer for this show, allowed me and three of my friends to attend. We were the only audience. We were ushered into control room “A” and directed to sit on the floor, in front of the mixing console, and told to keep quiet. Kurt explained to us that this show was going to be different because Peter’s record company was going to pay to have the session recorded on 16-track tape. (All the previous shows were recorded “live” right from the board onto two-track tape; no mixing – what you got is what you get!). Having the session on 16-track would allow Peter to work with it, play with some of the ideas he had and mix it the way he wanted.

Peter arrived, late, and after a rough start (helped by a cup of tea!) he eventually recorded a great show. Halfway through, Peter pointed at us through the glass and said “You can come out here...if you want.” (Meaning the studio). My friends I looked at each other, but we were too scared to move. I finally said, “Shit! I’ll go.” So I went out and sat in the studio with the band. Peter gave me an extra set of head phones that were plugged into the same junction box as his; essentially, I was hearing exactly what he heard. I few songs later I heard some static in the phones. I could tell that Pete was getting kind of bugged by it. During a break I jumped up and checked all the connections from the wall to the box, and sure enough, it fixed the problem. Pete thanked me and Kurt gave me a “thumbs up” from the control room. 

That was only a minor mishap – the show ended with a larger one! In the middle of the last song, during a great bag solo on “Do You Feel Like We Do,” the tape ran out. The assistant engineer, who was responsible for changing the tape reels, wasn’t familiar with Frampton’s material. He guessed (before the last song) that there would be enough tape left. He guessed wrong! Peter was very distraught when he found out.  “You won’t get another one like that,” he said. He did another take and Kurt ended up splicing the two together, saving the lion’s share of the first one. Still, I always wondered whether this flub had anything to do with Peter finally deciding on Heider’s, instead of The Plant, for “Frampton Comes Alive.”

By the way...Kurt remembered my help with the headphones and when a spot opened a few months later (for a janitor) he got me the job! I soon became an assistant and ended up with credits on 8-9 records from 75-77. Sometimes, late at night, when nobody was around, I would sneak into the vault and make cassette copies of all the KSAN shows. The only one that I attended, and never got a copy of (and, of course, it’s not on your list!) was Golden Earring. I have some others that aren’t listed, either. Like: Kenny Rankin, Ian Lloyd & Stories, UFO & the original Journey (before they were signed!). The Kenny Rankin tape is an absolute crack-up! He jokes the whole time, between songs. He’s got a bit about Nixon that’s classic.

I’ve got one more little tid-bit for you. In 1977 Fleetwood Mac was at The Plant recording “Rumors.” Although the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham helped launch them into super stardom, I was still a fan of the old version, with Bob Welch. Bob, who was still friends with the band, would sometimes hangout at the studio during those days. He was involved in a new project called “Paris” that was also doing some recording there. Once, on a quiet Sunday, I put on the Fleetwood Mac KSAN show. I turned down the lights, rolled a fat one and eased back in the airplane chairs to enjoy some of the earlier favorites like: Hypnotized, Future Games, Bermuda Triangle and Sentimental Lady. So who walked in? Bob Welch. ”I haven’t heard this in ages,” he said, smiling. “Mind if I join you?” 

We sat and listened. He commented on different takes and what was happening in the band at the time. There were parts of the tape (the talking between songs) where he was obviously frustrated and sounded angry. I could tell that these sections upset him a little, reminding him why he left the band in the first place. He didn’t say anything (nor did I) but I couldn’t help but wonder what he was feeling. I mean, shortly after he quits the band the rest of them go on to be millionaires! It must have been tough. 

He asked me what I thought of his new project. I’d heard some of it, and thought a few songs were ok, but I wasn’t bowled over or anything. “”Frankly Bob,” I mustered, timidly, “I like the old stuff. I think Sentimental Lady is one of the best things you’ve done. He thanked me for letting him sit awhile, and my candor, and then drifted off. I was pleasantly surprised a few years later, after the demise of Paris, that his best selling solo effort “French Kiss” had a mild hit with a remake of – guess what? You got it! – “Sentimental Lady.”  

Rich Ehrman    ehrman_richard@yahoo.com

PS – Shortly after engineering the Marshall Tucker KSAN show in 1974, Kurt was approached by the band’s management and offered a position as their personal engineer. He accepted in 1975 and moved to the South where he worked for Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia. One day he called, asking me to come back and be his assistant. Being young (19) I got cold feet and turned the offer down. I often wonder where my life might have led had I made a different decision. Anyway, thanks again for the memories...


Seems like I have had the radio on since I was a kid. KYA, KFRC, KDIA, KMPX, KSAN, KJAZ, KFOG. And the stations with the ballgames. For music, I rely on KPFA or KALX in these days of commercial radio, since I am from Berkeley.
I hope it wasn't that I took any of this for granted but I don't really remember that much.

These stations were the soundtrack of my life and I remember just being so glad that they were there. My old VW bug's radio had two presets for FM and three for AM. A KLH Model 21 for home. Still have it. An Ampex transistor radio for the beach. KSAN all the time.
Looking back, the concert ads alone were worth listening for. I wished I lived in SF so I could go to the Avalon, Fillmore, and Winterland more often. Also looking back, it is hard to believe in this day and age that KSAN had a regular dope report on the air. And Dr. Hip talking about "bad trips" and the evils of alcohol. Although, I do remember a certain DJ being pretty sloppy and crying on the air. Anyway, precious memories when they pop up on occasion.
By the way, I still have a KSAN bumper sticker. The clear one with white lettering. And a little flyer by Dan O'neil illustrating how to get better FM reception by tacking coaxial wire to the walls.
      
Peace, Mike

i was a kid in sf and daly city, growing up in the 60's and 70's and did not go to sleep when everyone else did...i caught your show by accident and I was hooked...you were marvelous company for me late at night...always something new and wonderful to listen to, of course sometimes with the aide of some herbals...then...all at once it was gone...i went to bogota colombia in  of 1978 and when i retured, KSAN sticker on my suitcase...KSAN went country...i could not beleive my ears...ksan and kmpx were the reason i had to have a fm radio in my car asap.

 
i believe i still have an old cassette of one of your shows, randomly chosen...with your most soothing and cosmic voice...perhaps it was cosmic voyage, i can't remember, but i will take it out and dust it off and find a cassette player and travel back in time for a moment to one of those late night trips we took...
 
thanks.
 
howard bronstein

I came to visit from Columbus, OH,  I heard Bob McClay and Dave McQueen
and the rest of KSAN's crew - I moved here.
The End.

PS. Did working at Rolling Stone and KSAN mean that Ben Fong-Torres was
hogging 2 of the best jobs in the known world at the same time, thereby
relegating at least one person to some Nike type sweatshop position
because he wouldn't share?  Just curious.

Bill Phillips

i used to listen in the mornings 6-10 am w/ terry mc govern... a gal named 'heavy breather' would call in w/ a sexy voice...made radio good listening...also terry would play a ' commercial'  harv' kirshners happy face motors'   the last line with harv' was ' i'll sit on your face to make a better deal...''   great memories of the best fm station in america... thanx for the memories..

Uncle Puke


Thanks for this great website. The impact of KSAN-FM is in my opinion, immeasurable.
I grew up in white-bread Lafayette and entered my formitable teen years during the period of 1967-70, greatful to be on the fringes of "The Summer of Love". Also fortunate to be exposed to Quicksilver Messinger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Frumious Bandersnatch, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Santana, etc., who performed after Friday night football games at Acalanes High School.

I became enammored with radio in the 4th grade-circa 1964, often listening to KEWB and KYA. But then....in 1968, I was turned on to KSAN-FM and found the wonder of wonderful radio! Dusty Street mesmerized me with that silky, sultry, sexy voice. Edward the Bear, Reno Nevada, Congress of Wonders and of course, THE Big Daddy himself!

How much fun it was to hear free-form radio. Man it was such a trip. Sometimes I didn't get all of the seques, many times I did. I especially enjoyed the "Daily Dope Report", which helped me bargain with dealers on a "fair" price for the herb you smoked. It was just great fucking radio, no doubt about it.

I wish corporate America hadn't marginalized this beautiful creature and squeezed the shit out of its personality and creativity, reducing it to a sham. However, I am grateful, that I can remember the many days and nights I spent glued to my ole GE AM/FM radio and grooved to Jive-95, KSAN-FM. Man, those were the days.

Thanks for listening and writing!
Bruce Bjorkman
"Cooking Outdoors With Mr. Barbecue"
KXL NewsRadio 750 AM,Saturdays Noon-1:00PM


I was an original KMPXer (one-oh-seven on your fm dial) at the impressionable age of 14. Real music on FM radio! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A friend and I had often taken a bus across the bay to the City to go hang out in the Haight, which my parents would have forbade, had they known. We were in a poster shop, filled with yummy jasmine incense, and a wonderful song playing in the background. I begged for the artist's name, only to be informed it was the radio. The radio?! So I stuck around for the set to finish and discovered HP Lovecraft. More importantly, I discovered KMPX. This began my lifelong love of music. It wasn't long before the station was a lifeless shell, and I was resigned to a life of AM radio (thank God for KLIV out of San Jose). Then, out of my first teenage despair came KSAN (later, jive 95). I was nearly in tears. A few more years of the joyful sound, and I was off to Austin, and virtually no good radio again (KRMH was there and gone before we knew it). But home again,home again in '74. KSAN had evolved into a powerhouse of new (and old) hip music. More advertisements, but the trade off was easily worth it.
As a 52 year old child and adult therapist in Central Texas, I have worked at 2 radio stations for a couple of hours a week subconsciously trying to emulate Tom Donahue, and share the joy of magnificent music to grateful ears. These early days of possibly the greatest radio stations in the history of music have added to the joy of my existence. I will always be grateful.
 
John Sommer,
Brownwood, Tx.

It all started more then 30 years ago when I stumbled across a small hole in the wall radio station called KSAN.   At that time a DJ named Bob Simmons was "holed up" in this tiny studio.   A short time later KSAN moved into a new much larger studio on Sansome street.   We had met through various channels and contests that KSAN had.  

I won a night on stage with Alice Cooper and when I showed up to claim my Will Call ticket, I found out that someone had said that they were me and absconded with the seats.  This someone was the guy who couldn't answer all of the questions regarding a song fragment that was played and he also happened to be a male belly dancer. 
Nonetheless Bill Graham's right hand woman (Queenie) got our entourage into the show and I got to witness this hairy 30+ chub of a guy do his thing in a tutu along with ten other girls.  

I made it onto the stage during the last number Alice did entitled Insane Asylum.  It was all good.  I even got backstage to talk with Alice much to my delight. Not even the incredibly tiny photographer, Randy Bachman, could find a way to slip through the tight security.  I often worked side by side with Randy at the Looking Glass, sometimes printing pictures of the same concert we both just attended (but I never had the access he did). 

When my finance and myself were going to be married and  a certain DJ there named Bob McClay was a minister of the Universal Life Church, we decided what better way to celebrate our union than to do it LIVE on the air.  This was New Years eve 1974 and it happened right after Sean Donahue's show.   Bonnie Simmons ran the board and we proceeded on with a original ceremony written in the spirit of the event utilizing Unitarian, American Indian, and Shakespeare sonnet, while Bonnie broadcast a play list we came up with.  

That show and that day were just a part of the continuous family of friends that embraced the era.  When KSAN went country it just about killed me. I was in a cold panic for now where in the world would I find  Barbara Keith music to listen to?  There is so much more to these stories than I have the time to write about, BUT thank goodness in the new era of the internet and global communications I have not only found some Barbara Keith to listen to (out of print in 1971) but through your website I was able to take a stroll through memory lane...once again.  

I often wonder what happened to all those "old timers" we shared a good portion of our lives with.  The late 60's and early 70's culture will never be duplicated again.  As I have stumbled across a lot of the photographs I took at Winterland and have collected every video I can find documenting such events as the Sex Pistols concert and Bob Marley's first show in this country when he visited a small dinner club called the Boarding House,  I am reminded how influential this era was on our culture and that preservation of it is needed so that generations to come can share in the love and joy we all came to know.

Gary Bernstein 



I grew up in Portola Valley, south of San Francisco, and KMPX was pivotal in my formative years. My older sister left for college so I had my choice of radio stations with her gone. Besides relishing the emerging San Francisco music, I was introduced to the Blues through KMPX. I think Tom Donahue was the primary  DJ and I would not have discovered many blues artists until much later without him. I'm still a blues fan, in 2005. Of course, the free, outdoor concerts with Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and other groups around the Bay Area highlighted my teen years. 

I found I could ride my horse from Portola Valley to the park in Palo Alto where the Dead gave "Dancing Lessons" (dodging the city's concert permit requirement). Riding my horse, I avoided telling parents where I was going or arranging a ride or to borrow a car. So I learned to dance, barefootin' (but my horse hated amplified music and bit me, to say: let's go home now). Got my driver's license in time to make it to the polo fields in Golden Gate Park for the 1967 Gathering of the Tribes: Human Be-in, and about a week after school was out, I got a ride to Monterey for the International Pop Festival. It couldn't get much better ...

 
I don't recall the demise of KMPX as underground radio; I graduated from Woodside High a semester early and left the country by March of 1968, then went to Northern Arizona to start college. I was back in Portola Valley for six months in 1969 and also lived in San Francisco for four months in 1972 and must have listened to KSAN. I also listened to a late night, high-powered radio broadcast out of Mexico as a teenager: I think I could hear it both in California and Arizona: Wolfman Jack? In the 1990s I saw a documentary on public television that claimed teenagers all over America were influenced by broadcasts from Mexico, playing different music than the sanitized stations in the USA.
 
I am still a radiohead: streaming live via Internet right now. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is just across the harbor and it puts out some kind of interference that makes regular radio difficult to listen to most of the time. So Internet-based radio is a blessing until I get a plan together to move back to Seattle or somewhere else.
   
Dulce in Port Orchard, WA

During the 70's I went up to the Tahoe skiing a lot, especially for the day, and coming back I could pick up KSAN at about Vacavile, and it was GREAT. I could listen to Tom Donahue on a Saturday night and cruise into SF. One thing in particular I remember was Tom saying that he was playing records for the guy working under his car on a Saturday night. It was especially great when they would do a special weekend show, like the Fillmore show or the weekend about the summer of love.

steve jeffries


I listened to KSAN from September of 1971 to September 1976. I had it on all day when I was not at School and all night. KSAN influenced me in oh so many ways from being a DJ to being a Record Store owner. I have such great memories of Ben Fong Torres in the morning, Rachel Donahue from 10:00am to 2:00pm, running home from USF at noon to hear her feature every day on a particular band or artists. I just loved her voice. 

Bob McClay in the afternoons was such a joy and I remember how he turned me onto jazz pianist Bill Evans by playing "Peace Piece" every day for a couple weeks straight.  Richard Gossett in the evenings was so cool. He was so fun when he found a new band or song. He played Thin Lizzy's "Boys Are Back In Town" every day until it hit pop radio. I taped so many live shows, the live weekend from the Record Plant was a highlight with the Pursuasions, Montrose, Leo Sayer, so many others which I still listen to. 

Tom Donahue on Saturday nights was so good, it was always a pain to have decided to go to a show at Winterland when Tom was on, pure genius and that voice was just the best. So many other memories of great radio at KSAN...The staff was always great to talk to...Calling about Axe Victim by Be Bop Deluxe and having Bob put me on hold so he could find a record store which had the import in stock...Love your Web site...

Mike Grabicki
MrStones@earthlink.net


I've been enjoying the site for a while. I grew up in the Bay Area and started listening to KMPX within days of its inception. I was a steady listener until I moved to Oregon in 1972. Also, my older brother's best friend in junior high was none other than Milan Melvin. Milan spent an entire summer with us at our cabin near Tahoe, and he remained pretty close with our family until he entered UC. Imagine my surprise the first Sunday I listened to KMPX and heard him playing tunes. I knew he'd gone to the "hip" side, but I didn't know he was that well connected. Anyway, here's a true story for you.
 
In the early 70's I had a nighttime job at a film processing plant in Hayward. I worked in a darkroom with two other guys. We had a radio in there tuned to KSAN and turned it on on the way in and off when we left. We couldn't see to change the channel even if we'd wanted to, which we didn't. Anyway, one night we're working away with the tunes in the background when we came to realize that the last song was followed by silence. At first we didn't think much about it, but as the silence continued we were kinda like, what the hell? Well, we kept working and pretty much forgot about the radio. Maybe half an hour later (maybe more) the DJ came back on in a panic, saying "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry". He then went on to explain, while gasping for breath, that he had gone outside for a smoke and the door clicked behind him and locked him out. He freaked out and then took of running for Bob McClay's house. Luckily Bob was home and drove him back and let him in. I giggled the rest of the shift at the thought of that poor DJ, running through San Francisco while the station, and the few listeners left, waited for his return. I don't remember who the DJ was, but he was a new guy, who was doing the post-midnight shift, and it was 1971 or the first part of '72.
 
Thanks for this site, and the memories.
 
Greg Lima

I have to thank you for bringing back all those memories. Growingup in the North bay (Vallejo) in a military family in the 60's, I had to listen to KSAN with an earphone most of the time.
I have some very fond memories of Dusty and Tom and going to the station to make a  request  anytime I was in "The City".  I remember all the venues,  Longshoremans Hall, the Avalon Ballroom, the Family Dog out on the great highway,  Winterland, and that  you could only hear the music of the artists who played there on KSAN.
It was a great time and I do miss it.  I still have a very worn copy of "Lights Out San Francisco" that I treasure as much as the 406 Dead shows I've been to.
Thanks so much for keeping the story alive.
Bless you Tom, you gave us all so much, and were gone far too soon.
ps.  I'm still in love with Dusty

Don Tidd
Web-Spinners.us
Web Design solutions for non-profits
Shelton , WA \ Mendocino , CA


Ah yes, KSAN FM 95, brings back many fond memories. Living in Concord, just moved here to the bay area from North Carolina, searching the radio dial for some decent rock and roll to listen to. Wait, what's this? first time i ever heard Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned" and i am a confirmed fan of this radio station for life. KSAN also introduced me to Winterland and if i wasn't there i would always listen to the live broadcasts of shows that KSAN presented. I always found the weekly drug report on Fridays quite hilarious also. Whatever happened to all the tapes of the live broadcasts?

Moe D. Lawn


After leaving home in 1972, i found myself living by myself and without a television. So i kept KSAN on during the day and evenings. At that time i had a reel-to-reel tape recorder & would constantly try to tape songs i heard, which means that most of my tapes with these songs sound somewhat abbreviated, i.e. the front of the song is missing & the back-end of the song is cut short, due to either the DJ talking, or a new song starting, etc.

i was particularly tuned in to Bob McClay. i'm probably wrong in this, but i never remember him being a jerk; instead he was always informative & talked to his audience instead down to them like the modern-day DJs. i seem to remember that he would have some children on during Saturdays & they were always entertaining, too. You could tell that he was a very groovy guy just by the way he interacted with others.

i also remember Terry McGovern with his songs that couldn't be heard on any other radio station ("Bakalavaka" [sic?], "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas", and others). Too often he seemed to be trying out his "schtick" on the radio instead of playing music, but at that time, it was unique.

i still have many tapes of the live shows that used to be played at night: ELO, Martin Mull (twice), Robin Trower, Van Morrison (which KFOG seems to now have), The Tubes, Hall & Oates, Bonnie Raitt (twice also), et al. Many were edited, i.e. if i didn't like the song they were doing i'd stop the tape & then re-start it when a new song came on, unless i didn't like that one either. 

So imagine my surprise recently when i purchased the Grateful Dead's Winterland Closing CD & found a message from Glenn Lambert with your URL. i am very thrilled that something like this exists. i remember maybe in 1992, KUSF (i think) had some kind of 10 year anniversary show with members of KSAN & it was on at the same time as a Grateful Dead marathon on KPFA. i chose to tape the Dead stuff & wish i could have taped both. Ah well. 

Just one last thing: Richard Gossett used to play a song by a person named Carolyn Sullivan called "Dead." Since probably 1973 or so, i've been looking for that record, but to no avail. But just recently i found it (thru GEMM.com) at a record store in England and purchased it for $56.00. Thanks Richard Gossett, and all of you. It is worth every penny. 

My memories are priceless.

Jeff McPherson


Miles Mellough recalls his "KSAN Karma."


My nickname (Jiverson) developed as a result of an obsession with KSAN from 1970-1977. When I left the Bay Area to go to school in San Luis Obispo, jumped at the chance to do college radio and emulate my heroes at KSAN. In 1979 started a radio program at local SLO NPR affiliate KCBX and named it The Last Jazz Show in honor of Scoop Nisker. The show is still going strong (totally free-form whatever) after 25 years and I credit all of the inspiration to the KSAN crew.

Jon Iverson (Jiverson)


I have and always will be a fan of KSAN. I will never forget coming home after school, turning the radio on and sitting down to do my biology homework. I believe that Richard Gossett was on the air. He was introducing the new Todd Rundgren album, and I recall that he described it as ‘music of the future’. It was Rundgren’s first lp as ‘Utopia’ and Richard proceeded to play the entire side of it. Man, the Ikon and Freak Parade literally blew me away. Needless to say I did not finish my homework.  

Some years later I was trying to promote a band and get some airplay. I believe that you folks sponsored some airtime for new bay area bands. I called Richard at the station and he gladly received me and my tape of the band. Thanks again for all of the great broadcast memories and the web site is pretty cool.  

Chris Reagan


What a treasure during the 70s to have KSAN every day. So many memories, but the highlights for me: *Bonnie S, Terry M, Bob M, Richard G and Ben F-T playing music and teaching me about really good music. *Learning about where all the great concerts would be every weekend. *Best radio interviews ever. *Killing myself doing outdoor labor in Berkeley and Albany, but hearing consecutive songs and album sides from all of my favorites. *I'm so far right wing that I'm left wing. The politics at KSAN in the 70s were acceptable to me. The hosts were not frauds, and I felt they believed what they were saying. *Firesign Theater.

I was fortunate to have WNEW-FM in New York in the early 70s and then Jive 95 in the middle and late 70s. Two of the greatest stations I've ever heard.  NEW was more corporate while KSAN was out of control and very, very good. I still listen to music from the 70s about 95% of the time thanks to these two stations. 

Sincerely,
Vic Telesino
Henderson, NV


In 1967 the only person I knew with an fm radio was a friend who lived two houses down the street.So we would go to his house after school (high school) and on weekends to listen to KMPX. We heard all kinds of great music,Spencer Davis Group, John Lee Hooker, James Brown. For christmas that year I got my first fm radio. I was thrilled, took it out of the box and plugged it in, found KMPX on the dial and the first song I heard was the Electric Prunes from Mass in F Minor. Don't remember who the DJ was.  

Gary William

  
 I grew up here in the Bay Area and listened to the big AM radio stations (KEWB, KYA, then KFRC and late at night "Wolfman Jack") for years. In fact, as a child, I would beg my parents to let me sleep in the garage, so I could stay up and listen to "The All Night Flight" on KYA.  And then KMPX came along.  When I heard music that didn't have someone talking over the beginnings or endings of songs, and played the "long versions", I thought my prayers had been answered.  I never could follow "pop" music again. 
   My tastes changed immediately from The Dave Clarke Five and Paul Revere & the Raiders to Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead, and The Sons of Champlin (yikes!). I became fascinated with the "San Francisco Sound".  I would cut junior high school and hitchhike to Golden Gate Park for free concerts (Moby Grape, Cold Blood, etc.).  
   I began going to Winterland, Fillmore West, Pepperland, and smaller venues around the bay to see these bands play and eventually saw most of the local bands and many of the national bands.  I collected the Fillmore Handbills (my brother was on the mailing list) and many other handbills of concerts I had gone to.  I was enchanted with the music that allowed the musicians to "jam", unlike the pop music that was  produced strictly for "mass marketing".
 
   KSAN played a special role in everything because it played the music of the musicians I loved. For example, I was fortunate to see Duane Allman's last performance at the end of their national tour in 1972 at Winterland.  Coincidently, it was Duane Allman who turned me on to Jazz because he played on Herbie Mann's "Push Push". That forced me to venture into the Jazz section of Tower (at Columbus & Bay) where I discovered Miles Davis and just like KMPX and KSAN, he changed my life.  When I saw the original Mahavishnu Orchestra at Winterland (see the last entry in my Fillmore Poster Gallery), I never listened to Rock music again. 
   But I always give credit where it's due and the radio was the center of my world since I was old enough to know how to turn one on and off.  KMPX and KSAN played the music that was the lifeblood of a new generation of musicians and fans that, for me, would change the world.      The music that came over the airwaves said a lot about creativeness, independent thought, and just plain adventure.  It was a special time in the history of the Bay Area for sure, but also went far beyond and became a special time in the musical history of the USA and the rest of the world.  If it wasn't for KMPX and KSAN, we may never have survived Surf music...
 
Rick

 
 
I got sick and tired of all the music on Top 40 radio and KOME AND KSJO and I switched to KSAN around 1975.  Listened to Terry McGovern in the morning, whom I remembered from his stint at KSFO the year or two before.  Terry was the best morning drive air personality San Francisco ever saw.  Period. I went away to Chico State University in the fall of 1976 and had my brother aircheck Terry for me and send me the tapes so that I could listen to him in my dorm.
 
   In 1977 the station faithfully turned me on to the latest British invasion music: PUNK!  They were about the only station that dared play not only Sex Pistols and The Clash and The Jam, but more obscure bands like Eddie & The Hot Rods, The Tyla Gang, The Boys (Soda Pressing is still a great song!), Wreckless Eric, The Rezillos and more..  The station also got me "into" The Ramones, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, and too many numerous to mention.
 
   Look, any station that would play Nuevo Laredo by Sir Doug Sahm and his Quintet can't be all bad, right?  Other music memories on KSAN: Bonnie Simmons playing The Crystals, "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), Bob McClay playing great Millie Jackson songs, lots of Little Feat, Al Green and plenty of Van Morrison (the songs nobody plays anymore, like, Straight To Your Heart, Like A Cannonball and I've Been Working).
 
   I was turned on to great music by the man...the legend...the one and only Richard Gossett..  Remember one night he had a skipping record on the air...think it was a Nazareth song.  He goes to cue the record up right on the air live...backwards and forwards, cueing it up...great radio, man.  Record kept skipping on him.  Come to think of it, Richard was always cueing up records live on the air!  It was just his style, man.  Loved his shows and really discovered some brilliant new music from him around 1977-79.  I remembered how much he really dug the band UFO around this time...actually, it was 1976.  Thanks, Richard.
 
   And Bonnie...she also turned me on to great stuff.  Remember her first live interview with Elvis on the air sometime in the fall of 1977.  Brilliance...sheer, unadulterated brilliance.
 
   I only caught Big Daddy, Tom Donahue, a few times before he died.  That was the end of KSAN, I think, even though it carried on in style for the remainder of the decade without him.  His ghost was certainly present in the control room and through the halls of the station.  What a legend he was.  What a set of PIPES!!!  So hip...so cool, I mean, he was cool personified.  Very, very sad to hear of his son Sean's death in a car accident a year or so back.  Sean was great on the air during the last year or so of KSAN.
 
There will never be another like...the Jive 95.  Period.
 
Jeff Hollinger

I remember all the demo tapes they played (Frozen Noses) AKA CSN. Things you would never hear anywhere else. Also the tapes of the Stones free concert at altamont. Oh what memories!!!!!!!!!!!   

Ronald Jackson


I came of age with KSAN, living up in the Oakland hills.  I can remember as sitting in my dark bedroom at night listening to endless surf on the radio, wondering just what was going on.  Somehow I was hooked, and followed KSAN through the years from birth to death.  A wonderful way to grow up.  Mother Earth, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Congress of Wonders (I finally tracked down and bought a copy of their record to replace my shattered one), Barbara Keith, that wonderful live Van Morrison session -- they still stick in my head.  God, what I wouldn't give to have a station like that again.

I was saddened to read on your web site that Alan Burton has died.  I loved Old North Beach, and would record it as often as I could.  I've still got an old "Mother, Folk n' Blues" t-shirt that I cherish. Bonnie Simmons once a week on KPFA is just enough to keep me going. (Thank you Bonnie.)  That, and my Golden Days of Radio CD that I play over and over again.

Talk about livin' in the past...

Stan Lanning


Dear Jive 95 Webmaster:

I can't tell you what a delight you site has been to me. I began in radio right about the time KSAN went to Country, but over the years I've worked with Norm Winer, Scoop Nisker, Jay (Steve) Hansen, and many of the other KSAN alumni. I even made it all the way to KFOG, and was Creative Director the day Jerry Garcia died. 

These days, I do voice-overs and creative production for many of America's AAA stations,
and run a community LPFM in a town near Telluride, Colorado that doesn't even have a traffic light. Ah...life, and its many chapters.

Your site, it's organization, the stories, where-are-they-now information is a true joy.

Best Regards,
Tom Koetting
Ridgway, CO 
koetting@ouraynet.com


Hi, many thanks for this BEAUTIFUL website. It is such a treasure. I grew up in the East Bay and of course, Jive 95 was such an important part of my life and in many ways still is. In hindsight, I probably did take it for granted that it would always be there, but alas, you don't realize what you've got until it's gone. Again, thanks for this site. Peace and love, Kevin


Every time I visit the "Jive 95" page I'm transported back to a magical place that still lives in our minds: late '60s/early '70s San Francisco. I can hear Bob McClay introducing Derek and the Dominoes' "Keep On Growing" and then a track by Roy Buchanan like it was this virtual morning, and I'm new in town again, driving my pick-up to fix somebody's window in the Mission, and I slow down to let a sweetie cross Folsom, and she smiles at me, and I smile back. Fast-forward 30 years; I left construction work long ago and now am in a cubicle in a big corporation, pushing papers. Trying to make my $63/month rent in '74; trying to make my $2000/month mortgage in '04. Life was good then; it is good now. I imagine my 24-year-old daughter, on her way to her job in Civic Center this actual morning. Some guy in a pick-up, new in town, a song from '74 on the radio, slows to let her cross Van Ness. She smiles, and he smiles back.

- Bill Yard


I was lucky enough to have been part of the KSAN audience in the early 1970s and still fondly remember the kindness of the air and support staff I met and their enthusiasm for the music. So many memories...Richard's friendliness and love of Duane Allman's music, Edward Bear and Laurie Cobb patiently entertaining my (too) many "suggestions," never "requests" (Tom Rush's "Rockport Sunday" might fit nicely about now...,) McClay's show the afternoon Gabor Szabo and Jim Stewart played acoustic guitar duets in the KSAN studio, Bobby Cole and Peter Frampton's first solo album, Ben Fong-Torres' weekend Motown sets, Bonnie Simmons kindly listening to my unfocused love of the music seeking direction and, of course, Dusty, the first lady of the blues; "Remember, down is up for me," she'd say.

Less often these days but still occasionally I'll reminisce, pulling out a selection of tunes culled from the bargain bin finds I was hearing nowhere else at the time and, years later, burning to disk: The Raylettes "One Hurt Deserves Another," "Moody Jr. (Walker)," Shuggie Otis' "Freedom Flight," Harvey Mandel's "Senor Blues" and "Midnight Sun," Junior Parker (Blessings be upon you, Voco,) Alan Toussaint, Mickey Newbury, Ralph Vaughan Williams and so many more. So many memories.

We all realized it couldn't last forever. I told myself then to savor it while it's here, as I kept digging through those bargain bins and tuning in.

Paul Sullivan
San Francisco, CA


I was an 8 or 9 year old who faithfully listened to KSAN, the jive 95. Every morning I would listen to Stephen Capen. All the little improvisations he spilled out were just the coolest to me. One day I started calling the show in the morning. He then started using my voice for various little station identifications. I remember one time, I said I was Ronald Reagan's rubber ducky, and I always listen to KSAN. He became the first famous person I knew...

One day after some time, I asked if I could come to the station to see how things work. My father and younger sister, and I all made the trip from San Mateo to Sansome St. We got to the station and I didn't want to leave. We even brought bagels and cream cheese so everyone could eat.

Lately, I have been listening to WTOP on the internet. It is a government radio station that keeps you up to date. I keep hearing this guy Stephen Capen doing little bits on it, but only to really know that the Stephen Capen I knew wouldn't do this shit. So today I started an internet search to find out if Stephen is still around. I found some stuff and found your website. I guess being 32 now, and doing my thing, I just wanted to live the old days again. I hope Stephen is well and would love to hear from him sometime. He may not remember me, but that is alright.

To this day I have always said that the Bay Area has the best radio stations anywhere, and the Jive 95 was always the tops! Although, Sunday night listening to Isadora Almond give me a free sex ed class wasn't too bad either.

Cheers!
Jason Rosen, C.I.P.S
HDR/Security Operations

It was really nice to find this website. KSAN was a very important part of my life. I have many old reel-to-reel tapes of the live shows that I always plan on recording to cd's. I left the Bay Area in 1983 for the greener life here in Seattle. I would tell people about KSAN and what a wonderful family it was. I have found something very close with KEXP, now part of the Experience Music Project. Check them out sometime.

Anyway thanks to all who put the website together and maintain it.

Brian Clawson
Indianola, WA

It was a Saturday morning and I was catching up on some corporate accounting work in my 5 X 10 cubicle.
 
KSAN had Warron Zevon w/ the rhythm section of Fleetwood Mac, live, just kicking ass on "Werewolves of London" only when the "Ah Ooooh" part came up Warren sang "Werewolves of KSAN." I was part of that group of knuckleheads and it was awesome.
Curt Kuhns
Hereford, PA

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