BARM Launches Classic KYA Online

If you were a teenager (or younger) growing up in the Bay Area back in the 1960s, you had a smorgasbord of choices -- KFRC (The Big 610), 1260/KYA, KEWB (Channel 91) and 1590/KLIV -- to suit your taste in Top 40 music, along with the great personalities that each station featured.

Out of that quartet, only KFRC remains forty years later, playing classic hits from the 1970s and vicinity at 106.9 FM.

As a vehicle of sheer nostalgic bliss, the Bay Area Radio Museum has launched Classic KYA Radio online, playing the great Top 40 hits of the 1960s (and vicinity), along with the 1260 KYA jingles that decorated the station so delightfully during that era.

The host of Classic KYA is Gary Mora (pictured here), who was a disc jockey at the original 1260 KYA during its latter period, and at the merged 560/KSFO and 93.3 KYA-FM. Gary also hosted the popular "KYA Oldies Road Show" live events for nearly twenty years, and is currently one of the best-known voice artists in the business.

Gary was born and raised on the Peninsula, and is a product of the College of San Mateo's vaunted broadcasting school, where he trained under the great Dan Odum, alongside classmates Dean Goss (currently weekending on KFRC) and Jon Miller (play-by-play voice of your San Francisco Giants).

In addition to the music and jingles, the flashbacks to the original KYA will continue with snippets of broadcast recordings from legendary KYA disc jockeys, including Johnny Holliday, Emperor Gene Nelson, Russ "The Moose" Syracuse, Tom Campbell, Bwana Johnny, Chris Edwards, Tommy Saunders and "Big Daddy" Tom Donahue. Classic commercials from the 1960s and 1970s are also featured, with Tom Campbell's well-remembered Mathew's TV & Stereo spots (complete with the famous "top of the hill, Daly City!" tagline) in heavy rotation.

The Bay Area Radio Museum controls the registered trademark to "KYA Radio" and has owned the rights to the kyaradio.com domain name since 2004. The newly-launched Classic KYA programming replaces the archival airchecks from the original "Boss of the Bay" that had been streaming previously on the kyaradio.com website. The revamped kyaradio.com features a continuous live feed of the Golden Gate Great Oldies, along with historic tidbits from the station's storied past.

The launch of Classic KYA Radio comes on the heels of the tremendous popularity of the Radio Museum's Classic KABL Music, which blends popular Adult Standards, Easy Listening and Beautiful Music, hosted by Radio Hall of Famer Bill Moen.

RIP: KABL's Adult Standards On The Internet

It's been gone for a month and a half, and I hadn't noticed it until today: Clear Channel has slinked away from the rotting corpse of the once proud KABL, disconnecting the life support from the Adult Standards audio stream.

Clear Channel has even cast aside the fabled KABL call letters, which they had exiled to Salinas; that station has since become KION. KABL joins KOME on the callsign scrap heap; I guess Clear Channel subscribes to the thinking that call letters really don't mean anything any more.

From KABLradio.com:

Goodbye...

Dear Friends of KABL,

Due to circumstances beyond our contol, it is our sad duty to announce that, as of January 1, 2007, Kablradio.com will be ceasing operation. On behalf of myself, our Webmaster Sean, and the KABL Gang...Jim Lange, Dino Donikian, Carter B. Smith, and Mario in Production, a heartfelt thanks for your loyal support. Perhaps at some point off into the future, a kabl 2.0 will appear. Meanwhile, please visit our friends at {LINK REMOVED}. There you will find great music and wonderful people who love this music and this era as much as we all do.

You should know that everybody is doing fine. Jim and Nancy are travelling a lot and enjoying retirement. Carter B. is plotting to corner the ENTIRE stock market. Dino is still the unofficial Mayor of San Leandro. Sean, Mario, and yours truly are busy with several radion stations in our company.

Again, our sincere thanks and best wishes for a great 2007.

Clark Reid
Program Director
kablradio.com

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