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Los Gatos, California | |
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Broadcast area | San Jose - Santa Clara Valley |
Frequency | 95.3 MHz |
Branding | 95.3 KRTY |
Programming | |
Format | Country |
Affiliations | Westwood One Golden State Warriors |
Ownership | |
Owner | Empire Broadcasting (Sale pending to Educational Media Foundation) (KRTY, Ltd.) |
History | |
First air date | 1966 (as KLGS) |
Former call signs | KLGS (1966–1969) KTAO (1969–1974) KRVE (1974–1985) KATD (1985–1989) KYAY (1989–1990) |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 35569 |
Class | A |
ERP | 870 watts |
HAAT | 262 meters (860 ft) |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | www |
KRTY (95.3 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Los Gatos, California, and serving the San Jose and Santa Clara Valley area. It is owned by Empire Broadcasting and it broadcasts a country music radio format, with a sale pending to the Educational Media Foundation. KRTY carries the nationally syndicated Country Countdown USA show on Sunday mornings and Golden State Warriors games.[1][2] The radio studios and offices are on Monterey Road in San Jose.[3]
KRTY has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 870 watts. The transmitter is on Blackberry Hill Road in Los Gatos.[4] KRTY also has two booster stations on 95.3 MHz; KRTY-FM1 licensed to Scotts Valley and KRTY-FM2 licensed to New Almaden.
History
KLGS (1964–1968)
After obtaining a construction permit in 1964,[5] KLGS went full-power on 95.3 MHz in September 1966, owned by the Western Stereo Company.[6][7][8]
Tomentose Broadcasting bought KLGS in October 1968 for $133,500 and obtained the broadcast license in February 1969 for an additional $127,500.[7][9]
KTAO (1968–1974)
KTAO was an FM station in Los Gatos, owned by former Random House editor, Bill Ryan, and Lorenzo Milam.[10][11][12][13][14][15] From March 1969 to June 1974, 95.3 had a freeform format.[16] Programming on KTAO included 48 hours of Indian music on Christmas Eve and Day of 1970 and Angela Davis announcing station identifications with calls to release the Soledad Brothers from prison.[17]
KRVE (1974–1985)
Joseph Vieira and two partners bought KTAO in 1974 and changed the station to a Portuguese format with call letters KRVE.[18]
KATD (1985–1989)
The 95.3 frequency took on the call letters KATD on September 9, 1985.[19]DJs broadcast from a studio on North Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos where passers-by could make song requests by holding up signs to the window.
KYAY and KRTY (1989–present)
On November 28, 1989, KATD became KYAY and changed its format from rock to country.[20] KYAY changed to its current KRTY call sign on January 10, 1990 but retained the country format.[20][19]
In October 1992, Bob Kieve's Empire Broadcasting purchased KRTY for over $3 million from Randolph E. George.[21] By the later half of the decade, as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 led to the consolidation of radio station ownership around the United States and in the Bay Area, the Empire Broadcasting family of stations including KRTY were among the last locally owned stations in the Bay Area.[22]
KRTY attracted a front page San Jose Mercury News story for banning the Dixie Chicks song "Goodbye Earl" due to violent lyrics and hosting an on-air, call-in program on March 13, 2000 about the song.[23] The station's editorial decision also got attention in the Los Angeles Times[24] and USA Today.[25] KRTY later added the song to its playlist and donated to a domestic violence shelter for every play of the song.[25]
Beginning in the 2016–17 season, KRTY became the South Bay affiliate for the Golden State Warriors radio network, after the team moved from the powerful signal of KNBR that covered the entire San Francisco Bay Area.[2]
Bob Kieve died on May 25, 2020.[26] Long time mid-day host Randy Jones died unexpectedly on December 1, 2021.[27]
On March 23, 2022, Empire Broadcasting announced that it would sell KRTY to the Educational Media Foundation, operators of nationally syndicated Christian music networks Air1 and K-Love. The sale would result in the end of KRTY's country music format; Empire Broadcasting would retain the KRTY call letters.[28] The future of the country music radio format in the Bay Area was uncertain until KBAY and KKDV flipped to country on April 5.[29]
References
- ^ "On-Air Music Meeting Archives".
- ^ a b Kawakami, Tim (August 25, 2016). "Warriors jump from KNBR to 95.7 FM the Game: Why they did it, what this means, what's next for Tom Tolbert?". Talking Points with Tim Kawakami. Bay Area News Group. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
- ^ KRTY.com/contact-us
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/KRTY
- ^ "Broadcast actions by broadcast bureau" (PDF), Broadcasting, vol. 67, no. 18, p. 81, November 2, 1964
- ^ "Broadcast actions by broadcast bureau" (PDF), Broadcasting, vol. 71, no. 12, p. 119, September 19, 1966
- ^ a b "Changing Hands" (PDF), Broadcasting, vol. 75, no. 16, p. 52, October 14, 1968
- ^ "U.S. FM Radio by Frequencies and Channels" (PDF). 1966 Broadcasting Yearbook. Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications Inc. p. B-212.
- ^ "Ownership changes" (PDF), Broadcasting, vol. 76, no. 7, p. 110, February 17, 1969
- ^ "Radio, Man". The Mercury News. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
The concept of listener-supported, noncommercial radio was still fairly new when it arrived in Los Gatos in about 1968. Operating at 95.3 FM, station KTAO was under the management of Lorenzo W. Milam, one of the pioneers of what was called ‘free-form’ radio.
- ^ "KTAO Radio". afana.org. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
KTAO-FM was a free-form radio station in Los Gatos, California, that existed from March, 1969, through June, 1974. Operating at 95.3 FM, it was run essentially as a "benevolent dictatorship" by Lorenzo W. Milam (1933-2020), a founder of KRAB in Seattle and KDNA in St. Louis, who had purchased radio station KLGS (soon to be renamed KTAO), along with veteran literary editor William Harvey "Bill" Ryan III (1928?-1986).
- ^ "KTAO-FM, Los Gatos - Program Guide Archive 1970 to 1971". krab archive.
- ^ "bio". Don Campau. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
In 1971 Don also began hosting a radio program on KTAO-FM in Los Gatos California under the mentorship of Lorenzo W. Milam, one of the founding fathers of community radio in the USA.
- ^ Fong-Torres, Ben (26 November 1970). "FM Radio: Power to What People?". Retrieved 8 February 2021.
Lorenzo Milam is more than a verbal/dramatic, concerned observer; he’s a participant. Milam is co-owner of KDNA, the listener-supported St. Louis station that was busted. He was a founder and director of KRAB, the Seattle FM station now going through FCC hearings to determine its status as a licensee. And, as head of KTAO, a small but successful “commercial co-op” station in Santa Clara Valley (wiped out, in nearby San Francisco, by Metromedia’s 50,000-watt KSAN), he is in touch with the KMPX Collective.
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(help) - ^ Munger, Philip (30 November 2007). "Jeremy Lansman - Part I". Progressive Alaska. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- ^ Alexander, Geoff. "KTAO Radio". Academic Film Archive of North America. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
- ^ Corrigan, Jane (February 8, 1971), "KTAO explores community radio", Stanford Daily, retrieved May 30, 2017
- ^ Rogers, Meg (2007). The Portuguese in San Jose. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. p. 121. ISBN 9780738547817.
- ^ a b "Call Sign History: KRTY". FCC. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
- ^ a b Weimers, Leigh (January 9, 1990). "Lotto change will add up for schools". San Jose Mercury News. p. 1D. Retrieved June 20, 2019 – via NewsBank.
- ^ "Newsline", Billboard, vol. 104, no. 42, p. 77, October 17, 1992
- ^ Pulcrano, Dan (June 4, 1998). "The Big Radio Play". Metro Silicon Valley. Archived from the original on May 5, 1999. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ Kava, Brad (March 14, 2000). "Song's ban unleashes debate on violence in pop culture". San Jose Mercury News. p. 1A. Retrieved June 20, 2019 – via NewsBank.
- ^ Lewis, Randy (April 1, 2000). "'Earl' Creates Heat--and Heated Debate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b Birkhead, Larry (April 3, 2000). "Some radio stations bag Chicks' 'Earl'". USA Today. p. D2. Archived from the original on May 10, 2000. Retrieved June 20, 2019. Also published as "Radio Balks At Dixie Chicks' 'Goodbye Earl'". Sonicnet. April 5, 2000. Archived from the original on May 12, 2001.
- ^ Pizarro, Sal (May 25, 2020). "Remembering Bob Kieve, a champion for San Jose". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020.
- ^ "Rest in Peace Randy Jones". 953 KRTY. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
- ^ "Bay Area To Lose Country With KRTY Sale". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
- ^ "Country To Remain In Bay Area As KBAY And KKDV Become Bay Country". RadioInsight. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
External links
- Official Website
- KRTY in the FCC FM station database
- KRTY on Radio-Locator
- KRTY in Nielsen Audio's FM station database