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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Frequency | 1310kHz |
| Programming | |
| Format | South Asian |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | 1922; 103 years ago (1922) |
Former call signs |
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Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | Mickey Mouse (from the formerRadio Disney format) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 96 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 37°49′26.7″N122°19′13.9″W / 37.824083°N 122.320528°W /37.824083; -122.320528 |
| Translator | 92.9 K225CK (Union City) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | radiopunjabusa |
KMKY (1310 AM) is a radio station licensed toOakland, California, that broadcasts with 5,000 watts. It calls itself "Radio Punjab" and airs programming inHindi andPunjabi aimed at theSan Francisco Bay Area's South Asian community. It is owned by Charanjit Batth, through licensee Radio Punjab AM 1310 Inc. Itstransmitter is located in Oakland near the toll plaza for theSan Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
The 1310 AM frequency from 1959 to 1997, was the home ofurban adult contemporary andgospel music station KDIA. It later served as the San Francisco home ofRadio Disney from 1997 to 2015, using thecall sign KMKY, the last three letters standing for the Disney characterMickey Mouse.
KMKY is the second-oldest surviving radio station in the Bay Area. It was first licensed, with the randomly assigned call letters of KLS, on March 10, 1922, on 833 kHz.[2] It moved to 1220 kHz in 1927, then 1440 kHz in 1928. It moved to 1280 kHz in 1937, then 1310 kHz in 1941, as a result of theNARBA agreement. In 1945, when the station was still owned by the Warner Brothers ofOakland, no relation tothe movie studio,[3] it changed its call letters to KWBR and changed its format to focus on an African-American audience. In 1959, it was bought by the owners ofMemphis radio stationWDIA, and the call letters were changed to KDIA. During the 1960s through the 1980s, the station was the premiersoul andfunk station in theSan Francisco Bay Area.Sly Stone was a DJ at the station before launchingSly and the Family Stone.[4]
In December 1984, the station was sold toAdam Clayton Powell III, who turned the station into KFYI, with anall-news radio format backed by a 32-member news team. After Powell failed to make payroll for KFYI – having lost a reported $4-million in funding invested byAetna Insurance in less than six months on the air – the station went silent on April 9, 1985. It returned to air in July, however, having reclaimed its legacy KDIA call letters, while resuming its urban music format.
In the early 1990s, KDIA was co-owned by then mayor of Oakland,Elihu Harris, with thenCalifornia Assembly SpeakerWillie Brown. In 1992, Oakland journalistChauncey Bailey returned to the Bay Area to work as public affairs director and newscaster on KDIA. Bailey later became the editor of theOakland Post who was murdered on the streets ofdowntown Oakland.[5] KDIA changed fromgospel music toRadio Disney on December 15, 1997, when the station was sold byJim Gabbert toThe Walt Disney Company.[6]
On August 13, 2014, Disney put KMKY and 22 other Radio Disney stations up for sale, to focus on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network.[7][8][9]
On June 24, 2015, RD San Francisco Assets filed an application to sell KMKY to Radio Mirchi, for $600,000.[10] The sale was completed on October 6.[11] Radio Disney programming for the region later moved to theKLLC HD3 digital subchannel, where it aired until June 2018.