 | |
| Broadcast area | San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 104.5MHz |
| Branding | KNBR 104.5 and 680 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Sports |
| Network | Infinity Sports Network |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KNBR,KSAN,KSFO,KTCT,KZAC | |
| History | |
First air date | February 4, 1960 (65 years ago) (1960-02-04) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | carried over from KNBR, once owned byNBC |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 54770 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 7,100watts |
| HAAT | 459 meters (1,506 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 37°45′18″N122°27′11″W / 37.755°N 122.453°W /37.755; -122.453 |
| Repeater | See § Booster |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | |
| Website | www |
KNBR-FM (104.5MHz) is acommercialradio station licensed toSan Francisco, California, serving the greaterSan Francisco Bay Area. Owned byCumulus Media, KNBR-FM features asports radio format in a simulcast with co-ownedKNBR. Both stations are the San Franciscoaffiliates forInfinity Sports Network, theflagship stations for theSan Francisco Giants Radio Network and co-flagship stations for theSan Francisco 49ers Radio Network (along withKSAN andKSFO). KNBR-AM-FM are the radio home ofGreg Papa andTom Tolbert.
KNBR maintains studios inDaly City, California, while the transmitter is located onMount Sutro. In addition to a standardanalog transmission, KNBR simulcasts over low-power analogPleasantonbooster KNBR-FM3 (104.5 FM), and is available online.
The station signed on the air on February 4, 1960, as KBAY-FM.[2] It was owned byKaiser Broadcasting, a company started by local industrialistHenry J. Kaiser. It aired a "good music" format, mostly instrumentaleasy listening with somemiddle of the road songs and soft pop vocals.
In 1963,[3] thecall sign switched to KFOG in honor of the city'sfog layer, and the station aired abeautiful music format, again largely instrumental music,cover versions of popular songs with someBroadway andHollywood show tunes. Within a few years, KFOG got competition from other beautiful music stations: KABL-AM-FM (nowKNEW andKISQ) and fromKOIT, as well asSan Jose-based KBAY (nowKBRG). By the early 1980s, the format was showing signs of aging.[4] KFOG was acquired byGeneral Electric in 1974.[5]
On September 16, 1982, with studios still at Ghirardelli Square, KFOG dropped the easy listening format for a blend ofalbum-oriented rock (AOR) andclassic rock, which the station called "Timeless Rock". The first song on the new format was "Rock This Town" byThe Stray Cats.[6][7] The station featured a wide range of music, from thepsychedelic sounds of theGrateful Dead andJefferson Airplane to newer artists such asPrince, theEurythmics, and theThompson Twins.
KFOG avoided commercial-sounding bands such asLoverboy andREO Speedwagon, which were widely played on more mass-appeal AOR stations at the time. KFOG was inspired by San Francisco'sfreeform rock radio heritage, dating back toKSAN, a pioneeringprogressive rock station (now KYLD).
When KFOG changed to rock in the early 1980s, the Bay Area already had numerous competing rock stations;KMEL was the established, tightly-formatted AOR station that had been playing rock music since 1977.KRQR was thehard rock station andKQAK was a new station with a friendly, loosely programmed, personality-driven alternative rock/new wave format. There were two other rock stations in the South Bay -KSJO andKOME. One other San Francisco rock station,KSFX, switched totalk radio in May of that year. Of the six Bay Area rock stations that were on the air in late 1982, KFOG had been the last of the heritage rock stations.
In 1989, KFOG was acquired by theSusquehanna Radio Corporation, along withKNBR, for $17.5 million.[8] Susquehanna later merged into Cumulus Media, the current owner.
The station evolved over the years, but KFOG aired an eclectic rock format for more than a quarter century. In the 1990s, it adjusted itsplaylist to anadult album alternative (AAA) direction. In August 1995, it became "KFOG 97.7 and 104.5", when Susquehanna acquired San Jose station KHQT (97.7 FM) and turned it into KFFG, simulcasting KFOG on a full-time basis.[9][10]
On March 31, 2016, KFOG took all of itsDJs off the air and began promoting an "evolution" to take place on April 20. On that day, at 6 a.m., KFOG relaunched its AAA format under the new slogan "Music Matters", and shifted its playlist to focus on songs from the 1990s to the present day. The first song under the "Music Matters" branding was "Times Like These" byFoo Fighters.
As part of the change, formerNew York City rock DJ Bryan Schock was hired as Operations Manager/Program Director for KFOG andclassic rocksister station KSAN. Most of the KFOG airstaff, including morning hosts Irish Greg McQuade and Renee Richardson, midday host Annalisa, afternoon host Bill Webster, night host Dred Scott, and weekend host Rosalie Howarth, were let go from the station.[11][12][13] By 2018, the station gradually transitioned to a more mainstream alternative format. It then directly competed withKITS.
At 9:00 p.m. on May 31, 2019, KFOG slightly re-branded as "KFOG 104.5", as KFFG was sold off toEMF and becameK-Love affiliateKJLV; the station adopted a new logo to reflect the sale of the repeater. The last song before the simulcast broke was "High Hopes" byPanic! At The Disco.
On August 26, 2019, Cumulus announced that KFOG would drop its rock format on September 6 to simulcast sister stationKNBR.[14]
On its final day as a music station, starting at 6 a.m., KFOG aired a tribute to its long run as a rock station with a day-long marathon of old "10@10" broadcasts and recordings taken from the station's "Live From the Archives" CD series. The exception was the 8 a.m. hour, a repeat of Dave Morey's final morning show before his retirement in 2008, and the 5 p.m. hour, in which KFOG paid tribute to longtime DJ Mike 'M Dung' Slavko's Sunday nightfreeform radio program "The Idiot Show". In addition, thestation identifications for that day were taken from the pre-1982 beautiful music format.[15]
In the station's final hour as KFOG, they rebroadcast the audio of its 1982 flip to AAA, followed by a "10@10" broadcast of "666 - Day of Doom Devil Music" which originally aired June 6, 2006, and ended with a short set of songs, finishing with "Brokedown Palace" by theGrateful Dead. After a final sign-off consisting of an eight-minute-long loop of ocean wave, seagull, and foghorn sound effects that were the station's longtime audio trademark, and a minute of silence, KFOG officially flipped to the simulcast. There was no official acknowledgement on-air when the station made the switch; rather, the station joined during a rebroadcast of that night'sSan Francisco Giants game already in progress. On the same day, the call sign KNBR-FM was adopted; the KFOG call letters have since beenwarehoused on an AM station inLittle Rock, Arkansas, the formerKPZK.[16][17]
The station is rebroadcast on the following FM booster:
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT | Class | FCC info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KNBR-FM3 | 104.5 FM | Pleasanton, California | 54773 | 185 (Horiz.) | 922.41 m (3,026 ft) | D | LMS |
As KFOG, it broadcast two feeds inHD Radio, the first was a simulcast of the analog feed and the second carried "All-10@10-All-The-Time". The HD2 feed was taken off air in 2015. The HD1 feed returned when the station became KNBR-FM. It has since been turned off.