KNBR-FM
KNBR-FM (104.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by Cumulus Media, KNBR-FM features a sports radio format in a simulcast with co-owned KNBR. Both stations are the San Francisco affiliates for Infinity Sports Network, the flagship stations for the San Francisco Giants Radio Network and co-flagship stations for the San Francisco 49ers Radio Network (along with KSAN and KGO). KNBR-AM-FM are the radio home of Greg Papa and Tom Tolbert.
This article is about the current KNBR-FM, For the station at 99.7 MHz that held the call sign KNBR-FM from 1962 to 1975, see KMVQ-FM104.5 MHz
KNBR 104.5 and 680
- Cumulus Media Inc.
- (Radio License Holding SRC LLC)
February 4, 1960
- KBAY-FM (1960–1963)
- KFOG (1963–2019)
carried over from KNBR, once owned by NBC
54770
B
7,100 watts
459 meters (1,506 ft)
KNBR maintains studios on Battery Street in San Francisco, while the transmitter is located on Mount Sutro. In addition to a standard analog transmission, KNBR simulcasts over low-power analog Pleasanton booster KNBR-FM3 (104.5 FM), and is available online.
History[edit]
Beautiful music[edit]
The station signed on the air on February 4, 1960, as KBAY-FM.[2] It was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, a company started by local industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. It aired a "good music" format, mostly instrumental easy listening with some middle of the road songs and soft pop vocals.
In 1963,[3] the call sign switched to KFOG in honor of the city's fog layer, and the station aired a beautiful music format, again largely instrumental music, cover versions of popular songs with some Broadway and Hollywood show tunes. Within a few years, KFOG got competition from other beautiful music stations: KABL-AM-FM (now KNEW and KISQ) and from KOIT, as well as San Jose-based KBAY (now KBRG). For the next two decades, beautiful music was popular in the Bay Area. By the early 1980s, the format was showing signs of aging.[4] KFOG was acquired by General Electric in 1974.[5]
"Timeless Rock"[edit]
On September 16, 1982, with studios still at Ghirardelli Square, KFOG dropped the easy listening format for a blend of album-oriented rock (AOR) and classic rock, which the station called "Timeless Rock". The first song on the new format was "Rock This Town" by The Stray Cats.[6][7] The station featured a wide range of music, from the psychedelic sounds of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to newer artists such as Prince, the Eurythmics, and the Thompson Twins.
KFOG avoided commercial-sounding bands such as Loverboy and REO Speedwagon, which were widely played on more mass-appeal AOR stations at the time. KFOG was inspired by San Francisco's freeform rock radio heritage, dating back to KSAN, a pioneering progressive rock station (now KYLD).