KFOG
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| KFOG/KFFG | |
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| City of license | San Francisco, California at 104.5 FM; Los Altos, California at 97.7 FM |
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| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Branding | KFOG |
| Slogan | World Class Rock |
| Frequency | 104.5 and 97.7 MHz |
| First air date | 1960s |
| Format | Triple-A |
| ERP | 7,100 watts |
| HAAT | 459 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 54770 |
| Callsign meaning | The FOG of San Francisco |
| Owner | Cumulus Media |
| Sister stations | KNBR, KSAN |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.kfog.com/ |
KFOG is an FM radio station in San Francisco, California, broadcasting simultaneously on 104.5 and sister station KFFG 97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 transmitter is located near Cupertino, California, and serves listeners in the South Bay, San Jose, California, and Silicon Valley who are unable to get a clear signal on 104.5.
The stations' formats are classified as adult album alternative or Triple-A, an eclectic variety of blues, reggae, folk, pop, and rock music from the mid-1960s to the present, which they call "World Class Rock." Both stations are owned by Cumulus Media.
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[edit] History
The station signed on in the early 1960s as KBAY and was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, a company started by local industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.
The KFOG call letters have been around for decades, and were used when 104.5 played beautiful music. On September 16, 1982, with Stray Cats' "Rock This Town", they dropped the easy listening format for a unique blend of album-oriented rock (AOR). They called it "Timeless Rock", and it featured a wide range of music, from the psychedelic sounds of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to newer artists such as Prince, Eurythmics and the Thompson Twins. They avoided more commercial bands such as Loverboy, which were widely played on many other AOR stations at the time. KFOG's specialty programming included the nightly "Psychedelic Psupper" and the "Sunday Night Idiot Show", which featured 1950s oldies. KFOG was heavily inspired by San Francisco's freeform rock radio heritage, dating back to KSAN.
When KFOG went on the air, the Bay Area was deluged with AOR stations. KMEL was the established, tightly-formatted AOR station that had been playing rock since 1977. KRQR was the hard rocker in town. And KQAK was the newcomer, with a friendly, loosely programmed, personality-driven alternative rock/new wave format. There were also two other rock stations in the South Bay - KSJO and KOME. And one San Francisco rocker, KSFX dropped out of the format in May of that year to switch to news/talk. Of all six Bay Area rock stations that were on the air in late 1982, KFOG is the only one that remains to this day.
The station has evolved over the years, but has now been airing an eclectic rock format from the transmitter on Sutro Tower for twenty-five years.
[edit] KFOG programming and promotions
KFOG has developed a reputation for being devoted to their community of listeners, whom they affectionately call "Fogheads." A prime example is the weekday morning show captained by longtime DJ Dave Morey from 6 to 10 Pacific Standard time. Prize giveaways (usually concert tickets) are routine, and the guests (including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who drops by about once a month) candidly field questions from callers and e-mails. The station also gives registered Fogheads first crack at tickets to private concerts, exclusive events such as Spring Wing Ding (when the station takes over Paramount's Great America for one day before the amusement park is open to the regular public), and other events.
The station also holds a popular outdoor concert, named KaBoom, at San Francisco's Piers 30 and 32 in the month of May. This is followed by a nighttime fireworks show synchronized to a soundtrack. The extravagant fireworks display draws over 350,000 people. The lineup for the 2007 edition included Ozomatli, Guster, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. In 2007, KaBoom began charging admission to cover increasing costs. see KFOG KaBoom
Many of the concerts KFOG sponsors are also recorded for the KFOG Archives, a massive library of live performances that gets tapped once a year for a limited-edition CD called KFOG Live From the Archives. No more than 35,000 copies of each volume are pressed, and all of the proceeds are donated to Bay Area Food Banks. Volume 14 was released in November 2007.
KFOG also has a history of playing various songs at the same time each week. On Friday afternoons at 5:00 PM PST, the station always broadcasts the song Smoke Two Joints, playing a version by either The Toyes or Sublime.
In 2002 KFOG was the first in the nation to put its music on iTunes & on HD Radio. KFOG also streams its programming live over the Internet worldwide at www.kfog.com. And yes, there is a foghorn sounder heard from time to time.
[edit] Notable personalities and shows
- "Big" Rick Stuart: Thursday evenings is KFOG's New Releases Thursday He is the DJ on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m..
- Rosalie Howarth: Sunday mornings, and Sunday evening format includes: "Acoustic Sunrise and Acoustic Sunset" Syndicated across the United States: Putumayo World Music Hour
- Weekends include: |The House of Blues Hour, The KFOG Sunday Night Jam, The Putumayo World Music Hour.
- "10@10" - 10 great songs chosen from a single year, hosted by Dave Morey at 10 AM and repeated at 10 PM daily, with a Saturday morning marathon replaying all five shows that week, is one of KFOG's most popular features. On occasion, vertical samplers from a number of years are done, as well as other special themes like Harry Potter, and on Friday the 13th - "Hits from Hell"
[edit] External links
- KFOG Website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KFOG
- Radio Locator information on KFOG
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for KFOG
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