KNEW (AM)

Infobox Radio station
name = KNEW-AM


city = Oakland, California
area = San Francisco Bay Area
branding = "Talk 910 KNEW"
slogan = "We Get It Right"
airdate = 1922
frequency = 910 kHz HD Radio
format = News/Hot Talk
power = 20,000 watts (Day)
5,000 watts (Night)
class = B
callsign_meaning = K (W)NEW (former sister station in NEW York City)
former_callsigns =
owner = Clear Channel Communications
sister_stations = KIOI, KISQ, KKGN, KKSF, KMEL, KYLD
webcast = [http://www.910knew.com/pages/listenlive.html Listen Live]
website = http://www.910knew.com
affiliations =

KNEW (910 AM, "Talk 910 KNEW") is a radio station in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, CA, USA. KNEW is the newest of the Bay Area's conservative talk radio stations, and is the flagship station of syndicated talk host Michael Savage. Talk 910AM is owned by Clear Channel. Prior to the format change, the station operated as "CNET Radio", offering business and technology news 24 hours a day. Under that format, the station simulcasted nationally on XM Satellite Radio channel 130.

The KNEW callsign is a legacy of former owner Metropolitan Radio (aka Metromedia) which once owned legendary station WNEW in New York and modeled KNEW after that station as a personality-driven news and music station. When that format failed, KNEW switched to an oldies format led by program director John Hawkins, designed to bring back nostaligia for 910's earlier days as Top 40 rocker KEWB.

Prior to the KNEW and KEWB incarnations, the station was owned for 3 decades by the Oakland Tribune as KLX. Its transmitter is located in the Point Isabel area of the Richmond Annex neighborhood in Richmond, California on San Francisco Bay. [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=155:3:16992104342005615925::NO::P3_FID:1664890 USGS] , Information System, access date August 10, 2008]

History

KLX

KLX became KEWB on June 8, 1959, after 37 years of ownership by the "Oakland Tribune". The station debuted, as KLX, on May 3, 1922, with 250 watts of power, from studios in the Tribune Tower at Thirteenth and Franklin streets. Power was increased over the years, eventually reaching 5,000 watts. In late 1956, KLX moved to the Bermuda Building on Franklin Street. In 1959, KLX was sold to the former publishers of "Collier's" magazine (which had ceased publication in December 1956). [ [http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kewb/index.shtml#listen KEWB Channel 91 - Oakland - Airchecks and Jingles ] ]

KEWB

KEWB was operated by Crowell Collier Broadcasting (Collier's Weekly magazine) in Oakland, CA from 1959 to 1966. As memorable as its Los Angeles sister station KFWB, "Color Radio-Channel 91" is considered the launching pad for the radio careers of Casey Kasem, Gary Owens, Don Steele, and Robert W. Morgan.

Casey Kasem had been doing celebrity impersonations and cartoon character voices between records when the KEWB program director told him to stop doing it. Left without a schtick as a radio DJ, he began looking around the station for inspiration. Finding a bunch of Billboard magazines in a waste basket, he conceived of the idea of relating rock trivia to the audience between the songs.

KNEW

In 1966, the station was purchased by Metromedia Broadcasting and changed the station's call letters to KNEW. What used to be a rock music station became a talk radio station. In 1969, the station coundn't compete against KGO and switched to a popular music format. The music format changed again, this time to country in July 1974. In the 1990s, the format became classic country. In September 1997, the station changed from local DJ's to Real Country using a national satellite feed. In August 1998, the station dropped country for simulcast with KIOI, an adult contemporary station. In 1999, the station began a satellite feed with CNET Radio.

Programming

Until recently, KNEW Talk 910AM's slogan was "More Stimulating Talk Radio" (matching Los Angeles sister station KFI-AM), and offers mostly syndicated programs. However, KNEW's mostly syndicated lineup is much different from the standard Clear Channel lineup, because rights to shows such as "The Rush Limbaugh Show", "Coast to Coast AM" and "The Sean Hannity Show" are held by Citadel-owned KSFO. KNEW tried to gain the rights to Limbaugh several years ago, and in fact the entire talk format on KNEW was designed to lure him, but Limbaugh instead decided to stay on KSFO.

Programming heard on KNEW includes "Armstrong & Getty", "The Radio Factor", Lou Dobbs, Dennis Miller, Rusty Humphries, Lars Larson and Doug Stephan. As previously mentioned, KNEW is the flagship station of "The Savage Nation", which is also KNEW's flagship program.

References

External links

* [http://www.910knew.com/ KNEW official website]
* [http://www.sfradiomuseum.com/schneider/klx.shtml History of KNEW]
*AMQ|KNEW
*AML|KNEW
*AMARB|KNEW