4-10-15
In 1957, a pair of 21-year-old Stanford University students purchased KLX-FM, a small FM radio station licensed to Atherton, CA. The call letters were changed to KPEN and it went on to become one of the most important radio stations of the 1960s. One of the station's original student owners, Gary Gielow, has written a book about his experiences running this iconic radio station. The recently released, self-published book is entitled "The Story of KPEN - Atherton/San Francisco 1957-1968 - A Concept In Great Radio!"
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's Ben Fong-Torres, Gielow said he and his business partner wished to work for themselves so they sought out to purchase a radio station. AM licenses were hard to come by, but at that time, FM licenses were plentiful, although within a year, all the FM licenses were also gone.
After creative differences about the station's future direction erupted, Gielow sold his share of KPEN in 1968 to his partner, James Gabbert. Soon after Gabbert changed the call letters of the station to KIOI, bringing an end to KPEN's historic run.
During the station's 11 years, it was the first west of the Mississippi to broadcast in stereo (starting in 1961) and the highest wattage station in the west (blasting out at 125,000 watts, starting in 1964). KPEN also was among the first to not use the FM signal as just a way to simulcast an AM signal, but rather Gielow and Gabbert programmed the station specifically to take advantage of the FM fidelity.
In his book, Gielow gives his memories of operating the station, as well as providing photographs and copies of newspaper articles about KPEN. The book is exclusively available through California Historical Radio Society website. Gielow is donating 100% of the proceeds to the Society. He said he was doing so to help give back for all that radio gave to him.
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community. "The staff lives, works, goes to church, shops, has kids in school or kids in soccer in the Houston area, making them voices listeners come to respect and trust the same way they would their other friends and neighbors. You can tell stories on the air," he continues. "And when we tell stories on the air about our talent, our audience can relate to that. And Krieschen says there are now more ways than ever to communicate with listeners. "It used to be people would pick up the phone and get to our studio. Now you can reach our people on the air via Facebook and Twitter, [and] the open-mike feature on our Web site. So there are a lot more ways for us to have a relationship with our audience than there were before."
And speaking of relationships, just last month, Kacey Musgraves thanked 93Q from the stage for being the first country station in the city to take a chance on her. Operations Manager Johnny Chiang (pictured left with Keith Urban) tells the paper taking a chance on playing the new singer when she first came on the country scene was worth the risk. "Yes, 93Q was the first station in Houston, and one of the first in America, to play Kacey Musgraves' music. In fact, we've been the first in Houston to play every one of her singles. We like her! She represents the future of the Country format."
