Verne White Continues Chris Edwards Act

I'm totally baffled. The Chris Edwards imitator, Verne J. White, is now listed as the president of Central Valley Educational Services, Inc., licensee of KYAF (94.7 FM) in Firebaugh, the former KAJP, as disclosed in the public FCC Registration Info.

According to FCC Positional Interest Information file BTCED-20060828AFO, Verne White (photo, right) controls 50% of the voting shares in the company, with Ray C. Knight and Craig Knight holding 20% interest each. (The other 10% is not accounted for in the online record.)

KAJP and Central Valley Educational Services were shown as being the property of William L. Zawila, who also operated the for-profit Avenal Educational Services, Inc., and held interests in the construction permits for KNGS(FM), Coalinga, KAAX(FM), Avenal, and KZPE(FM), Ford City, and the license of KZPO(FM), Lindsay, all of which are located in the Central Valley.

Zawila had been the subject of several FCC investigations, including one that noted an "informal objector presented evidence, confirmed by Commission investigation, that one month after the license applications were filed, the actual transmitting facilities consisted of two 50-foot telephone poles with no main studio facilities.

Upon inquiry, Zawila represented that the 91-meter tower had been constructed but was destroyed by vandalism. Commission investigation indicated that Zawila's representations were false, and that the facilities of KNGS(FM) and KAAX(FM) were not constructed according to the permits."

Other charges against Zawila are described in FCC Docket 03-152.

Meanwhile, Verne White continues to represent himself on the new KYAFM.com website as "Radio Legend Chris Edwards" along with a photo of himself captioned "Chris Edwards is one of San Francisco's most consistently top-rated radio personalities."

Yeah, but Verne White isn't.

BARM Launches Classic KYA Online

If you were a teenager (or younger) growing up in the Bay Area back in the 1960s, you had a smorgasbord of choices -- KFRC (The Big 610), 1260/KYA, KEWB (Channel 91) and 1590/KLIV -- to suit your taste in Top 40 music, along with the great personalities that each station featured.

Out of that quartet, only KFRC remains forty years later, playing classic hits from the 1970s and vicinity at 106.9 FM.

As a vehicle of sheer nostalgic bliss, the Bay Area Radio Museum has launched Classic KYA Radio online, playing the great Top 40 hits of the 1960s (and vicinity), along with the 1260 KYA jingles that decorated the station so delightfully during that era.

The host of Classic KYA is Gary Mora (pictured here), who was a disc jockey at the original 1260 KYA during its latter period, and at the merged 560/KSFO and 93.3 KYA-FM. Gary also hosted the popular "KYA Oldies Road Show" live events for nearly twenty years, and is currently one of the best-known voice artists in the business.

Gary was born and raised on the Peninsula, and is a product of the College of San Mateo's vaunted broadcasting school, where he trained under the great Dan Odum, alongside classmates Dean Goss (currently weekending on KFRC) and Jon Miller (play-by-play voice of your San Francisco Giants).

In addition to the music and jingles, the flashbacks to the original KYA will continue with snippets of broadcast recordings from legendary KYA disc jockeys, including Johnny Holliday, Emperor Gene Nelson, Russ "The Moose" Syracuse, Tom Campbell, Bwana Johnny, Chris Edwards, Tommy Saunders and "Big Daddy" Tom Donahue. Classic commercials from the 1960s and 1970s are also featured, with Tom Campbell's well-remembered Mathew's TV & Stereo spots (complete with the famous "top of the hill, Daly City!" tagline) in heavy rotation.

The Bay Area Radio Museum controls the registered trademark to "KYA Radio" and has owned the rights to the kyaradio.com domain name since 2004. The newly-launched Classic KYA programming replaces the archival airchecks from the original "Boss of the Bay" that had been streaming previously on the kyaradio.com website. The revamped kyaradio.com features a continuous live feed of the Golden Gate Great Oldies, along with historic tidbits from the station's storied past.

The launch of Classic KYA Radio comes on the heels of the tremendous popularity of the Radio Museum's Classic KABL Music, which blends popular Adult Standards, Easy Listening and Beautiful Music, hosted by Radio Hall of Famer Bill Moen.