Dave McQueen Signs Off At KCBS Tonight

Dave McQueen, one of the best newsmen we'll ever hear, retires after his late-night shift at All News KCBS (740/106.9) tonight. KCBS has been running a tribute piece by Mike Sugerman as their cover story today, and his friends and colleagues will hold a retirement party for him tonight.

McQueen (photo, right) came to the Bay Area forty years ago from Texas as the news anchor at KSAN during its nascent days as "The Jive 95." He had a deep, solid, authoritarian voice -- a "network voice" -- which belied his appearance: Dave McQueen was a full-on long-haired hippie.

He also worked at KFRC, KNEW, KKCY and KKSF. McQueen's last shift tonight (through early Saturday morning) has him on from 9 to 11 PM, then again from 2 to 5 AM, according to the KCBS program schedule.

UPDATE (6/27/2009 5 AM): As I fully expected, Dave McQueen -- who declined to be interviewed for Mike Sugerman's tribute piece -- signed off his final broadcast on KCBS in simple, by-the-book fashion: he mentioned the features that were coming up in the next hour, and then, after the top-of-the-hour time signal, he intoned "five o'clock."

The KCBS audio tribute to McQueen may be streamed at the station's website.

PHOTO SOURCE: Dave McQueen, circa 1973, from Jive95.com.

Smooth Jazz Splits KKSF For "The Band"

'Round about 3 PM today, legacy Smooth Jazz KKSF (103.7 FM) made a quick transition to a Classic Rock-ish format, rebranding the Clear Channel-owned station as "103.7 The Band."

On The Band's new website, a welcoming blurb purports:

103.7 The Band has been designed around the rich heritage of the San Francisco music scene. A time and place where music was filled with passion and reflected the ideals of a generation.

So far, the music -- being run jockless -- is a fairly standard mix of classic rock chestnuts (think 98.5 K-Fox without Greg Kihn) (yet) ... but also without hardly any of the "rich heritage" of actual San Francisco music.

But it's a new station. Let's wait'n'see.

Meanwhile, it's so long to KKSF and its talented troupe of tonsils, including Maria Lopez and Miranda Wilson. KKSF had been one of the earliest adopters of the Smooth Jazz genre, beginning its run in the Summer of 1987.

UPDATE (6/4/2009): The original KKSF website, complete with more than 6,000 irate comments (as of now) from displaced listeners, has been updated to note that the music -- now bird-beamed from the Smooth Jazz Network -- has been moved to 98.1 Kiss FM's HD-2 side channel, and is also streamed online at KKSF.com.

In addition, comments on KKSF.com by program director Michael Erickson note that:

"...beginning this Sunday June 8th, (and every Sunday) from 8am to 10am you can listen to 'Smooth Jazz Weekend' on 98.1 KISS FM. (regular FM radio) This two hour show features the same great Smooth Jazz music you are used to listening to, plus interviews with some of your favorite artists. ... No, this is not supposed to be a replacement for KKSF, just a way to keep Smooth Jazz on the airwaves, and to support the music and artists in the Bay Area."

KGO Hints At Big Announcement

Newstalk behemoth KGO (810 AM) is promoing that they'll have an "illuminating" announcement coming up on 10/30 (this Thursday) at 10:30...

Speculation in the ba.broadcast Usenet group (in threads here and here) has run to the naming of a new 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. host on the station, such as Alex Bennett (doubtful) (I think).

Christine Craft, posting in ba.broadcast, noted "Engineers (were) building a new studio where the old Dean Edell studio used to be ... All seemed hush/hush when I worked all last week."

Could the "103" in 10:30 and 10/30 refer to an FM dial position ... 103.7? 102.9? Is there a chance that Citadel could buy or LMA either KKSF (from Clear Channel) or KBLX (from Inner City)? Perhaps another FM signal can be lassoed, such as KNGY (92.7), KCNL (104.9), KRTY (95.3) or Stockton's KSTN-FM (107.3, which actually covers a lot of the Bay Area).

A WHOIS search shows that Citadel/KGO has registered KGOFM.com, just a few days ago:

Domain Name: KGOFM.COM
Created on: 24-OCT-08
Expires on: 24-OCT-09
Last Updated on: 25-OCT-08

Administrative Contact:
webmaster, FM engineering@abc-sf.com
Citadel Communications
900 Front Street
San Francisco, Ca 94111
US
415-954-8100
415 398-5995

Technical Contact:
Berry, Ken engineering@abc-sf.com
ABC Radio
900 Front Street
San Francisco, Ca 94111
US
415 954-8100

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