KFOG
Encyclopedia
KFOG is an FM
radio station
in San Francisco, California
, broadcasting on 104.5 and sister station KFFG
97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 transmitter is located near Cupertino, California
, and it is a simulcast of 104.5 KFOG.
The stations' formats are adult album alternative
, an eclectic variety of blues
, reggae
, folk
, pop
, and rock music
from the mid-1960s to the present, which the station calls "World Class Rock." Both stations are owned by Cumulus Media
.
, 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, they dropped the easy listening format for a blend of album-oriented rock
which they called "Timeless Rock". The station featured a wide range of music, from the psychedelic
sounds of the Grateful Dead
and Jefferson Airplane
to newer artists such as Prince, the 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 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 album-oriented rock station that had been playing rock music since 1977. KRQR
was the hard rock
station and KQAK
was a new station with a friendly, loosely programmed, personality-driven alternative rock/new wave format. There were two other rock stations in the South Bay - KSJO
and KOME
. One San Francisco rock station, KSFX
, switched to talk radio
in May of that year. Of the six Bay Area rock stations that were on the air in late 1982, KFOG is the only one that remains.
The station has evolved over the years, but has now been airing an eclectic rock format from the transmitter on Sutro Tower
for more than twenty-five years.
The station holds a popular outdoor concert, KFOG KaBoom
, at San Francisco's Piers 30 and 32 each 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 2009 edition included Los Lonely Boys
, Susan Tedeschi
, and Chuck Prophet
.
Many of the concerts KFOG sponsors are recorded for KFOG's "Live from the Archives", a massive library of live performances that drawn on 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 16 was released in November 2009.
KFOG has a tradition of playing various songs at the same time each week. On Friday afternoons at 5 p.m., the station always broadcasts the song "Smoke Two Joints
", playing a version by either The Toyes
or Sublime
. On Wednesdays, KFOG plays music from new bands, often including indie rock
groups.
In 2002 KFOG was the first in the nation to put its music on iTunes
and on HD Radio
. KFOG streams its programming live over the Internet worldwide. There is a foghorn sound effect heard from time to time.
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, broadcasting on 104.5 and sister station KFFG
KFFG
KFFG is an FM radio station licensed to Los Altos, California, broadcasting on 97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 frequency simulcasts the programming of sister station KFOG...
97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 transmitter is located near Cupertino, California
Cupertino, California
Cupertino is an affluent suburban city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes...
, and it is a simulcast of 104.5 KFOG.
The stations' formats are adult album alternative
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
, an eclectic variety of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, and rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
from the mid-1960s to the present, which the station calls "World Class Rock." Both stations are owned by Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
.
History
The station signed on in the early 1960s as KBAY and was owned by Kaiser BroadcastingKaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting was the name of an entity that owned and operated broadcast television stations in the United States from 1958 to 1977.-History:...
, a company started by local industrialist Henry J. Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...
.
The KFOG call letters have been around for decades, and were used when 104.5 played beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
. On September 16, 1982, they dropped the easy listening format for a blend of album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
which they called "Timeless Rock". The station featured a wide range of music, from the psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
sounds of the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
and Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
to newer artists such as Prince, the Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
, and the Thompson Twins
Thompson Twins
The Thompson Twins were a British pop group that were formed in April 1977 and disbanded in May 1993. They achieved considerable popularity in the mid 1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States and around the globe. The band was named after the two bumbling detectives...
. They avoided more commercial bands such as Loverboy
Loverboy
Loverboy is a Canadian rock group formed in 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. Throughout the 1980s, the band accumulated numerous hit songs in Canada and the United States, earning four multi-platinum albums and selling millions of records...
, 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 inspired by San Francisco's freeform
Freeform (radio format)
Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...
rock radio heritage, dating back to KSAN.
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
stations. KMEL
KMEL
KMEL is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California, and owned by Clear Channel Communications....
was the established, tightly-formatted album-oriented rock station that had been playing rock music since 1977. KRQR
KLLC
KLLC is a commercial radio station located in San Francisco, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KLLC airs an Adult Top 40 music format same as KZZO in Sacramento and on 97.3 HD-2 is Chill With Alice, a Chill format channel...
was the hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
station and KQAK
KQAK
KQAK is a commercial oldies music radio station in Bend, Oregon, broadcasting on 105.7 FM.-History of the KQAK call sign:KQAK was the Federal Communications Commission call sign of a now defunct modern rock radio station "The Quake" in San Francisco, California. See KSOL-FM under the history...
was a new station with a friendly, loosely programmed, personality-driven alternative rock/new wave format. There were two other rock stations in the South Bay - KSJO
KSJO
KSJO is a commercial radio station in San Jose, California, and broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area on 92.3 FM. KSJO currently airs a Chinese format branded as "92.3 KSJO".-History:...
and KOME
KOME
KOME was a radio station in San Jose, California, heard at 98.5 FM from 1971 thru 1998. Currently, the 98.5 FM frequency is home to KUFX .-Beginnings:...
. One San Francisco rock station, KSFX
KKSF
KKSF, known as "Oldies 103.7", is a classic hits radio station in San Francisco, California. The station is owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications.-History:...
, switched to talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
in May of that year. Of the six Bay Area rock stations that were on the air in late 1982, KFOG is the only one that remains.
The station has evolved over the years, but has now been airing an eclectic rock format from the transmitter on Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a three-pronged antenna tower near Clarendon Heights in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro, it is a prominent part of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors...
for more than twenty-five years.
KFOG programming and promotions
KFOG has a reputation for being devoted to their listeners, whom they call "Fogheads." The weekday morning show from 6 to 10 Pacific Standard time often features prize giveaways (usually concert tickets), and guests candidly field questions from callers and e-mails. The station gives registered Fogheads first crack at tickets to private concerts and exclusive events.The station holds a popular outdoor concert, KFOG KaBoom
KFOG KaBoom
KFOG KaBoom is an annual outdoor concert established in 1994 held by KFOG in San Francisco during May. It is followed by a fireworks show synchronized to a soundtrack broadcasted by the station. The extravagant fireworks display draws over 350,000 people...
, at San Francisco's Piers 30 and 32 each 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 2009 edition included Los Lonely Boys
Los Lonely Boys
Los Lonely Boys is a Chicano rock power trio from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown eyed soul, country, and Tejano....
, Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well-known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks...
, and Chuck Prophet
Chuck Prophet
Chuck Prophet is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. A Californian, Prophet first achieved notice in the American psychedelic/desert rock group Green on Red, with whom he toured and recorded in the 1980s...
.
Many of the concerts KFOG sponsors are recorded for KFOG's "Live from the Archives", a massive library of live performances that drawn on 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 16 was released in November 2009.
KFOG has a tradition of playing various songs at the same time each week. On Friday afternoons at 5 p.m., the station always broadcasts the song "Smoke Two Joints
Smoke Two Joints
"Smoke Two Joints" is a song originally written by The Toyes, who performed it in traditional Reggae style and released it in 1983. According to The Toyes, "one fine fall day on a small island" of Oahu in Hawaii, two of the band members, Jim and Sandy, were sitting under a large banyan tree on...
", playing a version by either The Toyes
The Toyes
The Toyes are an American reggae band based in Grants Pass, Oregon. Their style has been described as a "cross between Bob Marley and Barenaked Ladies". They are perhaps most famous as the original songwriters and recorders of the song "Smoke Two Joints". It was originally recorded in 1983, and was...
or Sublime
Sublime (band)
Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...
. On Wednesdays, KFOG plays music from new bands, often including indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
groups.
In 2002 KFOG was the first in the nation to put its music on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and on HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
. KFOG streams its programming live over the Internet worldwide. There is a foghorn sound effect heard from time to time.
Notable personalities and shows
- KFOG KaBoomKFOG KaBoomKFOG KaBoom is an annual outdoor concert established in 1994 held by KFOG in San Francisco during May. It is followed by a fireworks show synchronized to a soundtrack broadcasted by the station. The extravagant fireworks display draws over 350,000 people...
- Rosalie Howarth is on Sunday mornings. The Sunday evening format includes Acoustic Sunrise and Acoustic Sunset.
- The Putumayo World MusicPutumayo World MusicPutumayo World Music is a New York City based record label, now specialising in compilations of music from various nations, regions or musical styles which may be classified as world music.-Etymology:...
Hour is syndicated across the United States. - Weekends include The House of Blues Hour, the KFOG Sideshow, Live From The Archives-The Show, and the Putumayo World Music Hour.
- 10@10 is one of KFOG's most popular features, broadcast at 10 a.m. and repeated at 10 p.m. weekdays, with a 7 a.m. Saturday morning marathon replaying all five shows from that week. The general theme is "ten great songs from one great year" but the show also occasionally features other special themes. The show is currently hosted by Midday personality Annalisa.