San Francisco's Legendary KGO, probably, the first talk radio station that I ever listened to, is going off the air after 80 years.
I had not listened in decades, but have fond memories of listening at night in Walla Walla, when you could hear far away stations. KGO would have lively talk about Bay Area and national issues with colorful calls from listeners. I believe it has always been owned and operated by the ABC radio network.
Call in talk shows have slowly disappeared in favor of co-hosts, who generally banter amongst themselves and guests that they invite.
4 comments:
Call-in radio can be fun and compelling with good hosts. This is a real loss.
When I lived in Bay Area i did not listen to talk radio. I was a fan of KFRC and KmBR MOR music radio.
In 1967, at the age of 19, I got stationed at McChord AFB (now Joint Base Lewis/McChord) just outside of Tacoma, There I started listened to the late night Ira Blue talkshow on KGO, and did so until I left the area in 1971. KGO's signal came in as clear as any of the Seattle/Tacoma area stations. Up to then I'd not had any interest in politics. Thanks to KGO and Ira, I turned into a "political junkie". I'm still trying to decide whether or not that was good or bad thing. LOL
AM radio waves travel great distances. At night some stations turned off their signal or just weren’t that close on the dial to interfere. Hence hearing distant stations like KGO. The loss of locally owned radio/tv and print is a huge loss to local regional communications. It’s at the root of Mis-information and local discourse. Sad day for broadcasting history
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