Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame
Induction Ceremonies Posted

The 2015 Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame Class – Dusty Street, Mike Colgan, Lissa Kreisler, Harvey Stone, Gil Haar, Bill Ruck for Ken Nielsen and Zia Schwartz for Peter Scott

The 2015 Radio Hall Of Fame Induction luncheon held at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco was quite successful. Over 120 were in attendance, enjoyed good food, good friends and a great induction celebration. Host Terry McGovern kept the crowd entertained and kept the event moving along. Watch for Ben Fong-Torres’ wrap up article to come in the pink section of the SF Chronicle.

But now…
WATCH THE BARHOF INDUCTION CEREMONY ON YOUTUBE

Thanks to Chairman Mike Adams for shooting and posting the video. 

Congratulations to All of Our Newest Members of the Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame!

Program Host – DUSTY STREET

Dusty Street got her start in Bay Area radio as one of the fabled “chick engineers” at KMPX in 1967. She became a DJ when she moved over to KSAN after the KMPX strike.   She spent a few years at KTIM before moving to the LA market from 1979 to 1995. Dusty has spent the last 10 years with SiriusXM as radio host for Classic Vinyl.

Program Host – LISSA KREISLER

South Bay native Lissa Kreisler started her career at KLOK in the news department after graduating from San Jose State. When the station switched formats, she jumped over to KBAY doing news before become co-host of the morning show with fellow BARHOF member Sam Van Zandt. The Lissa-Sam show has put KBAY on the top of the San Jose ratings.

News – MIKE COLGAN

Mike Colgan has been part of the Bay Area radio scene for the past 40 years. He has covered most of the top news stories in the Bay Area during this period. He began his career at KFRC, the Big 610, as part of the great 20/20 news team. He then did some DJ work at KPEN in Los Altos before joining KCBS in 1988. Mike currently works out of the Silicon Valley Bureau.

Sports – JOHN MADDEN

Coach John Madden is our inductee in the sports category. John started on KSFO with legendary Gene Nelson. Then John switched to KNBR when Gene retired, moved to KCBS when Frank Dill called it a day and since 1988, Coach Madden has worked with Al Hart and then Stan Bunger on the KCBS morning program. John’s insight into the world of sports (oh yah Football too) has made his show a must for radio sports listeners over the past 27 yrs.

Pioneer – GIL HAAR

First of two pioneer inductees is Gil Haar. Gil was brought in from Denver to work at KOBY as a DJ in 1958. When the station fell to the KYA and KEWB promotional onslaught, he moved to Fresno’s KMJ for 5 yrs. When Gil came back to the Bay Area in 1966 he spent the next 22 year as a news director at KNEW, KNAI (news and information), reporter at KCBS and finally News Director of Magic 61 before retiring in 2001.

Pioneer – ELMA GREER

Our second legendary pioneer is KSFO music director Elma Greer. Elma started her 28 year tenure with KSFO in 1960. During this period beside music director, she was also assistant program director. She was named music director of the year three times by the Gavin Report as well as receiving several gold records. One of Elma’s favorite duties was to help SF State students pull records for their DJ debut on “Records at Random”, Sunday nights on the ‘World’s Greatest Radio Station’.

Executive / Manager – HARVEY STONE

Harvey Stone served 33 years as General Manager/President of KBLX; from the purchase of KRE by Inner Cities broadcasters until the sale to Entercom in 2012. He guided the “Quiet Storm” against the giant corporate stations to be rated in the top 3 on a consistent basis through the 1990s. He also is the godfather of CHRS for providing the historic KRE building in Berkeley as our first home.

Engineer / Educator – KEN NIELSEN

Ken Nielsen is a true radio and TV pioneer. Ken came to the Bay Area from Denver in 1941 and convinced the San Francisco Unified School District to apply for an FM license and purchase the RCA demonstration FM transmitter used at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. The end result was KALW, the first FM station on the West coast. Later Ken convinced the school district to purchase TV cameras and related equipment for classes. The equipment was used after school hours to help start KQED-TV.

Ken Nielsen, the educator, set up and developed both programming and engineer classes at the school district. He conducted classes and managed KALW until his retirement in 1975.

Specialty – PETER SCOTT

Peter Schwartz aka Peter Scott came to KSFO after several years at KSJO in San Jose. Peter worked his way up from production coordinator to production director to assistant program director under Al Newman and then Program Director in the middle to late 70’s. He kept the ‘World’s Greatest Radio Station’ on an even keel during the rise of underground and free form competition. After his KSFO days, he owned his own recording studio in San Francisco and did voice overs until his passing in April 2008.

The BAY AREA RADIO HALL OF FAME SELECTS

KPEN 101.3 FM

AS LEGENDARY STATION FOR 2015

The Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame, (BARHOF), a program of the California Historical Radio Society, is pleased to announce the selection of KPEN 101.3 FM, Atherton / San Francisco, as BARHOF Legendary Station for 2015. This is a great story. It’s a story of entrepreneurship, innovation and a passion for radio. KPEN’s history is legendary. It was created by two Stanford students named James Gabbert and Gary Gielow, and started broadcasting in 1957 from a 120 year old adobe hut.

KPEN was a station of innovations and firsts. It was the first station west of the Mississippi to broadcast in Multiplex Stereo, the first FM station in Northern California to broadcast 24 hours a day, the first to limit commercials to 6 per hour; KPEN produced the first Live Stereo remote broadcast. KPEN prided itself on airing fine quality programming with the highest quality FM, then FM Multiplex Stereo signal possible. The gear that generated that signal was constantly tweaked and improved, always making it state-of-the-art for the times. The two kids from Stanford who said, “Let’s build our own radio station” succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, and KPEN thrived and grew towards another first. In 1968 the FCC was petitioned to change KPEN’s call sign to KIOI, to be known as K101. Historic KPEN paved the way for the powerhouse K101 would become.

For more information and audio clips from KPEN please visit our Bay Area Radio Museum, (BARM), site at http://bayarearadio.org/site/audio/kpen/. Historic KPEN 101.3 FM proudly joins, KSAN Jive 95, KCBS, KGO, KFRC, KNBR and KSFO as the newest BARHOF Legendary Station.

Also, a new book, “The Story of KPEN” has been donated to CHRS. “The Story of KPEN” is the definitive book about the history of this pioneering station. Proceeds from “The Story of KPEN” will go to the California Historical Radio Society and its Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame and Bay Area Radio Museum on-line.

Noted author Ben Fong-Torres says:
“For fans of radio history, it’s a welcome chronicle of one of the most important stations in the Bay Area, a pioneer in FM broadcasting in introducing stereo (in fall 1961) and programming innovations.” 

To order visit: https://californiahistoricalradio.com/kpen-story-order/  $23.95 includes shipping.

See Gary Gielow’s presentation featuring the history of KPEN from his talk at CHRS Radio Central December 2014. CLICK HERE FOR GARY’S VIDEO