… I don’t want to become lugubrious …
[Description by contributor Rick Thomas]
The night of December 12, 1983 was indeed the end of
an era in Bay Area radio. With over 57 years under
its belt, the legendary 1260 KYA, at one time a Bay
Area Top 40 pioneer and trendsetter, a station that
had even billed itself in the early 80s as “The
Station You Grew Up With,” and reminded listeners
often that “1260 Takes You To The 60s,” had been sold
for the last time. At midnight, the KYA call letters
would leave the AM band, never to return. King
Broadcasting bought the 560 license and frequency from
Gene Autry’s Golden West Broadcasters, and sold the
1260 license to Bonneville Media, who changed the call
letters to KOIT, and began simulcasting 96.5 KOIT-FM’s
light rock format.
We pick things up at about 11:12pm, with J. Parker Antrum reciting the call letters into a classic KYA PAMS jingle with a segue into the Marvelettes’ “Please
Mr. Postman.” From there, Antrum and Paula Kelly make a party of sorts out of it, running EVERY KYA jingle they can find BACK-TO-BACK, including the two-minute,
forty-second “KYA Anthem,” followed by sentiments sprinkled here and there among appropriate “goodbye”-themed records. There are brief appearances by such KYA luminaries as General Manager Fred Shoemaker, Program Director Ken Dennis, and fellow DJ
Sam Van Zandt.