… KYA Deluxe Airways now boarding …
[Russ Syracuse notes by Michael Hagerty; Aircheck description by Uncle Ricky]
Russ “the Moose” Syracuse (d. 4-18-2000) was a smooth and engaging voice on San Francisco Bay Area radio for 30 years. Mr. Syracuse left a late-night legacy that began when he was hired as a disc jockey at the AM pop music station KYA in 1962. He came from Buffalo and brought the nickname with him,
expanded to “the Captain of the All-Night Flight on Super Freak 126” when he was
transferred from days to nights. The flight took off at midnight and touched down at 6 a.m, and along the way, Mr. Syracuse invented an irreverent free-form FM style before free-form FM radio came along.
This rare sample of Russ “The Moose” Syracuse on KYA-FM in San Francisco was recorded 100 miles away in Sacramento, California, by Martin Ashley, most likely in August or September of 1965, on a half-track Wollensak. KYA-FM operated with 25,000 watts at 660 feet on 93.3 Mhz.
Normally, it would have been difficult to hear this station in Sacramento
due to inteference from local station KFBK-FM (92.5 Mhz, 115,000 watts at 240 feet.) The morning this aircheck was made, KFBK-FM was off the air – mostly,
except for some testing. This explains the short and unwelcome “test tones”
which infrequently interrupt an otherwise remarkably good recording.