The Dave Billeci Collection
Dave Billeci 
KHBK-TV Logo  KPOO is the only non-commercial radio station west of the Mississippi that is owned and operated by African-Americans. |
Dave Billeci grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He inherited his interest in radio from his father, who was an electronics technician. As a teen, Dave acquired his amateur radio license in 1961.
Most of Dave's collection originated with the help of his mom. She worked for the San Francisco Unified School District as an administrator. All of the elementary schools had an audio-visual department which included at least one tape recorder. When the schools were closed, she would bring a recorder home. Dave connected a radio to the tape recorder and behold - a collection of audio gems began. When Dave entered City College of San Francisco in the Fall of 1964, he focused on electronics and broadcasting, eventually getting a real job in radio after hanging around KSOL-AM San Francisco. His first responsibility was to head out every Sunday and engineer church remote broadcasts. By 1968, he had a Sunday daytime airshift, and then went on active duty in the Navy. He was sent to Japan, and during his off-duty time, he volunteered his services at AFRTS (Far East Network). Dave returned to KSOL after the Navy. Following a format change from Soul to light M.O.R., the call letters became KEST. In 1972, Dave was hired by KBHK-TV as an engineer and is working there today. Over the last twenty years, Dave has been doing engineering for community radio station KPOO, He also produced a program called Airchex featuring audio from San Francisco Bay Area stations. Dave's future goal is to share many of the audio gems that he has collected over the last 40 years with all who access the Reel Top 40 Radio Repository. |
The Repository thanks Dave Billeci for sharing!
Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He sang in the Saint Beulah Church of God in Christ choir and recorded gospel music at the age of 4, years before attending the Chris Borden School of Broadcasting in San Francisco. (Chris Borden was a jock at KEWB in the early sixties.) After graduating in October 1964, Sly was hired by KSOL and eventually placed on the night shift Monday thru Saturday. He was very popular with the KSOL audience. In early 1967, Sly moved from the night shift to afternoon drive until his departure in June 1967.
During those two and a half years at KSOL, Sly gradually made a transition from a imitator to an innovator. He might have been considered the Bay Area’s first “shock jock”. But by the time of this aircheck, he wanted to devote his attention to the group he had just formed: The Family Stone.
In October 1967, Sly decided to get back into radio and was hired by KSOL’s competitor across the bay, KDIA. He only worked there for about 2 months before signing a recording contract with Epic records.
This aircheck of The Milkman’s Matinee was found in the basement of the KSOL studios in 1971. Jolly Rogers (also known as Jackson King), worked as a jock at KYA in 1958 and 1959. In 1960, he went to Los Angeles and worked in news at KFWB. He came back to the Bay area in 1964 and was hired by Les Maloy as the news director at KSOL.
We don’t know what happened to Jackson King after KSOL, but it is known that he died of cirrhosis of the liver.