Steve Jordan, Natural Neal & Michael O’Connor – 1260 KYA San Francisco | July 13, 1977

1260 San Francisco KYA





Big Apple Airchecks – “Your Full-Service Aircheck Source”

If only the East Coast had a Top 40 station like this! Oh… well, besides WABC.
We here at Airchexx have put much focus on 610 KFRC as THE dominant station in San Francisco. But, the Bay area had stiff competition for much of the 1970s from crosstown KYA. In 1977, KYA did get close, but never beat KFRC. And it’s too bad, listening to this aircheck, KYA really COOKS!


Is it me, or did KYA have more hard rock on the air than KFRC? Methinks so. But KYA did NOT have Dr. Don Rose, KFRC’s ace in the hole. KYA did have a smokin’ set of Positron jingles (JAM), and plenty of forward momentum in the format presentation. In the end, however, were we to rate this aircheck, it would get a 5 out of 5 based upon personality, format execution, excitement and momentum. Does it beat KFRC in the same era based on our criteria? No, but I don’t think it necessarilly loses, either. The ultimate winners were San Francisco listeners, who were treated to some of the best Top 40 radio done anywhere in North America. And, we sure wish it was like this right now.