KGO (AM) - History

History

After several late-night test broadcasts, using the experimental call letter 6XG, radio station KGO signed on the air on January 8, 1924, from General Electric's Oakland, electrical facility (the original two-story brick building, constructed specifically for the station on East 14th Street, still exists on the site), as part of a planned three-station network comprising WGY in Schenectady, New York, and KOA in Denver, Colorado. KGO was first known as the "Sunset Station"; at that time it operated with a then-impressive 1000 watts. As was the custom with early radio stations, the programming consisted of performances by local talent, including the KGO Orchestra which provided some of the music; and a dramatic group known as the KGO Players, which performed weekly plays and short skits, often under the direction of Bay-area drama instructor Wilda Wilson Church. The station's music, which was also performed by other local orchestras and vocalists, would include classical selections as well as popular dance music the next night. Due to GE's involvement in RCA and RCA's launch of the NBC radio network, KGO was soon operated by NBC management as part of the NBC network. See the KNBR entry for a fuller discussion of NBC's San Francisco radio operations.

By the 1928 Band Plan, 790 kHz was allocated to Oakland, California, and to KGO, which was then owned by General Electric, on an internationally cleared basis. In order to obtain a cleared channel in Schenectady, New York, for what would become the present-day WGY, GE effected a break-down of 790 kHz, whereby WGY (q.v.) would assume the maximum permissible power, and KGO would be lowered in power to 7.5 kW, which was then lower than the minimum permissible power for a clear channel station, and also was then higher than the then maximum permissible power for a regional channel station. Both stations retained omnidirectional antennas. Therefore, GE effectively removed from the West one of its eight cleared channels and added an additional cleared channel to the East thereby giving the East nine cleared channels and the West only seven. The four other "regions" in the Band Plan all retained their allotted eight cleared channels. In 1941, stations on 790 kHz were moved to 810 kHz and roughly simultaneously, KGO was directionalized, and power was increased to 50 kW, the new minimum (and maximum) power for a U.S. cleared channel.

KGO is one of the few remaining three-letter call signs in the United States. The switchover to four-letter calls had begun by 1922, thus KGO's 1924 licensure is historically notable.