KFJC Celebrates 50th Anniversary with Open House

Over the weekend I got to participate in an amazing event at my beloved station KFJC. In honor of the station's 50th anniversary, there was an Open House on Saturday, October 17th up at the Foothill College station in Los Altos Hills, California.

Highlights for me were meeting so many alumni DJs, including the original station manager Bob Ballou. He was the architect of KFJC and is an amazing source of information about the radio scene back in 1959 when KFJC first went on the air over FM. Bob will be on the air again tomorrow night at 8pm, celebrating 50 years to the hour since he first launched the station on October 20, 1959.


There was also a running program of video and film clips playing at the station. It was pretty mind-boggling to see the old TV news coverage of KFJC's famous Louie Louie marathon in 1983. Seemingly every San Francisco TV station did a story about the marathon, including shots of the station and interviews with musicians and station staff. A short film about KFJC from 1979 was also on display, as well as another documentary featuring a very young Spliff Skankin' (who still does the reggae show at KFJC on Sundays).


Also on display at the Open House were some vintage KFJC program guides and magazines ("Waves"). Many of the alums brought in some rare artifacts, including T-shirts from the 1970s, old newspaper clippings, handwritten playlists, and dot matrix printouts of old "adds" lists.

Old copy of "Waves"...sooooo 80s!

For the past few months KFJC has been bringing back DJs from the past and during the Open House I was really excited to host old friend and former KFJC Music Director "Gray Shades" from the late 1980s. He put together an incredible three hours of music. I was super impressed that he dove into some of the current releases that KFJC has recently added and seamlessly blent them into his mix of new and old sounds. You can listen to that show for the next two weeks in the KFJC Broadcast Archives.

Now's a great time to listen to KFJC, as more alumni DJs are coming up this week, including:

Monday October 19, 2009: 7-10pm Pacific
The Glovin Show - DJ from the early to mid-1980s
DJ Dave Glovin along with Nikki Teen and Elvis Pretzel

Tuesday, October 20, 2009: 7-10pm Pacific
Official 50th anniversary of KFJC at 8pm, when Station Manager Bob Ballou signs KFJC on again, re-creating that epic moment 50 years ago.

Saturday October 24, 2009: 3-6pm Pacific
Mr. Phil - DJ from 1986-1992

Monday October 26: 7-10pm Pacific
Daryl Licht - DJ from 1991-1993