RETRO FRIDAY: TWO VIDEOS ABOUT PROGRESSIVE ROCK RADIO IN SAN FRANSISCO

Earlier this year, we posted a story [link] about the absence of Adult Alternative radio in the San Francisco bay area since the demise of commercial station KFOG. In that post we said that the city needs, and would support, a noncom AAA station.

Howard Hesseman in 1968 playing

"Don Sturdy" on Dragnet

First is a 2013 interview with Howard Hesseman and other folks who were involved in the “underground” radio scene in the late 1960.

Hesseman is best known for his role as Doctor Johnny Fever in WKRP. But Hesseman was known as an eclectic radio host long before his iconic TV show.

In this video you will see and hear Howard Hesseman and screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. They discuss legendary programmer Tom Donahue, one of the founders of KMPX and KSAN.

We produced the second video in 2014 when Spark News was just beginning. 

The video is based on the work Wesley “Scoop” Nisker.   

In the early 1970s, Nisker released a vinyl album called If You Don't  Like the News, Go Out and Make Some of Your Own. It contained many of his“greatest hits” from KSAN.

In many ways, Nisker was a mash-up of author Hunter S. Thompson, the comics Firesign Theater and audio journalist Tony Schwartz. 

His work was was created using two reel-to-reel tape decks and a couple of cart machines.  His techniques influenced a generation of audio journalists, editors and storytellers including many folks who later worked in public radio.

This is our video adaptation of one of Nisker’s Seven Days in May. It aired on KSAN in 1970 just after the killing of four college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University in May of that year.

In 2014, Nisker was still living in the Bay Area and was a Buddhist meditation instructor, teacher and author.

Please note that there is one mistake in the video: The Kent State shootings happened in 1970, not 1971.