The News Vault from KCBS Radio

KCBS Radio coverage of the January 21, 1985 San Francisco parade for the 49ers after their 38-16 victory over Miami in Super Bowl XIX the day before. The game was played at Stanford Stadium. Coverage is anchored by Charlie Seraphin and Valerie Coleman.

KCBS Radio news aircheck. Approximately 30 minutes as David Fowler anchors after 11 pm on  October 10, 1974. Fowler was a KCBS reporter and San Jose bureau chief in the 1970's before moving to television reporting and anchoring in 1975 (KPIX and later KRON). This segment includes a report by Bob Safford and a sports report by longtime KCBS Radio Sports Director Don Klein.

Our thanks to the California Historical Radio Society/ Bay Area Radio Museum for preserving this segment in digital form from the original reel-to-reel recording.

Broadcast on December 8, 1960. The KCBS Radio documentary "Expedition: B-24" told the story of the 1943 crash of a B-24 bomber into an unnamed High Sierra lake and the 17-year effort by the father of the co-pilot to find the wreckage. The program was written by Fred Goerner and anchored by Dave McElhatton and won a 1961 Sigma Delta Chi journalism award. 

Audio preserved by the California Historical Radio Society's Bay Area Radio Museum.

1983 "demo reel" of KCBS Radio coverage of various stories. Numerous segments include: Coalinga earthquake, grounding of USS Enterprise, Fleet Week live coverage, example of 8:06 AM "Beat Check". Anchors include Mike Pulsipher, Stan Bunger, Al Hart and Don Mozley.

Early 1960's station presentation reel for advertisers, hosted by Dave McElhatton. It includes samples of a number of programming elements woven together by morning host McElhatton in his folksy style.

1962 KCBS documentary "The Silent Thunder" looks back on the Pacific Theater during World War 2. Reporter Fred Goerner interviews a number of people, including Pacific Fleet Commander in Chief Admiral Chester Nimitz. He also visits Tinian Island, the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks on Japan.

Droughts are a fact of life in California. The one that lasted between 1986 and 1992 was a bad one. In 1991 alone, state officials would estimate the drought cost the state $1 billion in agriculture losses, increases in energy costs and damage to the environment—that’s close to 2 billion in today’s dollars.

In the winter of 1991, KCBS Radio ran a series of reports entitled “Drought Watch”, looking at what had already happened—and what may lie ahead.  You’ll hear discussion of things like drip irrigation, advanced weather forecasting, new approaches to water storage, challenges to agriculture,  urban water rationing,

Reporters are Mike Sugerman, Jim Taylor, Barbara Taylor, Dave Padilla, Jerry Wilcox, Mike Colgan, Chris Cutter and Paula Drake.

On March 20 2003, protests broke out around the world, including in the Bay Area, after the start of the US/British ground invasion of Southern Iraq. KCBS Radio coverage was anchored by Patti Reising with field reports delivered by Margie Shafer in San Francisco and Doug Sovern in Berkeley. Ron Cervi delivered airborne reports.

A KCBS Radio "In Depth" special report broadcast on April 12, 1993. Reporter Rebecca Corral examined concerns about increasing acts of violence perpetrated by teenagers.

On March 14, 1993 KCBS Radio broadcast a special report on a story that had gripped Bay Area sports fans for months: the sale of the San Francisco Giants. Just before a deal to sell the team to buyers in St. Petersburg, Florida was to be concluded, a group of local investors led by Safeway Stores CEO Peter Magowan came forward. KCBS Radio sports anchor Steve Bitker produced this special report with assistance from Ron Lyons.

The January 17, 1993 edition of the KCBS Radio weekly program "In Depth" featured an interview with Peter Magowan, the Safeway Stores CEO who five days earlier had, along with a group of investors purchased the San Francisco Giants baseball team. The previous owner, Bob Lurie, had planned to sell the team to a group from St. Petersburg, Florida before the Magowan group came forward. The interview was conducted by Steve Bitker and Ed Cavagnaro.

On March 23, 1969 KCBS Radio broadcast an episode of its weekly “In Depth” interview program, featuring controversial interm San Francisco State College President S. I. Hayakawa as the guest. Interviewers were KCBS Radio anchor Fred Wilcox, reporter Al Helmso, and legendary Time-Life journalist Jesse Birnbaum, then serving as chief of Time-Life’s San Francisco bureau.

For many years, KCBS Radio overnight news anchor Frank Knight produced a weekly compilation of the top stories that aired on the station during a given week. "The Week That Was" became a weekend feature.

This example is from the last week of November 1984, broken out by days of the workweek. 

Audio preservation expert Andrew Wellburn digitized this from the original 7" reel of audio tape and noted, "many splices in this tape, catches as it goes through, bad tape used". 

We thank the California Historical Radio Society/Bay Area Radio Museum for their efforts in preserving this example. 

In 1978, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley signed a landmark rent control law. KCBS Radio reporter George McManus used the event as a "news peg" to focus on what was a major Bay Area issue at the time: skyrocketing rents. "The Rent Squeeze" featured interviews with a number of Bay Area political leaders.

This edition of the KCBS Radio features "The Al Douglas Show" from July 1964 and focuses on San Jose's Frontier Village amusement park. Frontier Village was only around for about 20 years but remains a fond memory for a generation of Santa Clara Valley residents. This segment is in the collection of the San Jose Public Library California Room.

On July 2 1960, KCBS Radio broadcast a special report on the mysterious disappearance of pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart. She and navigator Fred Noonan had disappeared over the South Pacific in July 1937 in one of the 20th Century's enduring mysteries. This special report, sponsored by Shell Oil, was introduced by KCBS Radio news director Don Mozley and featured the work of reporter Fred Goerner.

Goerner was convinced Earhart and Noonan had survived the crash of their plane but then died in Japanese custody.  On that day in 1960, he showed off some airplane parts he'd brought up from the harbor on Saipan. A year later, he made another trip and brought back human remains he believed might have been those of Earhart and Noonan (later analysis by a University of California anthropologist dashed cold water on that belief). 

Goerner made a third trip to Saipan on his own time and money, published a lengthy account in Argosy  magazine in 1964, and then a best-selling book in 1966 (The Search for Amelia Earhart).

The photo accompanying this episode was taken the day before this broadcast, on July 1 1960, in KCBS Radio's Studio B at the Palace Hotel. Goerner (R)  sat next to  Don Mozley and told San Francisco reporters who'd been called to the studio of his findings.

In this undated audio clip (clearly recorded prior to the May 1968 transition to the all-news format), KCBS Radio sales executive Seymour "Sy" Whitelaw introduces an aircheck featuring Dave McElhatton and comedian Bill Dana. Dana was a regular guest on the "McElhatton In The Morning " 6-10 AM program, often in the guise of his alter ego, Jose Jimenez.

Whitelaw originally joined KCBS in the early 1950s, and worked in New York 1953-1954 before returning to his beloved San Francisco. According to his 2008 obituary, "He loved his years in early broadcasting. He continued in radio until the late 1960's when he obtained his stockbroker's license. He began a new life, which included an eight year avocation as food reviewer for the 'Pink Section' in the SF Chronicle."

In this undated segment from the KCBS Radio "Magazine" series from the mid-1970's, reporter Mike Beeson visits the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland and meets spiritual leader Swami Muktananda.  The ashram had been established in the rundown Stanford Hotel as Muktananda's first permanent center outside India.

On August 25, 1981, a construction crew punctured a 16-inch natural gas gas pipeline within a block of KCBS Radio's Embarcadero Center studios in San Francisco. The leak went on for hours, forcing the evacuation of 30,000 people--including everyone from the KCBS Radio newsroom and studios.

The next morning, the station had returned to its facilities. Al Hart is the station's lead anchor, joined by Ken Ackerman.  This episode ends with the regulat 8:06 AM feature "Beatcheck".

This audio is from a collection of radio airchecks assembled by the late Bay Area radio engineer Mike Schweizer.

On August 25, 1981, a construction crew punctured a 16-inch natural gas gas pipeline within a block of KCBS Radio's Embarcadero Center studios in San Francisco. The leak went on for hours, forcing the evacuation of 30,000 people--including everyone from the KCBS Radio newsroom and studios. 

The next morning, the station had returned to its facilities but abandoned the normal format for extended coverage of the story. Al Hart anchors this first hour of that coverage.
This audio is from a collection of radio airchecks assembled by the late Bay Area radio engineer Mike Schweizer.