KFAT Memories
KFAT Radio touched thousands of lives during its 8 years in existence, and a few years ago we invited everyone who participated in the KFAT experience - behind the mic or in front of the radio - to share what KFAT meant to them.
What was KFAT?
KFAT-FM was located in Gilroy, California. It broadcast a quirky mix of country, blues, old-timey music, raunchy comedy, bluegrass, Hawaiian, and whatever struck the fancy of the disc jockey. It was on the air from mid-1975 to Jan. 1983 at 94.5 FM. From high atop Mt. Loma Prieta (site of the famous 1989 earthquake) near San Jose, its signal reached from north of San Francisco to south of Monterey and east to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Some of the original KFAT staff carries on the tradition (updated for the 21st Century) at KPIG in Freedom, Ca.
For several years we broadcast old tapes of KFAT on this website. We'll have that back up and running sometime soon. Maybe.
From: Christy Cruze
Date: Apr. 4, 2000
Talk about nostalgia! I LOVED KFAT. Not only was the music the greatest, but the intelligent humor was so Fat. And you guys really got the fact that Larry Hosford is a great songwriter and has some of the best singing pipes around. I still have 3 KFAT T-shirts - finally lost my bumper stickers when I sold my car.
P.S. Larry's and my son, Ben Henry Hosford just joined the Army! Whooboy. There are NO hip stations here in Florida. Unless you're into the groovy latin scene in Miami. Take care. Hi to Terralyn Thomas and Laura Ellen.
Bye, Christina Cruze
From: ElmlingerR@aol.com
Date: Apr. 3, 2000
We were stationed in Monterey from 80 to 82 when I discovered KFAT. Absolutely, the best radio station I have ever heard. I was in the Navy at the Postgraduate School, and right before I finished there, KFAT was bought out and turned into some pabulum, crap format, but I taped on my reel-to-reel your last nights show. Lots of great songs and reminiscing, and maybe some incredibly high dj's. My favorite anecdote you told was about a drive-in theater that piped your station in before showing the movie, and you guys played Cum Stains, and how you all were in the "shits" over that.
Just read about KPIG in the Denver Post, of all places, and can't wait to tune in on the net. By the way, who did Cum Stains? Also, I remember the bumper stuff you did from Slim Pickens and others. The first time I heard "Grandma Got Run Over.." was at Christmas time on KFAT a full year before it became popular.
Take care, and I'm sooooo glad you all are still out there. Radio sucks, but maybe there's hope after all.
Ron Elmlinger
From: Kathy
Date: Apr. 2, 2000
Wow! I always thought I was the only one who recalled KFAT! Glad to hear it has another life as KPIG. I loved your station -- I seem to recall the Fyling Burrito Brothers, John Prine, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and Asleep at the Wheel as bands KFAT played -- and it was music with which I immediately bonded. For instance, I don't think I have heard How Can I Miss YOU if You Won't Go Away since KFAT! The only other station that rivaled KFAT (for me anyway) was the old Sacramento KZAP station. Thank you so much for wonderful memories!! I plan to listen to KPIG now that I can get you guys on the internet!
Kathy in Galt
From: M. Herz
Date: Mar. 31, 2000
The year was 1980. I had been a dedicated KFAT junky for years, but lived in Mill Valley where the signal was weak and intermittent. I was preparing to sail to Kauai by myself and really wanted to have KFAT for company. I called the station and explained to the manager that I wanted some tapes for the trip but couldn't record them myself because of the signal problem. He generously offered to tape some shows and sent me 8 cassettes that I still have.
The first 3 days of the sail were horrendous -- 30 knot winds, 12 foot seas and fog. The boat's electrical system packed it in. I didn't even have enough juice to power my running lights at night so never got to hear the tapes. I made it to Hanalai Bay and several months after returning to the Bay, was on the boat finally listening to my KFAT tapes when in the middle of one I heard, ". . . . and the following medley of Hawaiian music is dedicated to Mike Herz who is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on his way to Hawaii." Even though I didn't get to hear them on the high seas, I was really touched by this KFAT moment!
Where are you when we really need you, KFAT?
From: V. Peterson
Date: Mar. 31, 2000
I went to Cal Poly S.L.O. from 1977 -1981 and would drive back & forth from slo town to Cupertino to visit my folks. I always tuned into kfat as soon as I could get it. I think I was able to pull it in at my folks house too. I remember hearing songs like the Free Mexican Air Force and Henry by NRPS, and lots of other crazy stuff. The station expanded my musical tastes and was fun! I never made it to any of the fat frys, but I remember hearing about them. I still have a Garlic Gals t-shirt. I now live in Humboldt co. and listen to a good station, KHUM. They are also on the web at khum.com. I'm glad kpig is carrying on the tradition.
Vicki
From: David Zarka
Date: Mar. 29, 2000
Just today, I was telling some young 30-something about the so-much-more than a radio station, KFAT, and how I can only wish I had an old sticker or t-shirt. (Every once in a fat blue moon I'll spy a beat up, rusted out, Toyota pick-up proudly sporting a faded KFAT sticker in the right lower corner of a dirty rear window, or on the tailgate to accommodate for the missing bumper.) KFEDERATES, THE FAT MUST RISE AGAIN!!!
My introduction to KFAT was in 1975, while I was working as a messenger driving a bright yellow Chevy Nova throughout Santa Clara County. (I learned then that you can do ANYTHING in a car as long as you do it fast.) "Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life" and "I Got Drunk the Day My Mom Got Out of Prison" were the songs that made the miles go by.
I recall the surprise/horror/anger I felt one Friday morning as I got behind the wheel, clicked on the radio, only to hear the DJ announce some slimeball had stolen the station's entire collection of LPs. The airplay that day included appeals to the perps to return the albums "no questions asked", and unhappy announcements to all Fatheads that unless such return did not occur during the weekend, it looked like KFAT would bite the dust by the following Monday. Whether it was by tinge of conscience, or, more likely, of cajone-crushing dread from what a crowd of KFAT faithful would do to them when their crime ultimately and inevitably would have come to light, the records were returned, and KFAT was saved to saddle up and broadcast for some more years, adding to its illustrious reputation as the best damn renegade station this side of the Pecos.
Thanks for the chance to share.
Dave Zarka
From: Rick Esselbach
Date: Mar. 24, 2000
I just got this computer amonth ago. (bear with me), so here I am strolling thru the pages and lo and behold! "KFAT memories" catches my eye. When I started scrolling a flood of emotion poured in. I was living in Hayward and working at Sunnyvale H-D and we only played KFAT in the store, Harleys and KFAT just went together perfectly. I taped the entire last 24hrs. of that great station and play them for my guitar pickin circle out here in Hawaii. I am retired now but every time I go to my toolbox there is my KFAT sticker on the front giving me that PIGGIE look. I have not heard KPIG yet but first thing tomorow I will tune in and thank you for bring back some of the best radio memories ever.
Rick Esselbach
From: John Norman Sims, Jr
Date: Mar. 22, 2000
Well, other than Laura Ellen's Sunday morning gospel show, 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Biscuits' ...
This would have had to be sometime in 1979 or '80. I was driving home one Friday night listening to KFAT. It was obvious that the announcer had guests in the studio with him: in the breaks between songs you could hear bits of conversation and laughter in the background. Finally, just as I was almost home, they came up on the 11:00 p.m. station break. You could hear the mike open, and after a few seconds of silence, an adult voice say, "Go ahead ... say it." Then a young child's voice said, "This is KFAT in Gilroy California. It's eleven o'clock ... children, do you know where your parents are?"
I almost ran into the garage door I was laughing so hard.
From: GP459@aol.com
Date: Mar. 21, 2000
Late at night my race car driver, crew and myself, the Stock Car race car owner burnt a lot of midnight oil during the week just healing our race car and listening to KFAT radio. All work came to a halt on Moose Turd Pie. Good times never last.
From: Steve Champion
Date Mar. 21, 2000
God Help Me!!! I found a KFAT site. I can remember many hours of getting in deep BullShift from listening to KFAT while stationed at Fort Ord in Monterey. I was stationed there in 1976, got married in 1978 and immediately turned my wife onto KFAT. In fact the most enjoyable breakfasts were at the Fat Cat Cafe in PG. We lived just off the corner of 17 Mile Drive and Lighthouse. Man what a place to live.
I can remember Uncle Sherman and Dallas Dobro each day. When I went back to school, it was a wonderful way to pas the time traveling from the bay to Salinas. Then when I found Stanford for a few months it was even more fun. Ronnie Lott? Where is he now? Chuck Wagon and the Wheels still holds a special place in my heart. In fact I finally dusted off the old record and tapes and played them for my kids. The just about fell over. They actually enjoyed it. I found an old tape of them here in AZ., just a few months ago. The scary thing was to see and old beat up PU travelling down the Road with one of each of the old KFAT stickers on it's rear window. Yelling at the guy, I discovered he had owned the truck for over 20 years and the stickers were originals. Couldn't talk him out of the window. Still have my KFAT buckle hidden away, it made many a party including the Garlic Festival.
I too had a tape of the Wake. God what a blast. Sitting out in the cold, drinking with friends and listening till all hours to a station that really helped an Army kid learn that there was more to life than surfing and racing. Sooooo mellow, sooo cool and definitely a head pleaser. Sorry to see the station go and hated KWUSSY. I finally found KPIG today and have really enjoyed it. Thank god for the internet!!!
From: mikey
Date: Mar. 16, 2000
I remember being at the station above the drug store in Gilroy one night with my pal Carl Cabron, from CET in Watsonburg,a pal of Michelle's (Sister Tiny). What fun! I was buggin' Sully while she was doing some silly promo using clips from a "Cowboy Punk" album with the song "I Wanna Whip Your Cow." We were all pretty well wired & stoned as one of the local cops brought us cookies & kool-aid which tasted a bit strange (they were probably laced w/dope & coke). And so I don't remember much more of it. Except we listened to FAT from about '73 til it morphed into KHIP after it was bought & turned into another tired, oldies crapola station, because KFAT wasn't making any money. Sheesh! As if that's Important. When they did the fund raiser for KZSC at UCSC on the hottert day of the year in 1984, I taped as much as possible between transmitter failures (they claimed they were fanning the damn thing w/record jackets!) and have those old cassettes to remind me of the wierd ol' daze. I still have a FAT cowboy sticker on my refrigerator. What fun!.
Michael Nosera
El Granada, CA
From: Bruce Jewett
Date: Mar. 15, 2000
KFAT was the best radio I've ever heard. When I lived in San Jose we'd throw parties by putting sawdust in the backyard and cranking up 94.5.
Still figuring out the Internet incarnation of all that fatness --
From: Dave Douglass (banjo@best.com)
Date: Mar. 14, 2000
One day in early '76 right after I'd moved out here from Dallas where there was a maverick FM station (KAFM) that I was missing I stumbled onto Doc Watson, John Hartford and Mike Seeger all on the same set and couldn't wait to learn what station it was. Turned out to be good old KFAT. A fathead was born. I was a diehard listener from that point until its demise. I was entertained by the music, humor, countless Fat Fry concerts, live guests stopping in, why if it hadn't been for the Fatgrams I might've never sold my Cheyenne tipi to that Santa Cruz hippie-chick.
It was a great vehicle for learning about artists I'd have otherwize never known about. I remember listening to Terralin's show one day at work and the needle started going all over the Little Jimmie Dickens song that had been playing and moments later our office up in Silicon Valley started going a little crazy too. It was a pretty hairy earthquake that was centered down around Gilroy somewhere. The music stopped and Terralin excitedly described the havoc at the station.
My little claim to fame with the Fat one was doing the second (and last) signboard art for them. It was the one that had the Fat sticker buckaroo saying, "MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY" into the KFAT mic. When my wife was first driving up here with her mom as they were coming over Pacheco Pass they happened to catch KFAT on the radio and Hawaiian Cowboy came on and they about had to pull over they laughed so hard. It was hands down the best commercial radio station that ever was. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'!
Banjo Dave Douglass
From: Gayle Bradbury
Date: Mar. 14, 2000
Guy Clark singing "Coat from the Cold". That was one of the first songs I heard when I moved from Northern California (where the palm trees meet the pines) to San Jose, within KFAT range. My (now ex-) husband was a real FAThead (in many ways), and turned me on to FAT music. I remember the night KWSS took over - it was heartbreaking to hear the last song.
I've forever since listened for FAT music here and there, but it's hard to find. Tonight I was sitting at my computer surfing for something else, and found you. What a treat - time for a walk down memory lane!
I met Cuzn Al years later, at a gas station. It was great to finally meet one of the people responsible for the tunes that were still going around in my head. And I recently found my old KFAT bumper sticker in a box somewhere. Fat is where it's at!
Gayle Bradbury
From: SGiner@aol.com
Date: Mar. 14, 2000
When I first found KFAT I was shocked! I mean, hey, this radio station actually has real people playing real music! immediately ran around turning on everyone I could to it. i listened to it eveywhere, home, in the car, at work, just like I do KPIG now.
From: Multiplesarcasm@aol.com
Date: Mar. 11, 2000
I first stumbled on KFAT about 2 o'clock one morning. The DJ (not wanting to work real hard) said he'd play entire album sides requested by the first two callers. I jotted the number down but got caught up with some other stuff I was doing. About a half-hour later I called just to find out what the winning album sides were. He said, "You're the first caller." I felt like I had my own private radio station. He played side one of the then newly released "Blood on the Tracks" for me and I was hooked forever. Looking at my CD collection now, I'd have to say that about half of it is directly related to the musical education I got from KFAT...and at 8 years, my "batchelor of fat" diploma took only slightly longer than my "batchelor of arts" from SJSU.
Brian Boyd
From: Buzbom13@aol.com
Date: Mar. 10, 2000
never listened to any thing but kfat back in the day,cruizin around in my 66 international pick up. had chuck wagon & the wheels over t th house after a show (think my sis mita laid one of em that night). took a ride out ther to see cousin Al. still got a coupla T shirts ,one from a fat fry in palo alto. then years later while stationed in Texas with the Army met a guy who'd been stationed in monterey he had recorded the last days of Fat. spent all day copying those tapes which are to this day my prized possesions. still getem out my whole family knows the songs even if we dont know who the artists are.
Gary
redwood city
From: Mike Gardner
Date: Mar. 8, 2000
My name is Mike A. Gardner, and I LOVED KFAT RADIO. When I found that station In the middle of my FM dial I thought I had found the next best thing to HEAVEN. I listened to it all the time, in my pick-up crusin' Livermore or sittin' in front of my stereo at my apartment in Fremont. It was "THE BEST". I know longer live in the Bay Area, but still have a stack of KFAT Stickers which always seem to bring fellow FAT HEADS TOGETHER, and which I still PROUDLY FLY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE.
Shortly before I moved to N. Calif. I went home and was going to turn my wife onto KFAT and it wasn't there anymore. I had been in the U.S. NAVY stationed in Port Whoneedsme Calif. and hadn't been home in a couple of years. To say the least I was BROKEN HEARTED.
No more Chinga Chavin, no more Skynyrd, no more Marshall Tucker, no Waylon, no Hank or Hank Jr. and most none of the GREAT POEPLE THAT MADE KFAT WHAT IT WAS. Of all of the radio stations I have listened to since none compare to the ONE THAT I WILL REMEMBER FOREVER--- LONG LIVE THE MEMORY OF KFAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE FAT SPOT ON YOUR FM DIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: JVM1449@aol.com
Date: Mar. 4, 2000
Here's the most salient KFAT memory I have etched indelibly in my cobwebbed lobes:
It was the summer of 1975 and I was shacked up with a little lady in P.G. She was a "granola gal", you know what I mean? Of course, I was a bit organic myself, my hair zapped out like a Dylan-Hendrix hybrid. Anyway, I was sharing this woman with another guy. We had a reluctant 3-way relationship going. One moring very early, before 6:00 A.M., I was sharing my KPORK with this woman when right in the middle of our dance routine her clock radio clicked on and the voice of Utah Phillips doing his "Moose Turd Pie" routine came booming into the room from KFAT's transmitter. Talk about coitus interruptus! I rolled off her and started howling. She started laughing, too. I didn't even notice my deflation as I was laughing too hard to care. I don't think we got back into what we were doing before the radio came on. Yeah, that's a fine memory, you know what I'm saying?
Hey, are you making any KFAT bumper stickers? God that would be great, just for the hell of it.
Jeffrey Van Middlebrook
From: Ricknie@aol.com
Date: Feb. 22, 2000
"KFAT PLAYS DIRTY MUSIC!!!" How can anyone surf'n the dial ignore that yell? Once ya hear it, you either bless the crucifix on the dash, or you turn up the volume. Either way, your ass is covered! I was devastated when KFAT shut down. But, my lady lives in Watsonville and told me about KPIG. Low and behold I'm born again! Thank you, thank you....and, since I'm leaning my turns on a Harley, I need the pig in my life.
Good things come to you when you aren't look'n... Great station.... Thanks.
Rick Von San Hose
From: Eileen Castle
Date: Feb. 11, 2000
WOW, what can one say... Central california was our home, garlic festivals, casa de fruita and KFAT... San benito rodeo, Salinas rodeo...Miller's lodge at arroyo seca... from Santa cruz to Monterey we never turned our radio off from your station. We even have a family tradition. A christmas tape we taped from your radio station one christmas day, back - gosh i can't remember when... but the songs were a combination of trational and off beat country.
We moved to LAS VEGAS and i'll tell ya what......WE'RE NOT IN GILROY ANY MORE!!!!!!! This may be the city of lights...fun...sin city... But these folks don't know real fun.... You should (or maybe not) checkout there county fairs.
We talk to alot of our friends from the central coast,who keep us posted on whats going on, but this is the best. when Larry and I were dating, it was KFAT we lisented to. My teenage daughter sleeps in my old KFAT teeshirt. Long live your memory... and yes...KFAT IS WHERE IT IS AT
We do love kpig.....this computer stuff is toooooooo much fun. miss ya...love ya.... eileen and larry
From: pember
Date: Feb. 10, 2000
My memories of KFAT are relatively short but oh so sweet. I moved to Albany, CA in fall of 81. (Prior to that, I'd only heard FAT while driving back and forth between San Luis Obispo and Berkeley.) Somehow I was able to tweak the FM antenna just right and pick up a scratchy but consistent signal. I listened faithfully right up to the end. I was in a state of shock when KWSS ("k-woos", I called it) took over. All I have left is one Official Fat Cassette and an unoffcial 90 min. tape I recorded the night of the infamous Club Fat Suitcase Party. My, 'FAT cooked that night. It's still one of my favorite road tapes. I can't remember who the DJ was off the top of my head (I'm at work now and the tape's back home) but he sure knew how to pick 'em. Kicks off with "Rockabilly Music", then "Disco Sucks" and never looks back. KPIG is great, and Sully (ex-FAT DJ) had a good show on some otherwise "straight" country stations up here for a few years, but there was and is nothing like the FAT one. Good radio makes you want run out to store and buy new CDs/LPs, but great radio is better than you could ever hope your collection could be. KFAT was the epitome of great radio. FAT is where it's at!
From: Ken Keep
Date: Feb. 7, 2000
Glad to find you folks still alive and kickin'!I don't have any KFAT stories but I do have an opinion about what y'all should do next: Dig out those old tapes and put them up on the WEB. Check out WWW.Louisianaradio.com or www.Texasrebelradio.com. I don't think either is up to your standards, but it is fun to listen to something from the old stomping grounds from here in northern California. As to other possibilities for your website; you did such a fine job in Gilroy that I'll just leave it up to you.
Thanks and Good Luck!!!!!!
(Now I have to go out and buy a new belt for my KFAT buckle.)
Ken Keep
From: Jpmrph3@aol.com
Date: Feb. 6, 2000
folks,
That dumbass station helped ruin my life. How many hours I spent in my
garage slaving over my pedal steel guitar. When I had time to practice KFAT
always had stuff to play along with. I even sent the station a station ID.
Hey mister that's me on the electric radio.so now i must waste my life
playing in smokey places and legion halls. When I was young people said "wow,
you play music,cool!". now they say "are you still doing that stuff?" Yes I
am and thanks to the tunes I heard on KFAT I'll never grow up.
Thanks to hearing "The hostile baby rocking song" by Rosalie Sorrels my daughter has grown up. We didn't kill her, we just sang the song.
The only time I have ever enjoyed dancing was with my wifelet at a fatfry on a hot hot night listening to Carl Perkins in Palo Alto..........
I still remember a very drunkied up DJ trying to read the tag for a spot for a transmission shop called "BULLSHIFT" He made the obvious mistake 4 straight times and gave up. This occurred about a week after another DJ droppe d a commercial cart on a record being played.(remember records?)scratchhhhhhhhh kalunk rippppppp!
If I can let my daughter dominate her mac I plan to listen to KPIG a bunch.
J.P. Murphy III
Redwood City, Ca.
From: Arlie's Asphalt
Date: Feb. 6, 2000
K-PIG IS SPECIAL, BUT K-FAT WAS THE VERY BEST. WE MISS K-PIG, BECAUSE WE NO LONGER LIVE IN THE AREA. WE LIVE IN SOUTHERN OREGON, BACK WHERE WE STARTED. HOWEVER SANTA CRUZ WAS OUR HOME FOR APPROXIMATELY 30+ YEARS, APPROXIMATELY 20 OF THAT WE HAD A AUTO (V.W.) REPAIR SHOP LOCATED IN A FEW VARIOUS PLACES. AND TWO OR THREE DIFFRENT NAMES. THE LAST ONE BEING 'ARLIES AUTO REPAIR' IM SURE SOME OUT THERE REMBERS ARLIE AND HIS BOYS: MIKE, GREG, JEFF, ACE, MONTY AND THE TWO YOUNGER ONES SCOTT AND LON. ALSO HIS DAUGHTER, CHERIE.
WE ENJOYED MANY A NITE AT "THE GRASS COOKIE", " THE CATALYST" AND MANY OTHERS. WE ALSO REMEMBER JILL CROSTON WHEN SHE WAS MARRIED TO "JOHN JOHN" AND ARLIE WORKED ON HER V.W. ALSO USE TO KNOW ALL THE CREW AT CARR PARTS. BEFORE I CLOSE WE WOULD LIKE TO SAY HI TO SPECIAL PEOPLE AT THE SANTA CRUZ HARBOR, WHERE ARLIE WAS SUPERINTENDANT OF MAINTENANCE FOR 3 YEARS.
WE MISS SANTA CRUZ, IT WILL FOREVER BE THE SPECIAL PLACE IN OUR MEMORIES. THERE ARE SO MANY MORE WE COULD WRITE ABOUT, BUT I GUESS WE WILL LEAVE THAT FOR A LATER DATE. MAYBE WHEN I ORDER K-FAT AND K-PIG SHIRTS, BECAUSE MINE ARE VERY, VERY WORN, BUT ALWAYS WITH LOVE. WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM ANY ONE WHO REMEMBERS US .
OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IS asphalt@arliesenterprises.com
FONDLY AND SINCERELY, ARLIE AND GLORIA WALKER
From: Warren Walther
Date: Feb. 5, 2000
I just found this place today. I too was a loyal FATHEAD. I can tell you that KFAT stickers and T-shirts may still be in New York City and other places around the country. Carried them with me all the time. My goodness, without KFAT I would never have known Sleepy LaBeef, Ray Campi, Chuck Wagon and the Wheels, Utah Phillips, the list goes on.
Everytime I hear Asleep At The Wheel, the memories come flooding back. I no longer live in Bay Area, but KFAT will always be alive in me.
Warren Walther (Arlo)
From: Badbluedog@aol.com
Date: Feb. 5, 2000
the first time i heard k-fat i was floored . the music was great the dj s were wonderful and the rest was history. being a long haired rock and roll truck driver in the late 70's wasn't very cool so at least i had something to look forward to when i came up to the bay area from orange county (when they still had oranges) LONG LIVE JIMMY RABBITT and the rest of the folks at the best little radio station in the world
From: Ron Shoff
Date: Feb. 4, 2000
I lived in the Bay Area back in 78/79 and was a big KFAT fan. We used to spend a lot of time in the Carmel/Monterey area hanging out, camping and so forth and KFAT was always on the radio. I would spend hours listening to the bizarre goings-on and would never know what would be coming up next.
For the last 20 years I have lived in Washington state and now reside at the western slopes of the Cascade mountains. I came across KPIG one day and sent off an e mail telling you how much I was reminded of the old KFAT format. Your response was " you silly boy, we are the illegitimate son of KFAT." It really brought back some memories.
Although I have no KFAT memorabilia I am not going to be left behind this time and am starting to fill in my wardrobe with trend setting KPIG garb.
Thanks for one hell of a radio station and keep up the great work.
From: Bill Rogers
Date: Feb. 3, 2000
Hi Fatheads! Just discovered the page of letters of old memories and had to add my own 2 cents! I'm sure Cuzn Al remembers me as the guy who used to bring the Dachshund to the Gilroy (not Gilfred) studio and let him do Al's job on Sunday nites.
Who remembers "Le Club FAT" ? TWA gave away vacation trips as advertising trade-offs during the last days of KFAT. I was a card carrying member of "le Club Fat" Winning card numbers were announced weekly and when my number was called, I was on my motorcycle returning to work on the swing shift! Almost crashed into a tree! Anyway I won the grand prize....15 Days in Europe, First Class, ALL expenses paid! It was the greatest vacation my wife and I ever had!
Little Jimmy Dickens is a personal friend and some of you may remember the day I brought him to the station in Gilroy for an interview. He still visits occasionally. He's quite a guy! I still have my old T-shirt, baseball cap, brass belt buckle, and a few original KFAT Stickers (which I may be willing to share with a deserving fathead) my Edress; misterbill@prodigy.net
Bertha & I remember well the final night of the KFAT demise. We sat together in front of the stereo and cried on each others shoulders. Oh yea, If anyone has the "Official Fat Cassette" FAT1202/vol1, Larry Hosford dedicates his greatest song "Salinas" to "Bill & Bertha" at the Fat Fry, at Sams. We were at a table in front of the stage with Larry's parents. His dad passed last year, he was another great guy. Thanks for the memories!!!
Bill & Bertha Rogers
4648 Mia Cir
San Jose, Ca 95136
From: Max Roberts
Date: Jan 31, 2000
KFAT was quite simply the greatest little radio station there ever was. As a teenager in California's central valley, I used to nightly turn my radio dial around looking for whatever I knew I was missing in my cultural life. One night I dialed up this quirky little station that played music I had never heard before-in a format I had never known- and I was instantly hooked.
The Fat was where it's at.
Max Roberts
Grass valley, CA
From: John Thos. Brown
Date: Jan. 30, 2000
Well, now, I've got a fatgram for YOU! KFAT was my favourite station when I moved from Texas to the Bay Area (Oakland/Berkeley) in the early '70's. It was a pure, sweet, honest sound that cut right through all that self important, self righteous, hip, happenin' stuff that filled all the other airwaves. Never knew garlic could smell so good. How strange. 20+ years on I'm living in Australia and feeling kinda lonesome because my wife and daughter are visiting her folks in Monterey and my folks in Austin. So I'm playing with RealAudio channels and grooving on KFAN because the girls are in Texas at the moment and in their guestbook there's a reference to you guys and when I check it out, there's old KFAT again. Always there when you need it. Aint' it sweet.
John Thos. Brown, Castle Hill (Sydney) Australia
From: Jim Scherer
Date: Jan. 28, 2000
Yes I remember KFAT and would love to be listening to it again. In the Seventies I was stationed at NAS Moffett Field - working in an electronics shop with 26 other sailors. To counter the battle with the KOME devotees those of us that preferred KFAT went and tuned the common radio that everyone listened to so that it only received KFAT!!! Lasted like that for nearly two years!!!! Loved every minute!!!
Thanks
Jim Scherer
From: EAGLEKIN@aol.com
Date: Jan. 26, 2000
I moved to the Monterey penninsula in Nov. 1979. I moved up here from L.A. (what a relief) without my family and immediatly found a job. The first thing I did was look for housing so I could get my wife and 6 mo. old daughter out of the SMOOOOG and into the good life. My job came with a car. The first day I picked up my car and started hunting for a home. Naturally I turned on the radio and there was some crappy talk show on. I switched to FM and just for kicks tuned to the radio station I was used to listening to in L.A. To my surprise Sugar Magnolia sweetly rolled out of the speakers. I thought WOW is it possible that I am picking up my LA staion way up here. Well I didn't have long to wonder because when the break came the dj (I think it was Felton Pruitt) announced that I was listining to KFAT. WHAT I THOUGHT IS KFAT. Well the rest of the day made me a deadicated listener and I never strayed far weather it was KHIP(for such a short time) or the glorious KPIG. The next day I found a pad and I moved my family up the next weekend.Thank Bokonon for Prunedale! Thank Bokonon for the wonderful folks from KFAT_KHIP_KPIG.
Rev Mike
The Church With Know Walls
Prunedale CA.
From: Barbara Resnick Deitze
Date: Jan. 24, 2000
Long Lost Greetings Fat Heads, ....well now that i've finally sobered up i just realized i forgot to tape the last show i did on KFAT....if you have a copy of the last show, i'd sure love to have one. happy to pay the freight charges....KFAT was a trip!....Robin Barnett email: ohbanyan@earthlink.net
From: Bob Simmons
Date: Jan. 20, 2000
Looking at the KFAT pages puts me in a reverie of those moments when we thought the building might float away. Nothing like a little ecstasy on a Monday night. I had the enormous privlege to produce the first two year's of Fat Fries at the Keystone in Palo Alto..... in fact I can still do my opening rap...
"THE SMELL OF BURNING FAT THOSE LOOKS OF LOST CONFUSION AND DISMAY.... THE SOUNDS OF STATIC AND DEAD AIR.... CAN ONLY MEAN ONE THING
THE SHOW THAT KNOWS THE WAY TO SAN JOSE FAR TOO WELL IS ON THE AIR
TONIGHT ...LIVE FROM THE STAGE AT THE KEYSTONE PALO ALTO
THE FAT FRY IS ON THE AIR TONIGHT FEATURING: (Name goes here)
DAN HICKS AND THE (this week's band)
THE CRAMPS
COWBOY FEE AND THE PRAIRIE PASTRIES
THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS
TIM HARDIN
HARDIN AND RUSSELL
CARL PERKINS
KATE WOLF
JILL CROSSTON
CHUCKWAGON AND THE WHEELS
LEO KOTTKE
THE HOODOO RHYTHM DEVILS
THE KLEZMORIM
BOB BROZMAN
WITH COMEDIANS:
BOB SARLATTE
DANA CARVEY
BOBBY SLAYTON
DARYL HENRIQUES
And so Minnie Moore...'ALL BROUGHT TO YOU BY JACK LEWIS VOLKSWAGEN IN SANTA CRUZ WHERE LESS IS MORE..more or less."
It is something I will never forget, nor will I forget all the wonderful people I met and worked with. For those of you who still survive and carry on, I wish you only the best. All things pass...sadly enough...would that god (or some damn thing) grant us the sense to recognize how good it is when it is happening all around us. Bye bye to Jeremy, Gary, Bobby, Freddy, Laura Ellen, and all the hundreds of people who were involved and made for some of those bright moments in what we call our lives....
From Bob Simmons in San Jose, Costa Rica
From: Jon Zatkin
Date: Jan. 15, 2000
I lived from 1979 until I moved here to Beijing in '87 on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. I actually discovered KFAT driving around not far from Gilroy and some days could receive it at home real well and other days not so well - but the radio was always stuck there! I just could never get over how different it was from any other station - especially country stations, which is what I was mostly listening to until then. You could listen to KFAT all day and never hear the same song twice!! Blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, novelty tunes anything and everything was coming over the air. I got turned on to so many artists I'd never heard of before - and would call up the DJs to chat about this and that, too.
One cool thing was having KFAT stickers on my car - other FATheads would honk and wave and I'd hong and wave and we sort of felt like we knew each other.
I sure was sorry when the station closed down - nothing could replace it. I even got the "Cause The Needed The Money" T-shirt!! I'm really glad to hear about the PIG and knowing that KFAT has done been reincarnated - and didn't even lose any weight!!
Keep up the great work, guys!!
From: George Sampson
Date: Jan. 14, 2000
Where else could I hear "My Girl Passed Out In Her Food" by Chuck Wagon And The Wheels? Like the old KMPX, the original KSAN "Jive 95" KFAT sure was special while it lasted, a refreshing change from the corporate radio of today. Not only was it truly creative, it was just plain FUN to listen to. I only wish KPIG's signal could get to my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Us Fatheads need our FatFix!
From: RLipetzky@aol.com
Date: Jan. 13, 2000
Ah....suffice to say I never would have made it through college in the late 70's without KFAT. (I now depend heavily on KPIG over the net in my law office) What a station; what a time.
Russ Lipetzky, Salem, OR.
From: Richard D. Quartaroli
Date: Jan. 11, 2000
A colleague turned me on to KPIG yesterday. Thanks to this new electronic stuff, I can once again listen to meaningful music. Nothing can compare to the old KFAT days, except maybe KPIG. I lived in Silicon Valley from 1974 to around 1982 and KFAT was the ONE AND ONLY real radio station in the Bay Area. In fact I still have a piece of tape on the old tuner/receiver marking 94.5, the widespot on the dial, for although it may have been the widespot, I didn't have great reception where I lived. [I briefly listened to KFOG and M.Dung from the mid-'80s until I moved to Flagstaff, Arizona in 1988.]
Now, if I could only hear Emmy Lou's "KSOS" or Utah Phillips do "Moose Turd Pie" I'd be in hog, or pig, heaven.
PS: I still have a KFAT baseball jersey. Appropriately enough, it no longer fits. The FAT didn't go to the HIP on this one -- it went to the GUT!
From: Kai Tiura
Date: Jan. 2, 2000
God, what a feeling.
Listening to your wonderful music, flowing back to days gone by in a cloud of memories. I was only fortunate enough to listen to your station a few good times when ya'all were here in another life, but I still remember those times with great fondness. I was sick when I heard that the end was near, that the ailment was incurable, and that KFAT was not going to make it thought the night. I joined a huge crowd at the bedside and clasped hands, hoping for a peaceful passing, and trying to grasp whatever consolation I could from being with the new friend I was losing so early in our relationship. It was a sad day when the sun came up without KFAT in the air beside it.
In my life, I have been in the vicinity of some great folks; those at the original Jive 95, KSAN, San Francisco, and KVRE 101.7 radio in Santa Rosa, to name a couple. I have felt great loss when they were gone. I had to attempt to forget the sadness to not miss them terribly.
But - a REVELATION! I have come to understand that miracles DO happen. Those who keep the faith are not simply hopeful fools, but powerful forces that create life. The resurrection is upon us! KFAT lives! In the name and body of KPIG! And the very evils of "progress" I cursed for destroying it are making it available to me here in this other dimension known as the Internet. Halleluiah! With moist eyes and a warm heart, I thank the powers that be for bringing you back to us. Without people such as yourself, there would be a frightening one-sidedness to radio called Mainstream taking our children and forcing them into it's awful mold, making them know only what commercial and philosophical horrors it chose to impose on them.
God love you people!
Kai Tiura
tiura@sprynet.com
Sonoma, CA
From: Anna Johnson
Date: Dec. 27, 1999
I was living in Palo Alto from 1980 to 1984 and heard both final broadcasts from KFAT, including such things as the commercial for the Delorean Snowmobile (sometimes rebroadcast here in Calgary, Alberta, where I now live).
You may be interested to know that radio station KFAT, 1090 on your AM dial, is listed in the US Department of Commerce roster of radio stations for 30 June 1923 as being out of Eugene, Oregon and owned by a Dr. S. T. Donahue.
I moved from Palo Alto to Corvallis, Oregon and once again listened to KFAT, though I must admit it was not the same. KPIG is a very fitting successor to the original low-protein, high cholesterol FAT radio.
Yours at 94.5 on the FM dial,
Anna Johnson
From: Pete Keesling
Date: Dec. 19, 1999
Hey, we moved to San Martin in 1979 and are still here. Life changed drastically when the FAT left us. Only after it was gone did we realize how good we had it. As the song goes, "She gives me warmth in the wintertime, cool cool shade in the summertime. That's what I like about that fat gal of mine." KFAT gave us all that, including more servings of Moose Turd Pie than we really wanted. God we miss all, but only because we can't get the PIG clearly in San Martin. Please, please, please....tweak your antenna just a hair so we can hear it all again. Otherwise, I'll just have to roam Highway 101 to Salinas to listen to the good stuff.
Pete Keesling (DrPete from KTEH's (San Jose Channel 54) Petpourri)
From: Daren
Date: Dec. 15, 1999
In the late 70's and early 80's I used to make annual pilgramages to Laguna Seca for the motorcycle races. A young man named Flyin' Fred Merkle was my neighbor, (he went on to win the U.S. Superbike championship 2 or 3 times),and I always went to see him. My partners, John and Frank, had moved from Stockton years before and lived in the Monterey Bay area.
These long weekends were all about Harleys, racing, drinkin', smokin', and KFAT. We'd close the bars in Monterey, Seaside, or PG, and then it was on to the house for partying till dawn with Fast Jack, Monterey Jack, Billy, and the rest of the crew. KFAT was always on the stereo, and completely blew me away with what could only be called their "outlaw" programming. Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto stations never came close to being able to do what came so naturally for the KFAT crew, namely keeping a smile on the face of those of us who engaged in the ingestion of "politically incorrect" substances.
Never before, or since have I enjoyed broadcast radio as much as I did KFAT.....until now. After downloading RealPlayer to the 'puter, I saw KPIG as one of the default presets, and tuned in. HOT DAMN!!......this sounded familiar! Thanks for doing it again guys, I'm having a major nostalgia rush here. I will be telling all the old crew here in town that the FAT attack is back! KPIG could take over FM if it was available everywhere...keep up the good work.
From: Tcl660@aol.com
Date: Dec. 13, 1999
When I was 18 years old in 1977 , I gave the Ozone Ranger a ride to work a few times. He would buy beer for me & other idiot friends and we would party at the old station on Monterey Rd. Buffalo Bob would be on and while the records were spinning old bob be bullshitn up a storm. always fun. nobody got hurt or sick or busted. That was 22 years ago, part of my life was around that station. always listend, till it turned to KFOX. miss those days Laura Ellen, sister tiny's figure. Ozone ranger, cool guy had been an around seen some things, buff. bob good guy, loveable drunk, great stories. I cant get KPIG in Morgan hill worth a shit exp. by web. turn up the signal and sell some advertising over here. I think you'd make a killing . 40 year old farts like this kinda station.
TOM LARKIN, Morgan Hill
From: John La Fargue
Date: Dec. 10, 1999
I can't believe I found KFAT, again.
I must have been the Northernmost listener. I live in a valley that somehow channeled the signal right to my radio all the way from Gilroy loud and clear. I had a timer on my stereo that woke me up every morning. Later, I moved about three blocks away and could no longer get the channel but would enjoy it on my frequent trips to Santa Barbara until one time I tuned in and all that was on was a collection of every version of Louie Louie ever recorded which, aside from the fact that it was the end of KFAT, was pretty cool in itself.
Now I can listen to all that old stuff and even better hear broadcasts that I miss. ain't technology grand?
Waydago, guys! I'll be tuning in regularly.
From: Paul.BRANNOCK@adecco.com
Date: Dec. 9, 1999
Ahh, KFAT... William Strickland ( another Wild Bill), introduced me to KFAT. He was/is one the most creative SOB's that I ever recorded in my little recording studio above the apple orchards of Aptos. In 1975 he convinced me (didn't take much) to tape an improvised Christmas show that he would get KFAT to play. It started off innocently enough. Many beers and a fifth of whatever later we had the most raunchy radio play ever created. Though the "Play" was never aired, I did become a devoted listener and I'm thankful PIG is carrying forward the FAT spirit. BTW, if anyone has a line on Strickland have him contact me, PaulB20@prodigy.net. Perhaps there is a web market for the Christmas show we did.
From: Ednann2@aol.com
Date: Nov. 28, 1999
My husband and I had gone over to my brother's house in Campbell to help tear the roof off. He had a radio on an extention cord out on the roof while we worked and we tuned in KFAT. It was such a good time. We listened all the time after that til the horrible end. Years later, I moved to Chico CA, bought a place, and found in the old run down shed out back.... a faded , little bit torn KFAT poster stapled to the wall.
From: John Wagner
Date: Nov. 27, 1999
Ah, what a super freeway of memories that brings to my mind, the rise and fall of the very best radio station I have ever heard, before or since. This casts no aspersions on KHIP, the successor and the present Crowned Princess of FM radio, Da (K)Pig. I am sitting here looking at my last original FatHead sticker, wondering if I should put it on my new truck?
I was living in Brookdale, up on Western Drive, in a tumbled down palace next to the home of the OkkeNookey players (now, THERE is a "Blast from the Past">). Sittin ' around doing a dobie, spinning the dial, I happened to hear a guy named Gordy saying something about the brand new station, being it's first day of broadcasting, and if you wanted to advertise on the airways, why, 'cummon down friends an' neighbors! Then he cut loose with a Jerry Jeff Walker tune, and I was a fan! It is funny how the outlaws are usually the most progressive or innovative.
Yes, the first day to the last, I was a Fathead, doing the Frys, and the Picnics, supporting the sponsors (but, hey, how hard was to be at the Town And Country or the Chateau Liberte', Club Zayante?). It was actually a period of intense growth, for me, for the station, for the area, the country as a whole. Middle 70's anagst. The sense of community extends to this day. It isn't too much of a strain to say that I became a socially aware person through the auspices of KFAT. It is sorely missed, and, thank God for its direct progeny.
Piggies, take heart, we ARE the cresting tide....
John Wagner, Soquel
From: Fraser L. Rachel
Date: Nov. 26, 1999
What a nice suprise, the FAT/PIG relationship. Still got an old FAT T-shirt. I listened to KFAT during it's complete run on the air. Have since moved and ended up in NJ. I found KPIG and thought the formatt was very similar to the FAT sound. Enjoy ya'll very much. Listenin' to ya'll in NJ...
Later, Chip (fjrachel@skyweb.net)
From: Michael Pellegrini
Date: Nov. 26, 1999
KFAT has got to be my all-time favorite radio station. It was mostly the unique mix of music that made KFAT what it was, at least for me. In the same half hour, you might hear Hawaiian cowboy music, Led Zeppelin, Hank Williams Sr., Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, John Prine, and Norton Buffalo. Helluva weird mix. Never boring. Completely unpredictable. Best damn radio station ever made.
In the late seventies, I worked for Flux Recording Studio in Santa Cruz, and through that, I got to know Bob Cassidy, AKA Buffalo Bob, one of the DJs. Bob once arranged an on-the-air interview for a band I managed, Stir Crazy. When we showed up at the station for the interview, I thought we were at the wrong place. To this day, my main, lingering impression of the KFAT studio was that it looked like it had been trashed. But as it turned out, trashed or not, it was the right place. We did the interview, played some of the band's music and plugged their record, and talked on the air with Bob. It was a helluva lot of fun.
By the time KFAT folded, I was living up in the city, so I missed the sad end. I'm extremely happy to see the Fat One reborn in the form of KPIG - and grateful to find it available over the web. Makes me all nostalgic, wishing I was still living in the area, hanging out getting blasted at the Lompico Club, or maybe at Club Zayante, listening to Jill Croston back when she was still singing the blues...
What the hell ever happened to William Strickland?
Mike Pellegrini
Will Sticklund is alive & well. He's the one who sings "I got a Hog Call for ya baby" & several other station IDs & stuff. He's also the guy who sings about "Ludy, Jim Ludy" - the longest-running commercial in local radio history - on the Pig airwaves continuosly since 1991!
-oink, wb
From: Todd Elder
Date: Nov. 22, 1999
To me KFAT meant a good time, a change from the ordinary, a break from the monotony. It was fun listening that kept my attention and could make a day or night at work fly by. Thanks to "all who were KFAT" and thanks to "all who are KPIG" for carrying on the tradition. I once found an ad for a cassette tape of KFAT air time and bought it through the mail, it was great!! Unfortunately I loaned it to some yahoo and he moved to some far away land without giving it back!! Damn. One more thing, back in the day, nothing made my 4X4 more classy than that KFAT sticker!!
Later,
Todd in Hollister
From: Mike Brown
Date: Nov. 22, 1999
I experienced the last 4 years of KFAT as a newbie to "alternative" or "acid" country and related music. I used to go down to the Gilroy Hotel for dinner and drinks and spent more than a couple of evenings hanging out with the DJ on duty swilling magaritas (including one night with my mom). I also loved the fatfries at Sams in South San Jose and later on at the Saddle Rack. Fat Fries were sort of like the dead goes to Tulsa. I still even have my Le Club Fat card (that and $2.00 will get you a cup of coffee if you are lucky).
I also once heard a rumor that the morning DJ who used to play "indagardenofvida" (I think this is the spelling of the Iron Butterfly song) every morning did it because it was the only song in KFAT's collection that allowed him the time to empty his bladder and run to the liquor store down the street to pick a six pack. Any truth to this rumor?
As the demise of the KFAT became clear (a friend was an nurse to the dying owner who made KFAT possible despite being constantly in the red), my affection to the station became more emphatic. I made tapes and more visits to the Gilroy Hotel, cumulating when a friend and I picked up the infamous toilet used as primary furniture at the station. That was our entry (or maybe reverse door prize) to the going party held at the hotel.
Although I do miss have broadcast access to KFAT in the Bay Area, KPIG maintains the musical and attitude that KFAT brought to the air. I would be glad to help invest in a signal repeater on Mount Hamilton. Also, I spent a few evenings hanging out with Felton Pruitt at dead and Garcia shows as well as at the station. Any word on him?
We wish it was just a matter of money that kept us from being heard in the Bay Area. Believe me, if it were we'd be there already. Our efforts a few years back to get a repeater on the air were blocked by a couple of San Francisco stations, and the rules governing such things are incredibly complex. Not likely to ever happen.
Felton Pruit can be found at fatmusic.com. -oink,wb
From: Anonymous
Date: Nov. 16, 1999
I was stationed at Ft Ord in early 92 and I think I recall listening to KFAT in a early morning haze on my way to PT (Physical Torture) and during our daily duty hours (work). Those daily broadcasts left a memeroy in my mind similar to childrens' crayon scribble on the wall you can't wash off. Thanks KFAT !
From: Dave Jackson
Date: Nov. 9, 1999
I WAS BRIEFLY READING THRU THE ENTRIES, DIDN'T FIND A MENTION OF DEAR OL" GORDY... (THOUGH I DIDN"T GO THRU THEM ALL) SO, HERE GOES:
FOLKS, IF YOU LISTENED TO KFAT, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD"GORDY" OR GORDON BROSHEAR.. IF YOU DID, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. A LOT OF THOSE CRAZY COMMERCIALS WERE HIS FAULT..(PARODY SPOTS.. JUST PLAIN SILLINESS,REAL SPOTS THAT HAD A KILLER COMEDIC ELEMENT..ETC.) A LOT OF WARMTH AND GENERAL POSITIVE HUMANITY WAS HIS FAULT, TOO.. GORDY IS NO LONGER WITH US IN THE FLESH..BUT OF COURSE HE LIVES ON IN RADIO HEAVEN.. THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, GORDY!
LOVE, DAVE JACKSON
(FORMER "MIDNIGHT GUEST D.J." AT "OVERALL RADIO"...THE TRAILER AT SHERMAN"S..
KSCO C.E., KUSP ASSISTANT ENG... RADIO NUTCASE)
From: Galen Ed Miller
Date: Oct. 31, 1999
I used to love listening to KFAT during my night cruises between Gilroy and San Jose. It was the only radio station worth listening to. It actually played what I liked. Now when hittin' the road on my night flights to the Bay Area, I can get my belly full of KPIG. It's just as good, and just as tasty as a slab of Virginia ham, greasy fried eggs, and a pile of grits. MMMM, GOOD!!!
Since I live in Goleta, I'm glad I can listen to KPIG on the Internet. YAAAA HOOOO! Keep them tunes crankin'
From: Robert Ewing
Date: Oct. 31, 1999
wild bill....i never listened to KFAT while it was on the air, my only memory of it is a tape i have of a jerry garcia concert (from the saddle rack, san jose, 1983) which was broadcast on a KFAT "fat fry." i cherish that tape to this day. it was an awesome show, one that "today's radio" would not dream of playing. at least there is one station around (KPIG) that still has the balls to play what they feel. that you are still on the air is testament to the fact that people are listening. your signal, unfortunately, does not reach me in woodland, ca, but i can catch you on the net. keep up the great work.
Robert Ewing rewing@inreach.com
From: Andy
Date: Oct. 15, 1999
Everyone in living in Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park listened to "KFAT, THE FAT ONE (butter)" from the beginning til the end. Now all I have are very poor quality tapes. I need new tapes! Where can I get tapes of KFAT? I'll pay $!! Please send help to canoedude@hotmail.com Thanks.
From: Wade Hassler
Date Oct. 8, 1999
i rode the bus from Gilroy to San Jose State in the 1970's and one day a guy who just didn't seem to be on the right bus started riding it. i said something along the lines of "why the heck are you going to Gilroy, pardner?." He told me that his name was Gordie West and that he was working at a new radio station that was taking over KSND.
"Does that mean that Craig Simmons won't be playing Martha and the Vandelas followed by Loudon Wainright, followed by Richard Pryor, in his lonely late-night show?, " I asked.
Gordie said, "I hope everybody's that easy to please. We've got you covered."
And it was true.
From: Erica L. Klyver
Date: Oct. 8, 1999
I was very young when KFAT was broadcasting, I was eleven when you went off the air. My uncle used to record your shows quite often. When I moved to Colorado from the bay area in 1993, I would rummage through my uncles' music collection of tapes and albums. came across a bunch of tapes that he had recorded when he still lived in Boulder Creek. I listened to a lot of them and realized that most of what is out there today on the FM dial, with the exeption of public radio, is nothing but crap. People ask me if I like country music. I will ask them the same question and they say yes. I then ask them if the have ever heard Texas Cookin' and they have no idea what and who I am talking about. I wish that I was old enough then to have appreciated good radio. I honestly believe that I was born to late. I missed everything good.
take care
Erica
As far as being born too late & missing everything good - I dunno. This is a pretty exciting time to be young - you have an awful lot of choices in front of you that I didn't have at your age. As far as radio goes - I think that the plastic bullshit being shoveled out over the airwaves these days is just a phase. As people have more and more access to programming they can really connect with (via the net, satellites, etc.) they'll start to turn their backs on the over-the-air stations & they'll *have* to start getting more real in order to survive.
Hang in there
-wb
From: Greg Tyler
Date: Sept. 27, 1999
I still remember staying up to record the last three hours of KFAT broadcasting, drinking beers with a friend. We did this twice, of course. The first time, midnight rolled around, went by, and KFAT was still on the air! A big relief to a couple of FAT heads. The second time when midnight rolled around, there was a bunch of static or a bit and then this obnoxious voice came on the air to say something about the new station (was it KHIP ?) and then "Let's go !!!" The first song was "Another one bites the dust" by Queen. We threw empty beer cans at the stereo. How disgusting !! The nerve of those disco heads !!!
The next day, we called the new station in the afternoon and told the DJ, "Nothing personal, but you really SUCK !!!! and so does what you call music !!!!!" He told us that he was about to stop answering the phone for the day because every call was just like ours. A tiny bit of revenge.
But, I still have the original tapes of the First Last Three Hours of KFAT and the Real Last Three Hours of KFAT. I even made copies of the tapes so I wouldn't wear out the originals. It's still great music. Thank you, thank you, thank you for KPIG. Please don't go away.
Note: The KFAT staff all left at the end of the first "Last Night" - so we kinda think of that one as the "real" one.
The station that replaced KFAT was KWSS, which lasted until 1988(?), then became KUFX (K-Fox - now at 98.5) and is now KBAY. KHIP was a Hollister station that played KFAT-style music in 1984 & 1985.
oink -wb
From: Red Dog
Date: Sept. 15, 1999
In 1978 I moved to San Francisco from a small town outside of Nashville, TN. Having previously lived in Kentucky, I was deep into bluegrass music and I felt it was only a faint memory until one night late, after a doobie and a few brews I found KFAT on the radio. My salvation! I pulled out my mandolin and played along for hours! In 1983 I moved back to Texas (my home) and often remember listening to KFAT from my office in downtown SF. Years passed, got married, many jobs later while poking around on the Internet I discovered the PIG! My salvation revisited. Since that time I have been a faithful Internet listener. Thanks piggies!
Red Dog
Dallas, TX
From: Stacey Young
Date: Sept. 15, 1999
So glad to see you guys are carrying on the FAT tradition!!! It's been a long time and I guess we are all into a differant media these days! I was a fat head working at Grant Grove, Kings Canyon N.P. back in those magical days..ended up on alookout tower listening to you guys..A radio tech from the park service was also an avid fatty, he just whispered in my ear the other day...try www.kpig.com....the magical words! I still have my card...you will live on here in Three Rivers!!!
From: Sthardusti@aol.com Date: Sept. 9, 1999
Wow. KPIG here in Southern California, thanks to the wonder of modern electronics! Fat was my home for the years it was on the air and I dwelt in the bay area. It left a void that was hard to fill. I had to gather my own collection of lps and rarities (bought and sold a couple of times since then) to keep me company.
"Hey Boys", Cousin Al, Christa Taylor, Sister Tiny....Travis. God, the memories just keep coming back. I listen to the hours of transcripts I taped when I get melancholy at night down here.
KFAT was that fireplace and friends where I kept warm. Dallas and Amy, where are you now? Wow. Uncle Sherman. Who can ever replace you? I don't know. KPIG has a place in my hear as well. I was there when you folks went on the air. I spent two to three glorious months behind your microphone and turntables as well. Things happen and life moves on. Between Tiny at night and Christa in the morning my nights and early mornings were swell. Robin Banks...I guess you may still be there. Great stuff. Hawaiian Music and story telling ("Bovine Midwifery" ring a bell? How about, "Old Mutt"? )
Music - We introduced new wave country! Lyle Lovett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, K.D. Lang, Way Out West....Damn. I miss those days. I miss all you folks, too. Laura - you still hanging out around there? If so, thank you for all the great times and memories! God Bless You!
I'm stayin' stuck in the sty....wish I had away to pick you guys up without a 'puter. 400 miles is a long stretch of broadcast skip for nighttime winds. God bless all of you -
"Kaliko" Kym
From: Larry Hosford
Date: Sept. 1, 1999
Howdy-ho, Wild Bill:
When I peruse the virtual viscousness your listeners have sent in re: KFAT (RIP), I am impelled to pipe up with a few hundred dozen memories of my own -- but not compelled. I fear legal action. I mean, can I be arrested for crimes committed in concert with former Fatties? Or is there a FAT statute of limitations?
Well, there is one I can share. In 1979, in Nashville, I met John Lomax III, heir to the American folk music archivin' Lomax family dynasty. At the time he was running the library at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Very apropos. When he learned I was from Salinas/Santa Cruz he immediately mentioned KFAT. Quite inFATuated, he waxed enthusiastic, and did so thus:
"What a wonderful place to live and listen! KFAT is the best radio station in the world."
Could he have put it any better?
FAiThfully yours:
Larry Hosford
Ed. Note: Larry Hosford was one of the many local artists we happily supported at KFAT. You might remember his tunes "Salinas", "The King Takes The Queen", "Long Line to Chicago", "Homerun Willie", etc...
From: Erik Hormquist
Date: Aug. 15, 1999
I moved from Detoit to Santa Cruz in 1977, Tryin' to extend my adolesence as long as possible, Santa Cruz is full of people like me. I soon found KFAT, the last bastion of free form radio that hadn't forgotten that radio was for entertaining , not selling cars and furniture. I will always remember an old blues tune you guys played about the pleasures of eating chicken. I haven't heard it in years, you guys still play it on KPIG? If not you should.
From: Kevjultay@aol.com
Date: Aug. 11, 1999
I started listening to KFAT back in 1976. I believe Sister Tiny, Gordy, of course Laura Ellen, Travis, and a slough of others I can't recall were staffing the station. One of my fondest memories was a visit to the station in Gilroy in the summer of '77. My cousin applied for work as a DJ, so while we were there had a chance to walk around. On one of the walls sprayed with an aerosol can read, "WHO THE HELL STOLE MY SCREWDRIVER." I'm presuming that's how it got on the sticker. Anyway, my cousin never got hired by KFAT(eventually KSJO). I'm still a dedicated fan and love you guys!!
From: Dave Borcher
Date: Aug. 11, 1999
I first discovered KFAT in 1977, thanks to my barracks roommate Dwight. We were stationed at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and we had found KLRB in Carmel within a couple of hours after reporting for duty in November 1976 and setting up Dwight's stereo in the room.
Dwight found KFAT a few days after that but never got around to mentioning it to me. I finally came in one day and heard Chuck Wagon and the Wheels, followed by a commentary by Travus T. Hipp. "What in the hell is THAT?" I asked him - and I was a convert.
I don't think I listened to any other station until they went off the air. I went to a couple dozen Fat Frys, first in Santa Cruz, then in San Jose after I left the employ of Uncle Sam.
I got a wild hair and drove to Gilroy on the 'last' New Year's Eve of KFAT, after they knew that the station was going to cease to exist as we knew it. I brought a case of Anchor Steam Beer with me, and sat in what amounted to a newsroom with a dozen or so other FatHeads and any of the FAT DJ's who happened to be in the vicinity...Happy New Year.
It so happened Chuck Wagon etc. and some dam good bluegrass groups showed up at the studio later that night. It turned out to be a Happy New Year after all. Another friend taped most of that evening's broadcast, and made me copies after he found out I had been there. I still have them.
Dave Borcher
Tucson AZ
From: Joel Rubenstein
Date: June 3, 1999
my wife and i have just discovered kpig on the net and are in hog heaven. i lived in boulder creek in another life (1977) and always loved kfat. in 1980 i drove from austin to santa cruz and when i got within range i tuned in kfat. the first song i heard had the lyrics, "just give me sunny california and stick texas in your ear." i was sure they were playing that song for me, alone. the problem is i've never heard it again and i don't know the name of the song or the band. if you've got any idea what it is, e-me please. now, i think i'll just kick back and pig out.
From: Mike Philben
Date: June 3, 1999
Jeez, I don't know where to start... OK, its ratings week and we want to buy your vote -- send a stamped self addressed envelope and we'll send you a check for $0.25. I remember stopping by once and running into Charlie Daniels -- big hat and all. Up over the feed store. I've still got tapes -- bad vinyl over the air recorded on a cheap deck. I'm remastering the best -- but really time consuming.
Love,
Mike Philben
From: Charles Colerich
Date: May 17, 1999
I moved to the Bay Area from New Mexico in 1980. For the next 3 years KFAT Radio made life enjoyable as I drove all over the Silicon Gultch. The KFAT song mix took what we referred to as "Red Neck Rock" a few wonderful steps further than the stations back in the Land of Enchantment. I have many fond memories of that era ( both KFAT and New Mexico ).
Unfortunately I can't get KPIG where I live in the East Bay. But I just discovered that I can get it on the Internet! Oh happy day!
Chasman
From: CHRaines@prodidgy.net
Date: May 13, 1999
A few days ago I found KPIG through WebRadio.com. I listened to it for a while and thought,man, this reminds me a lot of KFAT. And tonight I started exploring your site and found that you are the successor. I loved KFAT! While I was in the Army, I was stationed at Ft. Ord IN 74-75 and later was at the Oakland Enlistment Station 79-83. KFAT was absolutely the most unique radio station in the world. I especially remember listening most of Sunday afternoons and evening and hearing all kinds of music that you simply could not listen to anywhere else. And I did have a KFAT t-shirt (long gone). Glad I found you. Now if I could just locate a station on the net that carried the Fat Music Radio Network, I would be in hog heaven.
From: Van Ellison
Date: May 12, 1999
When I heard KFAT was going off the air I bought ten 90 minute cassettes and taped all 900 minutes of FAT music and such. Still got 'em, still listen to 'em. Soon I'll get them onto CD, maybe.
My old (now) '83 chevy pickup had a KFAT decal on the back window. I just lost that window and I NEED A NEW DECAL! HELP, where can I get one. If I could listen to KPIG here, I most certainly would.
Ever hear DOO-DOO-WAH?, they have a song 'KFAT FAMILY RE-UNION'.
Still listening,
thanks,
Van Ellison
From: Johnathan Meyers
Date: May 10, 1999
Wild Bill:
I am Jonathan Meyers, Harvey Levin's (Former Owner of KFAT) nephew...
It's great to see that KFAT continues to live on the internet and in the
sounds of KPIG-FM.
When Harvey died in 1978, the proceeds of the sale of KFAT went to establish
the Harvey B Levin Charitable Foundation. The foundation continues Harvey's
progressive agenda and has funded a wide range of programs ranging from
helping inner city school kids in Chicago (Harvey's Home Town), to the
Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, to local public radio in Chicago and
Washington DC. Additionally, the foundation has given large grants to the
World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy.
Current funding includes sponsorship of a new film on accidental nuclear war being produced with Kartemquin Films, the maker of Hoop Dreams. On the radio front, we have funded "This American Life" series on NPR and are hoping to expand our radio presence in the next few years.
I was only 16 when my Uncle passed away, but KFAT lives on not only on the internet. but indirectly in helping thousands via the Foundation.
Best of luck and keep up the good work,
Jonathan Meyers
Harvey B Levin Charitable Foundation
From: Pat Flynn
Date: April 24, 1999
.....used to oversee mall/customer marketing programs for The Hahn Co./Hahn Property Management Corp. in the 70's. Among them were Oakridge Mall/San Jose, Birdcage Walk/Sacramento, Vintage Faire/Modesto, Sunnyvale Town Center/Sunnyvale and Santa Maria Town Center/Santa Maria.
I soon found any number of reasons to drive (instead of fly) from the corporate office in San Diego to all those
places via Highways 1 and 101. In no particular order, the four most important of those reasons were:
1) Listening to KFAT REAL LOUD with all the car windows down
2) Lonnnnnng lunches on the patio at Nepenthe
3) Having a bitchin' job that allowed me to travel around like that
and 4) Mixing all that good scenery with gobs of KFAT wherever the signal could get through.
(Still have a KFAT shirt, but can't wear it anymore or it'll self-destruct in the laundry.)
From: Bill Criss
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999
I am a trucker and former muscian from Tn. At two different periods [ mid 70"s & 80"s ] I lived in northern California in the Plumas co. Quincy area. At the later time was a drummer in the Sloop Rickett band, based in Quincy and Chico. During that time, the band was heavily influenced by the musical format of the KFAT Station. There was no other station like it in that area and I am delighted to see that its tradition of Roots Music is being carried on, by the KPIG people. I became aware of your existance through correspodence with none other than Mr Rickett (Bill Mohler) and Mr Sloop (Steve Soots), who still live in the area. I had three wonderful years with them, and fourth member Jeff Pershing, playing the kind of music that ya'll inspired. I haven't found anything like KFAT here in Tennessee (Go figure). So you have definently been missed. Keep it alive.......Bill Criss (Buck) in Tennessee.....
From: Mike Phelps
Date: Jan 27, 1999
As a long time listener of the Doctor Demento show I missed the off beat music during the week. KFAT and now KPIG fill in that void. When ever I needed a touch of insanity in a Politicaly Correct world the Fat would do the job. Now that I have moved from the Monterey area I can get the PIG on the net. It sure brings back a lot of fond memeries. A big thumbs up from Yucca Valley Ca.
From: Robin Peterson
Date: Jan. 18, 1999
This is wonderful! I am in living in New Mexico now and it's great to hear the music again. I listened to KFAT soon after the station started up. I still listen to the tapes recorded when the station was going off air. I just purchased a webtv which brings the internet and email to the TV for those of us without a computer. Sony puts this out.
Thanks for the music.
Robin
Los Alamos, NM
From: Gene Ervin
Date: Jan 8, 1999
HOWDY WILD BILL.
MY KFAT MEMORIES ENTAIL BEING THERE IN AUGUST OF 1975 ALONG WITH A
FELLOW CALLED DADDY LEE. I WAS INVOLVED IN WORKING THE BOARD FOR HIM AS
HE HAD NO CONCEPT OF WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. I HAD FIRST CLASS FROM KRLA IN
LA . I CAME UP HERE WITH BILL STRICKLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN '73 TO
VISIT JILL CROSTON IN BOULDER CREEK AND DECIDED TO STAY AND GOT A JOB
TENDING BAR AT THE NOW DEFUNCT CLUB ZAYANTE. I WAS THERE FOR 5 YEARS.
THAT ONE DAY THAT I WORKED FOR KFAT IS STILL IN MY MIND...DADDY FIRED ME
AFTER I CUT HIM OFF THE AIR TO PLAY SOME DYLAN. THE CABOOSCA KID (LARRY
YURDIN?) GAVE ME THE MOST EVIL LOOK I HAD EVER EXPERIENCED FOR THAT
TRYST AND DAMNED ME FOR COMING TO A SMALL STATION FROM THE LIKES OF KRLA
AND TRYING TO PUT ON AIRS.....OH WELL. FELTON PRUITT CAN BACK ME UP ON
MY EXTREEEEMLY SHORT STAY. WHERE IS STRICKLAND?
I'M NOW A COLLEGE PROCTOR HERE AT UCSC'S PORTER COLLEGE. TALK AT YA AGIN
SOMETAHHM PARDNER. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AT THE STATION!!!!
SORRY FOR RAMBLIN' ON...WHO DO I THINK I AM? JACK ELLIOT?
Gene Ervin ....geneervin@hotmail.com
From: Michael D. Jacquard
Date: Jan. 2, 1999
OK, stationed at Planet Ord from '74-'76, and dazed well into '77 before realizing I wasn't in the army anymore and could go home, I left Monterey with a serious monkey on my back. Addicted to KFAT, KLRB, KZSC, and KOME, I have spent the last 22 years trying to kick but no luck. So, I spend my time in search of that next fix, that ellusive high one can only get from the perfect mix. I've traveled all across the US and throughout the rest of the world looking for that one radio station that can give me what I crave. Now I have KPIG. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Now I just gotta find me an omelette like the Fat Cat.
From: rott1@eskimo.com
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998
After just installing some new software, I happened to find KPIG on my computer. I grew up in San Jose and was a regular listener of KFAT and KLRB until I left to spend a few years overseas with Uncle Sam. Somehow I never made it back. Since then no has invited me to "sit down and pork out". Just hearing KPIG brought back a flood of memories of a rather joyous youth spent at concerts in San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz and more than a few nights getting semi oblivious at Bobby McGees in Gilroy. In fact I recall the place getting shut down more than once for letting us "minors" in for the bands there. I still have all my garlic sent to me from Gilroy. Listening tonight was a treat.
Thanks
Mitch Ruth.
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998
From: Gregory Camp (shrinkers@pol.net)
Back in the mid 70's I was in heartbreak hotel... I had a lot to learn and didn't realize that pain is a teacher. I'd get stoned up in Bonny Doon (they had some great senso up there), put on KFAT. At first I just wanted to drown my sorrows in rock and roll, but KFAT had all these neat folks with sardonic, humorous, plaintive, and yes, wise things to say about the romantic wars. I found out I had a lot to learn, a lot of growing to do (Jerry Jeff singing Willie's "Thoughts" comes to mind).
What I had thought was love wasn't, and I was a self-centered SOB who needed to grow up. I learned I didn't need to find the right person, I needed to become the right person. All this from the lyrics and my subsequent painful reflections. Well, the humor sure softened the pain and made possible the reflections. In time I began to help others in Heartbreak Hotel, bought two big Teac 4 tracks, a mixer, etc, and when I went off to work, the tapes collected 6-8 hours of KFAT for me. I edited them down to the lessons I'd learned and still teach to this day. The tapes are off in boxes somewhere (hey Tom Dundee, you in there!?) but the music, the lyrics and the lessons are still in my head and heart and part of my daily life.
I'm 61 now, a shrink with a wise heart over here in NC, Dr. Heartbreak. KPIG is on in my office all day. Just yesterday a 30 year old heartbroke local DJ came into my office, sat down and broke into tears.. his lover split two months ago. I smiled, said "Son, this is indeed your lucky day. Ol' Pain has done you a favor and brought you to just the right place!" We spent some time laughing at the shattered illusions of love, then I reached over and turned up KPIG. The boy was startled by he heard from me, and what he began hearing from KPIG. He left with a smile on his face. I think his music selections are about to change, expand. So the beat goes on. KFAT's gone, the music lives, and KPIG has the spirit. Oinks forever!
Bonny Doon Greg in Wilmington, NC.
From: theslug@webtv.net (Trish Galyean)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998
KFAT meant the only friend i knew as a junkie. 28 years clean. Now I can really enjoy kpig. keep on truckin.
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998
From: Trace Rankin (crankinrankin@yahoo.com)
Howdy,
I wasn't lucky enough to be familiar with KFAT,but I have become
a KPIG slave.I am 42,and grew up in Sacto.,in the late 60's-early 70's
(my formative jr. high and high school years),listening to KZAP when
it was a free-form format.Ah, those were the days;Firesign Theatre,
Cold Blood,Elvin Bishop, etc.Rock, Jazz,Country,Early Progressive
Country, sorry I digress.I still swear those D.J.s knew I was on acid
after a concert,when they would play Firesign Theatre to screw with my
head. I didn't know thirty years later I was going to be force fed
that "Classic Rock". We used to have a great progressive country
station in Davis, KYLO-Yer armadillo on the radio dial.They were
bought out by christian radio.Probably trying to save my soul.
With lousy stations around here,I drifted aimlessly to sports talk radio,talk radio,and occasionally a visit to an AOR station,for minimal music satisfaction.Then a couple years ago I was working on a job site in Scott's Valley,and asked an electrician on the job if there were any decent radio stations around."The Pig is the only radio around here" was his reply.My musical soul was revived,and brought out of talk and central valley radio purgatory.I started buying music again.I soon realized I couldn't afford all the music on the Pig that I wanted to buy.Since then,I get to go to a job site in Watsonville every couple weeks to feed my Pig habit.I keep a music list in my wallet,so I can stop by Music Madness,and pig up some Pig music.Got all the t-shirts,but I can't find those darn refrigerator magnets Ramblin Ror mentioned.(ha,ha).
Got me a computer and had it rigged up so I can listen to the Pig up here in Jackson Ca.There's a gal over in Mountain Home,who has a music catalog business,"Frontier Tapes and CD's", I think.I get some stuff there ocassionally, but I guess she used to be a DJ at KFAT.Forgot her name.
Gotta stop this rambling.Do you,or anybody recall an amusing little song called "I-95 Asshole Blues"?It kinda went (excuse me now), "fuckin' jerk,pissed me off; well I don't give a fuck,so I jumped in my truck,and I'm off to the rodeo". If anybody knows who it is and if it can be aquired, it would be greatly appreciated.
Going to see Robert Earl Keen at the Nugget in Sparks on Dec. 12th, YEEHAAWW. I'll shut up for now,thanks fer listenin'. Sorry about bein' longwinded.
Trace Rankin
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998
From: t.russell@manatech.com (Tracy Russell)
Jill Croston (Lacy J. Dalton to some) telling us we could use our Le Club Fat cards to pick our teeth (she was right!!!)- always stimulating, never mundane... the poignant love ballad " Four Wet Pigs" which has served as a lullaby in my household for the last 3 1/2 years or so...Larry Hosford rhapsodizing about bein' out in the Santa Cruz Bay... countless musical turn-ons, memories and NOT THIS RECORD! NOT THIS RECORD! SCREEEEEEEEEE
I guess the culmination of it all occurred 4 years or so ago in Hotlanta when my then-pregnant wife and I went to hear Jerry Jeff. The main Gonzo compadre rubbed my wife's belly and gave the babe a blessing. Today that boy is healthy and way above average and you just never can predict how far Cholesterol exposure at an impressionable age can take one!
If you find it in your hearts to let me know of any Fat recordings or CD's I will be eternally grateful...
- From way out TEXAS way (if everything's so big here, where are the damn redwoods???)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998
From: Buck Cullen (jcullen@hotcoco.infi.net)
I was just a lad of 22 when I stumbled upon KFAT up here in El Cerrito, CA. I could tune it in just right and at first it started out as a curiosity/ lark. But after the others would leave, I couldn't pull myself away from that damn 94.5. What it did for me was very clear.
#1. It truely introduced me to Bluegrass and other alternative music types.
#2. It also made me very cynical with regards to the way bay area radio stations operate. I was stunned and then pissed, and then ready to make any kind of deal with the devil on order to bring it back. But for some reason, Disco kicked the Fat Mans ass and .... you know the rest. Thanks for being on the internet. Love it.
Joe Buck Cullen
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998
From: "Debra Krol" (Debra.Krol@gte.net)
Howdy from Phoenix. I'm a Silicon Ghetto refugee who foolishly thought that Arizona would be better than San Jose (although I did meet my wonderful husband here, who shares my rather eclectic musical taste!) I'm now in my second life, as a molecular biology major at Arizona State University.
I was a long-time KFAT listener. I even joined up with the Garlic Gals to swing to the sweet tunes at the Monday Night FatFry (boy, was I drug out at work the next day!) Norton Buffalo, Van Morrison, Asleep at the Wheel, Greg Kahn, etc....I saw them all and many more who I can't recall at the moment.
I played "Disco Sucks" and "Red Hot Women and Ice Cold Beer" (I finally found Chuck Wagon and the Wheels albums at a record store in Phoenix) for my hubby, as well as other KFAT tapes I had so he could hear for himself.
One of my favorite memories is the night that the Asleep at the Wheel bus almost ran me over in front of the Keystone! (I guess their name really does fit them)
Last month, my honey and I were in town doing research for a book I'm writing about the Indians (my people) down in Southern Monterey County. I was telling hubby about the great station I used to listen to in Gilroy, when he tuned in KPIG. "What is that?" I exclaimed. We listened for awhile--it was KFAT reincarnated!
God but it's good to hear my music again!!! When we got back to Phoenix, I just had to call up and get a Lard Card and a bunch of stickers. I gave one to one of my professors at ASU who just moved here from Santa Cruz, and told her about listening over the Net (which we are doing this very moment, by the way--just got a computer capable of doing it!)
Keep it up folks, hopefully when my husband and I are in the nursing home together, we'll make the nurses tune the radio to KPIG and drive them crazy.
Debbie Krol
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998
From: Real Name (user@igc.org)
I was born and raised in Salinas. My friends and I got to be teenagers in the '70s -- we grew up with KFAT and KLRB. That and Catholic school made us what we are today. It made Salinas bearable, if you get my drift. We used to stay up late, or set our alarms to wake up, so we could hear Uncle Sherman. Fortunately, the parents were heavy sleepers. Also fortunately, you could get to the Pacific Garden Mall and Recycled Records in Monterey on local buses, so we could get the records if we couldn't tape. The Fat Cat restaurant over in PG had KFAT on all day.
The '80's mainly stank because we lost these two radio stations. I was away at university when KFAT went off the air -- my mom told me you had a wake and got wasted and talked about how the white plastic shoes and polyester leisure suits from southern California sold the station down the river. Now I'm up in the Bay Area, where their idea of "eclectic" radio is a couple of hours of relatively uninspired stuff squished off in a corner someplace. Thank god for KPIG -- normal radio, the rest is crap. I go down to the wharf in Santa Cruz once a month or so and tape about 7 hours of it. The web is fine and all that, but its much better to get it off the air.
I'm aiming to move to Pescadero -- I can get to my job in SF from there, and you can pick up the Pig when you're at a few places there where the road bends the right way. If there's any way to get that stuff out on CD, please do it.
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998
From: "Brad Clark" (bclark.id@regence.com)
It was the Summer of '80, and I was doing my Naval Reserve time in SF (Treasure Island and Skaggs Island to be exact). A buddy of mine from my previous duty station (Puerto Rico, where I lost a neat woman because she turned into a Sex Shrew and I couldn't dig her vibes - but apparently everyone else could and did, and, oh by the way, damn near intercoursing got killed in a terrorist ambush - on a Monday morning!! How gauche!! A bullet in the liver can screw up your whole day...) had kept in touch and he said, Dude, come on down to the DLI in Monterey, we party for the weekend, we go to Kalissa's, we order bad pizza, we listen to this COOOOOOL radio station, and we drink a lot of beer.
OK, I'm for it, having spent some time trying to readjust to Snivilian life and an ex-wife (that SOMEHOW manages to end up doing my discharge paperwork... IN PORTLAND!!) in the Hose, er ROSE City. Naval Idiocy is taking its toll, put the top down on the off-white whale (1969 Olds Delta 88 convertible with a pair of Bose 301s in the back seat for LOUD tune-age), mangle thru 280/101 to Monterey. I get there to his place, a cold beer is placed into my hand, a 'friend of a friend' (red hair, green eyes, and great...... tracts of land) is somehow mystically beginning to attach herself, and there is this SONG coming out of the radio... a song that I haven't heard for a LONG time by Roy Acuff (I have the 78 now), then some other SONGS like I have never HEARD of before.... I almost pi** off my companion because I don't want to talk, I'd miss this stuff! But she understood, because she, like my Bud-to-the-death (HI SKIPPER!!) and his wife (later ex-wife) and all the house had the KFAT Clue. It was Heaven. It was a bright spot in a very dark period in my life. Thanks to you FAT-dudes for helping save a soul.
Ah yes, the memories.. I still have 2 reel-to-reel tapes of a KFAT Reunion on KFJC that I treasure HIGHLY. I have made some cassettes and sent them to spooks and ex-spooks around the globe (and will gladly send the 4 cassettes to the first Fatboy in Space) along with other friends I value highly (needless to say my DIsco-loving ex-wife does not get a copy). Hell, if I ever get a hard drive that's big enough, I want to save it all to one big .mp3 file and put that on a CD-R...
Sigh... you know, I didn't remember the red-head until I reminisced about my loss of FAT virginity. But I'll always remember the Roy Acuff and the LC Doughboys and the U Utah Phillips and the Constipation Blues and the Austin Lounge Lizards and the and the and the and the.....
I used to live in the Bay Area (remember our chats on ba.radio??), but have moved to Idaho and listen to KPIG on the I'net feed at home. I even put it up on my little Part 15 LPFM transmitter so I can hear the Hog Calls and such when I am out working on the car or in the yard or on El Throno Porcelino.
FATfully yours,
Brad Clark
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998
From: Ross Brunetti (rossb@lightspeed.net)
Back when, I couldn't hear KFAT from home (near Sacramento), but always had it on the radio when working down near Tracy and environs. The one thing that really stuck in my head all this time was a station ID: " A cowboy without KFAT is like a fish without a bicycle." Now, I live in Santa Maria; the only station worth a crap in the area is KOTR in Los Osos. Good, but not the same.
Well, my sister got hold of one of the KFAT CD's that KVMR was giving awat during a recent fund raiser, and gave it to me for my birthday. Right now, I'm hearing "Give me a bottle 'a Nyquil, that restful sleep my body needs." I shall never ever be able to repay her.
Ross Brunetti
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998
From: Derek Skeavington (derek@screwfix.com)
I've just come across this reference to KFAT - I can't believe I've found you! And others who remember as well.
For what it's worth here are my memories. Back in '80 I came from my home here in the UK to the west coast on holiday. Now you US types ought to know that UK radio was, is and probably always will be the absolute pits. We don't have many stations and those that do exist are controlled either by the ultra-conservative BBC or are bland commercial 'pop' stations.
So the first morning, jet-lagged, we wake up at a friend's house outside SF. I tune around the dial and.....Woody Guthrie is on the radio! One of my all-time heroes, being played at, what was it, 5am? 'Course it was FAT radio. Nuthing like this had ever been heard in England, the closest being the pirate radio stations of the '60s (but that's another story.)
After wandering around the west for 3 weeks we came back into FAT range. I just had to get to Gilroy and see this thing for real. Now radio, UK style, was untouchable - you certainly couldn't walk in off the street, up the stairs and meet the sole occupant face to face. You did when it was KFAT! Needless to say the DJ was fascinated that a couple of guys from the other side of the world had discovered the station. A memory - I could hear a record was nearing the end and there wasn't another disc cued up....into the run out groove it went...click...click...click... then the jock casually grabbed a record off the shelf and put it on air. Cool or what. You'd get locked in the Tower if you did that on a Brit station (still would, in fact.)
I managed to tape an hour or so of the station, tapes I play to this day. Why the hell didn't I do a stack more? Why didn't I get the T-shirt, the stickers? Who knows...
I thought that was it for ever, till today, so it's great to know other folks found it as joyful as I did and that some of the crew are still on air. It's brought some memories back, I can tell you. Somebody should write the real story of FAT radio sometime for all us far aways. And get a load of tapes issued (has anybody done this? It's impossible to know 5,000 miles away!)
Now how the hell do I get this computer thing to reach out into the cybersty??
Best wishes to all of you.
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998
Fat Memories (the good ones):
Warnings of impending doom probably cost me 5 casettes a week, and I
still can't find 'em.
It introduced me to the infamous Cuzin' Al and to the local bluegrass
scene, which has had a much more profound effect on my life than a bunch
a banjers oughta.
It was an immediate qualifier when I met new people. Either they were
Fatheads or I had to speak more carefully.
Its demise (okay, "transformation ride") caused me to swear never to
listen to a station at 94.5 on any area radio.
Oh yeah, and then there was the music. Riders in the Sky, Tony Rice,
Guy Clark, Light Crust Doughboys; just the few that pop into my mind.
My, my, memory lane.
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998
KTAO/KFAT Memories
I lived behind Geoffery Lansdown/man (time erases parts of names)in the
early 70's in Los Gatos. (it's Lansman - ed.) KTAO was a forerunner (foreskin) of KFAT. One
day in strolling down the alley I spied a garage full of records and saw
the beginning of the vinyl hall of fame.
Several years later, I called up the "Ozone Ranger" and talked about my
collection of old 78's that included Spike Jones, the Jordanaires, Fats
Waller, etc.... "Sure come on down, we'll tape em" was the response.
So my buddy and I drove down from high in the Santa Cruz Mountains with
our stash of records. Climbing the stairs to the KFAT haven/heaven lead
us to "almost instant bust city" There was a pretty full blown party
going on in the booth, with assorted characters in and out with various
forms of recreational refreshments. Mr. O Ranger was the perfect host
and included us in the festivities. We spent several hours taping the
records and then tried to find our way home. We left several records
there and I guess they're our donation to KFAT/HIP/PIG history.
My other favorite memory is Gordy in the morning. One morning I rode
the bus to work with him and spent part of the day at Fat and never made
it to my job.
Happy trails
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998
KFAT was the most wonderful radio station ever! I have felt so lost
without that wonderful sound. Only when I go over the "Hill" do I
get to sometimes tune in to KPIG. God Bless KPIG.....I only wish we
could get it here in the South Bay.....namely Cupertino!
Donna Gomes Austin
Date: Tue, 19 May 1998
I cant believe my ears! Im listening to KPIG and remembering how KFAT
brought me through my wonder years. I just read all the other peoples
memories of KFAT and all I can say is DITTO! Ice cold beer and KFAT
music i tell you friend you cant go wrong.If anybody knows where i could
get KFAT memorabilia (tshirts bumper stickers and the like) please let
me know. mechmike@bellatlantic.net . I lived in salinas from 76 to 81.
boy ive missed KFAT. Im a little closer to heaven now that i dicovered
KPIG. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it in my truck.
Mike Sammons
p.s. I also have fat memories on cassete Jerry Jeff Live at the Keystone
in Palo Alto. And a few other odd segments.
From: sscangas@hrmp.com
here is a strange but true kfat saga that is still
unfolding....i left s'cruz and kfat to try my luck in new england[that's
another story] ...that was 1980 and i am still here. in the following
years,i met two other expatriate/fatheads. the first shared some great
tapes[4 wet pigs,dildo repair shop,etc.]. the second is where this
tale turns interesting.
i landed a gig in beverly,ma. and recruited
afloating group of musicians to join me in a weekly session of ragged but
right roots music[rule#1- 3 chords are good,two is better, one is best].
needing a name for this wild bunch,i scanned the old gray matter and-you
guessed it- kfat was reborn! one evening a tequilla-guzzling patron
approached the bandstand and loudly demanded to meet whoever it was who
knew of gilroy's glory days. needless to say,we revelled in our shared
memories of the far-off,far-out culture of the homeland....
leap to
christmas '97. bill had heard thru the grapevine that i was between jobs
and that i was seeking a source of cash to support lovely wife,3 sons
and30-year house payments. december 24 he called to ask if i would like a
job at his communications company [not a silicone valley clone-bill is
still ragged-but-right...,]. i told him that i didn't know a mac from a
moose turd, but he hired me anyway. i still can barely tell a floppy disc
from a tortilla,and i consider a hard drive going from humbolt to oxnard
without a 6-pack of buckhorn beer, but i am starting to learn to pump
these infernal machines for info...which leads us to right
here....kfat/kpig- i can't wait to figure out how to bring those tunes to
these chilly,rocky eastern shores. please respond to bill and myself[kitt
cox] at kittcox@cove.com
From: WStroud647@aol.com
I lived in the Bay Area from 1980-86 and dearly loved KFAT. Any station that
can have Slim Pickens introduce a Dead Kennedys' song rates extremely high in
my book. I lived in Walnut Creek, so my reception wasn't too good. I dated
a girl that I didn't really like, but she lived in Millbrae and didn't mind
that I would come over just to listen to the radio.
When I couldn't get KFAT I had to settle for KFOG when it switched it's
format from elevator music.
From: Buffalo Chips
I was assigned to study the Russian language at the Defense Language
Institute (DLI) on the Presidio of Monterrey during the spring of 1980.
Having already done one assignment as a military intelligence analyst, &
volunteered to attend DLI and give the Army an extra year (all to escape
assignment to Okinawa), I thought I would be dealing with the typical
non-military uniform types I had come to expect. WRONG!!! Seems DLI
administration had recently been turned over to Ft.Ord Office Of
Administration.
Great! I was about to try & cram 4 years of college level Russian into
my brain in 50 weeks and now I had to deal with "regular Army clowns"
who were used to treating any lower in rank than themselves as raw
recruits, incapable of wiping their own noses without being told to.
Being the natural rebel that I was (and still am), my decidedly
unmilitary style clashed regularly with the administration.
My one saving grace was the discovery of KFAT radio. It was the clear
fav of the college educated students/soldiers of all enlisted ranks. I
have always suspected that several of the younger, junior officers
listened in as well.
The "regular Army" types concluded that any
students that listened to "that" station had to be involved with drugs
and/or communists and had to be monitored for "anti-military" ideas
which had to be quilched less they infect the mallable minds of the
young "trainees".
Any quesses where I stood in this pigeon-holing process? That's right! I
was labeled a rope smokin', pseudo-hippy, neo-commie, grade A,
troublemaker. Course my insistance on wearing my bike club's colors when
in civies didn't help matters any.
KFAT was my sanctury. My retreat from the heavy handed military "treads"
They played the sort of music that I wanted to hear. Not the top-40 clap
trap, nor the head banging proto-heavy metal. Rather, it was solid
blues, and progressive country with a wit and sarcastic grin that I
remember to this day. I don't remember what they were about but whenever
I run across an old army buddy that had also been through the DLI mill,
all it takes is the words "Fatgram!" to recognize a true brother.
I live in Austin, Texas now. I lived in Dallas for 13 years and got a
taste of the old KFAT style with the only real independant station in
that area, KNON. They have the tunes but alas, not the wit of KFAT. Here
in Austin, we have an honest-to-god Communist radio station, KOOP. But
it doesn't even have the tunes and has absolutely no sense of humor at
all.
Now I know about KPIG, I will look for them on the web. Maybe ya'll can
contact everyone that still has old recordings of KFAT & put together a
special show or something. KFAT memorabilia.
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 01:20:22 -0400 (EDT)
What can I say about KFAT, but that it saved my adolescent life.
As a young person growing up here in Santa Cruz through those terrible disco
70's, KFAT was THE radio station and I mean the ONLY radio station I could
listen to. My young years would have been very sad and colorless, heck, I
could have been driven to suicide if forced to listen to disco, but no~my
friend KFAT saved me from that fate.
KFAT was always there to share a joke
with some coke (hey-it was the 70's) with anyone listening. I laughed for
days the time KFat went off the air for about an hour because the DJ missed
their bus and there was no one there to push any buttons (I think the studio
was a trailer at the time) The whole saga of the sale and the commando style
rescue of KFAT's vinyl. I was so proud of all of you back then and was
rooting for all of ya.
I have to admit, it has been hard to get used to some of the new types of DJs
at KPIG that sometimes make their total ignorance about KFAT public, but I
have come to grow fond of KPIG - although it will always be KFAT to me
Thanks for a lifetime of music,
During late 1974 to 1976, my husband (then my boyfriend) and I lived in San
Jose working in Silicon Valley. We would listen to KFAT, probably one of
the most bizarre music stations that I have ever listened to and enjoyed.
In Feb. of 1976 we got married and soon after moved to Massachuetts. No
more KFAT! It was very depressing. In the meantime, our ex-housemate from
San Jose managed to send us a couple of 9 in reels of KFAT. Boy talk about
heaven...Eventually my husband managed to re-tape them onto cassettes.
Still have those somewhere.
In 1990, we had the opportunity to go to the Strawberry Music Festival. We
were living in San Diego, I had just had a baby (5 1/2 months) and was
desperate to get out of town. Not expecting that a music festival would be
the right place for kids, we didn't really expect to do more than come for
the day and hear some music and then leave. Well, that has 7 years ago and
now Strawberry is very much a part of our family heritage.
With Strawberry, you get Dallas Dobro. It was not surprising to find out
that Dallas was associated with KFAT. Through Strawberry, we have since
re-discovered the Americana music first introduced to us by KFAT.
Here I am at work, now in Santa Barbara (we get around), listening to KPIG
over the internet(FAT Fry). Ain't technology great! Good music, still as
crazy a mix as ever.
I am sure glad that we happened onto those Strawberry tickets or we won't
know that this kind of music is still around, alive and well.
Life is great!
Vickie McMillen
I discovered KFAT in 1978, shortly after moving to California. Larry Hosford!
Cousin Al! Dr. John! Chuck Wagon and the Wheels! I was hooked in minutes. I
listened constantly. I bored co-workers with KFAT tales. I attended Fat Frys.
I went to the First Gilroy Garlic Festival, hoping to meet Sully (failed).
I was devastated when they took my FAT away. I bought the parting T-shirt
(Because We Needed The Bucks) which still hangs proudly in my closet, if a
little moth-eaten. I bought all four of those tapes Cousin Al sold. Still have
'em, but I'm afraid to play 'em any more, afraid they'll fall apart. I changed
moods and listened to KLRS.
In 1990 I moved to Eugene, and was delighted to discover another KFAT. It
wasn't the same, of course (I now know it wasn't even related), but they did
have the Felton Pruitt show once a week, which wasn't bad. I went to the
studio one time, wearing my old FAT T-shirt. Eventually I moved away again,
this time to Boston, where I had to settle for Hillbilly At Harvard once a
week. (Also not bad, but not FAT).
Now as of two weeks ago I'm back in the East Bay. I saw a KPIG bumper sticker
floating around town, tried desperately to get 107.5 to come in (bombarded by
the new KSAN on 107.7, there was no chance), and finally got desperate and
called your office. You're on line! How great! Life continues where it left
off! My ISDN line is scheduled to be installed later this week. I can't wait.
-- Jim Dill, lifelong KFAT fan
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997
My first KFAT memory occurred on August 11, 1977 when I first
arrived in San Jose with the intent of attending SJSU. I had grown up in
San Diego County where in order to hear good music you had to go down to
the Tower Record store and order from the catalog using serial numbers
off the records. NOBODY came down there to play in those days.
As I was
tuning into a station for my alarm clock to wake me for my on-campus
job, I found a station playing Pete Rowen of all people. With great
interest, I heard John Stewart, Gram Parsons, Jerry Jeff Walker, a blues
guy I had never heard of before called George Thorogood ( who turned out
to be white when I saw him up at the Boarding House a few months later.)
I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
I worked at the University
Police station and tuned the Muzak system to KFAT which earned my threats
of termination by the command staff if I continued to do so. As a poor
undergrad, I couldn't miss with the dollar fat fries on Monday nights.
The next year, my girlfriend lived communally with a few other gals at a
large home, now a daycare center, off Hwy 17 in Scotts Valley. We spent
most of our summer lounging next to the pool listening to the Fat One
with tunes by Chuck Wagon, Mike Nesmit, John Hartford, The Dead, Norton
Buffalo, et al. Life was very good then.
Even as I returned to San
Diego to be a Deputy Sheriff, my radio was locked into KFAT and a sticker
adorned my car. The highlight of every trip north was to catch the first
signal as I returned to culture. One time it was Hoyt doing "Torpedo,"
another time, as I wound up Hwy 1 near Big Sur, I heard Jerry doing
"Althea" for the first time.
I'd hate to admit that my decision to work
in this area was heavily influenced by KFAT and the artists that were
attracted to play in this area. As the years passed and changes came, I
am gratful that that the staff were able to continue their style of music
on local public stations and eventually KPIG.
Now, I am preparing to
eacape California and its over-regulating buracracy to live in freedom in
the northern part of Nevada. Fortunately there are stations out there
that have been influenced by the FAT and have similar programming. Thank
you KFAT and all Fatheads for making a great life better.
Ofc. Steve Gallagher #2332
fr: scott (tesla@sonnet.com)
In 1975 I lived in a small house near Hilmar in Merced County.
{Oddly enough, I'd moved from Santa Cruz the year before.}
The place was quite rural and lots of coyotes would sing at night.
My connection to the outside world was an old Heathkit FM tuner that
had all of the dial lights burned out. Whenever I wanted to find ksan
(94.9) I would crank the tuning knob to the bottom of the dial, spin
around and try to find what sounded like their broadcast.
I did this one evening and left to go into town for something and didn't
get home until real late. When I got back, what was coming out of the
old Altec A7s was something like "Spell on you" by Howlin' Wolf and then
a tune with words [I hope this was it?] to the effect of "...my body's a
tremblin' 'cause Katie's gonna' climb my pole..." and then "...plastic
Jesus sittin' on the dashboard of my car // magnet's fuucked up my
raydeeo-o...".
This weren't no ksan; nosirree Babette.
Unbeknownst to me, I'd only made it to 94.5. Needless to say,
I never turned back, so to speak.
"High atop the optometrist's office in Gilroy" was the slogan.
The signal was of killer strength--hard to believe especially out
in the San Joaquin valley. Not sure how authentic they were but it
seems I remember 'Fat-Grams' boasting of reception from Wowona in
Yosemite and even from off the southern coast of Alaska once!
After its demise, KFAT {I guess you could say} resurfaced as
KHIP in Hollister for a while; can't remember the channel assignment
but this was about 1984. I'd moved to Turlock by then and a few months
after finding KHIP a new station in Twain Harte in the Sierras blasted
it from local reception.
If I remember correctly, at both stations the morning DJ was
'Gordy' and I spoke with him by phone once at KHIP. He was of the
opinion that the 'KFAT Method' evolved from Texas college radio.
Couldn't argue with him--this fit as well as anything I could imagine.
a.k.a tortilla ozone
[[By the way... knon, a non-com {~89.3 or so} in the Dallas/Fort Worth
area and 'Fat Sunday' on kcss {91.9} in Turlock are the only things
I've ever heard that come close to The Pig.]]
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996
Damn, ants are meandering all around the kitchen counter and, oh man, I just
noticed in the bathroom, too. I don't deserve this stuff. I keep a clean house, even
though I don't change the bedsheets all that often. (One of my regular bus passengers,
a woman about 40 yrs old, gave me a Christmas card today and part of it said, "Good to
see you on the bus today...All I want to do is bury my face in your neck and smell your
smell." Gosh darn! Validation!) Every time my wife looks at the inside of the toilet
bowl she says, "I'm gonna clean that goddamned thing every day if I have to," and then
goes off to do something else. I put on a CD of Diz 'n Bird and turn it up loud.
"Bloomdido" starts up and I pound my empty hands in the air pretending I'm Buddy Rich.
Such a sweet urgency those horns make.
In the haze of sweet mary jane and when I used to have a radio the KFAT radio
show was the only thing to which listening was anything of worth. Unfortunately, and I
knew this in retrospect, it couldn't last forever. It was too au courant, too distaff,
too nose-thumbing of the baneful commercialism that lies within every consumer and
stockholder on the central coast.
Sometimes I waited for hours to hear Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys sing
Wahoo. Sometimes I waited for hours doing nothing, pretending to stay sober, to read a
book, to marvel at the stars out my window, just so I could hear Bob Wills sing "just
gimmee those wiiiide open spaces..." kneeslapping and clickety-clacking his band and
music into the heartbeat that was my consciousness. There's never been a radio station
what ever played that music, man.
In 1980 I moved to Alaska with a pregnant-by-me woman. We bought a natural food
restaurant in Anchorage and our little girl (Cody Rose) crawled and then scampered
around and under the front tables. Just before I left Santa Cruz I'd taped a few hours
of KFAT on a cassette and brought it up to the Last Frontier. At the restaurant we
played it over the loudspeaker -- mood music, you dig -- along with some other stuff by
little-known Alaskan groups like Banish Misfortune (Midaeval music) and Doc Schultz &
Matt Hammer (solid folkie stuff). The Broadway cast of Ain't Misbehavin' found our
place when they were performing in town, heard the KFAT cassette and wanted to know
where they could purchase a copy. I don't remember whatall was on that hour's worth,
but it was, you know...typical stuff. Joe Reddington, the famous Alaskan dog musher,
liked it, too. We had a benefit for him one night. The joint jumped. The KFAT
cassette excited, moved, generated the crowds. We sold lots of beer. Everyone felt
magnanimous. Ah, sweet jesus, but it was a blessed moment for me and my family and the
entire community that night.
I began to feel jaded because it was, like, only KFAT to me. Then I remembered
the time-honored regret of, Hey paradise, put up a parking lot, and changed perspectives
to realize how sweet and for how short a time KFAT was in my life. It was a magic
moment, and will never disappear and will never reappear again.
But thanks, pal.
Post script: the KFAT tape was stolen out of my car after returning to Santa
Cruz and parking in such a dark place that breaking windows was a politically correct
thing to do. I continue to contemplate my navel in good faith.
Date sent: Mon, 07 Oct 1996
A little over a year ago, I made my 1st & only visit to the SF area.
Met up with a fellow named Fat Ron Taylor from Brisbane. He explained
that skinny Elvis was fat & fat Elvis wasn't. I caught on quickly.
I proudly display a KFAT sticker on the case of my '73 Ovation Legend
guitar, which is used exclusively for arcane folk & country tunes.
KFAT should've been located down here in the Miss'ippi Piney Woods,
where it would be a breath of fresh -er- FAT air amidst all the
MOR "country" music that gets played.
We have a great bluegrass festival coming up here in Wiggins, MS.
Don't know if the Osbourne Brothers will play, but it's always pure
cholesterol. I don't buy tix, since you can hear 'em all over town ;-)
Djeaux
Date sent: Thu, 05 Sep 1996
WildBill, is it really you?
I am still in total awe and amazement.
Yesterday, I was playing around on the 'net looking for old friends
when I entered KFAT into the "search" window wondering what ever did
happen to you guys. I couldn't believe my eyes as the screen developed.
A page dedicated to KFAT, this Can't be!?!.
As I read the letters to you, so many memories raced through my
head...
Wow, I don't know where to start, or what to say.
Let me start by saying that I'm in Augusta, Maine. I lived in the Bay
Area from '77 to '79, working out of San Mateo. As a Field Rep., I had
the opportunity to cover the
San Jose, Monterey Peninsula areas and was turned on to KFAT by a fellow
rep. (who now lives in Mass.).
Of all the things that I miss in Ca.,
listening to KFAT tops the list. Before I (we) left, I recorded about 6
hours of air time to use during radio blackout as we traversed Canada on
our way East. I cherished those tapes for the last 17 years.
Unfortuneately, we had a house fire back in January and they were lost.
Two years ago we went back to Ca. to show our boys what Ca. is like,
starting down in San Diego, then working our way up the coast. But I
couldn't wait to get to within radio range of Gilroy to listen to 95.5.
I was so disappointed that I couldn't pick up the station! We stopped
at a local gas station, (complete with bullet holes in the front glass),
to ask what the story was on KFAT, the guy said that the station had
gone "Bubble Gum" then "Top 40" then something else over the years.
My
vacation was ruined!! To travel all that way only to be shotdown, no
KFAT, how could this be? Too bad the guy didn't tell me about KPIG.
Over the years, here in New England, I've lamented the loss of KFAT so
much that I even considered trying to start a KFAT clone. Granted we
have WBCN out of Boston and another affiliate in Conway, NH - WMWV. But
I'm still out of range of them, I had even wished that, with electronics
being what they are, why can't I get KFAT over the Cable or a Satellite
Dish or that maybe someone out there had taped some air time. Of course
not knowing that the Internet was on the way and much to my suprise,
there you are.
The first thing I did was download Streamworks and taped into the
feed. Music to my ears to say the least. Thank You Internet!!
At any rate, I now have a way to get a 'FAT Fix while working on the
'net. I'm also hoping that some of the those out there that have some
taped air time will work with me to share copies of their tapes. But
wait till I spread the word that KPIG is on the 'net.
Here's all the best to you and the others at KPIG, keep the airwaves
alive.
- Your Maine FATHEAD
Date sent: Tue, 19 Mar 1996
Hello there...
I'm an old friend of Brother Mavis (KFAT DJ). He lived near
Watsonville and I in San Francisco where I drove a Yeller Cab. I
hated the music on KFAT with two exceptions: 1) the County 2) and the
Western. OK a little R&R;, blues and Jazz, too.
I have a dead station Radio Contest. Here's KFAT trivia question:
Who is "Elbows?"
First Winner gets a free ski pass to Potrero Hill in San Francisco.
Former employees of KFAT, whether alive or in prison or on parole,
cannot play...especially Laura. That's a hint.
Bbb daa, bb daa, bb dat's all folks!
Date sent: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 A note of interest, Eugene Hyman Esq., recently elected to the
Superior Court in Santa Clara County, was one of the attorneys
involved in the defense of the famous "KFAT five" case. His honor
still has KFAT momentos hanging on his chamber walls.
From: Curmudg@aol.com
I just enjoyed another FAT Christmas and New Year's thanks to about 45
cassettes I recorded in Nov., Dec. of 82. I get the tapes out each year and
start the countdown. By then (fall of 82), the writing was on the wall about
the eventual demise (anyone even remember KWSS?) so there were many
broadcasts of "Fat's Finest" hours which I was able to get on tape. The
amazing thing is that the tapes sound just as good now as then (perhaps
better) and I sometimes forget I'm listening to history.
During that time I lived in San Francisco, in the Richmond district and I
could get the signal very well, tho' stereo reception was noisy. I would
record at night and take the tape to work the next day. Saved my sanity many
times.
I remember a dj named "Hewlett" very early on and since I was in broadcasting
at the time (traffic reports) I was amazed that someone who sounded like him
could ever get on radio. But he was real, not some trained voice with no
personal involvement. What ever happened to him, anywat??
One final memory. herb Caen helped me sell a VW when he printed my
submission that I was selling an original KFAT bumpersticker for $1500. The
price included the VW to which it was attached. he ran the article and it
was amazing the response I got. So KFAT helped me in many ways and it feels
very good to be able to again express my appreciation for all the wonderful
memories you guys and gals gave.
Marv Parker (curmudg@aol.com)
From:JOHN S HARROD
Hey All......If you see this, Travus, I'm the Carmel Valley hippie
that called your Ormsby house radio show from Lake Tahoe.....I'm in
Morro Bay now, miss your show........
So, how do I miss thee, greasy spot on the dial, let me count the
ways !
Well, if you're gonna Ramble with Ramblin' Jack, you're gonna sing
songs about trucks........Jamie Brockett, singing a Ramblin' Jack
Elliot Truck Drivin' song......Just stopped by for to get a cup of
coffee......" Can drive three thousand miles without havin' ta change
my Merle Haggard tapes.... or GET FUEL that's an inside
trucker's joke. It's very illegal to carry as much fuel as those huge
long polished aluminum tanks the outlaw rigs carry......but they can
drive 3,000 miles without havin' ta get fuel........how about the
Goodnight Trail , the Loving Trail.......that's a Ramblin Jack song
I've only heard on FAT......I have looked for it forever........
Goodnight and Loving were early Texas cattlemen......what an
education it was, listening to the FAT one. I was a fan, fan HELL, I
was a militant CARD carrying FATHEAD from 1975 until those sad last
few hours.......I was there when the great record heist went down.....
....right on, boys and girls, i said.....I still have a New West
Magazine article on that somewhere........does anyone out there have
the. Keith Sykes album with OVER the PRAIRIE across to the
MountainSIDE Jeez, this net shit, no privacy, someone's yankin'on
my modem......I'LL BE BACK ! I got MORE TO SAY
From: Mark Thomas Wickham, Salt Lake City, Utah
Dear Wild Bill,
I saw on the Internet today (my access is through the University of Utah)
that you have been taking care of letters written by folks like me about what
KFAT meant and still means to us. I knew right away that I have a letter to write.
I came home and put in one of the many KFAT tapes that I treasure. I live in Salt
Lake City. The Folk Music scene is strong here and we have an amazing listener
supported radio station (KRCL 90.9). Fat type artists come through town often
and I usually can find just about any music I want. But it just isn't quite enough.
I started to listen to KFAT when my father, Tom Wickham, bought a house out on
Watsonville Road in Gilroy. He moved down from San Jose. This was back in
'76 or '77. That would have made me about 12 or 13 years old. My Mom lived in
Salt Lake City (you know, after the big divorce) and so my brother and I would
spend summers with Dad in Gilroy.
Dad got us listening to Dr. Demento. That was okay. But I liked Rocket Man.
I liked Felton Pruitt. I really liked Cousin Al and his bluegrass show. The bluegrass
he put on the air spoke to me. It truly defined a part of my life. New Grass Revival,
Peter Rowan, Jim & Jesse, and the list goes on and on. I'm a huge fan of bluegrass
now. I go to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival every year. Next year will be my 11th
festival. I had the opportunity to chat with Sam Bush a few times and he suggested
that I visit Strawberry for the festivals there and we struck up a conversation about
Dallas Dolbro.
In '88 I left the University of Utah to attend Humboldt State University. I was there
for one semester before I bought a VW bus, dropped out, drove across the country to
Key West FL to meet Jimmy Buffet and ended up working for him at Margaritaville
for six months. I had many stickers on that bus but my prize sticker which was
eventually offset with a KPIG sticker was the KFAT sticker with the words around the
FAT Cowboy. "WE WISH WE WERE COWBOYS--SADDLE SWEAT MUSIC--HIGH
CHOLESTEROL LOW PROTEIN RADIO--KFAT--94 1/2 FM--EAT MORE GARLIC--
WE'RE IN IT FOR THE $--THIN MAY BE IN BUT FAT'S WHERE IT'S AT--WHO STOLE
MY SCREWDRIVER?"
I blame KFAT and I credit KFAT for all of the trouble and good times I've ever gotten myself
into. Why do I hold KFAT with such high regard? They introduced me to the music which
helped to shape my then young life. Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Red Sovine, ...aw hell.
There's no point to list all of the artists which got me moving. I have lived in Ohio, New York
Utah, Florida, all up and down the California Coast. But I long for the old sounds of KFAT.
The Fat-Fry, the feed and seed report, oh...remember Fat-Grams, Stinking Badges, the Old
Gilroy Hotel?
I just remembered my favorite FAT memory (and it isn't really a KFAT memory, but a KHIP
memory). I had been living in Utah and decided to live in Gilroy for awhile. I must have been
about 19. I packed up my $75.00 1965 Ford Ranch Wagon and drove to Gilroy (this was in '84
maybe). I took a lot of back roads and wound down Pacheco Pass. The first song I heard
coming from KHIP (the wide spot on the dial) was Bob Weir's "Salt Lake City". I drove down to
Hollister to that basement studio (wasn't it in some old hospital?) and told Felton that story.
He smiled and said "Yeah...our karma is pretty good around here." That is by far my favorite FAT/HIP memory.
I'm glad that the Internet can bring the PIG to me in SLC. I feel more FAT already.
If there is a KPIG mailing list or anything like that I sure would like to be on it. I still get out to
California every once in awhile but more and more it seems that all of California is moving
to Utah. Oh well. Perhaps sometime soon a station just like KPIG may work here in Salt Lake
City (behind the Zion Curtain).
Forever Fat,
From: andy ferguson
What a treat! I too had chubby thighs from 75 to 80. Life was simpler then
- people were fat or ... Its not as though I sought out the chubs - it
just seemed as though any one I enjoyed hanging out with also listened. The
last I heard was that the KFAT owner bit the big one and the dj's had made
off with the record collection - they would return it only if assurances
were made that it would remain intact. Any truth to this - or just a great
urban myth? And if true does KPIG have this collection?
The one exception to the great music was, of course, "Moose Turd Pie" bu U.
Utah Phillips. The bloom was off this rose early on. This song had the
most intense following I have ever witnessed. The morning DJ finally broke
- "I can't stand it any more. I will not play this again for three months.
If anyone even requests this in the next three months I will destroy the
record!" I cheered then quickly forgot the whole thing until ... Three
months TO THE DAY! one very freaked out morning DJ is beside himself. Not
only was the switch board lighting up with Moose Turd requests, it seems as
though NO ONE REQUESTED THE SONG FOR THREE MONTHS! AMAZING!
Where else would I have heard "I want to be a real cowboy girl." by the
Girls of the Golden West. I somehow got a copy of the record - still a
favorite of my wife and I. My kids know when to keep quiet.
Praise the lard!
Andy
My discovery of KFAT went much like Wild Bill's. It must have been
August, 1975. I was living on Haight Street in San Francisco and
was dialing my FM receiver from KSAN 95.0 (It was still a rock station
at that time) to what I thought was KPFA 94.1. There was a blues song
playing and I sat down and fired one up. The blues song was, I
believe, followed by a Hank Williams song, followed by something off
the wall; and it was soon apparant that I had left Kansas. Needless to
say, that receiver never again left the wide spot on the dial (94.5)
until the station's unfortunate demise in 1983. (I used that old
receiver up until about 5 years ago - it was an old Sony - with
exceptional FM reception.
In fact, every time I moved between '75 & '83 I would take that
receiver with me to the prospective apartment and plug it in. If the
signal dial didn't respond well, I didn't move into that apartment.
(Yes, kiddies, receivers had dials back then, no led readouts)
To this day, KFAT is my litmus test for whether or not I like a given
song or performer. Is it (are they) FAT? And what is FAT? It's kinda
like that definition of pornography, "I don't know, but I know it when
I see it." Well, I know it when I hear it.
I always felt that little KFAT was waging a cultural war; fighting for
country music's survival against what that slut Nashville was doing to
it. (Unfortunately, the slut seems to have won out, for now; having
seeemingly seduced the mindless masses with that soft-rock-with-a-twang
crap they call "country music" today. If Disco sucked, Line dancing
deep throats).
But despite waging this battle. KFAT was always about having fun. It
took the higher ground, but it was down to earth. Nobody poked more
fun at KFAT, than KFAT itself.
Besides the great music, what I remember most fondly were the station
IDs and the phony advertisements & editorials. There were the "Idi
Amin Hot Tubs", "The Neutron Bomb" & "Genuine Paraquat Treated
Marijuana" - both brought to us by Uncle Sam Industries, The Reverend
Jive Crusade (Send your drugs to me), Anti Temperence editorials, anti
safe driving editorials. I can still hear Slim Pickens plug, "This is
Slim Pickens, remindin you to stay FAT with KFAT". Or, a man with a
deep voice might come on and say, "Hi, I'm Marie Osmound. Whenever I'm
in Gilroy, I listen to KFAT radio".
And of course, KFAT broadcast over a blue transmittin tower (FCC
regulations specify that transmittin towers must be color coded
according to the particular demographic profile of it's listeners; blue
was for beatnicks, commies......) Gee, it was blue, wasn't it?
Even though KFAT's been off the air for over 12 years now; it's still
alive and well in my heart and my mind's ear. My license plate number
is KFAT FM, and to this day someone whom I've never met before will
honk and wave as they pass. So, yes, us FATHEADS are still out there.
And we know it when we hear it!
Ron Taylor
Brisbane, California
fatron@ix.netcom.com
I was very happy to see and read KFAT Memories. I still have a KFAT bumper
sticker (never used). I also have many hours of KFATs finest (one hour
segments of commercial free FAT) that I still listen to and enjoy to this day.
What a wild mix of music ! Uncle Sherman broadcasting his show while chewing
on a mouthful of lasagna ! Cousin Al's Last Bluegrass Show - he made me really
appreciate bluegrass music.
There was nothing happening on the radio in those
days, but the folks at KFAT never failed to raise one's eyebrows. I was
introduced to more types of music and some of the greatest artists in the
music business past & future on KFAT radio.
Thank You all......joe
Arriving the fat dork ate another brownie,slugged down some wine,and commenced
to connect the strange looking apperatii together. Conneceted,plugged in,coated
in place,the fat dork fiddled with some knobs,had some more vino,fiddled with
more knobs,and some of the same nobs again.
"EUREAKA!!!!!!!! I've found it" he
cried, scaring several trolls who were sleeping near by."Now", he thought,"I can
increase the power of KFAT and sell it for millions of dollars."
Thus began the saga of the FAT ONE that changed the lives of thousads forever
and ever.AMEN.
- unklshrm@cruzio (a.k.a Uncle Sherman - infamous KFAT DJ)
From: Joseph Bento (jwbento@hooked.net)
Howdy there...
I remember KFAT very well, and
always kept a smile on my face as I listened to the sometimes very warped
format of music. :) I especially remember one song... part of it
anyway, though I have no idea who the artist was:
From: Warren D. Harris (wharris@connect.net)
"Thin may be in..... But FATS where its at!!!"
"Eat More Garlic!!!"
"Who stole my screwdrivers???"
I have the old T-shirt and Ballcap and an ORIGINAL bumper sticker
from KFAT.. Along with the BBQ apron. A friend of mine gave
them to me about 10 years ago, and they are encased in a frame
with glass and everything.....
From: sprehn@photon1.llnl.gov (Greg Sprehn)
i was working as a communications tech, driving to mountaintops all over
northern california from 1980 to 1983, which gave me the chance to hear
many many radio stations on the truck radio. i used to enjoy dxing,
staying tuned to kfat as idrove through the hills to see where it would
come in. i got a window sticker, i think it was a cat, that i put on a
window at the company base in Santa Rosa. in 1993 i happened by the
old company, stopped in, and sure enough the sticker was still there.
10 years later the memory lives.
so how did i know that kpig was related? some sort of intuitive
connection.
at a party once in 1982, someone asked me what station i liked, and
when i said kfat they smiled and said they had more respect for me
right away. only an intelligent life form could appreciate the
variety, they said.
i love rare musical treats. nobody plays tom waits anymore. or
randy newman. im sick of eric clapton. i miss leon russell.
kids planes, runway lights, spotted dogs and bloodshot eyes,
our space captain laughs and tries
to understand the scheme of things
just in time the scene has changed
the bus is here
bring the beer
shermans reading shakespeare.
...dont get me started.
thanks for the memory.
-greg
(c)1995 by William Goldsmith
I was tuning around the FM dial one evening in 1975 and happened
to land on 94.3 - the frequency of KSND, the little Class A (low-powered)
FM station from my old home town of Gilroy. I don't remember
what they were playing - some kind of spacy, jazzy instrumental,
I think - but whatever it was it didn't fit in with the country/western
format that the station had at the time, so I waited until the
end of the song. It was followed by something even less likely,
so now I was intruiged. At the time I was working for KLRB, the
hippie rock station in Carmel, where we figured we had the 'cool'
audience locked up - and the idea of someone trying to do hip
radio from Gilroy of all places was, well, laughable. So I called
a couple of the other jocks in the room and we laughed - especially
when the jock segued into a country song. Country music
- in 1975 - was about as unhip as you could get. This was about
the time when Merle Haggard was singing "We don't smoke marijuana
in Muskogee", after all. But here was this dinky little
radio station that was obviously trying hard to be hip - playing
country music. I didn't get it. Then the D.J. came on and,
after rambling through an hour-long set list, announced that we
were listening to the first day of programming by a new radio
station called KFAT. K-FAT????. Huh? Now I really
didn't get it.
But the next day I tuned in again, and the next day too. So finally
my curiousity got the better of me and I called over there to
see what the hell was going on and I ended up talking to Larry
Yurdin - the program director - whose manic, sputtering style
of speech and general semi-incoherence led me to believe that
he was someone I might enjoy working with. We talked for a while
and he invited me down that Saturday to check out the station
and do an airshift during the afternoon. I was particularly interested
in the new owners' plans to move the frequency to 94.5 - a Class
B (high powered) frequency - and to relocate the transmitter to
Mt. Loma Prieta, overlooking San Jose, San Francisco, and much
of the rest of northern California. So, armed with a big bag
of weed and a six-pack, I headed off to Gilroy to show those yokels
what hip radio was really all about.
After I did the show, Larry took me aside and told me that I sounded
OK, but that I was too, ah, normal, for what he had in mind at
KFAT. Normal? Normal??? Me????? I'd been called a lot of
things during my (at that time) brief tenure in the radio biz,
but normal? Boy. He really knew how to hurt a guy. A few
months later I left the area to live and work in Honolulu and,
later, Boston - and I didn't set foot in KFAT until years later
when the death of John Lennon shoved me back in that direction.
But that's Part 2 of my personal KFAT saga.
Wow. You read this all the way to the end. As you can see from the dates, it's been a while since any of this was updated
or added to. Maybe someday...
Derek Skeavington
From: Barb Scott (barb_scott@wvmccd.cc.ca.us)
It wasn't the only reason I moved here from Michigan in 1981, but it was
more intriguing than the Garlic Festival. It was a great cure for late
night homesick blues those first few months.
From: Bll Jones (bjones@earth.mpc.cc.ca.us)
B. Jones
From: dgaustin (dgaustin@Pacbell.net)
visit my site
From: mike sammons (mechmike@bellatlantic.net)
Fellow Fathead
From: KStock4005@aol.com
Kristen Stockton
From: juvenile
Organization: san jose police
re: KFAT -- long gone but never forgotten
dt: 12-27-96
lc: #4481
From: Pete (podaci@mtnweb.com)
Subject: I never heard KFAT but that doesn't stop me...
Joe Cliburn
From: Fred Krist (dkrist@maine.maine.edu)
Subject: There is a God, and He is 'FAT
Fred (Sparky) Krist
From: Hamilton Dexter (detroit@calweb.com)
Subject: KFAT Liposuction
detroit lenny
From: "M.P. Higginbotham" (mph@garlic.com)
Subject: Gene Hyman
Subject: KFAT Memories
November 28, 1995
Mark Thomas Wickham
Subject: KFAT memories
IT was a dark and stormy nite,the fat dork armed with a bent coat hanger,an
uncountable amount of weird and unusual electronic boxes,rolls of wire,some
pot brownies,and a jug of cheap red vino,slowly crept under cover of the
darkness to the top of Loma Preita.
We sing a song of the sewer
Of the sewer we sing this song
Together we stand
With shovel in hand
To keep things rolling along!
Then of course there is the famous tradition of playing Arlo Guthrie's
Alice's Restaurant every Thanksgiving.
I was only 18 when KFAT left the air, but will never forget the pleasant
smiles the music gave me.
Wild Bill remembers KFAT - Part 1