Honor for KSAN-FM prompts big reunion
by Ben Fong-Torres, Radio Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Scoop Nisker and Annie Sampson were part of a celebration of KSAN’s induction into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle
It did.
The induction triggered the biggest KSAN reunion since 1992, when staffers gathered at KUSF, then home of a series, “Jive Radio,” featuring former free-form DJs. It began at Yoshi’s, with a concert and auction to benefit the California Historical Radio Society and its Hall of Fame.
The music came from Big Brother (with singer Mari Mack fronting vets Sam Andrew, Peter Albin and Dave Getz), Cold Blood (with a fiery Lydia Pense and guest Rick Stevens, who rocked the room with his Tower of Power hit, “You’re Still a Young Man”), Dan Hicks, Country Joe McDonald, Sal Valentino, Annie Sampson and, introduced by Paul Kantner, the Imperial Messenger Service, with Linda Imperial and husband David Freiberg on vocals and Prairie Prince on drums. (Speaking to Steve Roby of BAMmagazine.com, Imperial said she loved KSAN for its wide-ranging music. “It was a massage for your heart and soul.”)
Joining the musicians onstage were KSAN alumni Dusty Street, Richard Gossett, Terry McGovern, Norman Davis, Wes “Scoop” Nisker, who fired up the audience with an updated social commentary, and current KSAN (“The Bone”) DJ Tim Jeffreys. Former PD Bonnie Simmons and I co-hosted.
KSAN fans also got to meet other familiar old voices, including Edward Bear, Peter Laufer, Bob Simmons, Glenn Lambert, Ern Morgan, Eugene “Dr. Hip” Schoenfeld, Beverley Wilshire, Fred Greene, Larry Bensky, Paul Wells and Kenny Wardell, who produced the concert.
THE REST OF THIS ‘RADIO WAVES’ COLUMN CAN BE READ HERE AT THE CHRONICLE WEBSITE.
