KYNO Now Reaches The Beaches
• In celebration of its 75th birthday, One Putt Broadcasting’s legendary KYNO-AM/Fresno will increase its power 10-fold by moving from its current 5,000-watt signal at 1430AM to 940AM next Monday, July 19 at 6am. 940 AM (the current home of ESPN affiliate KFIG) is one of only four stations in the greater San Joaquin Valley broadcasting at the maximum legal limit of 50kw, pumping the wattage into your cottage all the way from Sacramento to Bakersfield and along California’s Central Coast. With this massive signal boost, KYNO will become “The Most Powerful Oldies Station in America,” featuring music from the late ’50s through early ’70s, 24/7.
Some history: In 1946, Fresno resident Gene Chenault petitioned the FCC to build a new radio station at 1300 kHz, the original home of 13KYNO. In the early ’60s, KYNO PD Bill Drake and crosstown competitor KMAK (K-Make) made the “Battle for Fresno” famous with outrageous promotional stunts and high-profile DJs, including Sam Schwan, Dick Carr and others. By the late ’60s, KYNO was declared the uncontested winner when KMAK flipped to Country. Based on this success, Drake and Chenault formed a partnership and marketed the “KYNO formula” nationwide, first to San Diego, then Los Angeles, where Drake/Chenault hired KMAK PD Ron Jacobs and DJs Robert W. Morgan and Frank Terry to launch “Boss Radio” on KHJ/Los Angeles. In the years that followed, the number of Drake/Chenault-consulted stations grew to over 350. During the ’60s and ’70s, many KYNO jocks, including Mike Novak, Les Garland, Harry Miller, Sean Conrad, Joe Angel, Bobby Ocean, Gary Mack, The Real Pete McNeil, Dirk Robinson, Jerry Mann,Steve Randall and many others continued to “graduate” to major markets.
In 1969, KYNO Boss Jock Harry Miller was rockin’ afternoon drive. Today, he’s KYNO’s morning host, with 20/20 News provided by veteran radio news anchor, Skip Essick. Live From the ’60s with The Real Don Steele is heard every Friday from 3-6pm and Wolfman Jack anchors Friday and Saturday nights starting at 6pm. Other classic KYNO features include the History of Rock & Roll hosted by Bill Drake, American Hit List with M.G. Kelly and Dennis Mitchell’s Breakfast with the Beatles, all heard every Million Dollar Weekend. Throughout its illustrious history, KYNO was never “just a radio station” — it was the soundtrack of life for hundreds of thousands of people throughout California’s Central Valley.
[Ed. note]: I was fortunate enough to have worked at the original 13KYNO from 1980-83, calling to mind those immortal words of the Mary Tyler Moore Show‘s cluelessly smug anchorman Ted Baxter, who famously said, “It all started at a 5,000-watt radio station in Fresno.”
