KMKY (1310 AM) is a radio station licensed to

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, that broadcasts with 5,000 watts. It calls itself "Radio Punjab" and airs programming in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and Punjabi aimed at the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

's South Asian community. It is owned by Charanjit Batth, through licensee Radio Punjab AM 1310 Inc. Its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is located in Oakland near the toll plaza for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The 1310 AM frequency from 1959 to 1997, was the home of urban adult contemporary and

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...

station KDIA. It later served as the San Francisco home of

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

from 1997 to 2015, using the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

KMKY, the last three letters standing for the Disney character

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

History

KMKY is the second-oldest surviving radio station in the Bay Area. It was first licensed, with the randomly assigned call letters of KLS, on March 10, 1922, on 833 kHz. It moved to 1220 kHz in 1927, then 1440 kHz in 1928. It moved to 1280 kHz in 1937, then 1310 kHz in 1941, as a result of the NARBA agreement. In 1945, when the station was still owned by the Warner Brothers of Oakland, no relation to the movie studio, it changed its call letters to KWBR and changed its format to focus on an African-American audience. In 1959, it was bought by the owners of Memphis radio station WDIA, and the call letters were changed to KDIA. During the 1960s through the 1980s, the station was the premier

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

station in the

Sly Stone Sylvester Stewart (March 15, 1943 – June 9, 2025), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development ...

was a DJ at the station before launching

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul music, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel music, gospel, and R&B, becam ...

. In December 1984, the station was sold to Adam Clayton Powell III, who turned the station into KFYI, with an

all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

format backed by a 32-member news team. After Powell failed to make payroll for KFYI – having lost a reported $4-million in funding invested by Aetna Insurance in less than six months on the air – the station went silent on April 9, 1985. It returned to air in July, however, having reclaimed its legacy KDIA call letters, while resuming its urban music format. In the early 1990s, KDIA was co-owned by then mayor of Oakland, Elihu Harris, with then California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. In 1992, Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey returned to the Bay Area to work as public affairs director and newscaster on KDIA. Bailey later became the editor of the '' Oakland Post'' who was murdered on the streets of downtown Oakland. KDIA changed from

on December 15, 1997, when the station was sold by Jim Gabbert to

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. On August 13, 2014, Disney put KMKY and 22 other Radio Disney stations up for sale, to focus on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network. On June 24, 2015, RD San Francisco Assets filed an application to sell KMKY to Radio Mirchi, for $600,000. The sale was completed on October 6. Radio Disney programming for the region later moved to the KLLC HD3 digital subchannel, where it aired until June 2018.

References

External links

*
FCC History Cards for KMKY

The Early History Of KLS/KWBR/KDIA Oakland, California
{{San Francisco Radio 1922 establishments in California Asian-American culture in Oakland, California Hindi-language radio stations Indian-American culture in California Pakistani-American culture in California Punjabi-American culture Punjabi-language mass media Radio stations established in 1922 MKY South Asian American culture

History

See also

References

External links