KSJS (90.5 MHz) is a

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

station that broadcasts 24 hours a day from the campus of

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, United States. The brainchild of Professor Clarence Flick, it went on the air on February 11, 1963, with only 85 watts of power. The studio is located in Hugh Gillis Hall, easily accessible to RTVF majors. Originally, its transmitting antenna was installed atop the Walquist Library Building on campus, but broadcasting range was adversely affected due to the nearby Bank of America Building's superior height. Today, however, its transmitter atop Coyote Peak broadcasts 1,500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s, allowing the station to be heard by the entire

Santa Clara Valley The Santa Clara Valley is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (145 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the eas ...

and much of the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Alt ...

. Currently, the station features five musical formats: urban,

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

rock en Español Rock en español () is a term used widely in the English-speaking world to refer to any kind of rock music featuring Spanish vocals. Compared to English-speaking bands, very few acts reached worldwide success or between Spanish-speaking countrie ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

. KSJS carried regular news programs produced by San Jose State's Radio-Television News Center, which had been started by Professor Gordon Greb in 1957. The programs in the 1960s included a world and national news program, broadcast shortly after the daily sign-on, and "Spectrum," a college news program with emphasis on San Jose State news. From the 1970s through the early 1980s, KSJS was heavily formatted, with students learning to "talk up" records, play

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

s at appropriate times and even "backtime" songs to a top-of-the-hour newscast. In recent years, the station has taken on more of a free-form approach. KSJS has been named "Station of the Year" twice by the National Association of College Broadcasters. Notable alumni include longtime oldies DJ

Dennis Terry Dennis Dan "Denny" Teresi (born August 14, 1954), now known as Dennis Terry, is an American radio disc jockey and former phone phreak most famous for being the person who introduced John Draper to the field of phreaking. Both Draper and Teresi we ...

Kim Vestal Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese ...

, a longtime San Jose radio star, later on KRTY; Craig Bowers, production director at KGO in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

; Steve Scott, drivetime news anchor at WCBS-AM in

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; Mark Nieto news and traffic anchor at

KMVQ-FM KMVQ-FM (99.7 MHz) is a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. The station currently broadcasts a Top 40/CHR format branded as ''99.7 Now''. KMVQ's studios are at 2001 Junipero Serra Boulevard in Daly City, while its transmitter ...

; Lynn Gold, weekend news anchor at KLIV; and Tony Kovaleski, an investigative TV reporter at

KMGH-TV KMGH-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling, Colorado, Sterling-licensed Independent stat ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

. KSJS also carries all San Jose State Spartans home football games and all men's basketball games, as well as select women's basketball and baseball games. They also now carry Women's volleyball games as well as SJSU Hockey.

References

External links

KSJS Website
*
CMJ station profile of KSJS (May 19, 2003)
SJS SJS Radio stations established in 1963 1963 establishments in California San Jose State Spartans basketball San Jose State Spartans baseball San Jose State University Mass media in San Jose, California {{SanJoseCA-stub