THE BIRTH OF ROCK RADIO IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
WANT UPDATES?
SOUND BUSINESS
San Diego radio station KPRI 106.5 FM was fairly typical for California in the 1960s, until Steve Brown walked through the door. Billed as Capri By The Sea, the station played middle-of-the-road songs by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett. It was one of several stations competing for the same audience and playing the same music, with marginal success. In December of 1967, all of that changed forever. Steve Brown approached Larry Shushan, owner and manager of KPRI and offered to keep the station on the air after their customary midnight sign-off time, as long as he could play any kind of music that he wanted.
BEHIND THE LINE
There were no dollars offered for this service. Steve hit the airwaves of San Diego as O.B. Jetty, playing the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Co., blues of all kinds and many bands that had never been heard on San Diego mainstream radio. Before long, Steve began gathering other like-minded people to collaborate on those nightly musical journeys into the unknown, and “Electric Music for the Mind and Body” was born. The rest, as they say, is history. Below is a timeline of the events that followed.
COLOR KEY ANNOUNCERS CONCERTS OTHER EVENTS ALBUMS SAN DIEGO SCENE HISTORY
1966 DECEMBER 1967 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
Aug 28, 1966 The Beatles Balboa Stadium
Dec 1966 Cream Fresh Cream
Jan 4 1967 The Doors The Doors
Feb 1967 Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow
Feb17 196 John Mayall & the Blues Breakers A Hard Road
Mar 17 1967 Grateful Dead Grateful Dead
THE WORLD IN 1967
Detroit Race Riots Viet Nam Protests Summer of Love, San Francisco 1st human heart transplant Expo 67 - Montreal, Canada
APRIL MAY
May 12 1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced
May 11 1967 Country Joe & the Fish Electric Music for Mind & Body
JUNE JULY 1967 AUGUST

 

Jun 6 1967 Moby Grape Moby Grape
THE 1967 SAN DIEGO SCENE
SEPTEMBER
Aug 5 1967 Pink Floyd Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Aug 1967 Big Brother & the Holding Company Big Brother & the Holding Company
OCTOBER
Oct 1967 H. P. Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft
Nov 27 1967 Moody Blues, Spirit & Framework at Grossmont College
Nov 27 1967 Love Forever Changes
NOVEMBER
Nov 27 1967 Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
1967 DECEMBER
December 1967 Steve Brown (O.B. Jetty) and Buck Turner (Acmad the Revolving) take to the KPRI airwaves from Midnight to 3am.
December 1967 Traffic Mr. Fantasy
January 1968 Inor Gaddim (Ron Middag) joins O. B. Jetty and Acmad The Revolving at KPRI
1968 JANUARY
January 1968 San Diego Door article “Underground Radio Comes to San Diego”
Jan 1968 Blue Cheer Vincebus Eruptum
Jan 1968 Steppenwolf Steppenwolf
FEBRUARY
Feb 1968 Fever Tree Fever Tree
Feb 1968 Ramblin’ Jack Elliott Young Brigham
February 1968 Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Community Concourse
MARCH
March 1968 O. B. Jetty (Steve Brown) does Cream Fillmore Simulcast on KPRI and snaps what would become a very famous picture at the same time.
APRIL
April 1968 Peter Frankland Begins at KPRI
April 1968 Acmad the Revolving (Buck Turner) hosts kid’s Sunday morning radio show “The Bark of the Bunny”
MAY
May 1968 Quicksilver Messenger Service Quicksilver Messenger Service
May 1968 Cream plays the Community Concourse
JUNE
May 1968 After just 6 months of broadcasting Electric Music for the Mind and Body, KPRI expands to 24 hours. All rock, all the time!
June 1968 Pink Floyd A Saucerful of Secrets
June 1968 Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
1968
June 1968 The US Navy sends O. B. Jetty (Steve Brown) to Viet Nam
June 1968 Hippodrome Concert, Electric Flag, Pacific Flash and Maya
June 1968 Gabriel Wisdom begins at KPRI in Sales
June 1968 Captain Sunshine (Rudy Luehs) begins at KPRI
2001? So many years away, we had all the time in the world.
June 1968 KPRI sold to Southwestern Broadcasters
June 14 and 15 1968 Hippodrome Concert, Velvet Underground
June 1968 The Doors play the Community Concourse
July 1968 Bun T. Phens (Nick Schram) begins on KPRI
JULY
July 1968 Gabriel Wisdom begins on the air at KPRI with the Joyful Wisdom Hour on Sunday mornings.
July 5 & 6 1968 Hippodrome Concert, Quicksilver Messenger Service
July 1968 KPRI Studio moves to 7th and Ash, downstairs from the old KCBQ
July 1968 First National Press, Billboard Magazine features an article about KPRI
July 1968 KPRI shows up in the Pulse Radio Ratings for the first time
July 1968 Hippodrome Concert, Paul Butterfield, Early Morning Blues Band, Maya
1968
AUGUST
August 1968 The Band Music From Big Pink
August 1968 The Moody Blues In Search of the Lost Chord
August 1968 Cream Wheels of Fire
August 26 1968 Captain Sunshine (Rudy Luehs) has Kieth Moon as his guest DJ on the midnight to 6am show. August 27 1968 Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon join Solomon Grundy (Greg Willis) all night on KPRI playing DJ and talking to listeners
Aug 1968 Hippodrome Concert, The Grateful Dead, Curly Cooke’s Hurdy Gurdy Band, Maya
Aug 1968 KPRI becomes the highest rated FM station in San Diego according to the Pulse Ratings
August 27 1968 The Who play the Community Concourse
August 12 1968 Big Brother & the Holding Company Cheap Thrills
September 1968 Preacher (Norah Patterson) begins at KPRI
SEPTEMBER
September 1968 Publius (Rick Phelps) begins at KPRI
September 1968 Acmad The Revolving (Buck Turner) at the KPRI mixing console. Note the new art work on the mixer. I wonder who was responsible for this cultural statement? Acmad favored the New Orleans singer, Dr. John Rebbenek.
1968
September 22 1968 Autumnal Equinox Concert, Grateful Dead, Buddy Miles, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller Band, Sons of Champlin and The Ace of Cups at the Del Mar Fairgrounds
September 1968 Procol Harum Shine On Brightly
October 1968 Bun T. Phens (Nick Schram) plays "Hey Jude" continuously for 4 hours. People Cried… The police came.
OCTOBER
October 18 1968 Publius (Rick Phelps) and panel interview San Diego Mayor Frank Curran
October 18 1968 Cream, Deep Purple and The Buddy Miles Express at the San Diego Sports Arena
1968 NOVEMBER
October 1968 Traffic Traffic
October 16 1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland
November 2 1968 Country Joe and the Fish, Steve Miller Band and Framework at Golden Gym Cal Western
DECEMBER 1969 JANUARY
November 22 1968 The Beatles The Beatles (The White Album)
December 1968 Southwestern Broadcasters, the new owners of KPRI, send a “Programming Consultant” to evaluate what KPRI is doing on the air.
December 1968 The US Navy returns O. B. Jetty (Steve Brown) from Viet Nam, none the worse for wear.
December 8 1968 The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet
January 5 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival Bayou Country
Jan 12 1969 The Beatles Yellow Submarine
January 12 1969 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin
November 27 1968 Moody Blues, Spirit and Framework - Grossmont College Gym
December 7 1968 Eric Burdon & The Animals and Jello’s Gas Band at the Community Concourse
December 21 1968 Steppenwolf and The Brain Police at the Community Concourse
January 4 1969 Vanilla Fudge plays the Community Concourse
January 10 1969 KPRI presents The Grateful Dead, Savoy Brown and Aum at the Community Concourse
FEBRUARY
Feb 1969 Chicken Shack OK Ken?
Jan 22 1969 Neil Young Neil Young
January 11 1969 Buffalo Springfield Concert San Diego Sports Arena
January 13 1969 Led Zeppelin concert Fox Theater San Diego
Feb 5 1969 Cream Goodbye
Feb 1969 The Hooper Ratings reveal that KPRI is not only the highest rated FM station in San Diego but number 4 among all radio stations, AM or FM, a feat no FM station had ever accomplished until now.
SEE THE HOOPER RATING
Feb 1969 Jefferson Airplane Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Feb 22 1969 Ten Years After Stonedhenge
Feb 1969 The Flying Burrito Brothers The Gilded Palace of Sin
MARCH
March 1969 Southwestern Broadcasters decides that they can make more money by playing Bubble Gum Top 40 and change the format of KPRI. Dex Allen is hired as Program Director. Steve Brown, Nick Schram, Buck Turner and Rudy Luehs all resign and return to San Francisco.
Mar 29 1969 Janis Joplin & the Kozmic Blues Ban, Sport Arena
March 8 1969 Hedgecock Peiring present Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sons of Champlin & Taj Mahal at Peterson Gym SDSU
1969
Mar 1969 Savoy Brown Blue Matter
Mar 1969 The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground
After Steve, Buck, Nick and Rudy returned to San Francisco, and the smoke around KPRI finally cleared, the station under Dex Allen was Top 40 during the day, but after midnight it remained like the old KPRI, all albums without restrictions. Of the old crew, Gabriel Wisdom, Rick Phelps, Peter Frankland and Ron Middag remained. Nobody had any idea what was going to happen. Advertisers were canceling, people on the phones were hostile; it was anybody’s guess what would happen.
APRIL
April 9 1969 Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline
April 12 1969 Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Country Joe and the Fish, Convention Hall
The Top40 experiment at KPRI lasted about 6 weeks. Long enough for the ratings to plummet and most of the advertisers to bail out. The company realized that they had made a mistake and in April, hired a new GM. Jack Barnard was younger and understood what KPRI had been doing. Ron Middag was hired back as the Program Director and the daytime hours went back to album rock.
Sesame Street debuts. Tricky Dicky Nixon is POTUS. Movies: Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, Easy Rider Record of the Year: "Mrs. Robinson," Simon and Garfunkel
April 18 1969 Sons of Champlin, Elvin Bishop and Stoneground play USD Gym.
April 23 1969 Joe Cocker With a Little Help From My Friends
1969
April 25 1969 Moody Blues On The Threshold of a Dream
April 28 1969 Chicago Transit Authority Chicago Transit Authority
April 1969 George Williams signs on to the late shift, midnight to 6 a.m. Weird, trippy, spaced-out music ensues.
MAY
May 1 1969 Joni Mitchell Clouds
May 3 1969 Sly and the Family Stone Stand!
May 11 1969 KPRI & Hedgecock-Peiring present Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Santana, Lee Michaels and Tarantula at Aztec Bowl
The ARB Ratings are released for April/May 1969 and for the first time since the Top40 experiment, KPRI is back to #4 among all San Diego stations AM & FM. Among young males, KPRI was tied for #1 with KCBQ.
1969
May 14 69 Neil Young Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
May 23 69 The Who Tommy
May 24 1969 Jimi Hendrix concert San Diego Sports Arena
May 29 69 Crosby Stills & Nash Crosby Stills & Nash
JUNE
June 1969 The Jeff Beck Group Beck-Ola
June 1969 Procol Harum A Salty Dog
1969
June 16 1969 Steve Miller Band Brave New World
June 21 1969 Deep Purple Deep Purple
June 20 1969 The Grateful Dead Aoxomoxoa
June 21 & 22 1969 Bo Didley Plays the Palace Night Club
June 28 1969 Steppenwolf, Santana Blues Band, Cat Mother play the Sports Arena
June 1969 Billboard Magazine ranks KPRI among the top 15 Progressive Rock Radio Stations in the USA
JULY
July 8 1969 Canned Heat Hallelujah
July 14 1969 Dennis Hopper visits KPRI, talks to Inor about his new movie, Easy Rider
1969
KPRI and Hedgecock Piering Present Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, Sons of Champlin and Congress of Wonders at Balboa Stadium
July 1969 Country Joe and the Fish Here We Are Again
July 1969 Leslie West Mountain
July 30 1969 Moby Grape Truly Fine Citizen
AUGUST
August 3 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River
August 9 1969 Blood Sweat & Tears Convention Center
August 10 1969 Led Zeppelin Plays the San Diego Sports Arena
1969
August 1969 Humble Pie Safe As Yesterday Is
August 1969 Blind Faith Blind Faith
August 1969 Santana Santana
August 1969 Ten Years After Ssssh
August 29 1969 Three Dog Night - Community Concourse
SEPTEMBER
September 12 1969 Rolling Stones Through The Past Darkly
September 13 1969 KPRI Presents Love, Aum, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Balboa Park Bowl
September 20 1969 Spirit - SD Sports Arena
1969
September 19 1969 Fleetwood Mac Then Play On
September 22 1969 The Band The Band
September 24 1969 Laura Nyro New York Tendaberry
September 25 1969 Sons of Champlin - Peterson Gym SDS
September 1969 Janis Joplin I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
OCTOBER
October 4 1969 Janis Joplin, James Cotton - San Diego Sports Arena
1969
October 26 Arlo Guthrie - Civic Theatre
October 25 1969 Pink Floyd Ummagumma
October 27 1969 Johnny Winter Second Winter
October 1969 Spirit Clear
October 1969 Hooper Ratings come out, KPRI slips to number 4 overall in the San Diego market. Something about baseball… NOVEMBER
November 1 1969 The Moody Blues in Concert Cal Western Golden Gym
November 2 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival Willy and the Poor Boys
November 4 1969 The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band
November 4 1969 David Bowie David Bowie
1969
November 10 1969 The Byrds Ballad of Easy Rider
November 10 1969 The Grateful Dead Live/Dead
November 1969 Steve Miller Band Your Saving Grace
November 1969 The new heart of the KPRI studio arrives, a custom-made broadcast console. This control panel manages everything that goes on the air. The innovative design used "slide-pots" and additional connections that allowed us to mix many more sources simultaneously. In its day it was the hottest console in San Diego, and what it lacked in grace and style was easily replaced by sheer power and flexibility. It was the crown jewel in the DJ's sanctum sanctorum.
November 1969 Jefferson Airplane Volunteers
November 1969 The Moody Blues To Our Children’s Children
1969
November 1969 Rod Stewart The Rod Stewart Album
November 69 Joe Cocker Joe Cocker!
DECEMBER
Dec 6 1969 Youngbloods & Steve Miller Band in Concert - Convention Hall
December 5 1969 The Rolling Stones Let it Bleed
Dec 7 1969 Jose Feliciano, Seals & Crofts in Concert - SDSU Peterson Gym
Dec 1969 Blue Cheer Blue Cheer
Dec 1969 Fairport Convention Liege & Lief
Dec 1969 Deep Purple Concerto for Group & Orchestra
Dec 1969 Love Out Here
Dec 27 1969 Lee Michaels in Concert - Sports Arena
JANUARY
Jan 2 1970 Taj Mahal & the Chambers Brothers in concert - SD Sports Arena
Jan 9 70 Badfinger Magic Christian Music
1970
Jan 10 1970 Grateful Dead, Aum, Sons of Champlin in concert - Convention Hall
Jan 19 70 John Sebastian John B. Sebastian
Jan 23 1970 The Band in concert - Community Concourse
Jan 24 1970 KPRI presents Tim Hardin, Seals & Crofts and Jerry McCann in concert - UCSD Gym
Jan 26 70 Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Waters
1970 FEBRUARY
Feb 9 70 Love, It’s A Beautiful Day, Frank Zappa, Sweetwater, Penrod - San Diego Sports Arena
Feb 13 70 Albert King, Quicksilver Messenger Service in concert - Community Concourse
Feb 1970 James Taylor Sweet Baby James
Feb 9 1970 The Doors Morrison Hotel
Feb 26 70 The Beatles Hey Jude
Feb 1970 The Move Shazam
1970
Feb 28 1970 Van Morrison Moondance
MARCH
Mar 1 1970 Ron Middag leaves KPRI and moves to Hollywood, taking over the Morning Show at KPPC as well as the Music Director position.
Plenty more to come, folks, but we would love your contributions, especially from January, 1970 and on. Click on the Freak brothers picture below to contact us. APRIL
MAY JUNE JULY
AUGUST SEPTEMBER 1970 FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER
Jun 1 1967 The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Everything changed in the music scene with this album, it became the soundtrack for the Summer of Love...
August 15, 1969 The Woodstock Music and Art Fair is held in the town of Bethel in upstate New York. Nearly half a million people attend the 3-day event, which features artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Joan Baez, Santana, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Country Joe and the Fish, The Band, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
A Love-In at Balboa Park. KPRI was broadcasting from the cellar of the medical building, True "underground" radio.
Mar 29 1969 Quicksilver Messenger Service Happy Trails July 25 1969 The Doors Soft Parade August 1 1969 Jethro Tull Stand Up August 11 1969 Donovan Barabajagal October 24 1969 Framework, White Lightning - USD Gym November 11 1969 The Rolling Stones and Ike & Tina Turner in Concert San Diego Sports Arena October 12 1969 KPRI presents the 1st annual Gnurl Festival with Chicago, Poco, Country Joe and the Fish and Framework at Balboa Stadium October 10 1969 King Crimson King Crimson October 22 1969 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin ll Jan 26 70 Chicago Chicago (aka Chicago ll)  Dec 69 / Jan 70 Hooper Ratings show KPRI returning to #3 among all radio stations in San Diego in the critical afternoon and evening time periods September 26 1969 The Beatles Abby Road August 23 1969 KPRI Presents Lee Michaels, Taj Mahal and Sweetwater at Balboa Park Bowl MORE WORLD EVENTS - 1969 Internet (ARPA) goes online. Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins—take man's first walk on moon February 1969 More press releases “Inside KPRI” by Don Enright Hey Jude, don't make it bad, November 1968 Turn On KPRI serigraph by George Williams is released. And it had naked girls made from bubbles, too...
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Larry Shushan Owner and Manager of KPRI since 1960
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