KNDE (defunct)

KNDE was a Boss Radio-type station that broadcast in Sacramento, California on 1470 AM between 1971 and 1978.

KNDE was once the original KXOA-AM that had aired since 1945. In December 1970, KXOA-AM was sold to a group of investors associated with Progressive Rock-formatted KSJO-FM in San Jose. On January 8, 1971 at 12:01 AM, the new owners, SRD Broadcasting, flipped the format to Progressive Rock. Much of the original staff came from KSJO including Program Director Douglas Droese and DJ's Frank Seelig and Allen Pierce. Early KNDE featured Don Wright, Jack Hammer and Jon Peters (The Kandyman) with his Wolfman imitation. They changed the call letters to KNDE, and tagged the station as "Radio Kandie 1470". Eventually, the station’s nickname became "Rock Kandie 147" to reflect its rock-based approach. The format continued through early 1973, but began moving towards a full-blown Top 40 approach. By the summer of 1973, the station had indeed become Top 40, complete with fast-talking announcers and teen pop singles. Oddly, the station initially kept the "Rock Kandie" nickname, despite the fact it was a Top 40 station. As time progressed, the station began calling itself simply "Kandie" and then KNDE.

From a ratings perspective, the format shift was successful. By late 1974, KNDE began to overtake KROY as a Top 40 leader. One of KNDE’s features was playing more hits per hour than KROY. In late 1976 KNDE dominance began to falter. To compensate, in 1977 KNDE hired Marc Driscoll(WNBC) as program director who subsequently hired an entire new air-staff with the exception of KNDE afternoon drive person Chuck Hale formerly of KROY and KYNO in Fresno, CA and whom Driscoll gave the moniker, "Chucker". While retaining Hale, Driscoll brought aboard Jeff Hunter(KSTN)for AM drive, Stevie Jet (KYA) for middays, Chucker in PM drive and Billy (Batman) Manders (KAFY)in the evenings. Weekends on KNDE had "Super" Dave Cooper and "Young" Dave Young. KNDE also began utilizing technology that speeded up the tempo of songs without altering their pitch (pitch shifting). However, a keen listener could notice a slight change in the tempo of the song. A similar approach was taken at Top 40 giants like KIMN, Denver, Colorado and KLIV, San Jose.

Additionally, KNDE provided live broadcasts from the California Exposition and State Fair in the mid to late 1970s, beating KROY at the remote broadcasting technology game and in a hot air ballon race that pitted Chucker broadcasting live via a 2-way remote in the KNDE/Wendy's winning balloon against Tony Cox in the KROY/Dr.Pepper balloon.

Unfortunately for KNDE success was elusive. Marc Driscoll soon departed for New York and KROY continued the AM Top 40 ratings lead into 1978. Chuck (Chucker) Hale joined KROY in early 1978 for his second stint with the station eventually becoming program director. Additionally, the FM signals in the area began carving out a niche against many of the AM music giants around this time. The owners of KNDE were looking for a buyer to take over the station. In September 1978, they found a buyer (Brown Broadcasting) who would bring back their old call letters of KXOA.

Brown Broadcasting owned KGB AM and FM in San Diego. They also owned KXOA (107.9) in Sacramento. In San Diego, KGB-FM (101.1) was known as "The Rockin’ Home" and featured mainstream Album Rock programming, while KGB-AM (1360) featured Soft Rock, and was known as "The Mellow Home", similar to KXOA in Sacramento. Brown Broadcasting purchased KNDE with the intention of placing the "Rocking Home" in Sacramento on AM while keeping the FM (KXOA-FM; K-108) as the "Mellow Home". Basically, the Sacramento format situation would be reversed from their San Diego operations.

On September 28, 1978, Brown Broadcasting flipped KNDE from Top 40 to Album Oriented Rock. They also changed the call letters back to KXOA, and named the station "AM 14, The Rockin’ Home" — thus, KNDE's broadcast came to an end.

KNDE sticker, circa 1971

Radio stations in the Sacramento, California market

By AM frequency	650 710 770 830 890 950 990 1110 1140 1210 1240 1320 1380 1430 1470 1530 1580 1620 1690

By FM frequency	88.1 88.9 89.3 89.7 90.3 90.9 91.5 92.1 92.5 93.1 93.3 93.7 94.3 94.7 95.3 96.1 96.5 96.9 97.5 97.9 98.5 99.1 99.5 99.9 100.5 101.1 101.5 101.9 102.5 103.3 103.5 103.9 104.3 105.1 105.5 105.9 106.5 107.1 107.3 107.9

NOAA WX frequency	162.55

Digital radio	1140 1320 88.1-1 88.9-1 89.3-1 90.9-1 90.9-2 92.5-1 92.5-2 93.1-1 93.1-2 93.7-1 93.7-2 94.7-1 94.7-2 96.1-1 96.1-2 96.9-1 96.9-2 98.5-1 98.5-2 99.9-1 100.5-1 100.5-2 101.1-1 101.1-2 101.9-1 102.5-1 102.5-2 103.5-1 104.3-1 105.1-1 105.1-2 105.1-3 106.5-1 106.5-2 107.9-1 107.9-2

By callsign	KAHI KARA KATD KBAA KBEB KCAI KCBC KCCL KCVV KDEE-LP KDND KDVS KEBR KEC57 KFBK KFBK-FM KFIA KKDO KFSG KGRB KHHM KHTK KHYL KIFM KIID KJAY KKFS KLIB KLMG K290AI KLVB KLVS KMJE KMJE-FM KNCI KNCO KNTY KQEI-FM KQJK KRCX-FM KRPU KRXQ KSAC-FM KSEG KSFM KSMH KSSU KSTE KTKZ KUBU-LP KUDL KUIC KXJZ KXPR KXSE KYDS KYMX KZHP-LP KZZO K296GB

California radio markets Bakersfield Chico Fresno Los Angeles Merced Modesto Oxnard–Ventura Palm Springs Redding Riverside/San Bernardino Sacramento San Diego San Francisco/Oakland San Jose San Luis Obispo Santa Barbara Santa Cruz/Salinas/Monterey Santa Maria-Lompoc Santa Rosa Stockton Victor Valley Visalia-Tulare-Hanford Other California radio regions Barstow Bishop Crescent City Diablo Valley High Desert/Eastern Sierra Eureka Fort Bragg–Ukiah Gilroy/Hollister Imperial Valley Marysville/Yuba City Needles Red Bluff Susanville/Sierra Nevada Tri-Valley Yreka See also List of radio stations in California

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