I just lucked into the neatest thing the other day: I found that they’re streaming vintage KFAT broadcasts on the web!
Here’s the link: click here
What you say, is KFAT? Just the best damned radio station that ever existed.
From 1975 to 1982, KFAT broadcast on 94 1/2 FM from Gilroy, the garlic capitol of the world. The broadcast area ran from Monterey and Salinas, up to Santa Cruz and San Jose – maybe San Francisco on a really good day.
While ostensibly a country station, KFAT distinguished itself mostly by having no play list at all. None. The DJ’s played what the hell they wanted – anything and everything.
In one half hour, you might hear Hank Williams Sr, Led Zeppelin, Dan Hicks, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, David Allen Coe, Eric Clapton, and some Hawaiian cowboy music. Or maybe bluegrass interspersed with heavy metal. It was the damnedest station ever. Completely unpredictable.
They were big supporters of the local music scene around the Monterey Bay area. One of my fondest memories was when a band I managed (Stir Crazy) did a promo on the air at KFAT with Buffalo Bob Cassidy. That was a real trip. Bob interviewed the band, played tapes of some of our songs, and plugged our record.
Then there were all the Fat Fries and other concerts and what not that they put on. KFAT was a real institution around the Monterey Bay.
But it was too good to last
KFAT’s owner died in the early 80’s and willed the radio station to a non-profit corporation. While it had never been really profitable, KFAT then really went wild, and in a short period of time, rolled over and died. Another experiment in anarchy goes bad…
Luckily, much on that same Fatness has been reborn in KPIG . And in fact, many of the same DJ’s are there at KPIG. Same sort of music and the whole deal.
But it will still never be as good as the Fat One. I had pretty well resigned myself to life without KFAT.
And then KFAT resurfaced – after being dead for 22 years.
What happened, is that it seems that they’ve collected a bunch of tapes that people had recorded of actual KFAT shows way, way back in the 70’s and 80’s, and now they’re streaming those shows on the web.
So here I am again, listening to the Fat One again, and thinking I’m in heaven!
Seems just like a goddamned time machine!