Radio Day by the Bay brings history, music, and community
Sometimes events juxtapose themselves with dramatic poignancy. One day after Congress voted to cut $1 billion of funding for public television and radio, a throng of eager enthusiasts gathered to celebrate all things radio at Radio Day by the Bay, hosted by the California Historical Radio Society at 2152 Central Avenue here in Alameda. It was the 21st such celebration.
Pop-up tents for vendors festooned the parking lot next to the museum promoting stations near and far—KCSM, KPFA, KEXP, KKUP—as well as, thankfully, Donut Petit. Alameda PostCast host Scott Piehler was there as well, representing all of us at the Alameda Post. Parked nearby was a large van for KFRC, whose call letters sent this writer into his past with memories of adjusting the radio knob to reduce static and make clearer the Monkees’ latest hit.
The museum itself hosts a collection of historic radios and radio artifacts that made most visitors slow down and sigh, “My oh my.” Gothic-style wooden cabinets serve as home to wires, tubes, and speakers that once magically pulled in invisible signals then released them as live and recorded music and voice. Out back was a yard sale, where those deeply into the living nostalgia that is radio rejoiced while looking through bins and bags for specific parts missing from their equipment.
Hoyt Smith, a nearly 50-year Bay Area radio personality for KDFC, and Sylvia Chacon, an East Bay native, radio producer and host, and dancer with Ballet Folklorico Mexicano, led the grand opening ceremony. They welcomed everyone before yielding to Ben Fong-Torres, legendary rock and roll journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, and Celeste Perry, a longtime radio and TV celebrity, more recently a Democratic political activist. Their joyful task was to announce the many radio people soon to be inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (BARHOF), including notables Cammy Blackstone, Brian Copeland, Rebecca Corral, and SF Giants announcer and former pitcher Mike Krukow.
The most moving moment was when Stan Bunger, former KCBS anchor, shared the story of Golden Star Radio, a Chinese language radio station in San Francisco begun by husband and wife Tommy and Mae Chin Tong back in 1939. Their broadcasts continued for 40 years and was an essential source of information for the newcomers to the Bay Area Chinese community. Live music also added to the joyful celebrities, including one of the last performances of the Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra—he’s soon to retire—as well as sets performed by Channel 7’s Dan Ashley and the Tamsen Donner Duo, and the Raccoon Hollow String Band.
For this Radio Day by the Bay novice, the strongest impression was this: as opposed to most of us who fret and stammer when asked to do so, nearly everyone who stood before a microphone and spoke this past Saturday employed either that classic deep/smooth radio voice or chatted and quipped with remarkable ease. And the response by the audience members to these gifted and admired speakers was a strong reminder that even today, with the threat of AI and with most folks getting their music from Spotify, there is still something essential about the human voice and human speaking, an elemental comfort that there is someone out there we can listen to, who wants to talk to us, explain things, make us feel that we belong, that we are all part of Mister Roger’s neighborhood. Long live radio, commercial and public.
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.
