This is the KCBS History section of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by: Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
last update: 6/9/05

A Pictorial Tour of KCBS

KCBS history

Here are some images and recollections from the folks who worked at KCBS, the 50 kW flamethrower in San Francisco.

KCBS traces its history from what is arguably one of the very first broadcast stations, Charles "Doc" Herrold's station. With a history stretching from 1909, this facility is almost 100 years old!

 

Since 1953, KCBS has been operating off of four towers north of San Francisco, at Novato, California

 

The pump This pump is necessary to keep the field from being underwater. The elevation is 6 feet under sea level!

 

In 1950, the transmitter site was moved to Novato, 
approximately 25 miles north of San Francisco.

The four tower array at Novato sends as much as 6 V/m at 1 km,
the equivalent of 125 kW to the SE.

The KCBS DX-50 Transmitter and Phasor.

The auxiliary transmitters, an MW-50 and a Continental 316B
This is the KCBS equipment racks ... with the new IBOC gear in the far left rack.

To ensure the power feeds are as clean as possible, KCBS engineers have built custom monitoring gear. 

 

 

My sincere thanks to Dave Wigfield for sharing his photos of the KCBS site.

 

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Copyright 1993-2006, 2007  by Barry Mishkind. This material on this site should not be reproduced or reposted in whole or part without express approval.

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An important note about this resource:

We have used many sources, including FCC files, university lecturers, historical publications and more, and have tried to be as accurate as possible, not repeating many of the myths of the industry (such as the Uncle Don Story) nor histories "manufactured" by promotion departments. However, I am not perfect, and may well have overlooked something. If you do see an error or omission, please let me know.

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    Barry Mishkind
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