Why the old KGO Radio Was and Is Still Such a Big Deal

 EVENTS; some of them pure tragedy like the massacre in Manchester --are precisely the reason why we miss the old KGO and why we (me) make such a fuss (still) over the loss of what was once an integral part of Bay Area media.

People often ask me why the "KGO thing" was/is such a big deal and I tell them that when there's such massive human toll events like the one in England; the images of little kids; the anguish of their mother and father waiting for them unaware of their fate; those lasting images we see on that forever loop on CNN; a real time horror story that wreaks havoc with our mind. We will not soon forget.

We used to "vent", like a certain talk-host would describe, about what took place in Manchester. Obviously, we could do nothing about what happened but at least we could negate some of the horror we shared when we viewed the sight of those kids running scared out of that arena. I could only imagine what I'd be going through if I had a kid in that concert hall and wondered what had happened to them.

It was incidents like this that made KGO Radio the incredible asset it was and how it was able to slightly remedy a horrible situation; mind you a tragedy half a world away but still incredibly vivid and chock full of emotion. People need an outlet; parents with small children and teenagers can at least share their thoughts and commiserate to lessen the anguish and emotion.

I remember the fall afternoon in 1978 when the Moscone/Milk murders took place and KGO was the first place I headed to on the radio; people were calling in and some of them were sobbing; it felt like the entire city of San Francisco was in shock and it was; just two weeks after the Jonestown massacre the Bay Area wasn't ready for another chilling, horrible, tragedy like that of Dan White killing Mayor Moscone and Sup. Harvey Milk. KGO provided the community an outpost where grieving folks could ease all the shock and horror or at the very least lessen the tension and anxiety. Believe me, it was much needed.

The same thing applied to 9/11. This time it really felt bad. People were scared. People were shocked. KGO was a place where you could go to numb the pain and have an outlet to express the anguish and respond.

We took the old KGO for granted and wouldn't know years later what an incredible community asset it was and miss its old standby and legacy. We listen today (some of us) and shake our heads as to why such a great city entity could be reduced to a sliver of its original self. You had to be there in the beginning to understand it all.

And if you were there and were a part of it; as a talk-show host; as a listener; you understand to this day why we still miss the old KGO and why we are left wondering to this day just how it all happened.

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