KOZT

Rocky Road

From Classic Rock to Progessive to hip hop to today's hot new tunes!

From the ever so beautiful and desirable Mendocino Coast, a bunch of 60s-70s free form jocks from SF and LA bought a station and this is pretty close to what free form radio was like....
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From Sunday's SF Chronicle:
RADIO WAVES
- Ben Fong-Torres
Sunday, December 17, 2006
LET'S GET SMALL: A reader hipped me to KOZT ("The Coast") some time ago, saying that it was the closest thing he'd heard in recent years to free-form commercial radio, and that it was staffed by a bunch of San Francisco radio vets who'd apparently taken a radio refuge in Mendocino County by buying and operating their own station. I could hear it online, he said, at www.kozt.com.
I listened in and, sure enough, KOZT-FM offered a wider range of music -- like KFOG, rock and beyond -- than most; loose DJ patter, a cozy, community vibe and, yes, a staff that included Joe Regelski, from KMEL's album-rock days, doing the morning news; Kate Hayes, who's remembered for her work at KSAN during its last months as a rocker and at KKCY ("The City"), an attempt at an '80s version of free-form; and Tom Yates, who partnered with Hayes at KKCY and, later, worked alongside her at KLSX, a classic rock station in Los Angeles, where he was program director and she co-hosted the morning show. At KOZT, Hayes does middays and serves as assistant program director, music director and promotions director, while Yates, who owns KOZT with his wife, Vicky Watts, is a program director and handles the night shift. Watts is CFO and general sales manager.
What are they, along with a half dozen other staffers, doing up in Fort Bragg? Why would radio pros who've tasted success in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the fourth and second largest radio markets in the country, respectively, settle for Mendocino County, which is ranked ... uh ... "It doesn't have a number," Hayes says.
The short answer is quality of life. Hayes and her husband, musician David Hayes (bass guitarist with Van Morrison's band) lived in Los Angeles and moved north 10 years ago to give their two children better schools. The kids are now college graduates. "They grew up here with great educations, and something extra that you get in a small town," Kate Hayes says.
Yates wasn't thinking small when he began thinking about station ownership while in San Francisco in the late '60s. But, he recalls, "it seemed so impossible." While programming stations over the years, he continued to study the possibilities, and in the late '80s, he met some brokers. "They said, 'If you're willing to take the financial hit and take on the labor, there were affordable stations.' You could buy a small-market station for the price of a small house in San Francisco."
He and Watts, a former vice president at Wells Fargo in San Francisco, found KOZT, which was carrying syndicated rock shows and had an indifferent owner. They took over in early 1991.
After surveying some of the 100,000 residents in the county, they decided on an eclectic music format focused on "adult rock." On the surface, KOZT may remind listeners of KFOG.
"We have a lot in common, but it's a slightly different orientation," Yates says. "We go back pretty far. You can hear an occasional '30s blues piece, or a Django Reinhardt. And you'll hear the newest albums." But, he says, it's not free-form. All staff members participate in choosing music for the library, he says, but DJs don't pick the music for their own shows.
The station, which is located in a two-floor tavern in central Fort Bragg that the Yateses bought and remodeled, went online in 1998. Suddenly, KOZT doesn't feel so small any more. "We're approaching equal numbers between online and terrestrial radio listeners," Yates says. "We're on an even par with a New York or an L.A. or a San Francisco station. If you've got a computer and choose to listen to us, here we are."

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Topic - KOZT - LWR 18:45:25 12/19/06 (8)

Wow. - Finch Platte 19:52:01 12/19/06 (6)

Hey Spongebob I see ya got the right asylum this time - YECH 03:10:33 12/20/06 (1)

"I'm buying a bike this spring.Just thought I'd warn ya." - Congratulations are in order: - Audiophilander 08:54:35 12/20/06 (1)

Me too..... - LWR 20:02:04 12/19/06 (3)

Well - I had a rock fanzine called... - Harmonia 21:04:14 12/22/06 (0)

Your radio name reminded me..... - mkuller 20:11:30 12/19/06 (1)

Pictures of Lily....Plastic Fantasic Lover - LWR 20:18:28 12/19/06 (0)

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