KEAR (AM)
| City | San Francisco, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Branding | Family Radio 610 |
| Slogan | The Sound of the New Life |
| Frequency | 610 (kHz) |
| First air date | September 24, 1924 |
| Format | Christian radio |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 1082 |
| Former callsigns | KFRC (1924–2005) |
| Affiliations | Family Radio |
| Owner |
Family Radio (Family Stations, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | KEBR |
| Website | familyradio.com |
KEAR (610 kHz), is a non-commercial traditional Christian radio station in San Francisco, California. KEAR is the flagship station of Family Radio, and its transmitter is located in Berkeley, California. It is diplexed at the KVTO tower. Until 2005, KEAR was broadcasting on 106.9 MHz FM.
KEAR's programming is also broadcast on KEBR in Sacramento, California, whose signal is transmitted from radio repeaters for local markets across California, such as 101.5 MHz (K268AH) in Palm Springs and 90.9 MHz (K217BJ) in Banning.
The frequency of 610 kHz had been home to the original KFRC for over eight decades, from September 24, 1924 until April 29, 2005. In the 1960s and 1970s, KFRC was a legendary Top 40 powerhouse in San Francisco, but on August 11, 1986, KFRC had flipped to an Adult Standards format. On August 12, 1993, it began simulcasting its sister station KFRC-FM's Oldies format.
The call letters KEAR were originally assigned to an AM station at 1550 kHz (now KZDG) in 1952. Before that, since 1947, the radio station at this frequency (1550 kHz) had been called KSMO. From 1947 to 1956, KSMO and KEAR had broadcast as San Francisco's only AM classical music station. They billed themselves as the "good music" station. When KEAR stopped broadcasting classical music in 1956, this forced many San Francisco classical music lovers to become early adopters and purchase the then recently introduced FM radios so they could listen to classical music broadcasts on KDFC (Shortly after, KDFC began simulcasting on KIBE, 1220 AM, Palo Alto (c.f. White's Radio Log). In 1956, the KEAR call letters were moved to 97.3 FM. Family Stations Inc. bought the station in 1959, and aired its first Family Radio broadcast on KEAR on February 4 of that year.
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