Talk Becomes A Juke Box

 For over 20 years, I have been involved with KGOE as a part of Bicoastal Media's Eureka Ca. operation.

                                             Tom Sebourn Left and former DJ Pete Meyer Right.

The signal goes way back to KIEM in the late 1930's which later became a TV station. It had several formats and call letters as the origins of KRED. The 1480 signal used to be home to Rollin and Dana both DJ's still on in Eureka. They tell a story about being live on air together one stormy morning and banter in the studio led to one of them saying in response to something mentioned on the show if it didn't happen "may god strike me dead". Just then a bolt of lightning hit the north tower of the am signal that in those days went from Eureka to the Golden Gate Bridge along the coast. It was a north and south signal that went away that day. Since then the station was relicensed to broadcast in a more circular pattern.  

When I started, KGOE was a simulcast of KGO out of San Francisco. When the feed went down we dialed a phone and coupled it but the sound wasn't great when that happened. The Ownership wanted to create it's own talk station and they called it Extreme Talk and a couple of shows didn't go over so well. Tom Leykis was one of them. 

Recently the station got a FM translator at 92.7 FM in Eureka. Even with this, the format was not as easy to sell for our sales staff as music and sports. 

Enter in a new General Manager for the cluster of stations and the numbers showed they either need to make a change or let the signal go dark like many other AM stations in the country. 

I feel for the older listeners that don't have smart phones or computers and rely on broadcast for their information and entertainment. KGOE was not only entertaining most of the time, it was also very informative for a free product over the air. 

Unlike some format changes, changing live talk to canned music can feel like a huge disconnect. 

I too miss my talk radio host friends. Many of them I have had conversations and done business with for two decades. 

Just know that the shows that we dropped are now available to any other station in the Eureka/Humboldt County market to pick up. If someone from another station is interested in any of the shows we used to carry locally they can contact me at thomassebourn@gmail.com and I will help them get in touch with the various shows for local airing. 

Thanks for the great run on KGOE! I feel blessed and lucky to have been such a big part of something so positive and informative. I have learned a lot but wouldn't trade the experience for anything. 

I will still be doing things for Bicoastal Media in Eureka and would like to note that another Bicoastal Media station in Coos Bay Oregon carries Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann live which can be listened to via internet at this address: https://1340kbbr.com/

Thanks again for listening and I hope you enjoy the new station KEJB 1480 The Juke Box.

Tom Sebourn former Program Director of KGOE in Eureka Ca.