California Underground Pins and Buttons
Description: Believe it or not, as late as the mid-'60s, the concept of rock music on the radio was foreign to most Bay Area residents. Other than the few top 40 AM stations, there was no outlet for the growing rock scene. After a shakeup at KMPX that lead to a walkout, Metromedia owned classical station KSFR took the KMPX crew in, changed its call letters from to KSAN, and the switched to album-oriented rock music format on May 21, 1968. Suddenly, the Bay Area was hearing albums that they'd never heard on the radio before. The station's youthful, counterculture attitude, came across through both music and commentary, became an integral part of the San Francisco youth experience. KSAN became a groundbreaking, and historic rock station.