"This is San Francisco" December 31, 1949

This is San Francisco aired from 1949 to 1957 on KCBS, long before the station's switch to an all-news format in 1968.

Heard at 8 A.M. on weekdays and at 7:45 on Saturday mornings, the program was the work of Lou Hartman, a Brooklyn native who had worked as a network radio writer in Chicago before moving to San Francisco after World War 2. He worked at KROW (Oakland) and KGO before joining KCBS. Hartman's air name was Jim Grady, and the broadcast involved interviews and observations about the people, places and things that made San Francisco unique.

Working with producer Patrick McGuirk, Grady roamed the city in search of material. San Francisco Chronicle columnisat Terrence O'Flaherty noted in 1950 that the program reminded San Franciscans that "they are living in one of the most magic cities in the world."

Hartman would leave KCBS, blacklisted by CBS management after his civil rights activities led him to be brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities during its 1957 San Francisco hearings. A conviction for contempt of Congress (Hartman refused to answer the committee's questions) would be overturned by the Supteme Court in 1962, but Hartman never returned to radio.

Hartman became interested in Zen Buddhism and became a Zen priest, living for years at the San Francisco Zen Center. He died in 2011 at the age of 95.

These examples of This is San Francisco were digitized from Electrical Transcription discs by Gordon Skene of Past Daily, who has generously made them available for our use. Of interest to radio history buffs: the KCBS of this era was broadcasting at 5,000 watts (the 50,000 watt transmitter in Novato was switched on in August 1951) and the city of license was San Jose, where KQW had been launched. KQW became KCBS upon its acquisition by CBS in 1949 but the city of license wasn't changed to San Francisco until January 1, 1951.