Knowles Robertson Hosts "Kaleidoscope"

Knowles Robertson (1939-2016) was a versatile radio broadcaster and manager who was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2024.

His 35-year Bay Area radio career included 20 years as News and Public Affairs Director at country music station KNEW and later its sister station KSAN. Robertson had been heard as a program host on KLX, KCBS and KFRC before focusing on news.

Robertson was born in Colorado, though he grew up in Oakland. Family members say he "adjusted" his age on a form so he could join the Merchant Marines at age 14, serving aboard ships in the South Pacific during World War 2. He would serve in the Air Force during the Korean War.

He was known for his love of California history and for many years in the 1970s, his short pieces on the history of California place names would appear in a newsletter sent out with Pacific Gas and Electric Company utility bills.

This example of Robertson's work finds him at Oakland station KLX in 1958. Robertson is hosting a Monday morning segment called Kaleidoscope, in which he plays popular songs, delivers weather information, current events items, and commercial messages.

The recording comes from a reel of 1/4" audio tape held in the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame archives and was digitized by volunteer Andrew Welburn.