Our History

- - March 2000 – Radio Sausalito‘s first transmitter goes on the air serving up foot stompin’ jazz to the residents on the north end of Caledonia Street. Response is immediately positive highlighting listeners’ thirst for great jazz on the air.
  - August 2000 – Radio Sausalito forms a Board of Advisors and decides to become a bona fide noncommercial community radio station.
  - September 2000 – “Scratched,” our first locally produced show goes on the air with DJ Carolyn. The first featured album is Guitar Galaxies by George Barnes.
  - October 2000 – The Radio Sausalito logo makes its debut. The designer is John Martinko.
  - February 2001 – Our first repeater, custom built in the UK, goes on the air, extending our signal to serve the residents in the Old Town neighborhood.
  - April 2001– Radio Sausalito moves into studios on Johnson St. under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. The address 405 Johnson Street, old brick Sausalito Police Department building.
  - May 2001 – Radio Sausalito becomes the official media outlet for Sausalito’s Jazz and Blues by the Bay concert series, broadcasting and recording each of the concerts at no charge to the city. Also, Radio Sausalito coordinates and broadcasts the city’s huge annual Fourth of July Fireworks display as a public service.
  - August 2001 – Our third neighborhood repeater, also built in the UK, goes on the air serving residents of the Marinship floating home community. An entry in the local paper profiles the station.
  - October 2001 – Radio Sausalito serves as a critical audio link for the Chamber of Commerce’s Classic Car Show along Bridgeway in downtown Sausalito.
  - February 2002 – Radio Sausalito enters its first official partnership with the City of Sausalito to produce “Check It Out,” a weekly show about the Sausalito Public Library. Also, a small repeater is set up to relay the signal to the residents of the Spring Street Valley neighborhood.
  - June 2002 – Radio Sausalito airs the first free Public Service Announcement (PSA) promoting the event of fellow community non-profit organization. Since then over 200,000 PSA broadcasts have aired on Radio Sausalito (26,280 per year)!
  - August 2002 – Radio Sausalito is featured in the Sunday Chronicle Magazine.
  - Fall 2002 – Steven Roby is appointed Radio Sausalito’s first Music Director
  - January 2003 – Radio Sausalito sends out its inaugural Program Guide. Issue #1 includes information for the now eight locally produced shows.
  - February 2003 – Radiosausalito.org (this website) surpasses a thousand visitors per month.
  - March 2003 – Radio Sausalito is asked by the Sausalito Disaster Preparedness Committee to serve as the official communications infrastructure for resident emergency communication. A proposal requesting the appropriate equipment is presented to an enthusiastic City Council.
    Radio Sausalito Staff 2003 – Photo by: ND Koster
  - Summer 2003 – Radio Sausalito surpasses 10 volunteers. (shown L-R) Carolyn, Phil Sheridan, Jonathan Westerling, Beau Beausoleil, Steven Roby, Lauralee Brown, Robert Greenberg, Peter Gibson, Sean Bisch.
  - September 2003 – Radio Sausalito’s “Happy Days” is featured in the SF Chronicle.
  - October 2003 – Radio Sausalito’s “Jazz Kitchen” is featured in the Chronicle.
  - January 2004 – Guitarist John LoGiudici is appointed Music Director.
  - February 2004 – The neighborhood of Western Belvedere receives its own repeater.
  - March 2004 – Sue Rhine takes over the reins as host of “Jazz Legends.”
  - April 2004 – The Sausalito Waste and Recycling Commission partners with Radio Sausalito to produce “Jazzed about Recycling,” featuring monthly tips on recycling in Sausalito.
  - November 2004 – The Caledonia St. Blues Hour premiers, adding blues to the Radio Sausalito lineup on Saturday and Sunday from 9pm to midnight.
  - January 2005 – Sausalito Mayor Dennis Scremin continues the tradition of recording an official mayoral greeting on the station.
  - February 2005 – Radio Sausalito premiers daypart programming – the tracks are chosen to be ideal for a particular time of day. “Sausalito Favorites” debuts in the mornings from 9am to noon playing jazz standards and Big Band memories as a permanent tribute to KABL, the Bay Area radio station which leaves the air after more than 30 years.
  - May 2005 – “Scratched,” our first locally-produced radio program, airs its 200th show.
  - June 2005 – California State Senator Carole Migden announces an agreement with Comcast to carry Radio Sausalito programming on the Local Cable channel. (Four years will pass without Comcast making good on the agreement.)
  - July 2005 – “Your Sausalito Music Scene” is made available to the world as the station’s first Internet MP3 download.
  - July 2005 – Planing begins on an AM signal to focus on Sausalito information and Big Band music.
  - August 2005 – Radio Sausalito is profiled as a “Spirit of Sausalito” in a front page Chronicle article touting Radio Sausalito as one of only two radio stations in Marin County (The other is KWMR).
  - September 2005 – Radio Sausalito begins podcasting. Funding for the required license is generously donated by the Sausalito Art Festival.
  - September, 2005 – Radio Sausalito begins testing its new, broader 1610 AM signal.
  - September, 2005 – The San Francisco Chronicle again features Radio Sausalito as one of the unique voices in Bay Area radio.
  - September 2005 – Legal threats by a corporation which owns several radio stations bullies Radio Sausalito off the FM airwaves. The 1610 AM signal takes over immediately, increasing the station’s range and potential audience to all of Southern Marin.
  - Fall 2007 – Radio Sausalito Appoints Joe Agro Music Director.
  - December 2007 – Forced to leave its longtime home due to the construction of the new Sausalito Police and Fire Buildings , Radio Sausalito appeals to listeners to find a new home. Eight generous offers are entertained, with the station eventually choosing to accept a custom-built studio in the basement of a listener as its new home.
  - May 2008 – Radio Sausalito moves its studio out of Sausalito’s historic 1937 police station. After occupying the building as its sole tenant for the last few years, the building is demolished within a week.
  - March 2009 – Radio Sausalito is awarded Best Radio Station in Marin by the Pacific Sun.
  - June 15th 2009 – Marin TV takes over control of Channel 26 from Comcast. One of the first things on the channel is Radio Sausalito, which since then has been the audio accompaniment in between programs. This service provides our signal to folks throughout Marin County.
  - January 2010 – Radio Sausalito launches “Drive-By Shorts,” a showcase of “flash fiction” written by local authors.
  - April 2010 – Radio Sausalito celebrates its 10th anniversary with a front page profile in the Marin Independent Journal.
  - September 2010 – Audubon California begins its weekly radio program “Bay Birds” on the station hosted by Wendy Dalia.
  - December 2010 – Radio Sausalito produces a live holiday concert as a gift to Marin County. The concert is notable for two reasons:

these
- - March 2011 – Famed Fairfax hairstylist Mitchell Field fulfills his life long dream of having a radio interview series. It’s called “The Field Trip”.
  - December 2011 – Local Music Vibe sponsors a new daily entertainment show called Live Music Lineup – the host is Andrew Clyde.
  - May 2012 – Peter Huson is appointed the new host of the daily Tide Reports which he renames “Tide Tones”. Radio Sausalito also begins transmitting in downtown San Rafael on 1710 AM.
  - June 2012 – Radio Sausalito broadcasts live coverage of the inaugural home game of the San Rafael Pacifics baseball team.
  - July 2012 – Radio Sausalito simulcasts the music for the Sausalito Fireworks across the county on Marin TV.
  - October 2012 – Then webmaster, Court Mast debuts a new, redesigned website, with improved podcasts and social media connections.
  - February 2013 – Swing music on Sunday gets an infusion of class with Dizzy Jones’ show The Last Dance.
  - August 2013 – The Live Internet Stream is launched making Radio Sausalito available worldwide for the first time.
  - November 2013 – Radio Sausalito launches two new music shows: DJ Mistie’s House of Jazz and The Joys of Jazz with Bob Hecht.
  - December 2014 – Christmas Jazz debuts – this commercial free stream of holiday music grows over the next 4 years to an annual audience of 50,000.
  - June 2015 – The Joys of Jazz, wins a prestigious New York Festivals Award as one of the best radio shows in the world. The trophy is presented Monday in New York City to the show’s host and producer Bob Hecht. This marks the first time a Radio Sausalito show has earned such high honors on an international stage.
  - September 2015 – Jazz Rhythm debuts on Radio Sausalito and explores this music from the first half of the last century and how the Bay Area’s colorful characters and culture helped shape what has been called America’s most original art form.
  - June 2017 – Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of a coast to coast radio broadcast which originated in Sausalito and celebrated the opening of the Marinship shipbuilding plant during WWII.
  - March 2020 – Radio Sausalito’s 20th anniversary celebration (along with most other things) is cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the number of listeners more than doubled as people found dependable reassurance in our shows and broadcast which were all pre-recorded away from the studio.
  - May 2023 – Radio Sausalito adds Jazz Connections to its show lineup. Retired family physician and lifetime lover of Jazz, Larry Slater, dives deep into the most meaningful artists and styles in the genre.
  - January 2024 – Club Hangover Revisited rebroadcasts historic concerts from the famed San Francisco Club. The series is the largest collection of these recordings ever assembled and will run through Spring 2025.

Categories

Copyright