KSRO


KSRO is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a News-Talk radio format. KSRO is licensed to Santa Rosa, California, and serves the Sonoma County area. The station is owned by Lawrence Amaturo, through licensee Amaturo Sonoma Media Group, LLC. In addition to its 5,000-watt AM transmitter off Stony Point Road, KSRO programming is also heard on an FM translator, K278CD, broadcasting at 103.5 MHz.
KSRO features programming from Premiere Networks and Westwood One Network. Nationally syndicated shows include Dave Ramsey, Tom Sullivan, Joe Pags, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and America in The Morning. News from ABC News Radio begins most hours.
KSRO airs a local weekday wake-up news and information show, "Sonoma County's Morning News with Pat Kerrigan". In the afternoon, "The Drive with Steve Jaxon" is heard, Sonoma County's only local weekday talk show. The Drive features interviews with newsmakers, musicians, authors, and comedians. In 2012, The Drive's weekly "California Wine Country" segment was the winner of "Best Critic or Review Series" at the 2015 Taste Awards, and has been a multiple-time nominee for Best Food or Drink Radio Broadcast. Weekends feature programs on food and wine, real estate, money, gardening and home repair. Syndicated weekend hosts include Kim Komando, Clark Howard and George Noory.

History

In May 1937, KSRO first signed on. The station was founded by Ernest L. Finley, owner of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The ownership of the station later passed to Finley's wife Ruth, when he died in 1942. The station achieved some fame in 1943, when an actual broadcast was included in Alfred Hitchcock's film Shadow of a Doubt, filmed on location in Santa Rosa.
KSRO began broadcasting Santa Rosa Junior College football games in 1939, when the school joined the Northern California Junior College Conference. This initiated a fifty-year relationship.
In the 1950s and 1960s, KSRO played Top 40 music. Its strong signal carried through the mountainous regions of the county. It was one of the few stations that could be received in the Russian River resort area. Like many AM stations, the increasing popularity of FM radio resulted in KSRO's change of format, first to middle of the road music with talk and news, and then to all talk and news.