It’s going to be a trip back to the radio days of the 1970s and ’80s at History Park next month when KEEN, San Jose’s legendary country music station is celebrated for its selection as the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame’s Legendary Station for 2025.
The festivities on June 8 will include displays of KEEN memorabilia, reminisces by former station personnel, an appearance by country music star Lacy J. Dalton and country music by the Patty Kistner Band. Dalton, who has said that the station helped make her career in the 1980s, will join KRTY.com’s Gary Scott Thomas to judge the finals of a country karaoke contest. The winner gets a $1,000 prize and one of those very memorable brass KEEN belt buckles.
You can get details on the karaoke contest — the deadline to enter is May 30 — and get tickets to the party at bayarearadio.org/featured/keen-tickets.
In the KEEN control room, announcer Tom Duggan works the board, as General Manager Floyd Farr, left, station president George Mardikian, center, and Program Director George Snell, right, look on in advance of the radio station’s opening June 21, 1947. (Mercury Herald File Photo/Courtesy of Keith B. Farr)
KEEN started its first broadcast on 1370 AM at 8 p.m. June 21, 1947, from the Hotel De Anza in downtown San Jose, and hundreds of people gathered on Santa Clara Street for the inaugural show, which included remarks by the mayors of San Jose and Santa Clara.
And that was nothing compared to the the hoopla that took place inside the hotel, where comedian Red Skelton was the big guest of honor, a radio drama was performed on the hotel’s main floor and more entertainment was held in the lobby and other rooms, including a quiz show. It was quite a coup for the station’s original ownership team, George Markadian, Floyd Farr and George Snell, whose sons Kit Snell and Steve Snell would run the station in later decades.
The station didn’t really go country until the mid-1950s, but it stayed that way until shifting audience tastes and challenging budgets pushed it off the air in the early 1990s. For the past 20 years, the familiar 1370 AM spot on the dial has been the home of Spanish language station, “La Kaliente.”
Longtime KBAY host Lissa Kreisler actually did double-duty for that station and KEEN in the late ’80s, doing the morning show with co-host John Bettencourt. “They were just so great, and it was the way radio was supposed to be,” Kreisler said, recalling the family atmosphere the Snells instilled. “You just don’t have stations like that anymore.”
FACE OF THE MUSEUM: There was a lot of gratitude expressed at the San Jose Museum of Art on Wednesday at a farewell reception for S. Sayre Batton, the downtown institution’s outgoing executive director. Batton was praised for her efforts to create a “borderless museum,” emphasizing the permanent collection, connecting SJMA to more community organizations and events than ever and for partnering with Mezcal restaurant owner Adolfo Gomez to transform its sleepy cafe into a more vibrant eatery.
San Jose Museum of Art supporters gather beneath Pae White’s kinetic installation “Noisy Blushes” holding up masks with the face of S. Sayre Batton, the museum’s outgoing executive director, at a farewell reception on May 7, 2025. (Frederick Liang/San Jose Museum of Art)
“You’ve been a significant leader of this anchor of our downtown and of our community,” said Kerry Adams Hapner, San Jose’s director of cultural affairs, who presented Batton with a certificate declaring her an honorary Creative Ambassador for the city.
To cap the celebration, attendees — including Batton herself — took a group photo holding up masks with her face on it, standing beneath artist Pae White’s kinetic installation, “Noisy Blushes,” one of the signature pieces Batton brought to the museum.
GOOD SPORTS: It was another inspirational morning at the San Jose Marriott on Friday, as more than 300 people — including co-chairs Brandi Chastain and Ronnie Lott — gathered for the 29th annual REACH Youth Scholarship breakfast. There were cheers and tears as the audience heard the stories of adversity and triumph faced by 13 young athletes in Santa Clara County, who were the finalists among 71 nominated high school seniors.
Those finalists received scholarships ranging from $3,000 to a four-year commitment of $7,500 a year. But Berliner Cohen’s Dawn Sweatt, who chairs the selection committee (of which I’m also a member), made a surprise announcement to the audience that every other nominated student would be getting a $500 scholarship.
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San Jose Sports Authority Executive Director John Poch said the program has been able to deliver $500,000 in scholarships since 2017 thanks largely to corporate sponsors including Heritage Bank of Commerce, Intero Foundation, Qualcomm and the San Jose Marriott, which underwrites the breakfast every year. You can find out more about the program at www.sjsa.org/REACH.
SIDE GIGS: Classic rock band 5150 — which has a show at 6 p.m. Monday at San Pedro Square Market in San Jose — shares its name with a Van Halen album and California’s code for a temporary psychiatric hold. But don’t think the band, which has been around 35 years, takes mental illness lightly. Three of its four members have worked in the mental health field, including Pathway Society CEO Gary Montrezza, who plays drums, and Alum Rock Counseling Center CEO Steve Eckert, who plays bass. Donations made at Monday’s show will be split between those two San Jose nonprofits.
TOUCHING TRIBUTE: For New Ballet San Jose’s performances of “Swan Lake” next weekend at the Hammer Theater, Executive and Artistic Director Dalia Rawson decided to rename one of the characters Lord Michael Bena. The change is in tribute to Michael Bena, a longtime supporter of both Ballet San Jose and New Ballet who grew up in Palo Alto and died last year. Members of his family will be attending a performance, and Rawson said they’ve told her they are touched by the way New Ballet is honoring his love of dance.
Tickets for Swan Lake, which has three full-length performances May 17-18 with a live orchestra as well as a shortened “My First Ballet” version Sunday morning, are available at www.newballet.com/spring.