Metro-Cover-9822.jpg|frame|right|The bumper sticker logo of KOME was ubiquitous in California's Silicon Valley during the 1970s and 80s. The alternative weekly Metro ran a parody of the KOME logo for a cover story on the radio station's demise.]]

KOME was a radio station in San Jose, California. It was broadcast over the FM band on the 98.5Mz frequency.

After original 98.5Mz licensee Edward W. Meece, dba The Audio House, Inc, sold all-classical KRPM for between $300,000 and $400,000 Feb 1971, new call letter identity KOME was thereafter solely a rock station. It attracted a loyal South Bay rock audience throughout the 70s and early 80s competing head-to-head with cross-town rock rival,KSJO (the second-oldest call letters in San Jose, getting its start in FM rock in 1968). Its yellow diamond shaped stickers with upward-pointing black arrows were a common sight on automobiles around the area (the stickers were later black with yellow arrows). Many of its advertising slogans were focused on the sexual connotations of its call-letters, probably the most famous being "Don't touch that dial, it's got KOME on it!", and "The KOME spot on your dial". Not surprisingly, Playboy magazine found that callsign sufficiently newsworthy in their purview to mention the station.

The station was well-known for a "free form" music policy, which allowed disc jockeys to choose the music that would be played on the station. According to an article in Metro, that policy ended around 1982, when parent company Infinity Broadcasting tightened restrictions on the station's playlist, enlisted broadcasting consultants to determine the station's programming, and the station's program director, Mikel Herrington, "left the station in protest and moved to KMET in Los Angeles". ^*

In the 90s, the station switched to a modern rock format, and began carrying the Howard Stern Show, as well as Loveline and other syndicated programming.

During the late 1990s, parent company Infinity Broadcasting purchased the San Francisco station KITS ("Live 105"), and eventually elected to make that station the corporation's flagship modern rock station in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stern and some of the local air staff were transferred to the San Francisco station, and the KOME call letters and programming were discontinued.

Although at its birth, in the heyday of "freeform" FM broadcasting in the United States, the station had been run with an eye towards its South Bay identity—as distinct from a San Francisco identity, this focus was eventually lost with Infinity's transition to San Francisco-based KITS. This transition closed the KOME chapter in the South Bay Area's rock scene ^*; KSJO met a more ignoble rock demise, after writhing in head-bangers' mosh pit agony for several more years until 2004, finally suffering sufficient brain-damage to have lost any fluency with the English language.

Owner / Manager / Program Director Chronology

• ____1959 - original licensee & engineer: Edward W. Meece, dba The Audio House, Inc
• Feb 1971 - The Audio House, Inc. sold
• ____1970 - Mgr Ron Cutler until 1973 sale
• Feb 1971 - PD Mark Sherry
• Oct 1972 - PD Jay William Weed (aka J. William Weed), to Jan 1973
• ____1973 - PD Cliff Feldman
• ____1973 - sold to group of New Yorkers who had been associated with MetroMedia
• ____1973 - Mgr Dan Tapson to Jul 1984
• ____1974 - PD Ed Romig, "tightens up format"
• Aug 1977 - PD Mikel Herrington (aka Mikel Hunter) storms on the scene,loosening up the format; expecting jocks to follow his plan rather than play songs from a card catalog. Herrington inspires promotions that stretch the imagination. His programming years are well-remembered for off-the-wall slogans and his open format that blended art-rock, east coast horns, jazz, punk, new wave, country rock, pop & soul artists, and blues in a highly successful rock format. Herrington and his staff (many still on air in the Bay Area) helped make San Jose the "Rock Capital of the Bay Area".
• ________ - The Audio House, Inc changes name to Infinity Broadcasting Corp and hires Mel Karmazin to manage a growing group of stations of which KOME was the first.
• ____1983 - PD Les Tracy reorients music to very hard rock, eliminating the formerly broad format. Tracy is not successful with this move. Many Herrington-era jocks leave.
• ____1984 - PD Pat Evans
• Jul 1984 - Mgr Jim Hardy
• ____1995 - PD Jay Taylor with Ron Nenni infuse KOME with a danceable youth-oriented format that stirs the ratings to pull ahead of the rock competition in both San Jose and San Francisco, to 1998.
• Dec 1996 - Infinity sold to Westinghouse Electric Corp
• Dec 1997 - Westinghouse becomes CBS, Inc
• May 1998 - sold to Jacor Communications. Regardless of the healthy ratings, KOME is merged with Live-105 KITS in San Francisco.
• Jun 1998 - KOME callsign retired

Notable disk jockeys

• Blazy, Jeff 1987-1994 Morning team host (PD of The Fox Santa Rosa, CA)
• Bob Lilley 1986-1994 Morning team news (News Director in Idaho)
• Carson Daly 1990s (NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly)
• Dana Jang 1974-1985 (PD of KBAY and Mix 106.5/KEZR San Jose)
• Dennis Erectus 1977-1982 Outrageously popular shock-jock with a smart, satirical, hilarious presentation (Works behind the scenes for former co-worker Dana Jang at KBAY/KEZR)
• Gene/Geno Mitchell(ini) 1979-1982 (Los Angeles radio on and off)
• Gary T. Torresani 1971-1972 & 1975-1983
• Greg Stone 1978-1983 & 1986-1998 Stone Trek (K-FOX/KUFX San Jose)
• Jay William Weed (aka J. William Weed) 1972-1973
• Jack Perry 1979-1983 Voice of KOME'S odd-ball commercials (KCBS creative ad producer)
• John Higdon 1971-1998 Chief Engineer, hosted "The Classical KOME" in early 1970s (Consultant-Engineer for KBAY & KEZR)
• Joe Regelski c1976-1977 (News Director The Coast-KOZT Mendecino)
• Jona Denz-Hamilton 1974-1982 (KBAY San Jose air personality since 1996)
• Karin Nakamura 1976-1983(K-FOX/KUFX San Jose)
• Kelly Cox 1979-1983 (KLOS Los Angeles)
• Larry Jacobs 1977-1979 (ABC News New York)
• Laurie Roberts 1975-1985 (PD & middays on K-FOX/KUFX San Jose)
• Mark Goldberg 1979-1983 (News Director KKCS Colorado Springs)
• Mark Sherry early 1970s (Eugene, OR area radio)
• Marla Davies 1990s (Morning Show host/news on KEZR Mix 106.5 San Jose)
• No Name 1990s (Mornings on Alice KLLC San Francisco)
• Paul Wells (aka Lobster) 1974-1976 (Morning host KQKE San Francisco)
• Peter B. Collins 1976-1977 (Syndicated Peter B. Collins show. Owns KRXA in Monterey)
• Phil Charles early 1970s (on air in Montana)
• Rob Singleton 1979-1983 (News Director KJZY Santa Rosa, CA)
• Stephen Dunwoody 1973-1975 & 1990s) (Station Manager of KYOU San Francisco pod-cast radio)
• Ted Kopulos (movie guy/song parody guy) 1978-1983 (K-FOX/KUFX San Jose)
• Uncle Jack 1971-1974
• Vega, Billy c 1988-1992
• Victor Boc 1972-1980 (KOME's Sunday talk show host attracting interesting to off-the-wall guests. He was once kidnapped by a duo who planned to travel with the aliens.(Oregon talk-show host)
• Wolf c 1971-1975

External links

• KOME was originally classical KRPM
• 04-10 Jun 1998 Metro: KOME chronology since Infinity ownership
• 04-10 Jun 1998 Metro: Last two weeks of "Kingdom KOME"
• 04-10 Jun 1998 Metro: South Bay radio re-shuffling: "The Big Radio Play"
• 21 Jan 2006 Mercury-News blog: "Almost 33 1/3 years" KOME Reunion

Defunct radio stations | 1959 establishments | 1998 disestablishments