The KFOG/Pete Taylor Record Collection (and how you can own a piece of it)
Leslie Lundin | Published on 7/28/2024
Part I - Their History
Beautiful things come from beautiful partnerships. This is the story of the Pete Taylor/KFOG Collection. Recognizing the synergy between our two organizations, the Audiophile Foundation partnered with The California Historic Radio Society (CHRS) in late 2023 to promote our events. CHRS was gracious enough to allow us to use their fabulous facility for our very first record sale. In promoting the event, their listing to the CHRS membership yielded a very surprising outcome, something we hope will put smiles on the faces of Bay Area music, vinyl, and radio lovers.
March 1, 1963, Pete Taylor was hired as the first KFOG program & operations manager and head disc jockey. In his own words “KFOG started with my own personal record collection. As record distributors gained trust in what we were doing, the KFOG library grew”.
Here’s a link to the KFOG history:
https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/our-history/thriving-with-1960s-launched-kfog-radio-then-and-now
Pete Taylor (the audiophile DJ) was given the entire KFOG easy listening library from the 1950s to the 1970s (approximately 1/3rd of which was Pete’s personal collection) when the stations were sold and their format changed. He moved the collection with him to Tacoma, Washington, where it rested for nearly 30 years until one day, lucky for us, he received a notification about a record sale that the Audiophile Foundation was having at CHRS.
Pete recognized the opportunity to pass the collection back to the citizens of the Bay Area by donating it to the Audiophile Foundation. So how do you get over 4,000 records weighing approximately 1.5 tons back to the Bay Area so they could again delight Bay Area music lovers and radio history buffs?
Part II - The Rest of Their Journey
We grappled with the moving question for months. Undaunted by the prospect of destroying our suspension and our backs, Grant and I decided to drive from Central Point, OR, in our F150 truck to Tacoma, WA, to pick up the entire load.
We arrived in Tacoma on a slightly drizzly Sunday morning. After an intense 2 hours, we had loaded all 47 boxes, each weighing around 65 lbs. Not without some trepidation, as the F150 did appear to be exceeding its load capacity, we drove to Portland (2.5 hours) to stay over with David Hicks and enjoy some fine Portland food and entertainment. Having overloaded the truck, leaving 600 lbs. of records with David for a subsequent pickup several weeks later seemed wise. The next day, we completed the next leg of the journey and drove another 4 hours to Central Point.
We staged the records in our garage and sorted them in Central Point. Over several months, we would take multiple trips to the Bay Area (my Orinda home) carrying 9 boxes each trip. These boxes would then be stored, resorted, rated, and valued mainly by Gregory Morgan and his team of vinyl lovers.
After having played many familiar favorites and even more unfamiliar new favorites our impressions are that overall, they can be described as mainly from the 1960’s (some 1950’s and 1970’s), in pristine condition and mostly very early pressings, many with the “not for resale” “promo” marking on them and many in blank white sleeves. The sound, in general, is spectacular.
This collection is a perfect example of why we formed the Audiophile Foundation as a 501c3. We will preserve this beautiful collection. It was essential to bring it back to the Bay Area as KFOG is such an important part of San Francisco history, and Pete Taylor, its first DJ, was an equally important part of making San Francisco a special place…the place where Tony Bennet left his heart.
The goal is to have the bulk of the collection in Orinda for the September Michael Fremer visit. Michael was consulted early on and is keen to go through the collection to tease out the wonderful and the wacky.
View pics of the move and samples from the collection - KFOG/Pete Taylor Record Collection
We will be playing and selling what we feel are the premier records from the collection at the upcoming September 14 Micheal Fremer event at CHRS (see registration links below). If you are an attendee, you will have the first opportunity to take home a piece of Bay Area history.
Michael Fremer In Person! Morning Session - 9/14/2024
Michael Fremer In Person! Afternoon Session - 9/14/2024