KSBQ

Bakersfield radio and TV station owner Edward E. Urner and Bryan J. Coleman, doing business as Cal-Coast Broadcasters, obtained a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission for a new radio station to operate with 1,000 watts during daylight hours only on November 2, 1960.[2] Cal-Coast was approved to place the radio station's transmitter facility near the Santa Maria sewer farm on Black Road,[3] and the new station made its debut on September 1, 1961, with the call sign KSEE and airing a Top 40 pop music format.[4] Urner became the sole owner of Cal-Coast shortly after KSEE began broadcasting.[2]

In 1965, Urner sold KSEE to Frank G. Macomber IV of White Plains, New York, for $153,750, after Urner had been named general manager of KEWB in Oakland.[5] Macomber moved to Santa Maria and operated the station for five years. On August 7, 1970, an application was filed to transfer the station's license back to Urner with a new business partner;[2] the transaction was pending FCC approval when the 37-year-old Macomber was found dead in his home on September 16.[6] KSEE general manager Ralph N. Boe was named special administrator of Macomber's estate after Bank of America, which had initially been named, expressed no interest in taking over operations; the court awarded this status to Boe so that the station could continue operations without interruption.[7]

The FCC approved of the sale back to Urner in February 1971,[2] and he returned to Santa Maria to resume operating KSEE along with business partner James Norman, with whom Urner owned KERN radio in Bakersfield.[8] Norman became the sole owner the next year.[2]

A new Cal-Coast Broadcasters purchased KSEE in 1975. This company was of no relation to the Urner groups and was owned by Buddy and Eleanor Black; it retained KSEE's format, which had shifted to adult contemporary music, and public affairs programming.[9]

In May 1980, Cal-Coast sold KSEE to Los Padres Broadcasting Company for $450,000.[10] On September 29, 1980, the new owner changed the station's call letters to KSBQ.[11] It was nearly two months before the call sign change was announced, as well as the meaning of the new designation, representing the regional specialty of Santa Maria-style barbecue; the new call sign was accompanied by a format switch to country music.[12] The KSEE call sign was nearly immediately recycled within California, being reused for a Fresno television station.[13]

In 1984, KSBQ dropped its country format and became a Spanish-language radio station.[14] Known as "Radio Pantera", among its offerings was a Spanish-language translation of the 6 p.m. newscast of local NBC affiliate KSBY-TV.[15]

In March 1995, Los Padres Broadcasting Corporation traded KSBQ for another Spanish-language station, Lompoc's KTME (1410 AM), owned by Padre Serra Communications Inc., the broadcasting company of Jaime Bonilla Valdez; Bonilla, who had previously owned KJDJ (1030 AM), had become the main shareholder in Los Padres by this time.[16] However, in March 1999, the station dropped its Spanish-language programming after nearly 15 years to flip to sports talk. A void for sports talk in the Santa Maria area had been created when KKAL (1280 AM) moved to a news/talk format, and a group led by former Detroit sportscaster and columnist Ron Cameron converted the station to sports. As a sports talk station, KSBQ picked up one of the features that had been heard on KKAL, its affiliation with the One-on-One Sports network, and aired Anaheim Angels games.[17]

The sports talk format lasted less than a year. The station stopped broadcasting at the end of September after Cameron left to pursue a front-office position with a minor league baseball club in Lafayette, Louisiana.[18] Furthermore, the city of Santa Maria was selling KSBQ equipment as "unclaimed personal property",[19] likely in conjunction with a bankruptcy of which Bonilla did not inform the FCC; due to this omission and public file violations, KSBQ and two other Bonilla stations were fined $11,000 each in July 1999.[20] By the fall of 1999, a buyer had been found for KSBQ: Oxnard-based Lazer Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Alfredo Plascencia, for $225,000.[21]