"Hi This Is Gilbert, And You're Listening To Chewing The Fat."

I started at KFAT in January 1976, doing a fifteen-minute pre-recorded talk/interview show weekday mornings at 8:30. Morning Drive. All the other shows of this type were either one or two minutes in length, or an hour or two in length. I wish I could take credit for this innovation, but I can't. Who thought of it ? I don't remember, so read the book and by then I'll have found out. It was a brilliant idea, as I could get SO much information into a show, and then it was back to the music. Think about it. Any guest on Letterman or Leno gets a five or six minute spot, with primary guests getting two spots. Between intro, outro and commercial I had about twelve minutes of talk. So I was able to cover a lot of ground, get out a lot of information or entertainment and then back to the music. I loved this format. I operated thusly through January of 1980, when I took the show off the air. Why ? Read the book. I came back on the air in January, 1982 and stayed through the station's end in January of 1983, this time on Sundays, in a live, two-hour format with listener call-ins. KFAT went off the air on January 17th, 1983, and on January 23rd I opened Rock 'n' Bowl in San Francisco, which ran until the building was sold in August of 1996, when I moved to Baja California, where I reside at this moment, writing this book. I thought that writing a book like this would be both fun and work. I was OK with that. I am a get-it-done sort of fellow, and a little commitment like writing a book didn't frighten me. But while the fun part has been fun, I wasn't aware of how much work the work part would demand of me. What happened to my retirement? Frankly, I feel I'd have been better prepared had my parents but warned me what the completion of an endeavor such as this might entail. This, of course, brings up another question: what else did my parents lie to me about? If you know what else my parents lied to me about, please email me elsewhere on the site. KFAT was a remarkable moment in American radio, maybe an important moment, and was a passionate, moving and exciting experience for me and those who worked there. The friends I made at KFAT I have to this day, and I love them all as if by second nature. Most of them. The stories are exhilarating and strange and sad and joyous and bizarre and and and ..... I am investing the next couple of years or more(?) of my life to tell you the whole story because I believe it was a great ride, a constant struggle, a grand tale, almost epic, and even those who know not of KFAT would enjoy the story. But if you were a Fathead, stay tuned. You'll like it.