KGO-AM

KGO 810 kHz on the AM band, is a "news-talk format" radio station based in San Francisco, California owned by ABC/Disney. Broadcasting with 50,000 watts of power as a clear channel station, it can be heard throughout the western United States and beyond. It is one of the West Coast flagship radio stations of ABC.

History

KGO signed on the air in 1924 from 'General Electric's Oakland electrical facility, as part of a planned three-station network comprising WGY in Schenectady, New York, and KOA in Denver. Due to GE's involvement in RCA and RCA's launch of the NBC radio network, KGO was soon operated by NBC management as part of the NBC network. See the KNBR entry for a fuller discussion of NBC's San Francisco radio operations. In 1943, the Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to sell off one of its two networks and the stations it owned which were affiliated with it. The NBC "Blue Network" became ABC, and KGO went its separate way. In the postwar period, KGO originated many live music programs, including that of Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills, a popular staple of the period. KGO was also instrumental in bringing the first exercise show to broadcasting, hosted by Jack LaLanne, a fitness instructor and gym operator in Oakland. LaLanne conducted his radio fitness show for many years on KGO, and moved in the late 1950s to KGO-TV and a successful TV syndication career. By the late 1950s, KGO had suffered a malaise and poor ratings. In 1962, ABC management brought in new management and a new program director, Jim Dunbar, who revamped the station into one of the country's first news/talk stations. While initially unsuccessful, Dunbar stressed the live and local aspect of the programming by running the talkshows every day from locations such as Johnny Kan's Chinese restaurant, Senor Pico's Restaurant, and the legendary Hungry i nightclub. This higher profile caused KGO's ratings to begin a steady climb. Today, KGO has had over 27 years (rated quarterly by Arbitron) as consistently the #1 rated station in the Bay Area, a feat unheard of in broadcasting. The KGO signal also registers in surrounding metropolitan areas as a station listened to. Due to the nature of the signal, which protects WGY, KGO broadcasts essentially on a north-south axis. This makes KGO easy to listen to at night in places like Seattle and San Diego, but difficult to receive in Reno and points east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Unlike many other talk radio stations in the United States, KGO has limited syndicated programming. The majority of its programs are hosted by broadcasters who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, KGO has hosts from a wide variety of the political spectrum, unlike most talk radio stations who are either liberal or conservative. Of their weekday hosts, Bernie Ward and Ray Taliaferro are liberal Democrats, Gene Burns is a libertarian-conservative, Ronn Owens is a centrist Democrat, and Pete Wilson is a political centrist. Weekend host and frequent fill-in Dr. Bill Wattenburg is KGO's most conservative host. KGO runs news during the morning and afternoon drive, and an hour of news at noon. Its news coverage tends to have more anchor banter, longer stories, and lighter stories than the hard news format of KCBS. KGO was the radio broadcast home for the San Francisco 49ers football team until 2005. It still broadcasts the college football games of the University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears.

Daily Hosts

- Ronn Owens
- Pete Wilson (broadcaster)
- Gene Burns
- Bernie Ward
- Ray Taliaferro

Weekend Hosts

- Michael Finney - Consumer Talk
- Len Tillem - Radio Lawyer of the Air
- Brian Copeland
- John Rothmann
- Jim Wieder
- Joanie Greggains
- Gene Burns - Dining Around, with Gene Burns
- Karel
- Rich Walcoff
- Bernie Ward - God Talk
- Dr. Bill Wattenburg

Newscasters/Reporters

- Jennifer Jones
- Ed Baxter
- Rosie Allen
- Greg Jarrett
- Joe Starkey
- Jon Bristow
- Lloyd Lindsay Young
- Stan Burford
- Michaelynn Meyers

Substitute Hosts

- Greg Jarret
- Christine Craft
- Gil Gross

Syndicated Hosts

- Dr. Dean Edell
- Paul Harvey
- Bob Brinker

External links

- [http://www.kgoam810.com/ KGO 810 AM] - offers live internet streaming feeds Category:Disney radio stations Category:ABC network affiliates GO-AM GO-AM Category:Class A radio stations in North America

AM band

Mediumwave radio transmissions (sometimes called Medium frequency or MF) are those between the frequencies of 300 kHz and 3000 kHz. In most of the world, mediumwave serves as the most common band for broadcasting. The standard AM broadcast band is 525 kHz to 1715 kHz in North America, but remains only up to 1615 kHz elsewhere. Mediumwave signals have the property of following the curvature of the earth (the groundwave) at all times, and also reflecting off the ionosphere at night (skywave). This makes this frequency band ideal for both local and continent-wide service, depending on the time of day. For example, during the day a radio receiver in the state of Maryland is able to receive reliable but weak signals from high-power stations WFAN, 660 kHz, and WOR, 710 kHz, 400 km away in New York City, due to groundwave propagation. The effectiveness of groundwave signals largely depends on ground conductivity—higher conductivity results in better propagation. At night, the same receiver picks up signals as far away as Mexico City and Chicago reliably. Many stations are required to shut down or reduce power at night in order to make way for clear channel stations that can then be received over a wider range. In the Americas, mediumwave stations are separated by 10 kHz and have two sidebands of ±5 kHz. In the rest of the world, the separation is 9 kHz, with sidebands of ±4.5 kHz. Both provide adequate audio quality for voice, but are insufficient for high-fidelity broadcasting, which is common on the VHF FM bands. In the US the maximum transmitter power is restricted to 50 kilowatts, while in Europe there are medium wave stations with transmitter power up to 2.5 megawatts. Stereo transmission is possible and offered by some stations in the U.S., Australia, South Africa, and France. However, there are multiple standards for AM stereo with C-QUAM being the legal one in the United States, and receivers that actually implement the technologies are relatively rare but not uncommon. Failed systems include Kahn Powerside and others. In September 2002, the United States Federal Communications Commission approved the iBiquity in-band on-channel (IBOC) system of digital audio broadcasting, which is meant to improve the audio quality of signals. The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) IBOC system has been approved by the ITU for use outside the Americas.

Antennas

As aerials mostly mast radiators are used. Stations broadcasting with low power commonly use masts with heights of a quarter wavelength, while high power stations mostly use half wavelength. The usage of masts longer than 5/8 of radiated wavelength gives a bad radiation pattern. Usually mast antennas are insulated against ground and show a high voltage against ground during transmission, which complicates maintenance, installation of air safety warning lights or using the mast as a tower for UHF/VHF-radio, but there are several ways to use grounded masts or towers. wavelength If grounded masts or towers are required, than cage aerials or longwire aerials are used. Another possibility consists of feeding the mast or the tower by cables running from the tuning unit to the guys or crossbars in a certain height. Directional aerials consist of multiple masts, which need not to be from the same height. It is also possible to realize directional aerials for mediumwave with cage aerials where some parts of the cage are fed with a certain phase difference. Other type of aerials sometimes used for mediumwave are T- and L-aerials. The kind used depends on the need for grounded or insulated towers. In some cases dipole aerials are used, which are spun between two masts or towers. Such aerials radiate toward the sky. The mediumwave transmitter at Berlin-Britz for transmitting RIAS used a cross dipole mounted on five 30.5 metre high guyed masts to transmit the skywave up to the ionosphere at nighttime.

Non-broadcast use

For most of the 20th century, the radio frequency 500 kHz was reserved world wide as the Morse code international calling and distress frequency for ships on the high seas. The frequency 2182 kHz is still used for this purpose, but employing voice transmission. Other services that operate in medium wave include Navtex and the Amateur Radio 160-meter band. The obsolete LORAN-A system used medium wave.

San Francisco, California

: The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in the state of California, in the United States. A consolidated city-county, mainland San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. Insular San Francisco includes several islands in the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait, notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean and also most of the privately owned Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (See Islands of San Francisco Bay) The city is a focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 7 million. U.S. census data show that San Francisco has the highest population density of any major U.S. city aside from New York City. The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848 the city entered a period of rapid growth. Devastated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the city was quickly rebuilt. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom and explosive growth of the internet at the end of the century. San Francisco has unique characteristics when compared to other major cities in the U.S., including its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of architecture including both Victorian style houses and modern skyscrapers, and unmatched physical beauty, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's famous hallmarks include its cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, which are recognized worldwide.
History
Golden Gate Bridge European visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier by Native Americans. When Europeans arrived, they found the area inhabited by the Yelamu tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people") living in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's characteristic foggy weather and geography led early European explorers, including Juan Cabrillo and Sir Francis Drake (who would instead land a few miles north in Point Reyes), to pass by the Golden Gate and miss the San Francisco Bay. Eventually, a Spanish party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, discovered the bay in 1770, claiming it in the name of Spain. In 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza arrived and established the sites for the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis (named for Saint Francis of Assisi and now popularly known as "Mission Dolores"). In 1792 British explorer George Vancouver set up a small settlement near the village of Yerba Buena (later downtown San Francisco) which became a small base for English, Russian, and other European fur traders, explorers, and settlers. Due to its distance from Mexico City and the decline of Spanish power, the area was isolated, remaining sparsely populated and undeveloped. It became part of an independent Mexico in 1821. Following the passing of the Secularization Act of 1833, effectively ending the Mission period, Mission San Francisco de Asis was abandoned. The local indigenous tribes of Ohlone and Miwok had became virtually extinct by this time due to disease and warfare with the European settlers. In addition to Spanish and European settlers, Russian colonists also visited the Bay area. From 1770, lasting through 1841, Russia colonized an area that ranged from Alaska south to Fort Ross in Sonoma County, California. The naming of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood is attributed to the remains of Russian fur-traders and sailors found there. Serious development by non-Spanish speakers began in 1822, when William Richardson, an English whaler redeveloped a section of Yerba Buena in what is now Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. Yerba Buena remained a small town until the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846. The British Empire briefly entertained the idea of purchasing the bay from Mexico in 1841, claiming it would "Secure to Great Britain all the advantages of the finest port in the Pacific for her commercial speculations in time of peace, and in war for more easily securing her maritime ascendency". However little came of this, and San Francisco become a prize of United States continental imperialism rather than that of British thalassocratic power. A naval force under Commodore John D. Sloat claimed it in the name of the United States and renamed it "San Francisco" on January 30, 1847. Situated at the tip of a windswept peninsula without water or firewood, San Francisco lacked most of the basic facilities for a nineteenth century settlement. These natural disadvantages forced the town's residents to bring water, fuel and food to the site. The first of many environmental transformations was the city's reliance on filled marshlands for real estate. Much of the present downtown is built over the former Yerba Buena Cove, granted to the city by military governor Stephen Watts Kearny in 1847. Stephen Watts Kearny The California gold rush starting in 1848 led to a large boom in population, including considerable immigration. Between January 1848 and December 1849, the population of San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 25,000. This included many workers from China who came to work in the gold mines and later on the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinatown district of the city became and is still one of the largest in the country; the city as a whole is roughly one-fifth Chinese, one of the largest concentrations outside of China. Many businesses founded to service the growing population exist today, notably Levi Strauss & Co. clothing, Ghirardelli chocolate, and Wells Fargo bank. Many famous railroad, banking, and mining tycoons or "robber barons" such as Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford settled in the city in its Nob Hill neighborhood. The sites of their mansions are now famous and expensive San Francisco hotels (Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Huntington Hotel). Huntington Hotel, 1856.]] As in many mining towns, the social climate in early San Francisco was chaotic. This was exacerbated by squabbling in the United States Senate, where the Compromise of 1850 was igniting a fierce fight over slavery. Committees of Vigilance were formed in 1851, and again in 1856, in response to crime and government corruption, but also had a strong element of anti-immigrant violence, and arguably created more lawlessness than they eliminated. This popular militia movement lynched 12 people, kidnapped hundreds of Irishmen and government militia members, and forced several elected officials to resign. The Committee of Vigilance relinquished power both times after it decided the city had been "cleaned up." This mob activity later focused on Chinese immigrants, creating many race riots. These riots culminated in the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 that aimed to reduce Chinese immigration to the United States by limiting immigration to males and reducing numbers of immigrants allowed in the city. The law was not repealed until 1943. Chinese Exclusion Act San Francisco County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The parts of the county not in the city limits were split off to form San Mateo County in 1856. San Francisco became America's largest city west of the Mississippi River, until it lost that title to Los Angeles. It was also briefly the state capital in 1851, until San José received the title. (Sacramento is the current capital.) In autumn of 1855, a ship bearing refugees from an ongoing cholera epidemic in the far east (authorities disagree as to whether this was the S.S. Sam or the S.S. Carolina) docked in San Francisco. As the city's rapid gold-rush area population growth had significantly outstripped the development of infrastructure, including sanitation, a serious cholera epidemic quickly broke out. The responsibility for caring for the indigent sick had previously rested on the state, but faced with the San Francisco cholera epidemic, the state legislature devolved this responsibility to the counties, setting the precedent for California's system of county hospitals for the poor still in effect today. The Sisters of Mercy were contracted to run San Francisco's first county hospital at the height of the cholera epidemic, and in 1857, the order opened its own charity hospital, Mercy Hospital of San Francisco, which is still in operation today at its original location on Stanyan Street. By the 1890s, San Francisco was suffering from Boss politics and corruption, and was ripe for political reform. Adolph Sutro ran for mayor in 1894 under the auspices of the Populist Party and won handily without campaigning. Unfortunately, except for the Sutro Baths, Mayor Sutro substantially failed in his efforts to improve the city. The next mayor, James D. Phelan elected in 1896, was more successful, pushing through a new city charter that allowed for the ability to raise funds through bond issues. He was able to get bonds passed to construct a new sewer system, seventeen new schools, two parks, a hospital, and a main library. After leaving office in 1901, Phelan became interested in remaking San Francisco into a grand and modern Paris of the West. When the San Francisco Art Association asked him to draft a plan for the beautification of the city, he hired famed architect Daniel Burnham. Burnham and Phelan's plan was ambitious, envisioning a 50-year effort to transform the city with wide diagonal boulevards creating open spaces and squares as they crossed the orthogonal grid of existing streets. Some parts of the plan were eventually implemented, including an Opera house to the north of City Hall, a subway under Market Street, and a waterfront boulevard (The Embarcadero) circling the city. In 1900, a ship from China brought with it rats infected with bubonic plague. Mistakenly believing that interred corpses contributed to the transmission of plague, and possibly also motivated by the opportunity for profitable land speculation, city leaders banned all burials within the city. Cemeteries moved to the undeveloped area just south of the city limit, now the town of Colma, California. A fifteen-block section of Chinatown was quarantined while city leaders squabbled over the proper course to take, but the outbreak was finally eradicated by 1905. However, the problem of existing cemeteries and the shortage of land in the city remained. In 1912 (with fights extending until 1942), all remaining cemeteries in the city were evicted to Colma, where the dead now outnumber the living by more than a thousand to one. The above-ground Columbarium of San Francisco was allowed to remain, as well as the historic cemetery at the Mission Dolores Church and The San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco. On April 18 1906, a devastating earthquake resulted from the rupture of over 270 miles of the San Andreas Fault, from San Juan Bautista to Eureka, centered immediately offshore of San Francisco. The quake is estimated by the USGS to have had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Water mains ruptured throughout San Francisco, and the fires that followed burned out of control for days, destroying approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core. Many residents were trapped between the water on three sides and the approaching fire, and a mass evacuation (similar to that of the later Battle of Dunkirk) across the Bay saved thousands. Refugee camps were also set up in Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and other undeveloped sections of the city. The official death toll at the time was 478, although it was officially revised in 2005 to 3,000+. The initial low death toll was concocted by civic, state, and federal officials who felt that reporting the actual numbers would hurt rebuilding and redevelopment efforts, as well as city and national morale. Ocean Beach In 1915, the city hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition, officially to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, but also as a showcase of the vibrant completely rebuilt city less than a decade after the Earthquake. After the exposition ended, all of its grand buildings were demolished except for the Palace of Fine Arts which survives today in an abbreviated form. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. During World War II, San Francisco was the major mainland supply point and port of embarkation for the war in the Pacific. The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco has been the site of some significant post World War II history. In 1945, the conference that formed the United Nations was held there, with the UN Charter being signed on June 26. Additionally the Treaty of San Francisco which formally ended war with Japan and established peaceful relations, was drafted and signed here six years later in 1951. After World War II, many American military personnel who fell in love with the city during leaving to or returning from the Pacific, settled in the city prompting the creation of the Sunset District and Visitacion Valley. During this period, Caltrans commenced an aggressive freeway construction program in the Bay Area. However, Caltrans soon encountered strong resistance in San Francisco, for the city's high population density meant that virtually any right-of-way would displace a large number of people. Caltrans tried to minimize displacement (and its land acquisition costs) by building double-decker freeways, but the crude state of civil engineering at that time resulted in construction of some embarrassingly ugly freeways which ultimately turned out to be seismically unsafe. In 1959, the Board of Supervisors voted to halt construction of any more freeways in the city, an event known as the Freeway Revolt. Although some minor modifications have been allowed to the ends of existing freeways, the city's anti-freeway policy has remained in place ever since. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Embarcadero Freeway and portions of the so-called Central Freeway. Over the course of several referenda, San Francisco's residents elected not to rebuild either structure. The neighborhoods once covered by these freeways have been rebuilt, and the restoration of the Embarcadero, San Francisco's historic bay waterfront, as a public space has been especially successful. In the 1950s San Francisco hired Harvard graduate Justin Herman to head the redevelopment agency for the city and county. Justin Herman began an aggressive campaign to renew blighted areas of the city. Enacting eminent domain whenever necessary, he set upon a plan to tear down huge areas of the city and replace them with modern construction. Critics accused Herman of racism for what was perceived as attempts to create segregation and displacement of African-Americans. Many African-Americans were forced to move from their homes near the Fillmore jazz district to newly constructed projects such as the near the naval base Hunter's Point or even to cities such as Oakland. He began leveling entire areas in San Francisco's Western Addition and Japantown neighborhoods. His planning led to the creation of Embarcadero Center, the Embarcadero Freeway, Japantown, the Geary Street superblocks, and Yerba Buena Gardens. San Francisco has often been a magnet for America's counterculture. During the 1950s, City Lights Bookstore in the North Beach neighborhood was an important publisher of Beat Generation literature. Some of the story of the evolving arts scene of the 1950s is told in the article San Francisco Renaissance. During the latter half of the following decade, the 1960s, San Francisco was the center of hippie and other alternative culture. In 1966 the Church Of Satan opened their headquarters, and in 1967 thousands of young people poured into the Haight-Ashbury district during what became known as the Summer of Love. At this time, the "San Francisco sound" emerged as an influential force in rock music, with such acts as the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead achieving international prominence, blurring the boundaries between folk, rock and jazz traditions and further developing the lyrical content of rock. During the 1980s and 1990s San Francisco became a major focal point in the North American--and international-- punk, thrash metal, and rave scenes. On the rave scene, the city was the first to host the Love Parade outside its birthplace of Berlin, Germany in 2004. It was also a hot spot during the 1980's for comedians like Ellen DeGeneres and Robin Williams who got major career boosts thanks to the presence of the city's popular comedy clubs. San Francisco's frontier spirit and wild and ribald character caused it to become known as a gay mecca beginning in the nineteenth century. This reputation was enforced greatly during World War II, when thousands of gay male soldiers spent time in the City, while en route to and from the Pacific theater. The late 1960s also brought in a new wave of lesbians and gays who were more radical and less mainstream and who had flocked to San Francisco not only for its gay-friendly reputation, but for its reputation as a radical, left-wing epicenter. These new residents were the prime movers of Gay Liberation and often lived communally, buying decrepit Victorians in the Haight and fixing them up. When drugs and violence began to become a serious problem in the Haight, many lesbians and gays simply moved "over the hill", to the Castro replacing Irish-Americans who had moved to the more affluent and culturally homogenous suburbs. The Castro became known as a Gay Mecca, and its gay population swelled as significant numbers of gay people moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. The growth of the gay population caused tensions with some of the established ethnic groups in the western part of the city. On November 27, 1978 Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors and former police officer, assassinated the city's mayor George Moscone and San Francisco's first openly gay elected official, Supervisor Harvey Milk (see "Twinkie Defense"). The murders and the subsequent trial were marked both by candlelight vigils and riots within the gay community. In the 1980s, the AIDS virus wreaked havoc on the gay male community there. Today, the gay population of the city is estimated to be approximately 15%, and gays remain an important force in the city's life. San Francisco has a higher percentage of gays and lesbians than any other major US city. During the administration of Mayor Dianne Feinstein (1978-1988), San Francisco saw a development boom referred to as "Manhattanization." Many large skyscrapers were built — primarily in the Financial District — but the boom also included high-rise condominiums in some residential neighborhoods. An opposition movement gained traction among those who felt the skyscrapers ruined views and destroyed San Francisco's unique character. Similar to the freeway revolt in the city decades earlier, a "skyscraper revolt" forced the city to embed height restrictions in the planning code. For many years, the limits slowed construction of new skyscrapers, but recent (2000-2005) housing pressures have led to master plan changes which will allow new construction of high-rise structures along The Embarcadero and in the South of Market district. South of Market During the 1980s, homeless people began appearing in large numbers in the city, the result of multiple factors including the closing of state institutions for the mentally ill, and social changes which increased the availability of addictive drugs. Combined with San Francisco's attractive environment and generous welfare policies the problem soon became endemic. Mayor Art Agnos (1988-92) was the first to attack the problem, and not the last; it is a top issue for San Franciscans even today. Agnos allowed the homeless to camp in the Civic Center park, which led to its title of "Camp Agnos." The failure of this policy led to his losing the election to Frank Jordan in 1991. Jordan launched the "MATRIX" program the next year, which aimed to displace the homeless through aggressive police action. And it did displace them - to the rest of the city. His successor, Willie Brown, was able to largely ignore the problem, riding on the strong economy into a second term. Present mayor Gavin Newsom's policy on the homeless is the controversial "Care Not Cash" program, which calls for ending the city's generous welfare policies towards the homeless and instead placing them in affordable housing and requiring them to attend city funded drug rehabilitation and job training programs. On October 17, 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale struck on the San Andreas Fault near Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz mountains, approximately 70 miles south of San Francisco, a few minutes before game 3 of the 1989 World Series. The quake severely damaged many of the city's freeway's including the Embarcadero Freeway and the Central Freeway. The damage to these freeways was so extensive that they were eventually demolished. The quake also caused extensive damage in the Marina District and the South of Market. Known in most of the United States as the "World Series Quake," but in California and by seismologists as the Loma Prieta earthquake, it caused significant destruction and loss of life throughout the greater Bay Area. During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer software professionals moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales professionals, and changed the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became gentrified. The rising rents forced many people and businesses to leave, and this caused considerable tension in the city's politics. The resulting backlash resulted in a progressive majority winning control of the Board of Supervisors in the 2000 election. By 2001, the boom was over, and many people left San Francisco. South of Market, where many dot-com companies were located, had been bustling and crowded with few vacancies, but by 2002 was a virtual wasteland of empty offices and for-rent signs. Much of the boom was blamed for the city's "fastest shrinking population", reducing the city's population by 30,000 in just a few years. While the boom has helped put an ease on the city's apartment rents, the city remains expensive nonetheless. In February 2004, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to grant marriage to gay couples when Mayor Gavin Newsom, elected the previous year, ordered the City Clerks office to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The California Supreme Court later invalidated these licenses, holding that Newsom had acted without proper authority. In 2005 San Francisco hosted the United Nations annual World Environment Day conference, the first in the United States, and banned outdoor smoking in all city-owned parks, plazas and public sports venues. Also as of December 2005, the crime rate has gone up, with more than 90 killngs throughout the year. San Francisco is also facing serious budget deficits, and, for such a small city, the homeless problem is still one of the worst in America.
Geography and climate
banned outdoor smoking Landsat 7]] San Francisco lies near the San Andreas Fault and Hayward Fault, two major sources of earthquake activity in California. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, is mentioned above. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1851, 1858, 1865, and 1868. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, which also did significant damage to parts of the city, is also famous for having interrupted a World Series baseball game between the Bay Area's two Major League Baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. The threat of another major earthquake like the 1906 one plays a major role in the city's infrastructure development. New buildings must be built to very high structural standards, while many dollars must be spent to retrofit the city's older buildings and bridges. Entire neighborhoods of the city such as the Marina and Hunters Point were created and sit on man made landfill (made up of mud, sand, and rubble from past earthquakes) and other reclamation projects over the San Francisco Bay when flatland became scarce. Such land is extremely unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction during earthquakes causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. The most impressive example of an "infill neighborhood" is Treasure Island. It was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from tunnelling through Yerba Buena Island in the construction of the Bay Bridge. It was a site for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, and it was originally envisioned that Treasure Island would serve as the site for San Francisco's municipal airport, but it became a Navy base at the start of World War II. In 1997 Treasure Island was returned to the city and it provides a unique vantage point to view the San Francisco skyline. San Francisco is famous for its hills. A "Hill" in San Francisco, is an elevation that is over 100 ft (30 Meters). There are a total of 42 hills within city limits. Some of these hills are neighborhoods such as Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, and Telegraph Hill, while some of these hills are public parks and open space such as Twin Peaks, Mt. Sutro, Mount Davidson, and Buena Vista Park. Near the geographic center of the city and away from the downtown area are a series of less populated hills. Dominating this area is Mount Sutro, which is the site of Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio transmission tower, that is a well known landmark to city residents. Nearby are the equally well known Twin Peaks, which are a pair of hills resting at one of the city's highest points. About 1.2km (1 mile) south of Mount Sutro is San Francisco's highest mountain, Mount Davidson, which is over 282 meters (over 925 feet) high. On top of Mount Davidson is a 31.4 meter (103 foot) tall cross built in 1934. Twin Peaks Not to be missed are the beautiful homes and area of the city known as Pacific Heights as well as victorians in the Haight-Ashbury and the "painted ladies" of Alamo Square and the Castro. San Francisco is also famous for its Cable cars (narrow gauge, 1067 mm (3'6")), which were designed to carry residents up those steep hills. It is still possible to take a cable car ride up and down Nob and Russian Hills. Along with New Orleans' streetcars, San Francisco's cable cars are one of only two mobile United States National Monuments. Coit Tower, a notable landmark dedicated to San Francisco's firefighters, is located at the top of Telegraph Hill.
Climate
Surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco's climate is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean. The weather is remarkably mild all year round, with a so-called Mediterranean climate characterized by cool, foggy summers and relatively warm winters; average daily high temperatures in the summer typically range from the upper 60's to mid 70's (15-22 degrees Celsius), while in the winter it virtually never reaches freezing. Rain in the summer is quite rare, but winters are very rainy. Snow is very rare. The Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the city is particularly cold year round. The combination of cold ocean water and the high heat of the California mainland creates the city's characteristic foggy weather that covers the western half of the city in fog all day during the summer and early fall, as well as the rest of the San Francisco metropolitan area as far as 35-50 miles inland in overcast and fog. Thus, the summer temperatures are significantly lower in San Francisco than in other parts of inland California. The fog is less pronounced during the months of September & October and during the late spring, which is generally the warmest, most summer-like months of the year. In January, morning lows average 46 °F (8 °C) and afternoon highs average 58 °F (14 °C). In August, lows average 56 °F (13 °C) and highs average 72 °F (22 °C). San Francisco receives an average of 22.28 inches (56.6 cm) of precipitation annually with July and August being almost completely free of precipitation. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city and county has a total area of 600.7 km² (231.9 mi²). 120.9 km² (46.7 mi²) of it is land and 479.7 km² (185.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 79.86% water. The city proper is often reputed to be roughly a seven mile square, and in fact is only slightly smaller. The geographical center of the city is on the east side of Grandview Avenue between Alvarado and Twenty-third Streets. mi²
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
mi² San Francisco has a Japantown and Chinatown; both are among the largest and oldest in the US. It also boasts a budding Vietnamese community in the Tenderloin neighborhood, Filipinos in Crocker-Amazon and South of Market, an Italian community in North Beach, a French Quarter, and Irish and Russian communities in the Richmond District. The predominantly Hispanic Mission District is the oldest neighborhood in the city, being the site of Mission Dolores, established in 1776. Russian Hill is a residential neighborhood most famous for Lombard Street "the crookedest street in the world". Haight-Ashbury gained prominence during the "Summer of Love" 1960s for its counter-culture and concentration of hippies. The Castro neighborhood has the world's highest concentration of homosexuals. In addition to the predominantly gay Castro, there are significant concentrations of gays in NoeValley, Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley, and SOMA. (See The Castro for more gay demographics.) The Castro") at Alamo Square]] Current demographic and land use expansion is concentrated in the east and south. The South of Market neighborhood was an epicenter of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. A new neighborhood, Mission Bay, is being redeveloped from an industrial area at the far eastern end of South of Market. The cornerstones of this development are the SBC Park baseball stadium and an extension of the University of California, San Francisco medical school.
Parks
The best-known, as well as biggest, park is Golden Gate Park which is 174 acres larger than New York's Central Park. Another notable park is The Presidio at the south edge of the Golden Gate. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and many other large local parks. Buena Vista Park located in the Haight-Ashbury, is the city's oldest, established in 1867, nearby Alamo Square is famous for its views of the city and the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies. A large fresh-water lake, Lake Merced, is located in the south west corner of the city near San Francisco State University and Fort Funston. San Francisco also contains many public beaches such as Baker Beach and Ocean Beach.
Demographics
Ocean Beach, Richmond District, and in Chinatown.]] As of the census of 2000, there are 776,733 people, 329,700 households, and 145,068 families residing in the city. The population density is 6,423.2/km² (16,634.4/mi²), making it the second densest city of 500,000 or more, as well as the fifth densest county, in the country [http://gislounge.com/features/aa041101c.shtml]. . There are 346,527 housing units at an average density of 2,865.6/km² (7,421.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 49.66% White, 7.79% African American, 0.45% Native American, 30.84% Asian, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and 4.28% from two or more races. 14.10% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. The ethnic makeup is 19.6% Chinese, 8.8% Irish, 7.7% German, and 6.1% English. San Francisco has the largest Chinese population in America and the largest Asian population outside of Hawaii. The City has the highest percentage of gay families (as well as a large numbers of single gay people) of any American county or large city. Gay men outnumber lesbians, who are more concentrated in the suburban East Bay. There are 329,700 households out of which 16.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.6% are married couples living together, 8.9% have a female head of household with no husband present, and 56.0% are non-families. 38.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.30 and the average family size is 3.22. In the city the population is spread out with 14.5% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 103.1 males. The median income for a household in the city is $55,221, and the median income for a family is $63,545 one of the highest in the United States at 15th place overall and 3rd in a single large city. Males have a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The per capita income for the city is $34,556 which is ranked as the 19th highest in the country. 11.3% of the population and 7.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 13.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Government and politics
As the official name implies, the City and County San Francisco is a metropolitan municipality, being simultaneously a charter city and charter county with a consolidated government. It is the only metropolitan municipality in California and the only California county with a mayor, who is also the county executive. San Francisco is the only California city with a board of supervisors, which is also the city council. San Francisco's unique status also makes it a municipal corporation and an administrative division of the state. It is in the latter capacity that San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over property that would otherwise be located outside of its corporation limit. San Francisco International Airport, for example, would be located within San Mateo County but for the fact it is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. Because counties are administrative divisions of the state, it is legally impossible for two counties to occupy or exercise jurisdiction over the same piece of land. Thus, the airport, which is about 15 miles south of mainland San Francisco, is legally part of San Francisco because the municipality owns it. San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed, in Yosemite National Park, pursuant to a perpetual leasehold granted by Act of Congress in 1913, the Raker Act. Under the current charter, the Government of San Francisco is constituted of two co-equal branches - the executive or administrative branch, which is headed by the mayor and includes other city-wide elected and appointed officials, and the civil service; and the legislative branch, which is constituted of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which exercises general oversight over all city and county functions. The mayor is elected every four years, in the odd-numbered year that precedes the U.S. presidential election. The current mayor, Gavin Newsom, was elected in December 2003 in a runoff competition against Matt Gonzalez (see also List of Mayors of San Francisco, California). Gonzalez was president of the Board of Supervisors, representing District 5, and Newsom was a member of the board representing District 2. If the mayor dies or resigns, the President of the Board of Supervisors assumes the office until a special election can be held. The eleven members of the Board of Supervisors (as of January 2005) are listed in the table at right by district number[http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4385]. The current president of the Board is Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3. How the Board of Supervisors shall be elected has been a bone of contention in recent San Francisco history. Throughout the United States, almost all cities and counties with populations in excess of 20,000 divide the jurisdiction into electoral districts (in cities, often called "wards") to ensure proportionate representation of the whole community and to evenly distribute the community interaction workload evenly among the members of the governing body (city council, county board of supervisors, etc.) But California has always been disinclined to follow examples set by the rest of the country; and San Francisco, notwithstanding a population of 0.7 million, has been no exception. Prior to 1977 and again from 1980 through 2000, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was elected at-large. All candidates appeared together on the ballot. The person who received the most votes was elected President of the Board of Supervisors, and the next ten were elected to seats on the board. The first district-based elections in 1977 resulted in a radical change to the composition of the Board, including the election of Harvey Milk, only the third openly gay or lesbian individual (and the first who was male) elected to public office in the United States. Following the assassinations of Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone a year later, by Supervisor Dan White who had just resigned, district elections were deemed divisive and San Francisco returned to at-large elections until the current system was implemented in 2000. Under the current system, Supervisors are elected by district to four-year terms. The terms are staggered so that only half the board is elected every two years, thereby providing continuity. Supervisors representing odd-numbered districts (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) are elected every fourth year counted from 2000 (so, 2000, 2004, 2008, etc.). Supervisors representing even-numbered districts (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) were elected to transitional two-year terms in 2000, thereafter to be elected every fourth year (2002, 2006, 2010, etc.). The President of the Board of Supervisors, under the new system, is elected by the members of the Board from among their number. This is done by secret ballot, typically at the first meeting of the new session commencing after the general election. The Mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors are subject to term limits under the San Francisco Charter. None may serve more than two consecutive terms. As part of the change to district elections, however, this provision applies to supervisors only as of the first full term of election following its implementation in 2000. Thus, Tom Ammiano, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1994 and 1998 under the old system, then again in 2000 under the new system, was able to run yet again in 2004 (and won). A single vote transfer system of elections was approved by the electorate and implemented in time for the 2004 general election. This system replaced the old, expensive system of run-off elections. Under this new ranked-choice system, whenever there are more than two candidates for an office, voters rank their choices in order of preference. If a candidate does not achieve a majority of votes cast when the first choice votes are counted, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and the second choice votes on those ballots are tabulated and "transferred" to the remaining candidates. The process continues, as necessary, until one candidate achieves a majority of votes cast and is then declared the winner. Eyed warily by some and optimistically by others - in both cases owing to the belief that single-transfer voting might favour so-called "progressive" and "minority party" candidates over so-called "conservative" and "mainstream party" candidates - the 2004 general election results showed that belief to be unfounded, as all incumbent Supervisors were returned to office. Vacancies on the Board of Supervisors are filled by mayoral appointment, subject to special election (except as the Charter permits an appointee to remain in office until the general election for the seat is held). A person appointed or elected to fill a vacancy of less than two years is not deemed to have served a full term for purposes of term limits, whereas a person who fills a vacancy with more than two years remaining in the term is deemed to serve a full term and will be able to run for a consecutive term only once. The Mayor's 2005-2006 proposed budget forecasts general fund expenditures of $2.44 billion. As the largest city on the west coast before World War I, San Francisco became and remains the legal hub for the western United States. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court for Northern California are headquartered in San Francisco. The Supreme Court of California is also headquartered in San Francisco, making The City the de facto judicial capital of the state. California is the only U.S. jurisdiction whose highest court and judicial seat is not in the official state or territorial capital. The California Supreme Court also maintains branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento. In addition, the city is the seat of the First Appellate District of the State Courts of Appeals and the San Francisco County Superior Court.
City flag
The flag depicts a rising Phoenix, symbolic of the City's recovery from the 1906 fire. Underneath the phoenix it has a motto written in Spanish: "Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra," which translates into: "Gold in Peace, Iron in War."
City seal
The seal, which was adopted in the 1850s, depicts two working men, on one side a miner and on the other a sailor with a sextant. Above is a rising phoenix and behind is the bay with sailing ships. The Phoenix symbolizes the city's emergence from the ashes of several devastating fires in the early 1850's.
Economy
Because of the California gold rush, San Francisco became and remains the banking and financial center of the U.S. West Coast. It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as major production facilities for the U.S. Mint. The Pacific Exchange is located in the financial district. Many major American and international banks and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city. Fortune 500 rankings indicated in parenthesis. Companies headquartered in San Francisco are: Companies headquartered near San Francisco include:
Education
The city is served by San Francisco Unified School District. Despite its limited geographical space, San Francisco is home to a multitude of Universities and Colleges. Public universities include:
- University of California, San Francisco, primarily a Medical School, located north of Forest Hill
- San Francisco State University located in the southwest corner of the city near Lake Merced
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law located downtown at its Civic Center
- City College of San Francisco, one of the largest community colleges in the country is located in the Ingleside, with several extension campuses. Private universities:
- The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, one of the first universities established west of the Mississippi, located in the center of the city
- Golden Gate University, a business and law school located downtown
- October 16, 1921 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, it is today the number two media company in the United States. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Burbank, California. Disney had revenues of $30.8 billion in 2004, and it is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. For much of its history, the company was known as Walt Disney Productions, Ltd., until February 6, 1986, when it was rechristened with its current name. "Disney Enterprises, Inc.," commonly seen in company legal notices, is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
Divisions
Disney's main operating units are Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks, and Consumer Products.
Studio Entertainment
Its Studio Entertainment unit, also known as The Walt Disney Studios, is headed by Chairman Dick Cook. It includes the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a collection of movie studios including Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures. The Miramax Films and Dimension Films studios are also a part of the unit, but operate autonomously in New York. Disney's Buena Vista Music Group, which includes Walt Disney Records, Mammoth Records, Lyric Street Records, and Hollywood Records, also falls under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Studios. The unit also includes Walt Disney Theatrical and Disney's distribution companies: Buena Vista International and Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Buena Vista Home Entertainment One of the company's most successful subsidiaries is its animation studio, Walt Disney Feature Animation, responsible for producing a number of successful and influential traditionally animated features. The traditional Disney films referred to by most fans are those with which Disney took a well-known fairy tale or story and injected its own, distinctively American, style, adding popular-style songs to make them into animated musicals. The first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, began this tradition in 1938. It was followed by such films as Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992). In addition to these romantic tales, Disney has dabbled in action animations, again of well-known stories, such as Peter Pan (1953), 101 Dalmations (1961), The Jungle Book (1967), and Robin Hood (1973). The traditional animated movies ended with such movies as The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Hercules and Mulan. In the aftermath of the box office failures of some of its recent animated films and the stellar successes of computer-animated films from Pixar, Disney has shifted its production from "traditional" hand-drawn animated films (which in recent years have incorporated much work done on computer) to entirely computer-animated films. The last traditionally-animated film produced by Disney was Home on the Range. Its first computer-animated film will be Chicken Little. Disney has fallen under much criticism for this change in direction, especially from fans who see the strength of a movie as its plot and its characters and not as the technology used to make it. Disney is becoming a direct competitor to Pixar in a market dominated by the latter. Disney has failed to renew its contract with Pixar to release Pixar's films under the Disney name, an arrangement which had been extremely profitable to Disney and whose termination means that Pixar is now free to pair up with a competing studio. Walt Disney Studios, the company's main film and television production facility and corporate headquarters located in Burbank, California, is the only major Hollywood film studio that has never offered tours to the public. A partial tour of the Orlando, Florida feature animation satellite studio was available to attendees of Disney-MGM Studios until 2003.
Parks and Resorts
2003 Disney operates a total of nine theme parks at the Disneyland Resort, the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris and the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan is operated and owned by the Oriental Land Company with licenses from Disney, and was built by the company's Imagineers. The company also owned through Anaheim Sports, Inc. the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey club, which it recently agreed to sell to Broadcom executive Henry Samueli, and owned the Anaheim Angels baseball team, which was later sold to advertising magnate Arturo Moreno. Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, the Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, and the chain of ESPN Zone sports-themed restaurants also operate as a part of the Parks & Resorts unit.
Media Networks
Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. Disney also owns a group of cable networks including The Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5%), and E! (40%). Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 26 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, Radio Disney, and the ABC Radio, which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News. Buena Vista Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such syndicated television programs as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Ebert & Roeper. Disney also operates its Hyperion publishing company and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIC) through Media Networks. Hyperion has recently published books by comedian-author Steve Martin and bestselling author Mitch Albom. WDIC includes the Go.com web portal, based on the old Infoseek search engine which it purchased in 1998, and leading websites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com, and ABCNews.com.
Consumer Products
Its Consumer Products unit includes Disney's merchandising and licensing business and its Disney Publishing Worldwide group, whose imprints include Disney Editions, Hyperion Books for Children, Disney Press. It also published the Disney Adventures children's magazine. The unit once included the Disney Store chain of shopping mall locations, which it sold in 2004. It does now include Jim Henson's Muppets characters, which it purchased from The Jim Henson Company in 2004.
History

1923-1936

- 1923: The Disney Bros. Studio, founded in October 16th by brothers Walt and Roy Disney and animator Ub Iwerks, produces the Alice in Cartoonland series.
- 1925: At Walt Disney's insistence, the company is renamed Walt Disney Studios.
- 1927: The Alice series ends; Disney picks up the contract to animate Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
- 1928: Walt loses the Oswald series contract; first Mickey Mouse cartoon: Plane Crazy
- 1929: First Silly Symphony: The Skeleton Dance. On December 16, the original partnership formed in 1923 is replaced by Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. Three other companies, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company, are also formed.
- 1930: First appearance of Pluto
- 1932: First three-strip Technicolor short released: Flowers and Trees; first appearance of Goofy
- 1934: First appearance of Donald Duck Donald Duck
1937-1954

- 1937: Studio produces its first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- 1938: On September 29th, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company are merged into Walt Disney Productions.
- 1940: Studio moves to the Burbank, California buildings where it is located to this day
- 1941: A bitter animators' strike occurs; as the USA enters World War II, the studio begins making morale-boosting propaganda films for the government
- 1944: The company is short on cash; a theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs generates much-needed revenue and begins a reissue pattern for the animated feature films (See: List of Disney film reissues by year)
- 1945: The studio hires its first-ever live actor for a film, James Baskett, to star as Uncle Remus in Song of the South
- 1949: The studio begins production on its first all-live action feature, Treasure Island; the popular True-Life Adventures series begins
- 1952: Walt Disney forms WED Enterprises on December 16 to design his theme park.
- 1953: Walt Disney forms Retlaw Enterprises on April 6 to control the rights to his name. It will later own and operate several attractions inside Disneyland, including the Monorail and the Disneyland Railroad.
- 1954: The studio founds Buena Vista Distribution to distribute its feature films; beginning of the Disneyland TV program Disneyland
1955-1983

- 1955: Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California. Walt Disney Productions owns 34.5 percent of Disneyland, Inc. It increases its stake in 1957 to 65.5 percent, then purchases the remaining shares from ABC in 1960.
- 1961: The studio licenses the film rights to Winnie-the-Pooh, whose characters continue to be highly profitable to this day; international distribution arm Buena Vista International is established.
- 1964: The company starts buying land near Orlando, Florida for Walt Disney World (then known as Disney World or The Florida Project)
- 1965: The regular production of short subjects ceases, as theatres no longer have any demand for them. Walt Disney Productions acquires WED Enterprises.
- 1966: Official plans are announced for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort, later canceled.
- 1966: Walt Disney dies. His brother Roy takes over.
- 1967: Construction begins on Walt Disney World; the underlying governmental structure (see Reedy Creek Improvement District) is signed into law.
- 1971: The Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida; Roy Oliver Disney dies; Donn Tatum becomes chairman and Card Walker becomes president.
- 1977: Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy and nephew of Walt, resigns from the company citing a decline in overall product quality and issues with management.
- 1978: The studio licenses several minor titles to MCA Discovision for laserdisc release; only TV compilations of cartoons ever see the light of day through this deal.
- 1979: Don Bluth and a number of his allies leave the animation division; the studio releases its first PG-rated film, The Black Hole
- 1980: Tom Wilhite becomes head of the film division with the intent of modernizing studio product; a home video division is created
- 1981: Plans for a cable network are announced.
- 1982: EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World; Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron W. Miller succeeds Card Walker as CEO
- 1983: As the anthology series is canceled, The Disney Channel begins operation on US cable systems; Tom Wilhite resigns his post; Tokyo Disneyland opens in Japan
1984-present

- 1984: Touchstone Pictures is created; after the studio narrowly escapes a buyout attempt by Saul Steinberg, Roy Edward Disney and his business partner, Stanley Gold, remove Ron W. Miller as CEO and president, replacing him with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. The Walt Disney Black Diamond Classics video series is created.
- 1985: The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles ; The home video release of Pinocchio is a best-seller.
- 1986: The studio's first R-rated release comes from Touchstone Pictures; the anthology series is revived; the company's name is changed from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company.
- 1987: The company and the French government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts.
- 1989: Disney offers a deal to buy Jim Henson's Muppets and have the famed puppeteer work with Disney resources; the Disney-MGM Studios open at Walt Disney World.
- 1990: Jim Henson's death sours the deal to buy his holdings; the anthology series canceled for second time.
- 1992: The controversial Euro Disney Resort opens outside Paris, France.
- 1993: Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films; Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time; the policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but is augmented for video.
- 1994: Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash; Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG.
- 1994: Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped. No explanation is given, and Disney announces a search for an alternate location.
- 1994: Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris. The Classics line is unofficially cancelled and replaced with the Masterpiece Collection.
- 1995: In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent, Michael Ovitz, to be president.
- 1996: The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name for non-Walt Disney branded ventures and acquires the Capital Cities/ABC group, renaming it ABC, Inc. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent." To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World.
- 1997: The anthology series is revived again; the home video division releases its first DVDs.
- 1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World.
- 2000: Robert Iger becomes president and COO. Disney begins their Gold Classic Collection DVD line, replacing their Masterpiece Collection series.
- 2001: Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees; Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public; Disney begins releasing Walt Disney Treasures DVD box sets for the collector's market. Disney buys Fox Family for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
- 2002: Walt Disney Studios open near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney finishes negotions to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Subsidary Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pokemon movies starting with the fourth movie.
- 2003: Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier; fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him; they establish "Save Disney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner. He will end his campaign against Eisner and rejoin the company as a consultant in July 2005. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl becomes the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating. PG-13]
- 2004: Comcast makes a hostile bid for the company, CEO Michael Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board as a 43% vote of no confidence, The Muppets become Disney property and Disney turn down distributing Fahrenheit 9/11 which ends up making $100 million. On February 17, 2004, Disney buys the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters).
- 2005: Disneyland celebrates its 50th birthday on July 17. Hong Kong Disneyland officially opens on September 12. Robert A. Iger replaces Michael Eisner as CEO on October 1. Also on October 1, Miramax co-founders Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein leave the company to form their own studio. Most recent financial statements [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=DIS&annual Income Statement] [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=DIS&annual Balance Sheet] [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=DIS&annual Cash Flow] Annual reports [http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?type=10-k&dateb=&owner=include&action=getcompany&CIK=0001001039 1996-2004]
Management, 1923-present

Current board of directors

- John Bryson
- John S. Chen
- Roy E. Disney (Director Emeritus; non-voting)
- Judith Estrin
- Robert Iger
- Fred Langhammer
- Aylwin Lewis
- Monica Lozano
- Robert Matschullat
- George J. Mitchell
- Leo O'Donovan
- John E. Pepper, Jr. (beginning 1 January 2006)
- Orin C. Smith (beginning 1 January 2006)
- Gary L. Wilson
Current division heads

- Walt Disney International - Andy Bird
- Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Jay Rasulo
- Walt Disney Studios - Richard Cook
- Buena Vista Music Group - Bob Cavallo
- Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group - Nina Jacobson
- ESPN - George W. Bodenheimer
- Consumer Products - Andrew P. Mooney
- Walt Disney Feature Animation - David Stainton
- Disney-ABC Television Group - Anne Sweeney
- Walt Disney Imagineering - Don Goodman
- Walt Disney Creative Entertainment - Anne Hamburger
- Walt Disney Theatrical - Thomas Schumacher
Disney Chairmen of the Board

- 1945-1960: Walt Disney
- 1964-1971: Roy O. Disney
- 1971-1980: Donn Tatum
- 1980-1983: E. Cardon Walker
- 1983-1984: Raymond Watson
- 1984-2004: Michael Eisner
- 2004-present: George J. Mitchell
Disney CEOs

- 1968-1971: Roy O. Disney
- 1971-1976: Donn Tatum
- 1976-1983: E. Cardon Walker
- 1983-1984: Ron W. Miller
- 1984-2005: Michael Eisner
- 2005-present: Robert Iger
Disney Presidents

- 1940-1945: Walt Disney
- 1945-1966: Roy O. Disney
- 1966-1971: Donn Tatum
- 1971-1977: E. Cardon Walker
- 1977-1984: Ron W. Miller
- 1984-1994: Frank Wells
- 1994-1995: Michael Eisner
- 1995-1997: Michael Ovitz
- 2000-Present: Robert Iger
Disney COOs

- 1968-1977: E. Cardon Walker
- 1977-1983: Ron W. Miller
- 1984-1994: Frank Wells
- 2000-2005: Robert Iger
See also

- Notable feature films released under the Walt Disney name
- Notable television series produced by Disney subsidiaries
- Disney characters' names in various languages
- List of assets owned by Disney
- List of Disney characters
- Disney feature film source material
- List of Disney animated features
- List of Disney people
- 100 Years of Magic lists
- Disneyization
- A Trip Through the Walt Disney Studios, a documentary from 1937
External links

- [http://www.disney.go.com The Official Website of The Walt Disney Company]
- [http://www.disney.com/corporate The Walt Disney Company corporate web site]
- [http://www.ultimatedisney.com UltimateDisney.com - List of all Disney movies and DVD status]
SEC

- [http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001001039&owner=include SEC - Company Information: WALT DISNEY CO/] Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Company, The Walt Disney Company, The Walt Disney Company, The ja:ウォルト・ディズニー・カンパニー simple:The Walt Disney Company

Clear channel

:This article is about the class of AM radio stations that are called clear channel stations based on their technical parameters, not their owner. For the company named Clear Channel, which owns radio stations most of which are not in this class, please see Clear Channel Communications. Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. Non-clear channel stations transmitting on these frequencies are (or were) required to shut down at night, leading them to be known as daytimers. In North America, some frequencies were designated by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) (to which the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are signatory) as clear channels. These are considered by the FCC and CRTC to be class A (formerly class 1-A or I-A) stations. Daytimers are in class D. For the U.S., clear channels first appeared in 1922 when the Commerce Department moved stations which had all used two frequencies (one for entertainment stations, one for news) onto 52 frequencies. Two were used for all low-power stations and the large stations each got their own frequency. A few frequencies were used on both the East and West Coast, which were considered far enough apart to limit interference. At this time large stations were limited to 1000 watts. Later in 1928, the AM band was reorganized with local, regional and clear channels (and a few reserved for Canada) by the new Federal Radio Commission. Gradually maximum power was increased to 50,000 watts. This system was continued in the 1941 NARBA system although almost all stations shifted broadcast frequencies. Recently however, the FCC has authorized nighttime operation by lower-powered stations on these frequencies, thus limiting the non-interference range of the primary licensees. Stations are still required to reduce power or reconfigure their transmitters at night. Regional class stations have been allowed to increase their power to the same 50,000 watts as clear channel stations. In 1987 the rules were changed so that no new stations would have daytime-only licenses. Clear Channel Communications, a San Antonio, Texas-based company which owns a large number of U.S. radio stations, was originally formed to purchase one of these stations, WOAI; the company now owns more than a dozen.

Clear channels in North America

The following two tables show all of the class-A stations in North America. Stations in Alaska are shown separately due to their unique status. WOWO was previously a class-A station and is called out in the treaties as such. However, in the 1990s WOWO was downgraded to a class B allotment by reducing its night power to 9.8 kW, and thus no longer has a secondary service area. CHUC applied for and was granted 1580 at Cobourg, Ontario with 10 kW, but chose instead to move to FM. This channel was originally allocated to CBJ in Chicoutimi, Quebec. CHUC is notified to the U.S. as an existing station on 1580.

External links

- [http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amclasses.html AM Station Classes - Clear, Regional, and Local Channels] (FCC Website)
- [http://www.ac6v.com/clearam.htm Big USA, Mexico, and Canadian AM radio stations] Category:United States communications regulation Category:Canadian media regulation Category:Radio
-