Two California radio programming pioneers, Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, modified the Top 40 formula to include a smaller number of records, heavier rotation of the biggest hits, very short jingles and less talk.
Drake had tested some of the format elements in 1961 and 1962 while he served as program director and morning man at San Francisco's KYA, a station that promoted itself at the time as "The Boss of the Bay".
Drake and Chenault introduced and further developed this format at KYNO in Fresno, KSTN in Stockton, and KGB AM in San Diego.
(The other original Boss Jocks in the spring of 1965 included Roger Christian, Gary Mack, Dave Diamond, Sam Riddle, and Johnny Williams.)
The radio station began life in the spring of 1966 on board the former US Army/Navy Vessel USS Deal (FS-263, AKL-2, AG-131) MV Olga Patricia, renamed the Laissez Faire.
While the PAMS jingles were a resung version of those heard on WABC in New York City and many other stations throughout the States, SRE had a custom melody line unused anywhere else in the world, the high-power "bannerline" news presentation had been lifted from WFUN in Miami, Florida and the DJs were using the heavy echo and the forced approach of stations such as KBOX in Dallas, Texas.
[citation needed] Other problems also arose when the British government announced that it would introduce legislation to close all of the offshore stations.