Its studios are located at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School off Mansell Avenue in San Francisco, and its transmitter tower is on Twin Peaks.

[7] That same month the San Francisco Unified School District filed an application to construct a new educational FM station, operating on 42.1 MHz with 1,000 watts.

Fellow public broadcaster KQED-FM allowed KALW the use of their backup transmitter on San Bruno Mountain during the repair process.

[19] Ten years later, on the station's 80th birthday, San Francisco mayor London Breed declared September 1 to be "KALW Day".

The case was inactive for several years and, according to KALW's website, the group that filed the petition, known as Golden Gate Public Radio, was defunct.

While it issued a warning to KALW about its employment practices, the commission determined that there was sufficient evidence supporting misrepresentation allegations to warrant formal hearings.

[22] The hearings concluded in June 2005, and FCC Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel ruled in April 2006 to grant a limited two-year license renewal for KALW, while reducing a fine for public file violations from $300,000 to $10,000.