[2] KFJC's 300-watt transmitter is located on Black Mountain, in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, south of Los Altos, California.
KFJC signed on October 20, 1959,[3] broadcasting from a broom closet at the old Foothill Junior College campus in Mountain View.
In 1970, KFJC hosted an open mike session during a nationwide student strike that had also shut down the Foothill College campus.
In the early 1970s, KFJC was a randomly block-formatted station, playing mainly bubblegum top 40, specialty/ethnic, or progressive rock, depending on the disc-jockey.
Hardiman, Todd E. Daniels, Boris Darling, Frankie Carbuncle, Bob "Bob Doll" Gaynor, Leslie "Chris Gray" Smith, Scott "Gideon Baxter" Sanderson, Kevin "Grranimal" Ariente, Ric (Sky) Curtice, Bryce "Mark Elliot" Canyon, Rabbi Fächman, Cubby Calcutta, Charles Hutchinson, Angstmaster Fast Max, Faulty Bagnose, Clive "Bongo" Fleishman, Elmo C. Esta, Anita "Know" Plep, Paul Kiely, Kelly Porter, Doc Pelzel and the Duck from Columbia.
The yearly pilgrimages to the CMJ Convention in New York City started around this time, and the West Coast interlopers from "The Wave of The West" literally made their mark on the Big Apple, for example: when CBGB's closed, photos were taken for a tribute book, and over the ladies' room sink was the distinctive red, black and white triangle logo sticker, allegedly affixed there by former promotions director Tracie Jarosh ("Sarah Barhear/Nancy Sin").
In 1985, KFJC hosted the Inter-Collegiate Broadcasting System Convention at the newly refurbished St. Claire Hilton in San Jose, California.
Matt Heckert, from Survival Research Laboratories, gave a well received keynote address to a captive crowd at lunch.
Afterwards, showing the intricacies of his homemade flamethrower device, Heckert inadvertently set off the newly installed fire suppression system in the hotel.
broadcast live the Saturday Night's performances of Southern California's Saccharine Trust, the legendary Camper Van Beethoven, and the heavily industry backed 28th Day.
During the performance, David Lowery, the lead singer of Camper Van, was clearly heard berating the program coordinator of the show regarding the mix-up of who the headlining act would be.
During the Sunday Matinee of the convention, two other bands performed in the cozy confines of the top floor of the newly rebuilt Hotel.
The Muskrats of the Berkeley folk persuasion gave a resounding performance, marred only by the uncontrolled burning of one of their musical instruments: their washboard.
Quite to the contrary of expectations, the band The Circle Jerks, led by Keith Morris, resplendent in their black tuxedos, put on a wonderfully sublime performance.
The program coordinator for this successful event was Michael Davis, a recent convert to KFJC from KSCU 103.3 FM (The Santa Clara University).
Jeff Cloninger won the GM election in 1984, but stepped down after accepting a job in the broadcast industry, and Zepernick took the station's helm again.
Scott's "loose cannon" style of management didn't necessarily sit well with all staff members, but he encouraged diversity, merriment & "happy chaos", and the listeners heard it.
KFJC also resumed live remote broadcasts from all sorts of locations, kicking off with a "Battle Of The Morning DJs".
This consisted of an entire month of Don Harrison ("Mark Darms") and "Hawkeye Joe" trading off their respective Monday/Tuesday 6–10 am slots ('LYB Club' vs. 'Relish it!').
The re-inauguration of station live remotes was from the parking lot of a local underwriter, Olivari Donuts in Mountain View.
Eventually, Scott's other duties as "Sunday Funnies" producer at KNEW, and promotions intern at KSAN, and other aspects of his personal life resulted in the end of his "reign of terror", as he later jokingly called it.
These broadcasts featured performances by such legendary underground groups as the Clean, the Chills, the Dead C., Alastair Galbraith, the Renderers, Snapper, and the Verlaines.
The following year, a double CD documenting these broadcasts was produced for the Station's annual fund raiser.
The exceptions to this policy are during "live mics" when bands play live at the station in an area affectionately known as "the pit", the occasional "Freak Week" of freeform programming, and the "Month of Mayhem" (May) when DJs are encouraged to come up with original programming focused on a band, a genre or another creative theme.
The station held a logo contest and featured the winner and runners up in a San Jose art gallery exhibition called Blowing Minds Since 1959.
However, Foothill College placed relocation of KFJC on very low priority in relation to other academic facilities, possibly because of recent educational budget cuts in California and other economic woes.
Bryce Canyon went on to work on "Early Tremors" with Belle Nolan and Frank Andrick on San Francisco's new wave station "The Quake" and wrote numerous articles for several Bay area publications.
Jennifer Waits, publicity director,[7] and weekly show host,[8] since 1999,[9][10] was graduated[11] from Haverford College in 1989, and received a Master’s degree in Popular Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University in 1997.