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Nov. 6, 1947. "Brunton's Auto Service, north side of Bush between Polk & Larkin." Your Willard Battery headquarters, as long as you're buying wholesale. 8x10 acetate negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full size.
An interesting history of KJBS is found here. Thanks to jschneid for the pointer.
The building and tower at left is the studio and transmitter site of radio station KJBS, at 1470 Pine Street. The station was started in 1925 by the Brunton family as a 5 watt station run entirely on Willard storage batteries. It was located at the original Brunton shop at 1380 Bush Street (which may explain the confusion about the location of this image). The call sign KJBS stood for "Julius Brunton and Sons". When the Brunton auto store was moved to Pine Street in the 30s, the station moved into this adjoining building. For a time in the 30s and 40s, the Bruntons also owned station KQW (now KCBS), and both stations operated from this building. In 1960, the Brunton family sold KJBS and the call letters were changed to KFAX, as it is still known today. The power was increased to 50 kW and the transmitter was moved to Hayward, but the studios remained here until some time in the 1970s.
The attached photo is taken from the FCC's old KJBS file at the National Archives.
Looking at the taillight on the car parked on the street, I thought it might be some kind of immediate postwar Packard, but the trunk and bumper don't say so. Maybe someone else can identify it.
Polk's Crocker-Langley City Directory has Brunton's Auto Service one block north, at 1460 Pine St. and this is recognizably the same building there today, as is the wooden one partly visible next door. Trees obscure the view today, so you'll have to drive by in the Google street view to see what I mean.
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