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INDUSTRY REPORT # 55
40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBARTION
A Conversation with Gonzo Greg & Stew Herrera
December 22nd, 2025 by Traci Turner
In 1986, a heavy metal rock station blasted onto the SoCal airwaves and helped launch the careers of some of the biggest names in the genre. Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Pantera, Megadeth, White Zombie, and Poison became household names thanks to Pure Rock 105.5 KNAC.
But after just nine years – and a change in the musical landscape courtesy of grunge and alternative – KNAC went dark. The iconic station said goodbye in February 1995 with Metallica’s own James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich stopping by. The final song? Metallica’s “Fade to Black.”
While it may have seemed like a blip in time, KNAC’s impact was so great, they were inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in 2014 as one of the Legends of Rock Radio Stations. And thanks to that nifty internet, that day in February 1995 was not the last time we heard KNAC.
Now the station is gearing up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its launch with a major party at the equally iconic Whisky a Go Go with Riki Rachtman hosting the January 8th event.
Two of KNAC’s legends – Gonzo Greg and Stew Herrera – chatted with us about the past, present, and future of Pure Rock KNAC.
Traci: Greg, I was looking at your radio history, and dude, how many times have you moved?
Greg: Oh, good Lord. I was telling somebody the other day, Las Vegas is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere in my life. How many times? (runs through stations and states) So radio station moves, seven.
Stew: I’ve had two jobs. Greg has had 200 jobs.
Greg: See, my goal was to be on every station in the country. I just decided to do it one at a time rather than all at once!
Traci: As we reflect on 40 years since the launch of KNAC, what does the station mean to each of you?
Greg: Wow.
Stew: That’s a big one.
Greg: The crazy thing for me is I didn’t even belong there. The reason I ended up at KNAC was I was an intern at the rock and rhythm format that was on before it changed to pure rock. I was a punk rock alternative kid, and that’s why I wanted to work there. I was an intern, and they blew up the station I loved. It was this music that I loved. The day they changed, I’m wearing my Oingo Boingo sweatshirt, I’m standing there in the production room listening to this going, “Wow, I don’t know how I feel about this.” I came to love it, but in that moment, I was heartbroken when the format changed, to be honest. But I hung in there for a while, and eventually somebody didn’t show up for work, and I got to get on the air, and that’s when my career started.
Stew: That’s amazing. You know what? Looking back, you probably have come to this conclusion too, at least it was rock and roll music, of a kind, in English. When the format changed, it’s a slight adjustment to metal. It’s not like from metal to mariachi or a business news in Korean.
Greg: Yeah, I was able to survive. I remember our original music director, Michael Stephens, a Brit, and he came in to try to explain to me. He’s like, “Well, Gonzo, you’ve got to admit, it’s a more popular form of music. Iron Maiden is selling out Long Beach Arena right here.” He went into this whole explanation. I’m like, “Dude, I get it. I grew up on this music. I heard Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and stuff on the radio when I was in junior high school. It was when I moved to LA in 1978 that I fell into the punk rock thing. I’ll adapt. I can do this.” It turned out to be the funnest experience I had in radio.
Stew: When they flipped, I was still at college in Fullerton, and I was trying my hardest to get any job in radio, and I actually got a nibble down in Orange County. There was a station called K-Ocean, and they were a lighter version of KNX Light FM. The most metal song was probably “American Pie.” It was easy listening for housewives and stuff. I was trying so hard, and I got an interview with the program director and the owner of the station and bombed it. As soon as I walked in the room with my long hair and a leather vest – but it was a tasteful leather vest with a tie – and they started grilling me, it was immediately apparent. Even I could read the writing on that wall.
Stew went on: As I drove away, I thought to myself, I am going to get a job at KNAC somehow because I knew a guy who was at Avalon Attractions I went to college with, and his name was Don Wiener. In time, Don would become the promotion director at KNAC, but at that point, he was a buyer at Avalon. I said, “Don, do you know anybody at KNAC?” He said, “Yeah.” He put in touch with a girl named Veronica, who was in charge of the volunteer phone staff. I called her. She says, “Yeah, come on in. We could probably find a space for you.” I’ll never forget this. I love telling the story because it’s the only time this has ever happened. I sat down, she said hello. The first question she asked me was not, “What radio experience do you have” or “What this or what that?” She says, “Who are your favorite bands?” I knew I was in the right place right then.
Traci: Of all the bands that KNAC broke, and there were many, what are the ones that you hear on the radio now and you’re like, “Fuck, yeah, that was us.”
Stew: Well, there’s a lot of bands we broke, and then went away. (laughing)
Greg: (laughing) Right? Some of them didn’t stand the test of time so much.
Stew: But when I hear them on Spotify, I’m like, “Fuck, yeah!”
Greg: I appreciate the bands that, maybe we didn’t break, but we certainly were the first to really embrace them and play them as hardcore library bands. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and stuff like that, Motley Crue. We didn’t officially break them.
Stew: At all.
Greg: At all, but they’re still at it. I think we can claim Guns N’ Roses.
Traci: Oh, yeah, definitely.
Stew: Metallica is probably like Exhibit A or B for a band that… I mean, Metallica was going to happen, but we were integral to that process and it happening in Southern California. Then once it caught… You catch fire in the Bay Area, you catch fire in LA, it’s going gangbusters everywhere. We had a really close relationship with Metallica. If they came to town, it was a KNAC show. They would come to town. They came to KNAC. It was just love. It was a love fest.
Traci: And then on that day in 1995 when KNAC went off the air, the guys in Metallica were there to say goodbye. I mean, that says something about your station.
Stew: Yeah, it says it all.
KNAC40 | Celebrating 40 Years of Pure Rock
Traci: When I started to look back on things before I talked to you, I saw the sticker, and went, “God, that’s an iconic sticker.”
Greg: I was at KNAC, and during the Rock ‘N’ Rhythm days, and it was famous for its bright pink, handwritten KNAC Rock ‘N’ Rhythm logo, and that was pretty familiar around Southern California, at least around Long Beach, where the station would come in. We signed the station on with no logo or anything ready, and I remember when that logo came in and I looked at it and I went, “That’s it? Seriously?” (laughing)
Stew: (laughing) You didn’t think much of it?
Greg: I was not fond of it! Yeah, I thought it was crap. And it went on to be one of the most iconic logos in broadcasting history.
Stew: Like Mattel, like Post, like Ford. That is iconic. Still today, I love it.
Greg: You can see it from a mile away. You still see them. There’s this random phone booth out in the desert in the Mojave. Somebody sent me a picture. It’s like this phone booth on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere. There’s a KNAC sticker on it.
Stew: Oh, I love that. We’re going to be seeing more stickers soon, dude. Did I send you… Oh, yeah, I think I sent you the unboxing video last night, right?
Greg: Yes, I’ve seen that. So there’s some vintage stickers on the way, and there’ll be hopefully, new stickers happening soon as well.
Traci: The 40th anniversary party is hosted by some guy named Riki Rachtman. I guess he’s famous? (laughing)
Greg: Yeah, some MTV dude. I don’t know.
Stew: He was behind this monster.
Greg: A lot of people don’t know, and this is the reason Riki is going to be the ringmaster of this thing, is because he was actually, for a time, a KNAC DJ. He hosted a thing that he called “Radio Cathouse.” It was Saturday nights and Riki would come in and people would call him, just all his random Hollywood scensters, and they would just jump on the air, and it was just total freestyle, crazy Hollywood nonsense. Freestyle chaos. It was absolutely perfect for the time.
Traci: Riki will host the night, and then you’ve got live performances.
Greg: Yes, the Toxic Undershorts (a KNAC supergroup, if you will), of course, and Little Caesar, Love/Hate, and Once Bitten, which is a Great White legacy show honoring Jack Russell. But it’s not just a bunch of bands playing. We got people coming. Is it a social gathering? I think that’s what we’re thinking. There’s Q&A, and people are going to be telling stories like these.
Stew: It’s like half podcast, half performance.
Greg: Yeah, I think that that’s accurate. We got guys from Armored Saint coming. Wendy Dio is going to be there, which I think is outstanding. Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat will be there to tell some stories from the Sunset Strip back in the day, and hopefully we can coerce him and others like Jaime St. James from Black ‘N Blue to jump in and be part of this super dirty jam thing that we are trying to throw together. If anybody remembers any of the original KNAC anniversary parties, the jam was usually the craziest thing of the night. People would just randomly show up and go, “Hey, can I play?” We should be so lucky that that would happen for this one.
Stew: Yeah, and we’re still swinging for the fences, and we’re getting calls literally daily. I’m not at liberty to discuss the names that we are swinging for, but we’re trying to put together the biggest, the best, the brightest, and just to make it the night that everybody will remember and talk about and be so glad that they were there for.
Greg: It’s important to note there’s a charity underneath all of this, too, and that’s Rock Against MS. It’s a charity that’s been working hard to support those with MS and work towards cures and all that stuff. It is a charity event and everybody that’s doing this, is not getting paid.
Stew: Yeah, it’s doing it out of the kindness. It’s also, I think, relevant to bring up the fact that we’re not just looking back at 40 years ago at KNAC. We’re also celebrating the relaunch of KNAC. That is a thing that is happening.
Greg: It is happening currently, yeah. We’re able to bring KNAC as a radio station, albeit in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The call letters for KNAC now reside at 96.9 in Lynwood, which is essentially Barstow. If you ever remember making the trip from LA to Las Vegas and listening to any of the highway stations, KNAC is one of the highway stations now, on 96.9 in Barstow. It’s on 94.9 once you get out to Baker, and it comes in in Las Vegas at 99.7 on an HD3 channel.
Stew: Right. You can stream it from anywhere you want. Worldwide. And KNAC rockin’ Zzyxx Road!
Traci: Stew, you’re on KLOS?
Stew: It’s true. Yes. I don’t have a normal air shift at KLOS. I’m like the first or whatever second string. I’m in a studio producing stuff, and if anybody’s sick or takes a vacation, I’m usually the guy that steps in on weekdays.
Traci: Gonzo Greg, you’re in Vegas doing your thing.
Greg: Yeah, I’m in Vegas and taking care of of the new Pure Rock KNAC, as best we can, trying to get it up and running on, literally, a skeleton crew. We need to get to the point where we have DJs more or less live as close as we can get because that was the thing that made KNAC, the original… The DJs, we were what we were, but the thing was that we interacted with these maniac fans that were just so insane in love and crazy for the music and calling in and screaming and yelling and just that energy between the records. That is what made the station. That’s what will make, honestly, any radio station better is that you know that there are other people out there listening with you and you’re together, and it is a community.
Stew: That’s the whole premise of the whole thing. You’re right. I was thinking it’s the listeners and it’s the interaction between the host, the music, and the listeners. The triangle of quality. That’s the proposition for radio. You have to have the entertainment, the presenters, and the listeners. If you’re missing any of those three points, it falls apart.
Greg: That’s why, yes, Spotify is neat. I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, but it doesn’t have the vibe, doesn’t have that feeling and the energy and the passion and the connection. And that is what I would love to be able to bring back. Just got to make a couple nickels to make that happen. But if we can get anything close to it, it would be a thrill.
Stew: You have been… Dude, you’re a one-man show on this radio station, and I’ve told you before, my hat’s off to you. I can’t fathom the amount of work and all of the different angles that you have to consider to do what you have done, what you have pretty much single-handedly done. Just talk about a fucking achiever.
Greg: It’s pretty crazy. Things are starting to move and we’re starting to have some hosts that can interact and talk about the music. And hopefully we can bring back some loved features like “Manic Metal” and “Mandatory Metallica” and stuff like that, the stuff that people remember from KNAC. So that’s what we’re working on.
The rebirth of Pure Rock KNAC sounds like a nice plan in 2026 to me! Join Gonzo Greg, Stew, and a massive list of characters and surprises at KNAC’s 40th anniversary bash at the Whisky on January 8th! You can even preorder your merch when you get your tickets! Plus, there are some interesting things in store for you…
TO FOLLOW
SID 251221 | JIMMY ALVAREZ | EDITOR
