disk-jockey whose musical offerings were interrupted hourly with brief, cacophonous outbursts of news." In continuing on this pathway, WAPL radio made its on-air debut in 1952 operating on a frequency of 1570 under the ownership of the Bartell family. It focused on a music-and-news format. KCBQ in San Diego, which Bartell bought in December 1955, became one of the nation's first rock 'n' roll stations, playing the music of Elvis Presley, Little Richard and others. This would be the home of one of the nation's pioneering Top 40 programming. It was the most popular station in the San Diego area, with an up to 30 percent share of the listening audience. KYA in San Francisco, California was bought by the Bartells in 1958; Lee Bartell became president and general manager and the station switched to a Top 40 format. The Bartells sold it in 1962. In 1958, Gerald Bartell gave a speech to the Wisconsin State Radio Listeners' League in which he discussed the always-present question of commercial appeal versus artistic value, saying that he realized that Jussi Björling or Arthur Rubinstein were clearly artistically superior to Liberace or Mario Lanza, but that in any form of art and entertainment, not just radio, "all in a measure stand or upon their degree of public acceptance. ... The audience is a great unsophisticated critic. It seems to know what it wants." The Bartells were not always tied to the Top 40 format, however. In May 1959, Bartell Broadcasters acquired New York radio station WOV and then changed its call letters to WADO, with Melvin Bartell running it. The station focused on ethnic programming. During the day, WADO broadcast Top 40 and R&B music. At night, they ran Italian programming, which thus comprised half their programming. By 1962, some Spanish language programming was run on weekends. By 1963, the only English programming found on WADO was in Sunday religious broadcasts. In 1964, WADO began broadcasting completely in Spanish from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Italian from 8 p.m. to midnight. Overnight, Asian programming was run. By 1966, the station was all Spanish. Melvin said in general of the siblings' radio station approach: "It is for the whole family, with music for the family. The concept of the Bartell Group is something of interest for everybody, of music, features, news and editorials." Macfadden-Bartell era Until 1960, Bartell Broadcasting Corporation was privately owned.