February 6, 2023

A Seat at the Table Podcast: River City Bank – It All Started with an Idea on a Cocktail Napkin

A Seat at the Table Podcast
A Seat at the Table Podcast

Find out how RCB founder Jon Kelly’s business plan, written on a cocktail napkin during a dinner at Frank Fat’s in Sacramento, was the catalyst for building the region’s largest, independent, locally-owned and managed bank.

The Capital Region Family Business Center podcast, “A Seat at the Table,” will give you a glimpse of the history and beginnings of RCB. Listen in as host Natalie Kling chats with River City Bank’s Board Chair, Shawn Devlin, and President and CEO Steve Fleming, as they embark on RCB’s 50th year.

Listen to the podcast here.

October 13, 2020

The Legacy of Jon Kelly

Jon S. Kelly River City Bank Founder
Jon S. Kelly River City Bank Founder

Born in 1936, Jon Kelly was without a doubt one of the top entrepreneurs and philanthropists in the history of Sacramento. Jon is probably best known, along with his brother Bob, for having owned and operated KCRA-TV in Sacramento for more than three decades. Jon was only 26 years old when the Kelly brothers took over the running of KCRA in 1963 upon the sudden passing of their father at an early age. The brothers also started, owned, and operated KCPQ-TV, the Fox affiliate in Seattle. Jon was a legendary figure in broadcasting as these stations were highly respected on a national level for their innovation, commitment to delivering high quality news, and ability to attract exceptional talent.

Always looking for the next opportunity in what he viewed as the business playground, Jon founded River City Bank in 1973, where he also filled the CEO and Chairman roles on several occasions. Jon’s vision, entrepreneurial spirit, and incredible drive to win led to the Bank being the largest based in Sacramento and allowed it to remain family owned over the past 47 years as the banking industry has gone through a period of tremendous consolidation.

Jon was a force of nature, a highly successful entrepreneur who loved to compete. Besides the TV and banking activities I mentioned above, he was a real estate developer and invested in radio stations, an advertising agency, and more. One of his signature real estate projects, in partnership with his son Greg, was the 12-story, LEED-certified Gateway Tower office building at 2020 W. El Camino Ave. Jon was also the key player in the formation years ago of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO), which was instrumental in attracting such industrial heavyweights as Intel, NEC and Hewlett-Packard to the region. SACTO later merged into the present day Greater Sacramento Economic Council.

Perhaps, though, the thing I will remember most about Jon was that he made everything seem important and he always made it fun for the rest of us. He loved to celebrate the successes of the Bank, particularly our growth over the past 10 years, but he also understood that things wouldn’t go our way all the time – that’s the nature of the banking business and of life he would say. He loved to “play the game of life”, including the human connections that he forged with all he came in contact with.

Jon was proud that his legacy in Sacramento would include River City Bank, as well as the Kelly Foundation, one of the largest charitable-giving foundations in the Sacramento region. His philanthropy included the donation of the land on which public television’s KVIE, Channel 6, now sits in South Natomas. Jon’s daughter, Shawn Kelly Devlin, has done a superb job with Jon’s mentorship as the board chair for both RCB and the Kelly Foundation for the past 12 years and intends on building upon his legacy.

One of my last recent interactions with Jon was one of the most memorable. Along with a couple of other long-time business associates, we met with Jon after he had been informed that his cancer was terminable and that he only had a few months to live. The first thing Jon said to us was that we shouldn’t have any sympathy for him as he had lived a great life, blessed with wonderful family, friends, and animals (he loved his dogs and thoroughbred race horses). He said that his life had far exceeded his expectations for “fun and action”. He had lived a full life, indeed.

Jon Kelly was an extraordinary person and he is already missed.

Steve Fleming
President & CEO | River City Bank

August 25, 2020

In Memoriam – Jon Kelly

Jon S. Kelly River City Bank Founder
Jon S. Kelly River City Bank Founder

Sacramento business icon Jon Kelly, the former owner of KCRA 3 and founder of Sacramento-based River City Bank, died July 25th, 2020. Jon, a longtime Sacramento resident before relocating to Southern California, was 84 years old.

Jon started at Channel 3, joining his older brother, Robert, in 1958. Two years later, Ewing “Gene” Kelly, their father, died of a heart attack and Jon Kelly, at the age of 24, became station manager. The brothers founded the Kelly Broadcasting Co. with their mother, Nina, a short time later.

After buying the stations outright from their partners — the Hansen family, who owned Crystal Cream and Butter Co. — the Kellys owned and operated the NBC-affiliated station for more than three decades, setting a bar higher than any of their competitors by producing public-affairs programming, daytime and evening news and lifestyle magazines years before others followed suit.

Channel 3’s longtime slogan — “Where the News Comes First” — was backed up by huge investments in its news operation. It fielded (and still does) more reporters and photographers, broadcast more hours of news and employed more news gathering equipment than any other station in the market.

The Kellys kept Channel 3 on the cutting edge, becoming the first in the market to use color film and Doppler radar; creating the first hour-long newscast and locally-produced morning show; creating “De Colores,” a public-affairs program focused on the Latino community; and sending LiveCopter 3 up into the skies above the capital beginning in 1987.

By the 1990s, before the station’s sale to Hearst in 1998, Channel 3 was leading competitors, and KCRA made national news several times, such as when President Bill Clinton decided to hold a statewide town hall meeting and chose to do it at KCRA.

Channel 3 has been a training ground for generations of TV reporters and anchors who went on to distinguished careers beyond Sacramento. Joan Lunden, the former veteran anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” hosted Channel 3’s noon news in the 1970s. Miguel Almaguer and Kathy Park, now with NBC, are also a KCRA alumni, as is Gary Gerould, the voice of the Kings. The list goes on and on.

Kelly Broadcasting also operated KQCA-TV, owned AM and FM radio stations in Sacramento and owned and operated KCPQ-TV, the Fox affiliate in Seattle.

Other Business Ventures

Jon Kelly was the key player in the formation years ago of the Sacramento Area Trade and Commerce Organization, which was instrumental in attracting such industrial heavyweights as Intel, NEC and Hewlett-Packard to the region.

He also donated the land on which public television’s KVIE, Channel 6, now sits in South Natomas, and also found success as a real estate developer. One of his signature projects was the 12-story, LEED-certified Gateway Tower building at 2020 W. El Camino Ave.

Jon founded River City Bank to serve the capital region, growing the business-focused institution to 10 area branches and a presence in the Bay Area and Southern California before retiring from the chairman’s post in 2009. The Kellys still own a majority interest in the bank, which began in 1973 with about $2 million in capital. Today, the bank has assets of nearly $3.2 billion, making it the largest locally-owned bank in the capital region.

Jon was also an active producer in the television syndication business, remained in broadcasting through his investment in the SummitMedia group, owning 50 radio stations throughout the country, according to his family.

Jon Kelly was born July 23, 1936, in Berkeley, before the family moved to Sacramento where Gene Kelly became an ad salesman for The Bee before starting his own advertising agency in 1938. In 1945, they started their radio station. Jon Kelly attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and the University of California, Berkeley.

After the sale of KCRA, Jon and his wife, Sarah, moved to their farm in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County. There, they continued their interest in thoroughbred horse racing and breeding, which led them to field horses in the Kentucky Derby and other prestigious races.

In addition to wife Sarah, Jon Kelly is survived by his sister, Suzanne, along with his children Gregory, Shawn, Marilyn, Mary Margaret and Melanie; and 13 grandchildren.