SADDLEBACK RADIO FILLS NPR VOID

When Saddleback College radio station KSBR (88.5 FM) lost its status as Orange County’s only National Public Radio affiliate in June, 1984, listeners were certain of only one thing: in the future they’d have to tune elsewhere to hear such popular NPR programs as “All Things Considered” and “The Morning Edition.”

But it wasn’t clear what would follow the college district’s board of trustees vote to cut costs by dropping KSBR’s NPR affiliation, firing five of the station’s six professional broadcasters and converting KSBR into a student-run station that emphasized instruction over community service.

A little more than a year later, after an initially drastic cutback in operating hours, the 620-watt station has returned to nearly the same 18-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week schedule of jazz music and local news that it had before.

Said board member Harriet Walther, who was board president at the time of last year’s often-heated debate over KSBR’s future: “We now have 40 students on the air and 150 in training. That’s exactly what we wanted to do with the station. I’ve received a lot of positive comments from the community and no negative ones. When I listen to the station, I think the quality is still excellent and the students sound very professional.”

The two main reasons cited by the board for its decision were the cost of maintaining a full-time staff as required by NPR, and the administration’s feeling that too few students had access to the station’s facilities. Walther said that both issues have been resolved since the transition.

In contrast to the number of students now using KSBR’s facilities for various radio classes, during KSBR’s five years as an NPR affiliate only 50 students were used as on-air talent.

Previously working on a yearly budget of about $150,000, KSBR now operates with about one-quarter of that sum. The station is also generating more state ADA (Average Daily Attendance) money for the college now because an increased number of students are enrolled in radio-related classes.

But one of the board’s key arguments supporting its decision--that the void left by KSBR could easily be filled by other NPR stations--hasn’t panned out as predicted. Cal State Long Beach’s KLON (88.1 FM), Cal State Northridge’s KCSN (88.5 FM) and Santa Monica College’s KCRW (89.9 FM) lack the power to reach all parts of Orange County, a problem compounded by the recent announcement that the Southland’s most widely heard NPR station, KUSC (91.5 FM), will drop its NPR affiliation in October.

“Public broadcasting is very important to all of us,” Walther said, “but at Saddleback College we just couldn’t afford it--that’s not our job. It’s too bad the federal government hasn’t been more supportive of it. If we’re ever rich again, maybe we’ll be in a position to reconsider it.”

Although all disc jockey posts are now filled by Saddleback College students, KSBR music director Paul Marshal is generally pleased both with the students’ performance and the station’s sound these days.

“Our format is more consistent now than it was before,” Marshal said. “With the old format, we tried to please everyone. We’d play a 15-minute block of jazz, then 15 minutes of blues followed by 15 minutes of something else. Every 15 minutes the station had a different sound. We’ve tried to smooth it out so that we’re consistent throughout the day.”

Because students are required to take two semester-long radio classes before they are allowed to audition for disc jockey positions, Marshal and news director Terry Wedel said that they have been able to maintain a degree of professionalism at KSBR.

“Students have to go through a rigorous audition before we let them on the air, so that weeds out the people who aren’t really serious about it,” Marshal said.

Wedel, however, added that part of the learning process includes giving students the freedom to make mistakes on the air.

“Occasionally, we’ll all cringe when we hear a student introduce a record by Dizzy ‘GELL-es-pye’ (Gillespie),” Wedel said with a laugh. “But they realize that they are not just playing rock ‘n’ roll for their friends and that in many cases, they are talking to an audience older than they are. They take that responsibility seriously.”

As the only remaining member of the station’s former staff, Wedel has continued KSBR’s local news broadcasts and anchors coverage of major news events, such as its broadcast of a recent public meeting in Newport Beach on offshore oil drilling conducted by Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel.

“People still get a strong sense that this is a local station. On our news, we emphasize local stories--those that other (commercial) stations can’t do,” Wedel said.

Musically, KSBR continues to program contemporary jazz interspersed with blues and new folk, relying heavily on records from small independent labels.

“We are carving our own niche,” Marshal said. “We play a lot of Windham Hill artists and we get a lot of requests for people like (pianist) George Winston. The demographics of south Orange County are perfect for us and I think the record companies recognize that, because our record service is better than ever. This is an affluent area they want to reach with certain acts.”

Programming from 9 p.m. to midnight is devoted to specialty shows. Monday’s “Blue Monday” is a blues show; Tuesday’s “Off Ramp” explores avant-garde and “electro-acoustic folk” music; Wednesday’s “Back Door Beat” showcases local rock, new wave, punk, reggae, jazz and other acts; Thursday evenings are devoted to ska and reggae, and on Fridays the “New Age Jazz” show incorporates electronic and acoustic experimental music.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Monday for an Oct. 26 show with Foreigner and John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. . . . The Righteous Brothers will perform at the Hop in Fountain Valley on Oct. 2. . . . Saxophonist Phil Woods brings his jazz quintet to Orange Coast College on Sept. 29. . . . Canned Heat’s performance Monday at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach has been canceled. The Meat Puppets’ show at Safari Sam’s has been rescheduled for Oct. 3. . . . Fishbone will play the Pub at Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 4.