VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF KCRW

On hot days, a tropical flavor often dominates “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” a daily staple of KCRW-FM’s mixed-bag musical programming.

“The right music for a summer’s day,” said music director Tom Schnabel, playing Brazilian and Caribbean tunes.

But when the weather turned and the skies clouded over, Icelandic choral music and Dave Brubeck’s cool jazz wafted out to listeners.

Eclecticism is not just a morning thing at the station, which operates out of a basement at Santa Monica College. A little talk, some drama, lots of music and nine hours a day of National Public Radio news shows are the basics of KCRW (89.9) programming.

The only thing that’s missing is American Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” the No. 1 attraction at rival public radio station KUSC, said Ruth Hirschman, general manager at KCRW. “We get inquiries all the time--why don’t we broadcast ‘A Prairie Home Companion’? We’d love to, but APR has an exclusivity clause,” she said.

Still, Hirschman said, one program does not make a network.

“Any program that’s on only once a week won’t build your bread-and-butter audience,” she said. “For that, you have to have a show that’s on every day,” like NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” which together constitute nine hours of KCRW’s daily programming. “It’s not only a different ballgame, it’s a different ballpark.”

Hirschman, who came to the station in 1977 after six years at KPFK-FM (90.7), said it was painful to lose KUSC from the network. Her cross-town rival quit NPR this month, opting to affiliate only with APR.

She denied KUSC General Manager Wally Smith’s contention that KCRW will suffer financially from the departure of the classical music broadcaster. “I’ve never told him to get out of NPR or screamed at him to stay,” she said, responding to Smith’s remarks to that effect.

“I make it a principle never to scream at Wally Smith. I think he has to do what he thinks is best for his station. . . . Every station has its own song to sing.”

KCRW’s repertory includes jazz, classical, pop and folk music. “Snap” and “F.R.G.K.” present avant-garde music and poetry (the initials of the latter, which come from the world of geology, stand for Funny Rock, God Knows).

Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko gave a live reading on his recent visit to Southern California.

There also is African music, a garden show, early jazz, a food show, medieval and Renaissance music, a holistic medicine show, comedy, Duke Ellington’s music and drama ranging from the adventures of British detectives Paul Temple and Lord Peter Wimsey to the broodings of Joe Frank, a Washington, D.C.-based writer and Kafka freak.

“KCRW is the cutting edge--you hear music there that you don’t hear anywhere else,” said Frank, who was in residence earlier this year to produce a series of hourlong shows airing at midnight three times a week.

The station raised $445,000 during its most recent 10-day fund drive. The prizes were as eclectic as Schnabel’s morning show, ranging from balloon rides over the desert to meditation sessions in a flotation tank.

In addition, listeners sent in $82,500 to support NPR news shows.

Fund drives--held every 10 months--aren’t easy listening, but the pain is eased by special programming, such as eight hours of Frank Sinatra. And station volunteers also get their just desserts at fund-drive time: nouvelle cuisine and gourmet ice cream from local establishments.

“If there was an easier way, we’d do it,” Hirschman said.

The proceeds are added in with roughly $100,000 each from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Santa Monica College, $25,000 in corporate contributions and $40,000 from the City of Santa Monica, all of which help meet a yearly budget of $750,000.

The city’s bit goes to support the regular broadcasts of council meetings. Jacqueline Des Lauriers, who anchors the Tuesday-night staple, recalled a letter from a man who sent in $35, identified himself as a regular listener to the sometimes arcane council debates and added, “Thank God I live in West Covina.”

Hirschman said that eclecticism doesn’t come any easier than fund raising. “What we’re doing is very risky. We’re going against every rule of commercial radio.”

Trying to describe the end result, she said, “You always program for one person.” And while there are all kinds of listeners, from high school students to middle-aged baby boomers and senior citizens, that one listener “had better be at least as bright as you are and probably smarter,” she said.

Her show, “Newstand,” consists of readings from the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, generally on national and international topics. KCRW leaves local news to others.

It also doesn’t play much classical music, the staple of KUSC across town.

“There is no reason for us to try to be a mainstream classical station,” Schnabel said. “We said, ‘Let’s find out what the people aren’t getting and give them what they want.’ The people didn’t want classical music here, so we took it out.”

Once housed in an old school across the street from the campus, KCRW now inhabits modern basement studios in the college’s student activities building.

The station’s transmitter in the Santa Monica Mountains covers a listening area of 8 million to 10 million people.

“In Southern California terms, we cover an area from Magic Mountain to Disneyland, and nearly out to the county fairgrounds (in Pomona),” said production director Tom Strother.

While Hirschman is interested in ideas for new shows, she said the limited time available makes it hard to accommodate many would-be radio personalities. “There’s a long line,” she said of the would-be applicants. “I’m always open, but most of them you can field on the phone. You ask, ‘Have you produced a radio program before?’ ”

Still, when tested performers--such as Roger Steffens, who co-hosts a reggae program on Sunday afternoons--come up with ideas, such as the recently launched “Sound of the Sixties” show, “you just make room for them,” Hirschman said.

With just eight paid staffers, KCRW relies heavily on volunteers, a few of whom--like Schnabel and Des Lauriers--eventually take on greater responsibilities. “You start to volunteer because you like it, then gradually you’re around when they need somebody, and there you are,” Schnabel said.

A one-time lifeguard and graduate student in comparative literature, Schnabel said his only experience before volunteering for KCRW was “listening to a lot of radio in the lifeguard tower.”

On-air personalities generally do their own editing and other technical work, which seems to make for a more intimate relationship with listeners.

Sometimes the immediacy of live radio can be disconcerting. When “born-again” rhythm-and-blues artist Little Richard appeared in the station’s new studio, he expounded on the Bible and also spoke in some detail about “orgies and the anatomical measurements of his ex-lovers,” Schnabel said. “That’s the fun of live radio.”