Radio Simi : Disc Jockey Wisecracks the Iron Curtain, and Radio Moscow Counters With Invitation

A Simi Valley disc jockey who has tried every other stunt he can think of to boost ratings at his tiny radio station said Monday that he has found a way to increase his audience by millions.

The only hitch is that they speak Russian, and they are about 5,800 miles out of the range of the 1,000-watt transmitter at KWNK in Simi Valley and Arbitron rating monitors, according to veteran radio personality Dick Whittington.

Whittington plans in late April to take his four-hour morning show to Moscow, where Soviet authorities have promised him both an interpreter and a hookup to state-run Radio Moscow.

In exchange, a broadcaster from Radio Moscow will get his own weeklong show later this summer at KWNK’s storefront studio at the Winifred Square shopping center.

Whittington, 52, said his daily audience at any given time totals about 12,000. Radio Moscow reaches most of the 272 million Soviet people and is beamed overseas, prompting Whittington to claim that he might have an audience of 2 billion.

The air-time trade-off is part of a “radio bridge” cultural exchange program run by the Soviet government, said Igor Bulay, press attache at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. A similar arrangement was made last year with a Milwaukee radio station, according to Radio Moscow officials.

Simi Valley’s swap came after Whittington telephoned the embassy during his show two months ago to say he could help improve cultural relations between the United States and the Soviet Union because he had once attended a Russian ballet.

A Longtime Prankster

The call was meant to be a post-Reykjavik Summit gag, said Whittington, a veteran Los Angeles-area disc jockey who once staged a parking-lot painting contest at another radio station and then flew to Paris to hang the winner’s picture in the men’s room at the Louvre.

When a Soviet official laughed, Whittington wrote in and asked for permission to broadcast from the Soviet Union, saying his Simi Valley show reaches a typical American bedroom community. Mikhail Taratuta, the deputy section head of Radio Moscow’s “North American Service,” wrote back Dec. 29 and invited him over.

KWNK owner-manager Manuel Cabranes said he will send his station’s lone newscaster, its sports reporter and a technician to Moscow with Whittington.

“We have two engineers,” Cabranes said. “We’ll send the one who knows how to do remotes.”

Newscaster Shelley McDonald, 29, said she will do her obligatory morning traffic reports from Red Square and try to interview passers-by on the street.

“We won’t be discussing disarmament or anything. We’ll discuss Simi Valley,” she said. “Like the No. 1 tourist attraction in Simi Valley. That would be, let’s see . . . Hmmmm. I’m thinking. Gosh, what would they do if they visited Simi Valley?”

Whittington said he plans to discuss Moorpark while in Moscow. It is a neighboring city to Simi Valley that has recently been jolted by allegations of City Council influence peddling and drug use.

“I may go over there as the honorary mayor of Moorpark because they need more government in Moorpark,” he said. “Or else I could be the Moorpark trade emissary. It’s the gravel capital of the world. Maybe I can set up a gravel exchange program.”