KSBR TO AIR PLEDGE DRIVE

Radio station KSBR-FM (88.5) will launch an on-the-air fund-raising pledge drive beginning today, officials of the Saddleback College-based operation said Friday.

No fund target has been set for the drive beginning at 6 a.m. and continuing through May 10. But the 8-year-old station’s last pledge campaign in 1984 earned $15,000, station spokesman Terry Wedel said.

Wedel said the new funds are needed to replace aging station equipment.

The pledge drive will feature live “mini-concerts,” roughly between 9 p.m. and midnight on weeknights and 9 a.m. to midnight on Sundays, Wedel said.

Performers will include such jazz artists as pianist Sandy Owen and Mike Hamilton, as well as the Hollywood Fats Memorial Blues Band and the International Reggae All-Stars.

Also, a “Celebrate Eight” benefit concert for KSBR will be held at 8 p.m. May 30 at the Mission Viejo campus’s McKinney Theatre.

Founded in 1979, KSBR has been a student-run station since 1984. At that time, the Saddleback Community College District board decided to drop the station’s National Public Radio affiliation as a cost-saving move.