MEDIA / KEVIN BRASS : KCR Phone Dispute Has a Bureaucratic Ring to It

It’s not easy to run a radio station without telephones. Just ask the folks at KCR, the student-operated alternative-music station based on the San Diego State University campus. The station has been without phones since August, a victim of bureaucratic infighting.

“There is a concerted effort to rid the campus of KCR,” said John Cataldo, station operations manager and program director.

The university’s Business Affairs Office has refused to allow the installation of phones, even though the station has been able to raise more than $2,000 to pay for them. The issue is not the phones, but the relationship of the station to the university, according to Joe Vasquez, business affairs director.

Last year, KCR, available only through Cox Cable (98.9) and Southwestern Cable (96.1), ended its relationship with the university’s Associated Students. Without the backing of an on-campus entity, there is no one to take financial responsibility for the station’s activities, Vasquez said. Although the university’s telecommunications and film department has agreed to sponsor the station, it has stopped short of accepting financial responsibility. The station is operating without insurance.

Vasquez said the station’s long history of financial problems has made the university more than a little suspicious.

“We have to make sure that someone is watching over them,” he said.

KCR was $17,000 in debt to the Associated Students at the time of their separation, raising the issue of whether the 20-year-old station was operating in a fiscally responsible manner.

“In the past that (fiscal irresponsibility) may have been the case,” Cataldo said. “We’re just students trying to run a radio station. But that is in the past.”

For the past two years, Cataldo said, the station has operated on about $2,500 a year raised through advertising, donations and special events.

“If that is not financially responsible, I don’t know what is,” he said.

A larger issue is the station’s role at the university. Supporters point out that the station provides an invaluable training ground. In fact, several KCR alumni work at radio stations in San Diego.

“It’s an important cultural experience for students,” said Mike Real, chairman of the telecommunications department.

But if the station is going to be on campus and working in the community as an SDSU-affiliated entity, Vasquez said, the university has a right to demand accounting.

“They say they’re providing internships, but we have interns at KPBS,” Vasquez said. “How many students are actually involved? What is their listening audience?”

Cataldo and others worry that accounting might mean compromising the station’s esoteric programming in order to attract a broader audience. Such a move would be tantamount to censorship, they claim.

A campus task force is reviewing KCR and expects to give its findings to Vasquez by April 1. Meanwhile, Cataldo has asked an attorney to review the station’s position.

Certainly, the easiest answer would be for the Associated Students to resume responsibility for the station.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can do to get them phones,” said Associated Students Vice President of Financing Kevin Faulconer, who acknowledged that he has seen improvement in the station’s operations.

But the student group is still wary because of past experience.

“It got to the point where we were just throwing money” at the station, Faulconer said.

Cataldo believes that if some action is not taken soon, KCR will die. While it is clear that not all would lament its passing, Vasquez said he is not necessarily among them. He may not be helping the station, he said, “but I haven’t backed up the truck to the door, either.”

So much for the image of KPBS-FM (89.5) listeners as staid and conservative. At a recent KPBS-sponsored screening of “Pelle the Conqueror,” a fistfight broke out between two middle-aged patrons. The film had to be stopped while order was restored. . . . The Daily Aztec, San Diego State’s student newspaper, has taken a noticeable turn to the far right since Matthew Dathe took over as editor last September. In recent weeks, the paper’s editorial board, by similar 3-2 votes, decided to endorse George Bush for president and editorialized in favor of overturning Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. And, once upon a time, college newspapers were know as havens for progressive ideas. . . . Originality is not the strong suit of the KGTV (Channel 10) promotions department. It billed Michael Tuck’s recent sweeps-month feature as “Fight Back,” a blatant rip-off of David Horowitz’ familiar slogan. . . . The critically acclaimed epic “Little Dorrit” finally opens in San Diego, Friday at the Cove Theatre. The theater will alternate segments of the six-hour film, showing the first part for a week and then the second part for a week.

Why simply report the news when you can create it? Channel 39 has been crossing that line recently. Reporter John Britton personally tracking down the grandfather of “Baby Marcos” in Tijuana and delivering him to a press conference was questionable, but it paled in comparison to Paul Bloom’s stunt. The former anchorman set up a man wanted for parole violations (he was convicted of possessing marijuana and receiving stolen property) by calling him for an interview about the man’s work with the homeless. Then Bloom called the cops. News organizations are supposed to be reactive, not pro-active, and they’re not supposed to operate as police or social service groups. Is it just a coincidence that Channel 39 is making news during a ratings sweeps month?

The day after the death of Roger Hedgecock’s TV show an on-air personality for a local radio station, a rival of Hedgecock’s KSDO, left a message on a reporter’s answering machine gleefully offering gossip about Hedgecock’s partner, Mel Buxbaum. “It’s in our best interest not to make Hedgecock look very good, isn’t it?” he said.