Station Seeks Alaska Volunteers

Los Angeles radio station KLSX-FM began urging listeners Friday morning to volunteer in the cleanup of the oil spill in Valdez, Alaska, offering plane fare and a week’s accommodations to “qualified” people who donate their time and expertise.

“I feel compelled to tell you people to donate your time and money to this cause,” deejay Peter Tilden said.

The station is seeking a “planeful” of volunteers to help coordinate the cleanup effort from Anchorage. By the end of Tilden’s morning show Friday, about 200 people had called to volunteer their services, program director Tom Yates said.

Among the volunteers were fishermen, oceanographers, environmental scientists, marine biologists and veterinarians, Yates said. Those without such qualifications are being urged to donate money to the cleanup effort.

Volunteers “will primarily be involved in the expedition of a more efficient communications system at cleanup sites in Alaska,” a station press release said.

Jeff Orchard, executive director of the Alaska Voluntary Response Center in Valdez, said he was grateful for the station’s efforts. “We can really use the help,” he said. “We can always use more communication and coordination. It’s a madhouse here.”

The station’s listeners--who are primarily in the 25-54 age range--likely consist of people who had been active in social and political causes during the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Yates said, so the volunteer effort seemed “a very logical thing for us to do.”