Classic Confrontation Splits KCSN Country : Radio: The Cal State Northridge station is trying to capitalize on the demise of longtime classical station KFAC.

Film composer Elliot Kaplan, a classical music lover, is delighted.

“Country music is not one of the pillars of civilization. It can’t be compared to Beethoven and Mozart.”

Former disc jockey Peter Carlisle, a country music lover, is disgusted.

“Los Angeles has lost its best resource of traditional, roots country music. It’s a tragedy.”

Their comments summarize the sentiments of both camps after last week’s sudden switch by KCSN-FM (88.5) from country/traditional roots to classical music. The public radio station, licensed to Cal State Northridge, changed formats to capture some of the listeners who felt abandoned when KFAC-FM (92.3) switched from classical to rock in September. Ken Mills, KCSN’s general manager, said the station’s low ratings and its lack of acceptance by the university community also precipitated the change.

“The country format was never understood,” Mills said. “It was out of place, like it was trying to replace ‘Hee Haw.’ Maybe that’s elitist, but that’s what the attitude was. Every day, I ran into people who wanted to know when I was going to get the country music off the air. There was no support anywhere, from the president on down.”

The latest Arbitron ratings, which came out in late October, provided the final impetus for change. They showed the station’s weekly listeners during the summer had dropped from about 50,000 to a little over 17,000, or 0.2% of listeners in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The Arbitron ratings are radio’s equivalent of television’s Nielsen ratings.

“It was our lowest rating since 1983,” Mills said. “I thought the station was doing better. If it had been doing better, there might have been a different decision.”

Nonetheless, a decision on a format change wasn’t expected until early December. The KCSN Executive Board, which oversees the station, had planned to meet then and discuss format alternatives. But the KFAC format switch accelerated developments. The board, composed of administration, faculty and student representatives, formally approved the switch based on Mills’ recommendation. And even though no studies have shown exactly how well a classical format would fare, Mills said he believes it is KCSN’s best chance to add more listeners. KFAC had at least 500,000 regular listeners, Mills said.

“The format review would take a long time,” Mills said. “There was a brief window of opportunity that we had to move in on, and we heard other stations might do it.”

Thus, on the morning of Nov. 15, KCSN musical director Mark Humphrey arrived at work to discover it would be his last day on the air. He did his broadcast as a plainclothes campus security officer stood nearby. Humphrey and other former KCSN employees and volunteers, strong advocates of its country format, criticized the station for making the switch so abruptly and doing it with security assistance.

“Anyone who knows me,” Humphrey said, “knows that berserk is not at the top of my behavior repertoire. It was totally unnecessary.”

Responded Mills: “We didn’t want another Howard Beale situation,” referring to the fictional television anchorman in the movie “Network” who threatened to commit suicide when told he would be fired. “People behave irrationally in that kind of situation.”

Humphrey and others who favored the country programming also contend the station should return money--about $38,000--collected during a fund-raising campaign in late September.

“They were supporting something they were hearing,” Humphrey said, “not something they weren’t hearing.”

Mills said, however, that he went on the air shortly after the format change to tell people they could receive refunds. He also said a letter to that effect will be mailed to all contributors.

Of the money contributed, Mills said, $15,000 was given by people who cited traditional country music as their favorite programming on the station. Others named bluegrass and polka as their preferred entertainment. Mills said the bluegrass and polka will remain on the air, as classical music assumes about 80% of the station’s programming. He acknowledged that some country supporters have already called to get their money back.

“Obviously, this doesn’t make us look good,” said Mills, who arrived at the station in July, “but there was no thought of changing formats back then even though this was a lingering issue.”

Renee Lynn, a former KCSN disc jockey, said the country programming had attracted a loyal following, and that the station shouldn’t be bound to the same financial standards of commercial radio.

“That’s what makes public radio different,” Lynn said. “It isn’t supposed to act on the whim of money.”

Mills countered that money wasn’t the only consideration in the format change, and “we appear in the same world as commercial radio, and even if we are small, we have to justify our existence.”

He said the station, which operates on a $500,000 annual budget, made about $10,000 in the 1988-89 fiscal year that ended June 30. Forty percent of KCSN’s funds come from the state, 40% from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and 20% from fund-raising.

Mills doesn’t pretend the switch was made to benefit the student body. A recent campus survey showed that 75% of the students favor KCSN switching to a rock format, but station management opted against that because of the heavy concentration of rock already played on Los Angeles radio. Mills said, “I do think more students will be involved in classical than country. They couldn’t relate to country.”

Humphrey and other supporters of the country format met last Saturday night to mourn the format switch. Complaining that the change has robbed the Los Angeles area of its only full-time traditional roots/country outlet, former KCSN disc jockeys and listeners have started a newsletter titled, “The Valley Epitath.” They hope the publication will “keep the scene together,” Carlisle said.

They complain that other stations in Los Angeles, such as KZLA-FM and KLAC-AM, which broadcast country, concentrate on pop-oriented Top 40 country, and not the traditional rockabilly KCSN regularly featured.

Ronnie Mack, host of Tuesday night’s weekly Barn Dance at the Palomino in North Hollywood which had been broadcast live on KCSN since January, 1988, said the concerts would continue. Mack said a petition would be handed out at upcoming shows to criticize the station’s action. He is currently talking to stations--KPCC-FM and KCRW-FM, among others--about broadcasting the show, but reports no progress.

“I do think, though, that it’s going to be harder to get big-name acts,” said Mack, whose shows have included Rosie Flores, Dave Durham & The Bull Durham Band, and Big Jay McNeely. “They won’t have any airplay.”

Mack said he fears a lot of local country musicians now won’t get the chance to polish their skills and develop an audience “because they won’t get the exposure.” He added that when KCSN tried to go classical about two years ago, the format met with little approval from the public. Mills disagreed.

“That wasn’t a fair test,” Mills said. “The station had classical for about three hours a day in the evening, and then it was followed by an underground rock show. We were trying to be everything to everybody.”

Meanwhile, classical fans have applauded the KCSN move. While acknowledging it doesn’t come close to replacing the loss of KFAC, a much more powerful station that can be heard across Los Angeles County, they say it is a firm step forward.

“KFAC was wonderful,” Kaplan said, “but KCSN is nothing to sneeze at, especially for us in the Valley. A lot of us are still very angry at what KFAC did, and this does help soften it a bit.”

Dr. Harvey Frey, who founded the Committee for Classical Music soon after KFAC’s format change, supports the change in format. Frey and Kaplan met with Mills soon after the KFAC change, and said they told Mills there was widespread support in the San Fernando Valley for a classical station. Currently, KUSC broadcasts classical music, and KKGO-FM (105.1) plans to switch from jazz to classical in January.

Frey said his committee, which has met only once, hopes to provide whatever support KCSN requires.

That might include raising funds to collect records for its library; Mills said it is unlikely the station will receive old KFAC tapes and records, and will probably rely on its own collection, donations from volunteers, and help from record companies. The Committee for Classical Music, Frey said, might also lobby the FCC to allow KCSN to increase its signal strength, or help get an antenna placed in the Santa Monica Mountains in order for the station to be heard over the hill.

Currently, KCSN’s signal, which originates from the San Gabriel Mountains, is, strangely enough, difficult to receive on campus. During the winter break, a new transmitter will be installed to give the station better coverage on campus, and in Woodland Hills, Chatsworth, Canoga Park, Granada Hills and Sherman Oaks.

Whatever the station’s range, members of the executive board said they are relieved that KCSN has changed formats. Board member Robert Light, president emeritus of the Southern California Broadcasters Assn., said country music, as perceived by many in the university community, never fit in with the goals and standards of higher education.

“It was never the kind of music that most associated with the higher fields of learning,” Light said. “It was the blue-collar thing, and even though studies have been done to show that country appeals to more than that type, at least we’ll get away from that perception. If I was teaching at the university’s music department, I wouldn’t want to hear tunes about Willy Joe who just died.”