Rivalries Are All in Fun for KCRW Fund-Raiser

Usually, the only common ground for Los Angeles Dodger Tim Belcher and California Angel Kirk McCaskill is the pitcher’s mound.

But the two baseball players can be found making a pitch for the same station in a 60-second spot for Santa Monica’s KCRW-FM (89.9) that began airing Wednesday.

Other traditional rivals will also be speaking in unison for the Santa Monica College-based station as KCRW culminates a decade-long climb to become the second most-listened-to public station in the area. The station hopes to raise $300,000 from its audience with its two-month-long fund-raiser, “Summer Sign Up.”

KCRW’s annual budget is about $2.5 million, making it one of the 10 largest budgets in public radio in the country, according to spokeswoman Sarah A. Spitz. Audience dollars are key, so fund-raising is an important part of the station’s work, she said. “We’re relentless in our fund-raising efforts,” Spitz said.

The station has broken its own fund-raising records for three straight years, and during its primary annual fund-raiser in February, the station raised a record $860,000.

The radio station that prides itself on its innovative programming also strives to be innovative in its fund raising.

KCRW will offer a trip to Puerto Rico this summer, with the winner drawn from those who pledge and from station members.

Last year, the station offered to all supporters who pledged $85 a limousine tour of grave sites of the area’s famous dead. They were given a 2 1/2-hour tour of “the stars’ last stops,” Spitz said. The gimmick, provided by a local company, helped the station garner $785,000 for the campaign.

In the past, KCRW has also offered classes in beer brewing and tasting, courtesy of Father’s Office pub in Santa Monica, and flight lessons, courtesy of Gunnell Aviation in Santa Monica. Also, during its winter fund-raisers, the station receives more than 600 gift certificates from local businesses to pass on as enticements for donations.

Station officials said this summer’s foes-in-agreement pitches were adopted from KQED public radio in San Francisco.

Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono and Santa Monica Mayor Dennis Zane also make a pitch for the station, despite clashing on the virtues of their respective cities.

“When you’re looking for a vacation spot, there’s no place as perfect as Palm Springs. . . . “ Bono says.

Zane begs to differ. “I’ll take our ocean breezes over your desert sun any day,” he says.

And then the dialogue gets personal. “Sonny, are you getting paid for this radio spot?” Zane asks.

“Nope, I’m doing it pro bono .”

But the two agree on the virtues of the station’s lauded mix of radio news, drama and alternative music.

Others planning to promote the fund-raiser include Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and Los Angeles County Public Defender Wilbur F. Littlefield, sports editors from UCLA’s Daily Bruin and USC’s Daily Trojan newspapers, representatives of Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream (“They melt our hearts,” one station official said), representatives of Toyota and Nissan car distributors and the presidents of Unocal Corp. and Atlantic Richfield Co.

Station officials say the fund-raising efforts have helped KCRW, whose listening audience ranks among the top four nationwide in size, become one of the top audience-supported public radio stations in the country. Listener dollars contribute to almost 75% of the station’s budget. The rest of KCRW’s funding comes from government grants and corporate donations.

At cross-town rival KUSC-FM (91.5), the station with the largest public radio audience in the country, listener donations make up 55% of its budget, station officials said. At KQED in San Francisco, whose listening audience ranks in the top five nationwide, listener donations contribute to one-third of its budget, a spokeswoman said.

One local station that beats KCRW for audience support--although for fewer dollars--is the No. 3 public-radio station in the area, KPFK-FM (90.7). Of its $850,000 in annual revenue, more than 80% is from listeners. The station does not accept corporate donations, said KPFK business manager Mary Fowler.

Spitz attributes much of KCRW’s fund-raising success to local businesses, which, in return for giving goods and services, get a short on-air thank you. “We couldn’t do a subscription drive without the businesses that give us stuff--no jive,” Spitz said.

The station also prides itself on having one of the lowest basic membership fees in the nation. Membership fees are minimum donations that public radio outlets ask in return for program guides and other mailings. The basic fee at KCRW is $25. At KUSC, KQED in San Francisco and WGBH in Boston, the basic fee is $35.

Ironically, KCRW has the most educated, upscale audience of any station in Southern California, according to the Florida-based Birch/Scharborough Research Corp. The research firm’s winter demographics report shows that more than half of KCRW’s audience has a family income of more than $50,000 a year. Almost 73% of the station’s audience hold four-year or advanced college degrees.

And, the audience is decidedly baby boomer, with an average age range of 25 to 39, Spitz said. “They are an engaged, intelligent, upscale and involved audience,” she said.

The station’s lauded programming doesn’t hurt either. Its airing of National Public Radio’s extensive news program, “All Things Considered,” gives KCRW one of the eight-largest audiences of all stations in the area, AM or FM, during the highly competitive 5 p.m. drive-time hour, according to a Birch/Scharborough Research Corp. study. And kudos for programming include 1989’s best non-commercial radio station award, given by the College Media Journal, a nationally distributed media trade publication, and 1986’s best radio station award by Los Angeles magazine.

KCRW started in 1946 as a radio-skills training program at Santa Monica High School for local servicemen returning from World War II. It evolved to serve the community and moved to the campus of Santa Monica College, where, under the guidance of general manager Ruth Hirschman in 1978, it expanded to serve much of Los Angeles County.

Hirschman, who is credited for much of KCRW’s success, has no grand design for the station’s future, but says she sees radio as an experiment.

“We don’t know what we’ll be like in the 1990s except that we’ll change,” she said.

Stay tuned.