KCRW-FM’s Hopes Are High, but So Are Its Obstacles

Santa Monica public-radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) enters its spring pledge drive this week bolstered by increased listenership--thanks to the Persian Gulf War--but facing a string of obstacles ranging from the slow economy to increased competition from its neighbor to the northeast, KPCC-FM (89.3) in Pasadena.

The station has set ambitious goals: General Manager Ruth Hirschman wants to attract 13,000 new and renewing subscribers--more than one-third of KCRW’s subscriber base of 33,000--and has pledged to give 10% of the station’s revenues to National Public Radio, to help offset the cost of covering the war.

Hirschman has dubbed this year’s drive “Stage Door Canteen,” after the USO canteens from World War II, and plans to preempt the station’s regular afternoon programming to run vintage radio programs about war. Among the fare offered during the drive, which begins Friday and runs through March 29, will be radio adaptations of “The Red Badge of Courage,” “A Farewell to Arms” and “Casablanca.”

Hirschman has even corralled Tom Schnabel, the popular former host of KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” to sit in on the drive. Schnabel left the program last year to work for A&M; Records.

But even the optimistic Hirschman is a little worried: The drive is a month behind schedule, the economy is slow, and she has to raise an extra million or so this summer to build a new studio. And the donation to National Public Radio, which sounded like a very good idea at the time, could amount to as much as $100,000 out of the budget, depending on the success of the drive.

“We promised to do it, (so) we’ll have to do it,” Hirschman said. “I’ll get on the air and tell the audience that you have to see to it that we don’t lose by doing it.”

The station put off its fund drive--which is normally held in February--until now because officials didn’t want to interrupt their coverage of the war. Instead, the station made emergency appeals for funds during station breaks.

And while listeners came through to the tune of $120,000, that turns out to be just enough to carry the station through March. Hirschman worries that, having dug into their pockets to help the station pay for what it called its “War Watch,” listeners might not feel compelled to do so again for the regular fund drive.

“The audience has been very generous and I don’t know how that has affected the ability of the station to (attract more donations) during the drive,” Hirschman said. “That’s the cliffhanger.”

KCRW depends on listeners for 85% of its budget, which was $3 million this year. Last year, the spring fund drive raised $850,000.

The slowed economy has already affected donations to public television. And while public radio’s news programs, including NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” have attracted new listeners, not all of those listeners will become subscribers.

KCRW’s expanded news coverage--which has not ended with the war’s end--has cost the station additional funds. “We had to spend extra money,” Hirschman said. “We signed a contract with Cable News Network, the BBC and NPR for extra newscasts.”

At the same time, KCRW, which broadcasts from Santa Monica College, is trying to raise money to build new studios. Hirschman is planning to augment her usual summer fund drive--which last year raised $400,000--with special fund-raising events geared to raising the $1.5 million needed for the new facilities. Hirschman describes one such fund-raiser, slated for June, as a “wine tasting, gourmet grazing, wine auction.”

The June event will come right on the heels of a major fund-raising push by another local public-radio station, KPCC.

KPCC’s fund drive--which officials say will be bigger than in years past--begins May 3 and has a goal of raising $175,000.

Broadcasting from Pasadena City College, KPCC already poses a competitive threat to KCRW. The Pasadena station boasts many former KCRW personalities, and claims to be drawing some of the Westside broadcaster’s listeners.

Last month, KPCC began to call itself “Public Radio for Los Angeles, Orange County and Pasadena.” The station also has adopted the slogan, “Public Radio for all of Southern California,” a phrase that is just two words off from KCRW’s longtime slogan, “National Public Radio for most of Southern California.”

And three weeks ago, KPCC ran a promotional spot for its “Wednesday Magazine” that openly poked fun at KCRW. In a thinly disguised jab at Hirschman, the spot lampooned a call by a prospective subscriber to a public-radio station. The caller asked for a long list of expensive prizes in exchange for his donation, and concluded the call--supposedly a wrong number--by asking, “Is Ruth there?”

Rod Foster, general manager of KPCC, said that the promo was no more than a poor attempt at humor on the part of Rene Engel and Matt Wright, who host the Wednesday show.

KPCC, he insisted, is too busy trying to establish its own identity to worry about KCRW.

The new slogans, he said, have been adopted because “we want to let our listeners know that we are here for them in Orange County and Los Angeles as well as Pasadena,” Foster said.

And while “a significant group” of the new listeners that KPCC is trying to attract might well come from KCRW, the smaller station is not actively trying to recruit them, Foster said.

“KCRW in their best ratings period has maybe 300,000 listeners,” Foster said. “And L.A. is a 16-million listener market. The real potential audience members are people currently listening to commercial radio.”

Hirschman insisted that competition from KPCC does not rank high on her list of worries for the upcoming fund-raiser.

“I’m just not concerned about anybody else’s subscribers,” Hirschman said. “I have too many other things to worry about.”