Good Morning Castaic!

Most people tuning in to Los Angeles County’s newest radio station will listen for less than a minute, but the station’s operators are thrilled to have it that way.

That’s as long as their program lasts.

The new voice on the air waves is Janice Elam, a Castaic Lake Recreation Area lifeguard broadcasting to a limited, but intensely interested, audience--those headed for the county park near Santa Clarita, hoping they can get in.

Castaic last week became the only one of the county’s 99 parks with its own radio station--AM 530--allowing the staff to broadcast reports on traffic conditions and events at the 2,235-acre reservoir. The most important part of the message will tell refugees from the city’s heat who are still on the road if admission has been suspended because crowds have reached capacity.

County parks officials hope the broadcasts will prevent the record traffic jams and disorders that came with the Fourth of July, said Brian Roney, assistant park superintendent. More than 15,000 people, about twice the park’s capacity, thronged the area on Independence Day, overwhelming park police and breaking fences to gain admittance.

“Whether people will listen to it and stay away when there are already too many people here, I don’t know--you’d have to ask the 8 million people of Los Angeles,” said Jeff Wheeler, a regional operations manager for the county Department of Parks and Recreation. “We sure hope this will eliminate the problem.”

The county had already asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to use AM 530 before the holiday disturbance, but the application was not approved in time, Wheeler said.

Nine other government agencies also use the frequency to broadcast travel advisories, airport conditions and meeting schedules. Their 10-watt transmitters emit weak signals that cannot be heard outside a small area, FCC spokeswoman Catherine Deaton said.

Castaic’s station has an official reach of only about a mile, but “radio waves are weird, depending on weather conditions,” said John Reed, an electronics engineer for the FCC, so it is not surprising that the broadcast is heard up in Newhall Pass, more than 10 miles south of the lake.

Alerted by radio warnings, motorists will be able to reverse course before entering the community of Castaic, which is often clogged with frustrated boaters trying to turn around and head home after learning that park admission has been halted, which usually happens by 10 a.m. on weekends.

“It sure would be convenient to know ahead of time that the lake is closed so we don’t disappoint the kids,” said Glori Spriggs, a Canyon Country homemaker who was enjoying one of the area’s four swimming beaches Wednesday.

The county paid $12,000 in licensing fees and for an unimpressive array of small black boxes, including a transmitter and digital repeater, and a 55-foot antenna mounted on what looks like a telephone pole. Park employees are being trained to record outgoing phone messages, which will include information on when the lake was stocked with trout as well as frequent updates on traffic conditions.

Roney chose Elam as the announcer, partly because she once appeared in McDonald’s commercials touting the flavor of Chicken McNuggets. He said he’s hoping that her gravelly voice will persuade listeners that she is serious when she warns that no alcoholic beverages are permitted.