Public Radio’s ‘CALNET’ Operating Without Financial Net : Broadcasting: The statewide program’s staff is dwindling and rumors about money woes abound. ‘It’s in a very, very vulnerable position.’

“CALNET,” the acclaimed California public-radio news program patterned roughly after “All Things Considered,” is scrambling for money to stay afloat.

Rumors have abounded since last spring that “CALNET,” which debuted in December, 1988, might go off the air because of funding difficulties. Over the past six months, the full-time news staff has dwindled from six to one (based in Sacramento), with the majority of stories now compiled by free-lance reporters.

“It got to the point where the financial situation was too precarious,” said former “CALNET” reporter Elaine Korry, explaining why she left for a job at National Public Radio last May. “Everyone’s got their fingers crossed that somehow they’re going to pull it out at the last minute.”

Rick Lewis, general manager at KLON-FM (88.1) in Long Beach and co-creator of “CALNET,” said that he is hopeful the necessary funding will be secured to keep the program going.

“I don’t think it’s threatened yet, but it could happen,” Lewis said. “I think the funding of any nonprofit activity is always uncertain. We’re talking to several good (funding) prospects and I hope everything is going to be just fine.”

The program’s current funders are Bank of America, El Paso Natural Gas and Health Net, which contribute a total of $500,000 yearly, Lewis said. El Paso Natural Gas’ support--described by Lewis as “in six figures,” as is Bank of America’s--is due to end in January. Health Net’s sponsorship--at something less than six figures--is running out in December.

Wallace A. Smith, who is general manager at KUSC-FM (91.5) in Los Angeles and worked with Lewis in getting “CALNET” off the ground, said that he was not optimistic about the program’s future, citing its precarious funding situation and the poor track record of Sacramento coverage on radio.

Until “CALNET” was launched, public radio had not had a Sacramento correspondent since 1983, when former Gov. George Deukmejian cut state subsidies of the defunct California public radio network. Among the Los Angeles-area commercial news stations, only KNX-AM (1070) has a Sacramento-based reporter, Pat Davis, who works on a free-lance basis. KFWB-AM (980) utilizes reports from its affiliate station in Sacramento, KFBK-AM.

“It seems to me that it’s in a very, very vulnerable position,” Smith said. “Statewide news is pretty lacking. A lot (of news outlets) have closed down bureaus. There’s probably a clue in that. There may not be a great deal of public interest in such a program.”

The show is produced and sent out by satellite daily from KLON’s Long Beach studios. It is available for airing any time after 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and is heard on 18 public-radio stations throughout the state. Locally, it is heard on KLON-FM at 5:30 p.m. and KUSC at 7:30 p.m.

Pasadena’s KPCC-FM (89.3) dropped the show this week to offer more hours of “All Things Considered” in response to listeners’ requests and to provide more breaks for local headlines, weather and traffic reports, said KPCC program director Larry Mantle. He said that the station had wanted to air “CALNET” earlier in the day, but that the program was not available then.

“(Dropping the program) is by no means a statement about our feeling of the quality of the program,” Mantle said. “I think it’s a very important show. It serves a real important void in covering state news, particularly in the legislature. There’s nowhere else to get that kind of information. I’m hopeful they’ll be able to get the funding to continue.”