Gay Newsmagazine May Wrap Tuesday : Radio: Internationally syndicated ‘This Way Out’--a mix of news, music and commentary--faces a shortage of funds.

After seven years on the air, the internationally syndicated gay newsmagazine “This Way Out” may broadcast its last show at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on KPFK-FM (90.7). The locally produced public-radio program, with an estimated 250,000 listeners on 85 stations, has run out of money.

The show, produced at KPFK by Greg Gordon, has become a major lifeline to the gay community, as reflected in a letter from a 17-year-old homosexual in the Midwest, who wrote that he’d been beaten by “a bunch of rednecks yelling, ‘Die, you (expletive), die.’ . . . (Finding the show was) like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert.”

It was precisely to reach otherwise isolated gay men and women that Gordon helped found Los Angeles’ first gay radio show about 20 years ago. That hourlong program, “I M R U,” still airs on KPFK Sundays at 10 p.m., but it didn’t satisfy Gordon’s desire to reach out to the heartland.

So he left in 1988 to create “This Way Out” (the original title was “inside/OUT”), which is beamed via satellite throughout the United States and Canada and is shipped via cassette to stations in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

Produced on $20,000 a year, the show features news, music, interviews and commentary, with Gordon and Lucia Chappelle as hosts. Its primary expenses are the lease of satellite time, promotional mailings and rental of equipment for editing audiotape, which is done in Gordon’s apartment.

Since public radio does not accept advertising, the bulk of the show’s income comes from foundation grants and listener contributions. Stations do not pay for broadcast rights. “We want it to be as accessible as possible, which is why we have not charged for the program,” Gordon said.

Two years ago, Gordon, 50, left a full-time job in advertising to cope with the show’s ever-increasing demands, hoping to turn his producing duties into a paying job. Now, he says, his savings have run out and the show needs to generate $3,000 a month to cover expenses and pay him and the staff nominal salaries.

Andy Spahn, head of the David Geffen Foundation, which has contributed $5,000 to the show each of the last two years, called the program “valuable. It gives us a lot of bang for the buck, delivering positive messages about lesbians and gay men” as well as “valuable information often not otherwise readily available.”

The foundation has been “more than satisfied” with the results of its donations and may review its contribution in light of the show’s financial problems, he said.

Gordon is also exploring the possibility of asking stations to pay a carriage fee, but he says most are small and don’t have the resources to pony up very much.