CSUN Radio Station Names New Manager

Radio personality and onetime Cal State Northridge student Rene Herz Engel has been named general manager of the university’s public radio station, KCSN-FM (88.5), college officials announced.

William Toutant, associate dean of the College of Arts, Media and Communications, said Engel’s experience with college-based radio stations gave him an edge over the competition.

The new manager most recently hosted KUSC’s afternoon drive-time program and has worked with stations affiliated with Pasadena City College, among others.

Engel, 48, said his main goal is to “make sure 88.5 is a preset in everybody’s car radio. For KCSN to be successful, we need to get more and more into the consciousness of listeners and potential listeners,” he said, adding that one way to do that is to make them more a part of the station.

“I’d like to see them giving of their time and participation in subscription drives and having them here at the station,” he said. “At all the stations I’ve worked for, the success comes about because of the interest and participation of listeners.”

The biggest challenge Engel will face is dealing with October’s expected loss of about one-quarter of the station’s more-than-$400,000 budget, when a grant from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting expires, Toutant said.

A second challenge is to relocate the station’s transmitter to Oak Mountain above Granada Hills, which the Federal Communications Commission approved recently.

The move should dramatically improve the quality of the signal in the Valley, Toutant said. But the station now must raise $75,000 to $80,000 for relocation before the FCC deadline expires in 18 months.

“The good news is we can move it,” Toutant said. “The bad news is we have to move it.”