Alternative’s Return

Something strange happened recently on the phones at KXLU-FM (88.9), the student-run radio station at Loyola Marymount University. Amid the usual round of requests, complaints and--during last month’s fund-raising drive--pledges of monetary support, the station’s student managers fielded a few calls from record company executives and even a programmer from modern rock radio giant KROQ-FM (106.7) who wanted to know something about what KXLU was playing.

“I was a little surprised by the calls,” says General Manager Clarissa Castaneda, 21, who, while not running the station, is a senior majoring in English and minoring in art history. “And a friend of mine who works at [the Sony label] 550 Records came to a benefit show we had last month and was checking out some of the bands. It was the first time I knew of someone in the music industry saying, ‘I heard this band on KXLU, so I had to go see it.’ ”

Ten years ago, Castaneda’s counterpart at the station might have greeted the same phenomena with a yawn. Throughout the ‘80s, KXLU--and college rock radio across the nation--was a wellhead for what was next in rock music, a launching pad for rising acts and trends, and a true alternative to mainstream commercial radio music.

College radio is generally beneath the radar of even many people in the music and radio business. Student stations such as KXLU (which features classical programming in the evenings and salsa on weekends in addition to its weekday rock programming), UC Irvine’s KUCI-FM (also 88.9) and the Claremont Colleges’ KSPC-FM (88.7) broadcast on fairly low wattage and aren’t tracked by any ratings service. They can’t even compete with Santa Monica College’s KCRW-FM (89.9), Pasadena City College’s KPCC-FM (89.3), USC’s classical KUSC-FM (91.5) or Cal State Northridge’s KCSN-FM (88.5), which though operated by schools, are essentially professional public radio stations with very little of their staffs consisting of students.

But stations like KXLU are where in the ‘80s we first heard R.E.M., the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction and even Guns N’ Roses. And this was often the only place we’d hear Husker Du, Sonic Youth and the Replacements, who, despite being highly influential forces in music, had no place on even the relatively adventurous KROQ.

But in 1990, with the release of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album, all that changed. Though the Seattle band’s first album, “Bleach,” had been locked in the college radio world, suddenly alternative (or punk, or grunge, or whatever name applies) was the driving force in the rock mainstream. That left something of a void around KXLU and its colleagues in other college stations.

“When that happened, our catalog got sucked dry,” says KXLU program director Shamus Halkowich, 21, an LMU senior majoring in film. “Our objective is to focus on what isn’t mainstream, what the kids are doing in their bedrooms. All of a sudden, what the kids were doing in their bedrooms was on KROQ. KXLU went through a big identity crisis at that time.”

The identity, though, seems to be coming back, and people with an ear out for new rock horizons are starting to notice. Tony Berg, an artists and repertoire executive and producer at Geffen Records who has worked with artists including Beck, Forest for the Trees and Michael Penn, found himself listening to the station recently on a morning drive with his 11-year-old daughter.

“We heard three amazing songs in a row,” Berg says. “My daughter is a confirmed KROQ nut who never wants to listen to anything else, but she was amazed by what she heard.”

The timing couldn’t be better, Berg believes.

“We’re in a very static time, musically,” he says. “Maybe it becomes the responsibility of college radio, as it was before, to kick the more mainstream formats in the butt again. At the same time, it becomes the responsibility of the major labels to once again pay attention to that so we become exposed to what’s coming next.”

Atlantic Records A&R; executive Tim Sommer, who signed Hootie & the Blowfish and the young Canadian band the Tea Party and works with hit singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, agrees that college radio is again becoming an important outlet for developing acts.

“There is a need for that format to make a comeback,” says Sommer, who worked at New York University station WNYU in his early ‘80s student days and was a member of the band Hugo Largo, which got most of its mid-’80s airplay on college radio. “Now every band starting in a garage thinks, ‘We’ll be on KROQ or MTV.’ ”

But, Sommer notes, there are very few open spots on MTV and rock radio for new acts, and more and more of them are going these days to acts that are not part of the alternative rock world--the world served by college radio, which again becomes the launching pad for alternative rockers.

Halkowich and Castaneda both name the bands Chumbawamba and Cornershop as recent acts that were staples of their playlists in recent years that have now moved to mainstream radio. But they also stress that being a launching pad for bands to move to commercial exposure is not the KXLU mission.

“We’re not putting them on to be trendy or start something in the general music industry,” Castaneda says. “If anything, we’re doing the opposite, specifically going out of our way to do what they’re not doing.”

By the same token, while KXLU has spawned some on-air talent that has moved on to greater professional renown--including Jason Bentley, the techno guru of both KCRW and KROQ and now an A&R; executive at Madonna’s Maverick Records--neither of them is planning to make careers in radio.

“No, no, no, no,” insists Castaneda. “A lot of the people at the station are communications majors who hope to work in radio. But I don’t. The reason I work here is I love music a whole lot.”

Button-Pushing: In celebration of the release of “You Had to Be There,” a two-CD collection of comedy and live music performances from the Mark & Brian morning show on KLOS-FM (95.5), the pair will be making an in-store appearance on Tuesday at the Blockbuster Music store in Burbank, from 5 to 8 p.m. The album benefits the Mark & Brian Scholarship Fund and the Make a Wish Foundation.

Meanwhile, KLOS has kicked its campaign to reclaim its rock radio heritage (with longtime L.A. air personalities Jim Ladd and Rita Wilde now anchoring the staff) with a clever, to-the-point series of billboards. Our favorite says: “We lost our minds for a minute. But we’re feeling better now. . . .”

Having negotiated the multicultural currents of San Francisco as program director of leading urban music station KMEL-FM, Michelle Santosuosso has moved to L.A. to take the same job at KKBT-FM (92.3), replacing Harold Austin, who has moved to KIBB-FM (100.3). All three stations are owned by Chancellor Media.

License Challenge: A Latino rights group that already is boycotting Walt Disney Co. and its ABC television network has filed challenges against the company’s three Los Angeles radio stations.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition accused KABC-AM (790), KMPC-AM (710) and KLOS-FM (95.5) of failing to hire enough Latinos to comply with employment guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission. It asked the regulatory agency not to renew the stations’ operating licenses.

“They have a pattern of discrimination against Latinos,” said Alex Nogales, national chairman of the coalition. He said Latinos make up less than 1% of the Disney work force but should total 21% under FCC requirements.

Ken Green, a Disney spokesman, said that the radio stations are in compliance with all FCC rules. He declined to release employee demographic data.

The Latino group also said it had filed petitions to deny the license renewals of KLSX-FM (97.1) and KKHJ-AM (930) for what Nogales called “obscene programming.”

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Freelance writer Jon Steinman contributed to this article.