KCSN Mines L.A.’s Stories for New Weekday ‘Lunch’ Plan

With General Manager Rene Engel as host and the Music Center as its opening locale, “Let’s Do Lunch” will premiere at noon Monday on public-radio station KCSN-FM (88.5). As Engel envisions it, the hourlong weekday show will be a multi-course, eclectic meal of in-depth interviews, live and recorded performances, previews and reviews--a foray into the artistic, cultural, literary and culinary scene of metropolitan Los Angeles.

Longtime classical music personality Thomas Cassidy, host of “Evening Concert” (1943-87) and “Luncheon at the Music Center” (1965-76) on the old KFAC, will be Monday’s guest. And not by accident.

“This kind of program doesn’t exist anywhere on L.A. radio,” Engel said. “And being a devotee of ‘Luncheon at the Music Center,’ I wanted to bring that aesthetic back. My father was a cabinetmaker and always listened to it, and I would listen with him. Of course [“Let’s Do Lunch”] will be more than that [program], but I was certainly inspired by it.”

Coming to Engel’s table next week will be Steven Fogel, chairman of the California Arts Council (Tuesday); Andrea Rich, president-director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Wednesday); and Zubin Mehta, former director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Thursday).

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On Fridays through the end of the year, KCSN is continuing to rebroadcast KCRW-FM’s (89.9) acclaimed 1997 12-part documentary series “The United States of Los Angeles.” Next year, Engel plans to devote Friday installments of “Let’s Do Lunch” to film and musical scores.

Engel, 51, knows about creating radio shows. He developed and co-hosted “Music Magazine” (1988-96) at KPCC-FM (89.3) and is best known for “Citybilly,” a folk and country music program he hosts that ran for 15 years, first at KCRW and then at KPCC, and which now airs Sundays from 5 to 7 p.m. on KCSN. Engel brought it to KCSN when he became general manager in 1997.

After two weeks at the Music Center, which will also include broadcasts about the Gay Men’s Chorus and Disney Hall, “Let’s Do Lunch” moves back home to studios at Cal State Northridge--”Jerry’s Famous Deli is bringing in free lunch,” Engel reports--and occasionally will go to other sites.

“We’ll spend a week at the Museum of Television & Radio, at MOCA, at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and actually focus on some of the performers that are coming up in the near future,” he said. “We’ll have curators walking us through galleries. In some ways, we’ll be on radio what Huell Howser does on [KCET-TV].

“We’ll go on the road,” he added, “get in the car and do audio tours of the wall murals of East Los Angeles. We’ll do pieces on neighborhood restaurants and search out the best Oaxacan and mole restaurants. And we’ll go to the Getty--we’re close to getting Barry Munitz [president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust].”

The show will be sandwiched between two hours of National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” with the first hour of that show beginning, as it does now, at 11 a.m.

Engel figured the time was right for “Lunch.” KCSN is getting a new transmitter in two months that will increase its wattage about six times from the current 52 watts. The station is mainly heard in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Conejo valleys, but its reach will broaden with the new power.

As for doing a rebroadcast in the evening to reach people who are at work at noon, Engel said he would consider it. “Until you brought it up,” he said, chuckling, “I didn’t think about it.”