Radio Activity

Here on the edge of the nation’s second-largest radio market, where booming-voiced announcers brag about their stations having “flava,” where shock jocks hang up on callers and guy-girl morning teams laugh at jokes that just aren’t that funny, soft-spoken stations such as KCLU can easily get lost in the din of the dial.

As Ventura County’s only National Public Radio and jazz station, KCLU offers moments of calm in the vida loca of Southern California radio.

Approaching its fifth anniversary in October, the station is home to thoughtful news stories from NPR and soothing volunteer deejays who introduce classic jazz from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and others.

What KCLU lacks are the quirky shows on quilting, cats and coin collecting that can be found on public radio stations elsewhere. While KCLU does offer locally produced shows on personal finance, writing and public affairs, for the most part, the station invites listeners to “Discover NPR and all that Jazz”--or tune into something else.

“Classical music [the musical format of 62% of NPR stations] is wonderful, but there are many classical music stations, both locally and out of L. A. as well. . . . That is not true for straight, really straight-ahead jazz,” said Mary Olson, general manager.

“This is classic American music, and it’s disappearing,” she said. “It’s our music [as Americans].”

About 70% of KCLU’s programming is locally produced; the rest--shows like “All Things Considered,” “Jazz From the Lincoln Center” and “Car Talk”--come from NPR’s satellite. Headlines from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and a five- to eight-minute local story are mixed into NPR’s morning programming. Deejays update local traffic and weather throughout the day.

KCLU’s local news stories sometimes end up on NPR’s 600-plus member stations.

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When the state Coastal Commission was considering further limits on offshore oil drilling earlier this month, KCLU News Director Jeff Barry filed a story on the debate for “All Things Considered,” NPR’s afternoon show.

“We feed more [news stories to NPR] than any other station in Southern California,” said Barry, who started at KCLU as an intern and is now also the station’s programming director.

According to Arbitron, which tracks radio listenership, about 46,000 people tune in to KCLU-FM (88.3) for at least five minutes each week. The typical KCLU listener spends about six hours a week with the station--below average for NPR nationwide but above-average on Southern California’s densely packed dial.

And with the addition of a simulcast station broadcasting at 102.3 FM in Santa Barbara in May 1998, KCLU expanded its potential audience in the two counties to 1 million people.

“We’re never going to rank in the L. A. market because our signal covers only 3% of the market,” Barry said.

The Los Angeles radio market stretches from southern Santa Barbara County to Riverside County. Only the New York metropolitan market has more potential listeners in the United States.

Once KRCL, the radio station of Cal Lutheran University, KCLU has its studios on the university’s campus. Cal Lutheran donates the space and holds the station’s FCC license but exerts no control over its programming, Olson said.

KCLU, which relies on listeners’ and corporate donations, operates on a $345,000 budget. Unlike older NPR member stations, KCLU, because of its relative newness, is not eligible for federal funding.

The station’s April fund-raising drive took in $100,000 in pledges over the week, a sign to Olson that KCLU is combating well the biggest problem for public broadcasters: People can listen or watch without paying.

But Olson has a file of listeners’ letters that shows many are willing to contribute even when their own personal finances are weak.

“I am living on a small income, but do listen to the jazz--and therefore feel that I should contribute something,” one woman wrote.

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A group of nuns paid their $40 membership in two installments. And on a piece of steno paper accompanying his donation, a listener named Scott wrote: “As soon as I find gainful employment, you’ll get some more.”

Corporate underwriting by dozens of area firms, from mom-and-pop restaurants to GTE, foots about one-third of KCLU’s budget.

“They get benefits in two ways,” said Judy Kaminsky, underwriting sponsorship manager. “They get marketing benefits from it. They get public relations benefits from it.”

Furthermore, she said, “because public radio has this persona as being a true community service, those people who like and appreciate it like and appreciate those people who support it.”

Only five of KCLU’s staff are paid. More than 30 volunteers produce and host most of the non-NPR shows that fill the station’s around-the-clock programming. Thanks to automation, KCLU can stay on the air without asking its volunteers to work the graveyard shift.

“These people have been with us for years and years, and they do an incredible job,” Olson said. “They are the stars.”

KCLU’s on-air volunteers include a Moorpark High School teacher who signs on at 6 a.m. Saturdays and a retired attorney from Santa Barbara who anchors a weekly public affairs show.

When KCLU went on the air Oct. 21, 1994, Raul Rico was its first nighttime host. The Oxnard liquor store manager still hosts his Latin jazz show Thursday nights and added a Saturday salsa show in January 1998.

“I’m a public radio nut just because I get to expose the music I’m thoroughly in love with to the masses. It’s basically a mission in my life,” said Rico, who plays conga drums with the Estrada Brothers, a Latin jazz band based in Oxnard. “If it wasn’t for me doing the program, nobody would hear the music that I love.”

Rico said he does his show for himself, too.

“I look forward to going to the station on Thursday nights and doing my program,” he said. “That’s my haven and my home for Thursday night.”