Hey, KACD Fans, Don’t Touch That Dot-Com Dial

I am so bummed. My commute won’t be the same once Santa Monica-based “adult alternative” radio station KACD-FM (103.1) goes off the air later this summer. Where else can you find Phish and Aimee Mann on the same playlist with the Rolling Stones and Bob Marley?

The good news is that instead of closing up shop, the station will experiment with moving its DJs, commercials and playlists online to https://www.worldclassrock.com. And as far as the station knows, it will be the first to go directly from “FM to dot-com.”

“The timing is right,” said program director Nicole Sandler. “You can’t pick up Internet radio in your car yet, but that technology is being developed as we speak.”

The scenario is all too familiar to Sandler, who was music director of KSCA-FM (101.9) from 1994 to 1996, until it was sold and changed to Spanish-language music. (KACD went on the air in 1998.) “At least there’s a future to look forward to this time, and I’m not unemployed.”

Listeners, she said, have rallied. “People are upset that we are going to be missing from the airwaves, but they are supportive of keeping us alive in some form.”

Over the past few weeks, on-air personalities have been pleading with listeners to sign an online petition to help persuade parent company Clear Channel Communications that there is an audience for the online move. Nearly 20,000 people have responded. (Now that the move is a foregone conclusion, Sandler conceded that the language of the pitch should be less alarmist.)

She hopes folks will keep signing. “It’s still a good show of support,” she said. “And a way to show advertisers people will be there to listen.”

Sandler expects the Web site to be streaming music by Friday; she’s not sure when the radio signal will go off the air.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to suffer 103.1 separation anxiety every morning when I turn the car radio on, anticipating the dark day when my only choices are Britney Spears and Bob Edwards.

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Ever wonder what happens when former political rivals have to bury the hatchet and work together? Retired broadcast executive Van Gordon Sauter and former California first lady Gayle Wilson, spouses of two 1994 gubernatorial candidates, were hired by the same dot-com. (Sauter is married to Kathleen Brown; Wilson is married to former governor Pete.)

Sauter and Wilson serve on the board of directors for Santa Clara-based Broad Daylight Inc., a company that develops software to help e-commerce companies provide better answers to customers’ e-mailed questions.

So far, the spouses have been getting along swimmingly, said company spokesman Thayer Scott. “It’s definitely an interesting coincidence. But they have put any personal political feelings on the back burner and are focused on helping the company.”

Sounds like the premise for a great sitcom, if you ask me.

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Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.