Bulldozer Cuts Phones in KCRW Pledge Drive

Announcers Jennifer Ferro and Matt Holzman were on the air, pleading earnestly Monday for donations to public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) in Santa Monica, when an engineer held a hand-written sign to the studio window.

“Phones are dead,” it read.

Misunderstanding, the crestfallen pair shrugged that they were doing their best on the fourth day of the member-supported station’s pledge drive. Sorry if we’re bombing, they replied.

But the pair behind the microphones weren’t to blame for the sudden drop-off in phone pledges. It was a man driving a bulldozer outside the station’s studios at Santa Monica College.

He accidentally ripped out underground cables carrying 750 telephone and computer lines, knocking KCRW off the air briefly and silencing the station’s 40 pledge-line phones.

Engineers rigged a temporary cable to return the station to the air. By nightfall, technicians had restored a few pledge lines; they hoped to fix the rest overnight.

The nonprofit radio station set a $1-million fund-raising target for the 11-day subscription campaign. It had received $363,520 in pledges when the phones went out about 12:50 p.m.

“This is every public broadcast manager’s worst nightmare: your phones and your transmitter going out during a subscription drive,” said KCRW manager Ruth Seymour.

She said it won’t be possible at this point to extend the fund-raising effort to make up for Monday’s losses. About 50 volunteers who showed up to work during the afternoon had nothing to do.

About a third of Santa Monica College’s phones were knocked out by the accident. And its entire computer network was cut off, disrupting fall enrollment activities, said campus telecommunications technician Ray Martin.

Officials said workers were grading for part of a $22-million expansion of the college library, which is next to the building that houses KCRW.

Lee Paul, an inspector for the project, said the contractor, Nelson Dillingham Inc., will pay for the repairs. The contract also calls for KCRW to get about $10,000 per day for any interruption. But Seymour said she figures Monday’s losses could total $100,000 or so.

The construction crew, meantime, said it will be more careful with the replacement cable. That’s its pledge to KCRW.