KUSC drive does it again

Classical music lovers may still be lamenting the demise of KMZT-FM, but not the ones who work at KUSC-FM (91.5). They just recorded their second consecutive record fund-raising drive.

Officials at KUSC reported Thursday that last week’s drive produced $1.3 million in pledges from more than 8,500 listeners. That bettered what had been the most successful pledge drive in the public radio station’s 60-year history last spring, which raised more than $1.1 million from 7,900 pledges.

KMZT, which had been KUSC’s principal competitor for classical music listeners, moved from the FM dial to AM last February, losing much of its audience in the process because of the AM signal’s smaller reach and inferior audio quality. Owner Saul Levine is scuttling the format altogether this weekend, replacing it with talk programming beginning Monday and renaming the station KGIL-AM (1260).

-- Lee Margulies