KCBX is celebrating 50 years of public radio. See photos from station’s early years
Radio used to be more locally rooted.
DJs, playlists and news were connected to the local community with their programming.
Now it is rare to find a station that regularly has someone live in the studio or a surprise on the playlist.
KCBX has been able to swim against the stream of bland corporate sameness for five decades.
Their broadcast has included public service from the beginning, like a 1975 nuclear energy forum at the Cal Poly gym that included Edward Teller.
Over the years some ideas have run their course and others have taken their place.
Programming has been connected to local communities of interest and artists and also has seen a growth in the quality of nationally syndicated programming like news from NPR to a news parody show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Local talk shows have included leaders in the arts, environment and entertainment scene.
Music has ranged from classical to jazz, blues and folk programming with hosts who have unique insights into their special interests.
Fundraising has included wine festivals, costume balls, cake baking contest, concerts and other fun events in addition to the twice a year pledge drives.
The station is celebrating five decades of broadcasting with a party July 26 at the Octagon Barn.
Here is a story from Oct. 18, 1980, by Denise M. Caruso from when music was still on flat discs of vinyl sleeved in cardboard and reel-to-reel tape machines were an important tool.
KCBX It’s 90 on your dial
It’s a mutual admiration society, a not-so-secret love affair, a relationship that talks to itself, saying, “Thank you,” and replies, “No, thank YOU.”
“It” is public radio. And not just any old public radio — its KCBX-FM 90, the National Public Radio affiliate in San Luis Obispo.
Like the 236 other NPR member stations across the United States which are celebrating National Public Awareness Month during October, KCBX owes its support — financial and spiritual — to those who listen to it.
Brought into existence five years ago by Program Director Steve Urbani and former General Manager Steve Burrell, KCBX literally withstood the test of fire in 1978, when its studios on Chorro Street were almost destroyed by flames. Two years later, with a new general manager of six months and incredible public support, the station has all new equipment, a new satellite dish on Prado Road and is looking toward expanding its listenership southward to Santa Barbara.
“From my vantage point six months ago, KCBX is probably the showcase for a station that’s made it with the community support in an area where statistics wouldn’t support public radio,” said General Manager Frank Lanzone. “The people and the community should be proud.”
A glance at the statistics bears him out.
Lanzone said that 91 percent of the staggering $20,000-per-month operating budget for the station comes from community-supported fund raisers, underwriting from businesses, and subscribers. The other nine percent comes from the federally financed Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
All this makes KCBX what’s called a “non-commercial” station, meaning just that — no commercial advertisements are broadcast.
“We do things that commercial radio can’t,” said Lanzone. “We do jazz and classical music without interruption; our satellite gives us live coverage, like the Panama Canal debates. A commercial broadcaster couldn’t stop what he’s doing and run 20 weeks of hearings. We did. After a couple of days you get a lot of people calling and saying thank you — and subscribing.”
Two thousand people subscribe to KCBX and 25 businesses underwrite its programs. But making the station even more “public” are the volunteers that are an essential part of KCBX programming.
Some perform routine tasks like office work. Some help at fund raisers like concerts or the public and art auctions that help raise the always-needed working capital for the station.
More glamorously, those with Class 3 broadcasting licenses from the Federal Communications Commission can talk to Lanzone or Urbani about producing their own programs, the general manager said.
One who may be typical is Jerry Farrell, who with Marsha McKibben makes KCBX known as the “Classical Voice of the Central Coast.”
A Cal Poly math professor who’s been a classical music buff since he was 7, Farrell said he got involved with the station three years ago when he called Urbani to complain about what he’d heard on the air.
“They played six Rossini overtures in a row,” he said with a chuckle. “I essentially said, ‘I surrender!’ Urbani said if I could do any better, I should come on down.
“I’ve been here ever since.”
