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KSAN reborn

C

Crevecoeur123

New Participating Member
Having listened to KSAN beginning in the late 60s for many years, I was amazed about the variety of music they played.
Throughout the decades, I've not had any luck finding a similar station until now.

Check out http://www.885fm.org/listen/?url=/listen

They have the widest variety of music.

Here's an example from a recent morning show.
Always Plimsoll Punks
I got loaded Los Lobos

Tonight I've listened to:

Mongo Santamaria which was followed by Chris Stapleton

Latin jazz followed by country.
One cannot find this kind of variety on mainstream FM radio.

One cannot get this kind of variety from Pandora either.

Check it out! I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Kudos to the discussions on Top 20 US Radio Markets Los Angeles which introduced me to this station.
 
Completely agree...been streaming KCSN. This is the station I've been asking for...for years. It's the best thing on the radio or internet anywhere. Nothing hits out of the park like this. Since this emanates from Cal State Northridge, I suppose it's sustainable. In LA, they're doing a simulcast on the same frequency with the Saddleback College radio station...so you can drive from LA to Orange County with a continuous listen.
 
adradio said:
Completely agree...been streaming KCSN. This is the station I've been asking for...for years. It's the best thing on the radio or internet anywhere. Nothing hits out of the park like this. Since this emanates from Cal State Northridge, I suppose it's sustainable. In LA, they're doing a simulcast on the same frequency with the Saddleback College radio station...so you can drive from LA to Orange County with a continuous listen.
Click to expand...

I agree that this is a perfect format for a non-commercial station. It can take risks, and is less dependent on ratings and advertisers.

However, there is no way to drive from the San Fernando Valley to deep Orange County without losing the 88.5 signal for most of the trip between Westwood and Buena Park... on a good day when there is no inversion or skip.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A curated playlist done by someone creative beats anything done with computer algorithms!
'
Click to expand...

It's not to say that Apple, Pandora, and Spotify aren't attempting to offer the same thing with experienced human curators. They are. But they are buried in a system that simply can't reach an audience in the same way that broadcasting can. Their stations are needles in a digital haystack.
 
DavidEduardo said:


That is what comes from having a skilled programmer with no obligation to ratings or advertisers. A curated playlist done by someone creative beats anything done with computer algorithms!

Read this about the PD: http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/arts...med-most-influential-programmer-by-billboard/
Click to expand...


My wife and I were in Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving weekend and noticed a lot of billboards (mostly on the west side of town) for KCSN. Apparently an attempt to pick up disenfranchised Sound listeners.
 
michael hagerty said:
My wife and I were in Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving weekend and noticed a lot of billboards (mostly on the west side of town) for KCSN. Apparently an attempt to pick up disenfranchised Sound listeners.
Click to expand...

Not unlike what non-com WFMU has done in the NYC area.
 
michael hagerty said:
My wife and I were in Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving weekend and noticed a lot of billboards (mostly on the west side of town) for KCSN. Apparently an attempt to pick up disenfranchised Sound listeners.
Click to expand...


Good to see the promotion. Hoping it's successful. If so...maybe it can be replicated in the Bay Area (where this type of radio started in the first place).
 
adradio said:
Good to see the promotion. Hoping it's successful. If so...maybe it can be replicated in the Bay Area (where this type of radio started in the first place).
Click to expand...

Well...it may have started in San Francisco, but Los Angeles picked it up almost immediately. In fact, Tom Donahue who is credited for the "free-form" format at KSAN, also flew down to help with....IIRC...KPPC and later KMET, which was KSAN's sister FM station in the Metromedia days. But really, this format was allowed by the corporate owners because in those days, their FM frequency was generally either simulcasting their AM for part of the day, or playing "elevator music" with very few commercials - in terms of listernership, FM was more-or-less what HD2 is now. Needless to say, I wasn't there, but I'm assuming that the station owners figured they had nothing to lose - if these hippies could bring them better ratings, why not give it a try? True "free-form" really only had a heyday of 4 or 5 years - by 1971, the biggest FM rock station in the LA market was "Rock N'Stereo" (hated that slogan) KLOS - which was heavily formatted...playlist and all. Their DJs were all mostly young "hippie" types, and the station didn't use bumpers or jingles, so it had a "free-form" feel, but it was about as non-free as you could get.

I suspect SF was mostly the same - and KSAN was running off a playlist by the mid 70s at the latest. So that is my long-winded way of saying - "replicated in the Bay Area" ain't gonna happen, unless some non-comm station wants to copy KCSN.
 
LKellerIII said:
I suspect SF was mostly the same - and KSAN was running off a playlist by the mid 70s at the latest. So that is my long-winded way of saying - "replicated in the Bay Area" ain't gonna happen, unless some non-comm station wants to copy KCSN.
Click to expand...

Tom Donohue's free form station was KMPX. That was a single station owner who turned the programming over to Tom. After about a year, the owner got greedy, and Tom took his idea and staff to KSAN. However, KSAN was owned by a big corporation, and they ran things differently. So it wasn't long before the station became another corporate AOR station with Tom at the helm. Sure it was better than KYA or the other Top 40 stations. But it wasn't what Donohue had done at KMPX.
 
TheBigA said:
Tom Donohue's free form station was KMPX. That was a single station owner who turned the programming over to Tom. After about a year, the owner got greedy, and Tom took his idea and staff to KSAN. However, KSAN was owned by a big corporation, and they ran things differently. So it wasn't long before the station became another corporate AOR station with Tom at the helm. Sure it was better than KYA or the other Top 40 stations. But it wasn't what Donohue had done at KMPX.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the memory jog. Same thing in LA, IIRC - Donahue started with KPPC which was owned by the National Science Network...I believe they were called, which I don't think you could call a major corporation, but for some reason, and I recall that much of the KPPC staff (B. Mitchell Reed, and others) left for KMET, which was owned by Metromedia, same as KSAN. "BMR," like Donahue, had been a popular Top 40 DJ known for his fast-talking - at KFWB.
 
The BEST FM Station in L.A. & O.C

I have trouble in Redondo Beach receiving KCSN. As Mr Gleason had mentioned and my own experiences listening along the 405, the signal deteriorates south of Culver City across the South Bay and almost disappears around Long Beach - as the KSBR signal comes in south of the 405/22 split near seal beach the signal improves. In Redondo - I got creative with a wire antenna in my upstairs apt to get 88.5 in HD Radio
 
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LKellerIII said:
Well...it may have started in San Francisco, but Los Angeles picked it up almost immediately. In fact, Tom Donahue who is credited for the "free-form" format at KSAN, also flew down to help with....IIRC...KPPC and later KMET, which was KSAN's sister FM station in the Metromedia days. But really, this format was allowed by the corporate owners because in those days, their FM frequency was generally either simulcasting their AM for part of the day, or playing "elevator music" with very few commercials - in terms of listernership, FM was more-or-less what HD2 is now. Needless to say, I wasn't there, but I'm assuming that the station owners figured they had nothing to lose - if these hippies could bring them better ratings, why not give it a try? True "free-form" really only had a heyday of 4 or 5 years - by 1971, the biggest FM rock station in the LA market was "Rock N'Stereo" (hated that slogan) KLOS - which was heavily formatted...playlist and all. Their DJs were all mostly young "hippie" types, and the station didn't use bumpers or jingles, so it had a "free-form" feel, but it was about as non-free as you could get.

I suspect SF was mostly the same - and KSAN was running off a playlist by the mid 70s at the latest. So that is my long-winded way of saying - "replicated in the Bay Area" ain't gonna happen, unless some non-comm station wants to copy KCSN.
Click to expand...

Actually, I wasn't implying that KCSN is 'free form', but rather is a thoughtful programmed station that takes risks, has a wide playlist, plays deep album cuts, mixes in old stuff that surprises and sounds great, avoids the tired over played hits, promotes local concerts, allows DJs to speak intelligently and has a local feel. In the Bay Area, we had KSAN, but also KOME in the South Bay. True 'free form' is only as good as the DJ, otherwise it sounds like College radio...which generally is not listenable for any long stretch. KCSN's moniker of 'Smart Radio' is a good one.
 
adradio said:
Actually, I wasn't implying that KCSN is 'free form', but rather is a thoughtful programmed station that takes risks, has a wide playlist, plays deep album cuts, mixes in old stuff that surprises and sounds great, avoids the tired over played hits, promotes local concerts, allows DJs to speak intelligently and has a local feel.
Click to expand...

As mentioned before, all that is the product of a very special programmer, Sky Daniels.
 
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