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What's going on at KCSM?

"About" KCSM now says "An affiliate of Public Radio International and National Public Radio". The website now has links to NPR news stories. I don't know how that helps KCSM.
 
Maybe they are also planning on branching off music? KCSM is owned and a part of the San Mateo community college district which has growing and peaking enrollment, if I recall correctly what I’ve read off their website.

Makes a lot of sense for the station to be utilized more.
 
Radiopaw said:
Maybe they are also planning on branching off music? KCSM is owned and a part of the San Mateo community college district which has growing and peaking enrollment, if I recall correctly what I’ve read off their website.

Makes a lot of sense for the station to be utilized more.
Click to expand...
Is the current leaders of KCSM attempting following the framework of KALW is for San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley audiences or KRCB is for North Bay Audiences. But KCSM is more on the side of San Mateo county audiences.


KALW News

Get the latest Bay Area news, plus in-depth coverage from KALW shows like Crosscurrents, Your Call, and State of the Bay.
www.kalw.org www.kalw.org

Yes they are NPR affiliates but they are overshadowed by KQED-FM which covers the entire market at 100kw.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Is the current leaders of KCSM attempting following the framework of KALW is for San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley audiences or KRCB is for North Bay Audiences. But KCSM is more on the side of San Mateo county audiences.
Click to expand...

I believe KALW carried NPR news programming well before KQED-FM started doing so. KALW these days programs news from midnight to 8 pm daily (i.e. 4 hours of music a day in the evening) with more music shows on the weekends - and has been news-intensive for a long time. The big change in recent years has been ditching CBC programming for other shows. It's never been known as a music station, as far as I can tell. KRCB is doing AAA during many hours of the day. I don't think either situation is comparable to KCSM.
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Yes they are NPR affiliates but they are overshadowed by KQED-FM which covers the entire market at 100kw.
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110 kw, from Mt. San Bruno.
 
Mark Roberts said:
For entertainment that you couldn't buy (nor would you want to) the Q3 2023 public affairs comment file for KCSM is, um, enlightening?


It seems to amount to a spat between a former program director and current station management over...the introduction of two hours of public affairs programming on Sunday mornings. Talk about low stakes.
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i read it.. all.

It was like a flaming accident i couldnt turn away from.

Seems a fair amount of listeners didnt like it and the point of contention some had was the station was already in compliance with the CPB and FCC, which is something the station said they wanted to strengthen
 
That Facebook thread is full of a bunch of people who don’t know how to pick their battles, and don’t realize a station in San Mateo doesn’t care about whether or not someone in England listens and gives them money or not, just based on 2 hours of public affairs programming on a weekend. The people who claim they’ll stop listening and giving money over 2 hours of programming on a Sunday morning are more than likely just blowing smoke.
 
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Mark Roberts said:
For entertainment that you couldn't buy (nor would you want to) the Q3 2023 public affairs comment file for KCSM is, um, enlightening?

It seems to amount to a spat between a former program director and current station management over...the introduction of two hours of public affairs programming on Sunday mornings. Talk about low stakes.
Click to expand...
:ROFLMAO:

What I can tell you is that the previous method of "addressing issues through interviews with jazz musicians" is unorthodox.

I pulled up the Q4 2019 issues file, a period when I know former management was still in place (I think Ms. Clancy was forced out in the middle of 2020). The issues covered were (deep inhale):

Age. Art. Awards. Benefits. Books. CD Release. Children and Youth. Clubs and Venues. Cost of Living. Culture. Dance. Diversity & Multiculture. Economics. Education. Environment. Festivals. Film. Gigs. Intellectual Property. Live Morning Radio. Music Rights & Licensing. Philanthropy. Russia. Spirituality. Travel. Tributes. The Soviet Union. Women.

Well, that's exhaustive. Good work. But things collapse when realize what was really going on. FCC regulations state the following:

The list shall include a brief narrative describing what issues were given significant treatment and the programming that provided this treatment. The description of the programs shall include, but shall not be limited to, the time, date, duration, and title of each program in which the issue was treated.
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(quoted from 73 CFR 3526.12)

What was being listed as a "significant treatment" of an issue appears to be biographical and promotional interviews of jazz musicians, based on the names of the interviewees given.
The station did not provide a "brief narrative" about how the issue was given significant treatment in the interview, and the timings given are clearly reflective of a larger program. If you take the document literally, the station interviewed Nicholas Bearde eight times, for 40 minutes each, on eight different topics on October 3rd, 2019. But clearly what actually happened is they interviewed Mr. Bearde for 40 minutes, touching on eight topics for a few minutes at a time, making the treatment minimal.
Nor was there a rationale given for why the Soviet Union or Dance or Intellectual Property were issues requiring significant treatment by a radio station in San Mateo in 2019.

Of course, I'm picking nits. The chances the commission would ever issue anything more than a warning letter to a licensee over something like this are the same as Harold Camping correctly predicting the end of the world.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Of course, I'm picking nits. The chances the commission would ever issue anything more than a warning letter to a licensee over something like this are the same as Harold Camping correctly predicting the end of the world.
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It's Kabuki. If the Commission really enforced these rules, more than half the station operators in the country would be trembling in fear that they could lose their licenses. As it is, as long as you don't show tits (which would be a really neat trick for a radio station to pull off), or don't get caught lying to the Commission, you're fine as long as you go through the motions.
 
radiofan2023 said:
That Facebook thread is full of a bunch of people who don’t know how to pick their battles, and don’t realize a station in San Mateo doesn’t care about whether or not someone in England listens and gives them money or not, just based on 2 hours of public affairs programming on a weekend. The people who claim they’ll stop listening and giving money over 2 hours of programming on a Sunday morning are more than likely just blowing smoke.
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As a reporter, I once went to look at the public file of the leading TV station in the market.

Good heavens, it was depressing.

Leaving aside the notes of appreciation giving free publicity to the Society for Chiropractic Treatment of Dachsunds and similar groups, it was all a bunch of whining about why their favorite shows weren't on any more, or why they put that minority guy on the air, or why the weather forecast was always wrong, etc. etc. etc. This was, of course, before social media.
 
Mark Roberts said:
As a reporter, I once went to look at the public file of the leading TV station in the market.

Good heavens, it was depressing.

Leaving aside the notes of appreciation giving free publicity to the Society for Chiropractic Treatment of Dachsunds and similar groups, it was all a bunch of whining about why their favorite shows weren't on any more, or why they put that minority guy on the air, or why the weather forecast was always wrong, etc. etc. etc. This was, of course, before social media.
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What city was that in?
 
KCSM's Spring Pledge drive begins today and they're promoting their new HD-2 channel (and here I thought HD radio was dead!). Apparently the HD-2 will feature more music specialty shows, and they will be moving the Public Affairs programming -- the stuff that caused such a kerfuffle 6 months ago -- to the new channel as well.
 
KSDS here in San Diego has had an HD2 which appears student run (and last I was listening, had an odd mix of oughts and teens mainstream music). Has KCSM had such a thing? Seems like it ought to if there's, say, a school of broadcasting or some such.
 
KEXPSD said:
KSDS here in San Diego has had an HD2 which appears student run (and last I was listening, had an odd mix of oughts and teens mainstream music). Has KCSM had such a thing? Seems like it ought to if there's, say, a school of broadcasting or some such.
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The new HD-2 channel launches this month. We shall see.
 
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