Monday, May 16, 2011

Radio Station Field Trip 27 - KEAR and Family Radio in Oakland, CA

KEAR offices on May 12, 2011 
(All photos by J. Waits)

When I started my radio station field trip series I had intended to focus solely on college radio stations, but I pretty quickly made some exceptions when I ran across interesting commercial and community radio stations. Last week, I took an even greater detour when I decided that I needed to visit Christian radio station KEAR-AM, which is at the helm of the Family Radio network of religious stations. After hearing a Family Radio broadcast I became intrigued by its General Manager's proclamation that May 21, 2011 would be Judgment Day and that October 21, 2011 would mark the end of the world. When I first heard Family Radio General Manager Harold Camping over the airwaves a few weeks ago, I had no idea that his station was based in Oakland, California. When I realized that it was so near by, I knew that I had to tour before the predicted Armageddon.

One of Harold Camping's books in the Family Radio offices on May 12, 2011
(Photo: J. Waits)

So, on Thursday, May 12, 2011, I ventured out to Family Radio headquarters in order to tour the station, interview Harold Camping, and learn more about the inner-workings of the massive Christian radio network (see Radio Survivor for my full report on Camping's take on Judgment Day). I began my visit by attending a taping of a Harold Camping-led "Family Bible Study," which was being recorded for television and radio. As a studio audience and camera crews from Nightline and Univision watched, Camping flipped through Bible passages and talked about the nearness of Judgment Day.

Although Family Radio began in 1958 with one radio station (KEAR-FM at the time in San Francisco), it has since expanded to 60+ radio stations across the United States, 50+ translators, a shortwave station in Florida, and television stations in San Francisco and New York. Programming originates out of their Oakland headquarters, with operators in their Network Control department monitoring the patchwork quilt of signals 24 hours a day.

Family Radio President and General Manager Harold Camping in His Office on May 12, 2011
(Photo: J. Waits)

Harold Camping was one of the founders of the network in 1958 when he worked with a group of people to purchase KEAR-FM in San Francisco. When I interviewed him last Thursday, May 12, 2011, he told me that didn't have an interest in radio before that time. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in engineering and had a career in the construction business. When I spoke with Camping, he relayed to me the beginnings of Family Radio:


Jennifer Waits: So you were saying you had no interest in radio before?

Harold Camping: Right. That was not my interest. I was interested in dairy cattle and I was interested in math and interested in physics and science, but not radio.

Jennifer: What got you thinking about starting up a radio network?

Mr. Camping: Someone came to my office...and he wanted to find some Christian businessmen to buy a radio station and share the gospel. And, oh, to share the gospel, that's what got my interest. So, I agreed that provided we have a non-profit corporation so that nobody could ever realize any gains for themselves. And so, we formed a non-profit corporation called Family Stations, Incorporated. I became President and he became Vice-President. I had another young man working for me and we made him the third member to be legally a qualified corporation. And I put this man on my payroll...and he found a station here in San Francisco and we bought it and that was the beginning of Family Radio.


Jennifer: And what do you now love about radio?

Mr. Camping: I've been enmeshed in it for 52 years. I've been able to supervise the construction of radio and supervise the construction of TV. We built a 350 kilowatt station in Taiwan and a 600 kilowatt station in Taiwan to carry our programming to China and to the Philippines and so on.


Jennifer: So, you've been doing Open Forum for 50 years. How did that show start?

Mr. Camping: That started because at that time we were not getting any help from any churches and although we had paid very little to whatever employees we had, we were running out of money. So we had the idea that if I would be behind the mic as President and answer questions about finances or about music policy, that might encourage people to begin to give. So, we opened the telephone lines and I did my first program and they didn't ask any questions about finances or music, but they asked counseling questions and Bible questions. And I found that I enjoyed that very much and I was somewhat qualified because I had been doing quite a bit of study in the Bible and doing some private counseling. And so that began Open Forum.


It's clear when walking through Family Radio headquarters that the company is much more than a network of radio stations. They have their own print shop, which produces books and literature related to their beliefs. The Internet department maintains the website and creates Family Radio ads for placement on Facebook, Google and Microsoft websites.

KEAR-AM Studio in Oakland on May 12, 2011
(Photo: J. Waits)

Family Radio airs a mix of programming, including the popular live call-in show "Open Forum" (which has been on the air for 50 years) hosted by Camping 7 nights a week (it was 5 nights a week until a few weeks ago), children's programming, programs on "Positive Parenting," shows about Creationism and intelligent design, religious music shows, and the other live show, "Prayer Time," which broadcasts prayer requests from listeners (ranging from someone's desire for "a new transmission" to requests for prayers for cancer-stricken relatives). Most programmers and producers at Family Radio craft their shows remotely, so when I visited I didn't get the opportunity to see any live programming in action. I did see a producer working in one of the 8 control rooms and got the opportunity to check out the set up.

A portion of the vinyl library at Family Radio
(Photo: J. Waits)

The walls outside the production studios were filled with long-forgotten vinyl LPs that are no longer played. Although I saw numerous turntables, apparently vinyl records are now a relic at Family Radio after an archiving project a decade ago paved the way for the digital library of about 8000 pieces of music that is currently in use today. Beyond the vinyl LPs that I spotted outside the studios, in a Music Department office, and in a packed-to-the-gills closet, there's apparently more music housed in an off-site storage facility. In addition to the music shows that air today, Family Radio used to have a classical show on Sundays.


The music in Family Radio's digital archive is categorized across a number of different types of music, including organ, piano, orchestra, instrumental, male solo, female solo, choirs, male chorus, duets, trios, and quartets. I was told by a member of the Music Department that all music is carefully screened by several different reviewers on staff. In addition to screening music for its lyrical content to verify its take on the gospel and theology, the staff also ensure that music adheres to Family Radio's overall air sound, which was described to me as being "traditional" and "more of the hymn type" style of sacred music. A Family Radio staff member told me, "we don't have drums" or "anything with a beat," although she acknowledged that "it can be a little upbeat...but not loud percussion." And, as I listened to the station today, I did hear a slightly upbeat song with male harmonizing vocals that reminded me of the Beach Boys. So, it's true that they do mix it up a bit musically.

Closet at Family Radio Chock Full of Vinyl and CDs
(Photo: J. Waits)

Although listeners often call the network to ask about music that's been played, it's not Family Radio's policy to announce artist names over the airwaves. They will gladly provide that information to callers, but I was told that as a rule, "we don't promote people" over the air, which means that they don't do on-air back announces of the pieces that have been played. For the most part the music that they play is old, as evidenced by some of the titles that I spotted in their vinyl library. The old-fashioned music that I heard while listening to Family Radio on several occasions was actually kind of alluring in that it was so vintage. In that respect, it did sound like nothing else on radio and brought to mind my own memories of my grandparents glued to broadcasts of the Lawrence Welk show. Oddly enough, one of the albums that I saw on my visit featured Norma Zimmer, the "Champagne Lady" from the Lawrence Welk show. Stranger still, unbeknownst to me, Norma Zimmer died 2 days before my visit and her album happened to catch my attention while I was scanning through the record library at Family Radio. I hope that's not a sign...

Norma Zimmer LP at Family Radio
When I took this photo I had no idea that she had died 2 days before!
(Photo: J. Waits)

To learn more about Family Radio's take on Judgment Day, see my article on Radio Survivor, which also includes more from my interview with Family Radio's General Manager Harold Camping.

Equipment in Network Control at Family Radio
(Photo: J. Waits)

Previous Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trips:

Field Trip to WECB at Emerson College
College Radio Field Trip 2 - Cal Poly's KCPR
College Radio Field Trip 3 - Notre Dame's WVFI
Radio Station Field Trip 4 - WFMU in Jersey City
Radio Station Field Trip 5 - East Village Radio in NYC
Radio Station Field Trip 6 - WNYU in New York City
Radio Station Field Trip 7 - Northwestern's WNUR
Radio Station Field Trip 8 - Stanford's KZSU
Radio Station Field Trip 9 - University of San Francisco's KUSF
Radio Station Field Trip 10 - Santa Clara University Station KSCU
Radio Station Field Trip 11 - UC Berkeley's KALX
Radio Station Field Trip 12 - KSJS at San Jose State University
Radio Station Field Trip 13 - WBAR at Barnard College
Radio Station Field Trip 14 - KFJC at Foothill College
Radio Station Field Trip 15 - UC Santa Cruz Station KZSC
Radio Station Field Trip 16 - Haverford College Station WHRC
Radio Station Field Trip 17 - FCCFree Radio in San Francisco
Radio Station Field Trip 18 - Flirt FM in Galway, Ireland
Radio Station Field Trip 19 - RXP 101.9 FM in New York City
Radio Station Field Trip 20- WGBK at Glenbrook South High School
Radio Station Field Trip 21 - KPDO in Pescadero, California 
Radio Station Field Trip 22 - KZYX in Philo, California 
Radio Station Field Trip 23 - San Francisco's Pirate Cat Radio
Radio Station Field Trip 10.5 - KSCU's New Digs at Santa Clara University (2010)
Radio Station Field Trip 24 - Radio Valencia in San Francisco

Friday, May 13, 2011

Radio Station Field Trip 26 - KSFS at San Francisco State University

View from KSFS Production Studio into Station Lobby
(Photo by J. Waits)

After the events of January 18, I kind of went into an obsessive spiral, fixating on every last detail of the unfortunate situation at University of San Francisco's college radio station KUSF. I find it tragic that the only terrestrial college radio station in San Francisco's city limits was yanked from the air by the university in order to beef up its cash reserves. Yet, I also tried to remind people that KUSF was actually not the ONLY college radio station in San Francisco. San Francisco State University has a long tradition of college radio, which continues to this day with its online-only station KSFS.

On November 19, 2010, I accepted an invitation to sit it on a friend's show at KSFS and was excited to get a chance to check out the station. A few weeks later I sat down with KSFS advisor Jeff Jacoby to learn more about the station and also chatted by phone with former KSFS advisor Rick Houlberg. After touring the station and attempting to research its history, I became frustrated by the lack of information about the 50+ year old station and then got distracted by reporting on the KUSF saga.

So, here is my much belated field trip report from KSFS, along with a plea for an interested broadcasting historian to take up the challenge to compile a proper history of the station, as I'm sure it's fascinating.

KSFS DJ Nick Carpenter

Before visiting KSFS, all that I really knew of the station was that music journalist and radio fan Ben Fong-Torres had been a DJ there back in the 1960s and that Real World Seattle alum Irene McGee got some attention for her radio show there around 2005. But the station's history goes back much further. From what I've been able to ascertain from my limited research, the Radio Department was founded at San Francisco State College around 1946 and it's possible that a campus radio station began in the late 1940s or early 1950s. According to Rick Houlberg (who joined the station as its advisor in 1982), in the early days of the station, then known as KRTG (for "radio television guild"), broadcasts were from a pre-fab Quonset hut structure utilizing 2 loudspeakers. By the early 1960s the Creative Arts building was constructed on campus and the Radio Department and station were given a permanent home.

Lobby of KSFS
(Photo: J. Waits)

Ben Fong-Torres remembers being at KRTG around 1965 or so. He told me that at the time the station switched formats from being a mix of jazz, folk, spoken word, and educational material to a Top 40 music station. He said that there were basically no listeners, although the station was piped in to the dorms. Ben described a phone receiver-like device that was in each dorm room and told me that one had to dial it to 880 to listen to the station over 880 AM.

Radio Sign on Creative Arts Building at San Francisco State University
(Photo: J. Waits)

Today, KSFS is still housed in the basement of the Creative Arts building. Although KSFS was never a licensed station, it did broadcast into dorms and campus buildings through a carrier current system (as described by Ben). Eventually it got hooked into the campus cable system before going online-only. Rick told me that there's a rumor that in the late 1960s or early 1970s KSFS had a chance to obtain an FCC license after a commercial radio station offered to sell its entire station, from microphones to transmitter, to San Francisco State for $1. San Francisco State turned down the offer, apparently fearful of giving the students a larger broadcast platform.

Rick told me that KSFS eventually had a small transmitter (less than 1 watt) and an antenna on top of the library. A line was run from the antenna to KSFS in the Creative Arts Building. The transmission on campus was so weak, that one could only hear it within the line of sight of the antenna at 88.1 FM. Because of fears of complaints about interference from local stations (namely public radio station KQED) and local residents, the station was never able to get more powerful than 1 watt.  One of the main ways that students on campus used to listen to KSFS was through the university's television cable system. Additionally, KSFS had its signal broadcast within San Francisco over cable television.

KSFS Studio
(Photo J. Waits)

One of the most interesting stories that I came across was in a history of San Francisco State written by Meredith Eliassen. She recounts a story that took place in 1966 involving Ken Kesey,

"Kesey, flanked with bodyguards from the Hells Angels, performed an 'acid test' in the studios of the campus radio station KRTG. The event aired to listeners in the Commons, in the Redwood Room, outside through speakers, and to the KRTG audience in the dormitories."

Rick told me that he'd never heard this story, but that it was "entirely possible" and said that at the time the university thought the station was "subversive" and that the school "did not want people to know that students had a voice."

Window to KSFS Studio
(Photo J. Waits)

Eventually, due to a number of factors, including construction on campus and lack of listeners, the low power FM broadcasts ceased after the antenna was removed from the library in 2008. A 2004 student newspaper account described the station's lack of a signal:

"The only way you could pick up a clear signal of the station's low broadcasting range is if your radio was no further than the sidewalk surrounding or steps leading up to the library."

Around the same time, though, KSFS was being broadcast in The Depot in the Student Center and was also broadcasting online.

KSFS Studio
(Photo: J. Waits)

Rick said that the station has functioned for more than 60 years as a "laboratory" for students interested in careers in broadcasting. In order to get on the air, one is required to be enrolled in a radio class at San Francisco State or be an alum.Having a live radio show is actually a requirement for the advanced radio class. Typically there are between 75 and 100 people involved with the station in a given semester and KSFS still seems to function as a training ground for radio and music industry hopefuls.

When I stopped by in December 2010, I chatted with the station's General Manager Tiffany Lintner. In addition to doing her show "Special Sundays" at KSFS, she was also working at commercial radio station KMEL as both an on-air host and a member of the promotions department. Her hip hop show at KSFS had over 900 followers on Twitter and she told me that she did have aspirations to be a commercial radio DJ. Last fall the KSFS Music Directors were also involved with commercial radio stations and labels.

Last fall the KSFS schedule featured live DJs from 8am to 11pm on weekdays and from 9am to 5pm on the weekends, with an automated loop of material filling in the slots without a live DJ. I was told that KSFS had just finished a project to digitize all of their CDs and that they were planning to get rid of the CDs. The station planned to hang on to its "large library" of vinyl records, however.

KSFS Vinyl Library
(Photo J. Waits)

Today, KSFS invites listeners to "Embrace the Chaos" as it broadcasts a mix of music and public affairs shows across its schedule. The current mission statement for KSFS reads:

"We provide cutting-edge, free-form radio with varied programming, including music, theater, talk, art, & information. The shows we stream seek to push the boundaries of what radio can be but are always focused on our listeners. KSFS serves as a training laboratory for students and as a radio station for the university, the City of San Francisco, and our worldwide Internet audience. We intend to be an integral part of the ongoing media (r)evolution and the myriad communities we serve and to offer a dynamic educational experience for the students of San Francisco State University."

Thanks to everyone at KSFS for sharing your station with me and for your patience in waiting for this report!



Previous Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trips:

Field Trip to WECB at Emerson College
College Radio Field Trip 2 - Cal Poly's KCPR
College Radio Field Trip 3 - Notre Dame's WVFI
Radio Station Field Trip 4 - WFMU in Jersey City
Radio Station Field Trip 5 - East Village Radio in NYC
Radio Station Field Trip 6 - WNYU in New York City
Radio Station Field Trip 7 - Northwestern's WNUR
Radio Station Field Trip 8 - Stanford's KZSU
Radio Station Field Trip 9 - University of San Francisco's KUSF
Radio Station Field Trip 10 - Santa Clara University Station KSCU
Radio Station Field Trip 11 - UC Berkeley's KALX
Radio Station Field Trip 12 - KSJS at San Jose State University
Radio Station Field Trip 13 - WBAR at Barnard College
Radio Station Field Trip 14 - KFJC at Foothill College
Radio Station Field Trip 15 - UC Santa Cruz Station KZSC
Radio Station Field Trip 16 - Haverford College Station WHRC
Radio Station Field Trip 17 - FCCFree Radio in San Francisco
Radio Station Field Trip 18 - Flirt FM in Galway, Ireland
Radio Station Field Trip 19 - RXP 101.9 FM in New York City
Radio Station Field Trip 20- WGBK at Glenbrook South High School
Radio Station Field Trip 21 - KPDO in Pescadero, California 
Radio Station Field Trip 22 - KZYX in Philo, California 
Radio Station Field Trip 23 - San Francisco's Pirate Cat Radio
Radio Station Field Trip 10.5 - KSCU's New Digs at Santa Clara University (2010)
Radio Station Field Trip 24 - Radio Valencia in San Francisco