San Francisco Classical Still in Flux

From Tom Taylor at Radio-Info.com: the classical listening community and the displaced adult alternative community are both unhappy in San Francisco.

First of all KUSF listeners are still bummed about the way Entercom and USF dumped their adult alternative programming with no warning and moved KDFC to the KUSF frequency at 90.3.  It’s sort of convoluted.

…the new Classical Public Radio Network, associated with L.A.’s KUSC (91.5), would take over the classical franchise from Entercom and run it on 90.3, as well as an FM up in Santa Rosa (Angwin-licensed 89.9). But it’s been a noisy year – literally. In late June, the Friends of KUSF group raised enough of a ruckus …that the Audio Bureau’s Peter Doyle sent the University a list of 15 detailed questions about whether it (as the licensee) was still in control. That stalled the closing and has cost Entercom and the University money and time.

In the meantime, classical KDFC is moving full steam ahead as a public station under the auspices of KUSC in LA and the Classical Public Radio Network.  Those of you who have been in radio for a while will recognize that name, CPRN, which was lying in wait for a new opportunity after the Denver/LA-based network folded.

KDFC’s PD Bill Lueth is not having an easy time of it.  The signal at 90.3 only reaches part of the bay area, he’s had to completely change gears from a commercial station to a public one with almost no warning, and he’s getting constant criticism.  If you know Bill, though, he has Obama-level cool.

Lueth reminds supporters that the signal’s now heard on a translator at 90.3 around Los Gatos and Saratoga. He knows it’s not enough. The latest news is that the main signal of KUSF (90.3) just “began operating from a new transmitter site, so that the signal is now heard in Marin County, Oakland, Berkeley and beyond, in addition to the city of San Francisco.” That will help. Lueth is still pursuing a larger solution – buying a full-power FM to serve the South Bay and the Peninsula. He says “we do have loan financing lined up, so that we are ready to move when the right opportunity comes to us at a price we can afford.”