Progress Bulletin from Pomona, California • Page 31

New in valley Claremont radio station 0 a. has variety of programs Story by JOSEPH H. FIRMAN P-B Staff Writer Photos By GEORGE ADAMS Staff Photographer CLAREMONT A new sound was heard throughout the Pomona Valley a few weeta ago when radio station KSPC, the voice of Pomona College, resumed its fall-winter spring broadcasting schedule from its new studios in the basement of Thatcher Music Building. Actually, it is not a new voice, but as when an adolescent grows up and the voice changes, the station has emerged into a new maturity with enlarged studios, broader programming, computerized record library, expanded collection of tapes and most important, stereo. When the college agreed to buy a new transmitter, now located on E.

4ih Street under its 125-foot tower, stereo became the goal. "We've been waiting for this a long time," said Fred Wililams, chief engineer. "We wanted to wait until we could do it properly and have a signal be proud to stick our name on." The signal has now been achieved and all KSPC programs will be in stereo except on those occasions when the station broadcasts valuable old records or tapes that cannot be used in stereo. KSPC is one oi some 1,000 licensed FM stations in the nation broadcasting on the Federal Communications educational bands. In spite of a record-breaking annual budget of $3,500, the station is in the top five per cent of power and lowest five per cent in budget, according to station manager Mark Huessy.

The little kingdom presided over by Huessy, Williams and program director David Ke- nagyo Jr. is a bright, up-to- a broadcasting center equipped with modern ment from short-wave receivers to complicated remote control consoles. There are two control studios and a studio for live braodcasts. There is a production control room, tyletype room and staff lounge. One of the important characteristics is that much of the work of setting up the station has been student volunteer labor and skill.

Heavy blue drapes were obtained from Bridges Hall of Music; cabinet work was dene by students in their spare time. More than nine miles of cable was installed in the radio station by the young engineers and technicians. (Huessy, working as a telephone switch repairman in Santa Ana during the summer, drove back to Claremont each evening to work on the station installations.) KSPC started in the early as KPCR, with a carrier current (by wire) signal and a much more limited coverage. Over the years it has grown in power and facilities. Its most recent site was in the Replica House, a small structure patterned on the house where Pomona College was first organized at 8th Street and White Avenue in Pomona before the turn of the century.

Replica House is an interesting historical edifice, but it was not ideal for a radio station. It was cramped, ill- equipped, with relics of the college history. The move to the modern, expanded quarters in Thatcher opened new horizons to the young broadcasters. From the new station, some 100 students work (as an extra-curricular activity) in a variety of fields, to provide music, news, educational programs and entertainment to student and faculty of the Claremont Colleges as well as thousands ot listeners beyond the campus. Roughly, KSPC has a range of 35 miles in all directions, impeded somewhat by hills Eric Pommer tapes a reading for for Grownup Kellogg and mountains Hill, Mt.

Baldy and others. However the signal is often heard to the Pacific Coast mail has been received from Catalina Island and it comes on a like a local station in places like Idyhvild and Big Bear Lake. And what does the local listener in Pomona, Claremont, Ontario and La Verne get by timing to 88.7 on the FM dial between 7 a.m. and 1 or 2 or 3 a.m.? "Basically there are periods of time when we do classical Williams said, "and ether types of music at other times in blocks. We do the wi- range of programming ever heard.

We have spoken programs, documentaries and all types of music classics, jazz, blues, rock, soul even done some One of the delights of listening to KSPC is that you get no commercials, and only the requisite station breaks. You may listen to music for half an hour, then hear the short station identification, and another half hour of music. The station staff is composed of students from all the Claremont Colleges. Many of the young announcers are girls, and many of the important positions are held by females record librarian, public service director and others. Lust year the program director was a young ladv.

lar. When I returned it was soft rock." been a drift away trom super screech," Williams said. "Folk music is less popular today than it was a few years Huessy said. "When I left I had a program block for folk we have that anymore." The keynote cf the college station is informality. There is a casual sense ol tun about tiie way the operation is run, a spontaneity and improvisation that might cause a pro- tessiona! broadcaster to tear his hair, but which lends a unique flavor to the station.

got to be a free spirit to live," said Pomona junior John Hartog of Scare- dale, N.Y. doing our thing," said Eric Palmer, a senior who does regular readings on a program he calls "Bcoks for Grownup Children." An interesting feature is "Black Night" from neon Saturday to 4 a.m. a program devoted to jazz, soul and other types of music by black composers and musicians. The station used to bro cast local sports event but cost grew prohibitive. The are several live broadca each month, and concerts the Pomona College Sympl ny and choir are put on air via lines to Bridges of Music and Lyman Hall.

Some of the titles on weekly broadcast schedt posted outside of the stuc suggest something of nature of KSPC: "Sticky Fii ers," "Fred and and bad taste, poetry readii (Continued tn Past If) ON THE COVER KSPC is on the air in its new studio in the basement of Thatcher Music Building at Pomona College. Bruce Nelson, left, program director David Kencgy, and announcer-engineer Rick Levim, far right, watch as Mitzi Mihaila mans the turntable. From cards, letters and telephone calls to the station, have their been any interesting trends in musical interest? "Serious, contemporary music has increased in popularity," said Huessy. been trying to move away from the high school audience. When I left college two years ago, loud, discordant, acid rock was Chief engineer Fred Williams circuit board he designed an operates the oscilloscope and built himself..