KUSF Volunteers Are Bringing the Bands Back; Old Programs Set to Relaunch
Categories: Breaking News
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| It's as if you never left. |
KUSF volunteers -- yes, the same ones who are challenging the recent sale of the station -- have created a home in exile, obtaining donated streaming-audio bandwidth from the New Jersey indie station WFMU. With that, they put together an archive-based broadcast schedule for KUSF.
The idea is to recreate the same shows listeners knew and loved before the university pulled the plug on the college radio station on Jan. 18.
That's just the start, said Howard Ryan, known to KUSF listeners as DJ SchmeeJay. Monday night volunteers agreed on a plan to rent studio space in the Bayview neighborhood in order to relaunch the old shows for the savekusf.org live stream.
"It will be a slow ramp up, possibly, but, eventually, it will be very much like it used to be," said Ryan. "It's a tool to keep our DJ skills alive. But it's also a way to show off what the city has lost, and to help people remember that they don't have to stand for this being a done deal."
The relaunched program schedule will also serve as a fund-raising tool, as the volunteers seek money to pay for attorneys currently challenging the University of San Francisco's move to sell 90.3 FM.
KUSF volunteer Ted Dively said the group would like to get $4 million in backing to buy the station. Volunteers are now accepting donations through a newly created tax-exempt entity.
"Assuming we stop the sale, if they say, 'Do you want to buy it?" we have to be able to credibly make an offer," Dively said.
To attract donors, volunteers need to remind listeners that the FCC has not approved the KUSF sale -- despite the fact that 90.3 is now a classical radio station. After filing an official FCC petition protesting the sale, attorneys representing KUSF volunteers are now awaiting a formal response from the station's sellers, the University of San Francisco.
"Our lawyers are giving us a really good deal, but we do need money to fight this," Dively said.
As of Tuesday, volunteers were prepping their new sound-studio space at Light Rail Studios near Bayshore Boulevard and Oakdale Avenue.
"This is the beginning of bringing this programming back. It will be a really great way of stopping corporate takover of the airwaves," Ryan said.
Update: Live programming is slated to begin Saturday March 19,
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