During my Tuesday shift I was pleasantly surprised to hear a radio station manager speaking directly to listeners for an extended period of time about the state of the station. In the past, I’ve heard station managers speak during pledge drives, but pledge drives offer a relatively small subject of conversation when compared to an open-ended manager report.
KALW’s Manager’s Report took place in the late morning, preempting an episode of a local call-in forum show.
Similar to Indiana University‘s arrangement with public radio station WFIU, the San Francisco Unified School District provides KALW with discounted real estate and other ancillary business support services such as telco, Internet access, payroll processing, basic utilities, etc. But, they must find revenue sources to pay for staff, production costs, and purchase programming from NPR and other sources.
I enjoy 91.7 KALW’s positioning as an ‘alternative’ public radio station — an antithesis to the standard NPR fare of 88.5 KQED.
Of course, as a public radio junky, I also enjoy KQED’s great standard NPR program offerings, but KALW provides a nice alternative view with a heavier focus on world news, especially BBC programs like World Have Your Say and the BBC World Service through the wee hours of the night. KALW is also my source on Sunday morning for unique radio programs like Working with Marty Nemko and Harry Shearer’s Le Show.
Keep up the good work, KALW!
kfarr 