KSDS-FM Jazz 88

[sdwulfdawg]

With the San Diego Community College District in money trouble, like most public school districts in California, one would think they could sell off KSDS-FM Jazz 88 and make a good profit. With their million dollar budget for some 80,000 listeners, it is simply not cost effective and the district could bring in good cold cash and concentrate on something which is truly educational.

Other educational institutions are selling off their radio stations lately around the country.

The station is staffed by professionals and not students. They are really a niche format with few listeners (about a .8 share). Their signal is great throughout San Diego County, etc. Also, it would seem that it could be purchased by a commercial entity since the FCC doesn't seem to be really emphasizing the enacted "educational frequency zone" anymore.

David Eduardo....what do you think? What do others think?

 

[w9wi]

The station is staffed by professionals and not students. They are really a niche format with few listeners (about a .8 share). Their signal is great throughout San Diego County, etc. Also, it would seem that it could be purchased by a commercial entity since the FCC doesn't seem to be really emphasizing the enacted "educational frequency zone" anymore.

The non-commercial reservation remains for 88-92. It may not seem that way in San Diego as there are a number of commercial stations in that band -- but those stations all transmit from Mexico where the non-commercial reservation doesn't exist.

The regulation (73.503(a)) reads:

(a) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station will be licensed only to a nonprofit educational organization and upon showing that the station will be used for the advancement of an educational program.

...

(2) In determining the eligibility of privately controlled educational organizations, the accreditation of state departments of education and/or recognized regional and national educational accrediting organizations shall be taken into consideration.

...

(c) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station may broadcast programs produced by, or at the expense of, or furnished by persons other than the licensee, if no other consideration than the furnishing of the program and the costs incidental to its production and broadcast are received by the licensee. ...

(d) Each station shall furnish a nonprofit and noncommercial broadcast service. Noncommercial educational FM broadcast stations are subject to the provisions of §73.1212 to the extent they are applicable to the broadcast of programs produced by, or at the expense of, or furnished by others. No promotional announcement on behalf of for profit entities shall be broadcast at any time in exchange for the receipt, in whole or in part, of consideration to the licensee, its principals, or employees. However, acknowledgements of contributions can be made. The scheduling of any announcements and acknowledgements may not interrupt regular programming....

They have taken a fairly loose approach in terms of what is considered "the advancement of an educational program". The programming itself doesn't have to be educational if the process of producing the programming advances an educational program. (for example, by teaching students how to operate a radio station) The programming may educate on any subject (including religion) and at any age level. (including adults)

And to that end and to your point, I would imagine KSDS could be sold and for a fair amount of money. I would imagine Educational Media Foundation ("K-Love") would be interested, and probably a number of other religious institutions. But it couldn't be sold to a commercial entity.

 

[radio-darn]

The station is staffed by professionals and not students.

Sounds like KPBS. It cracks me up to hear their ID's mentioning San Diego State University: they don't do anything for students - KPBS is source of nice-paying jobs for some professionals, but any educational role they may have filled has long since evaporated, or perhaps been highly diluted as the growth of cable channels made it possible to watch prime time animal documentaries on several channels (heck, National Geographic now has its own channel) and so-called "public radio" serves a narrowly-defined small segment of the the public and uses some tax dollars to do it. The whole public broadcasting system is a dinosaur from another era and it should be set free to sink or swim free minus it's taxpayer life preserver.

Who was it who said, "PBS stands for 'Presenting British Shows'?"

I do listen to KPBS radio a lot, but hearing all of their local newspeople who still have jobs is always a clear reminder that this is a government radio station.

 

[Dr. o Fun]

The non-commercial reservation remains for 88-92. It may not seem that way in San Diego as there are a number of commercial stations in that band -- but those stations all transmit from Mexico where the non-commercial reservation doesn't exist.

Could City College lease their station (or frequency) to a commercial entity not unlike Mexican owners leasing their stations to Clear Channel and such?

dr

 

[w9wi]

The non-commercial reservation remains for 88-92. It may not seem that way in San Diego as there are a number of commercial stations in that band -- but those stations all transmit from Mexico where the non-commercial reservation doesn't exist.

Could City College lease their station (or frequency) to a commercial entity not unlike Mexican owners leasing their stations to Clear Channel and such?

dr

They don't own the frequency so they can't lease it. They could allow another entity to program the station.

The restrictions in paragraph (c) still apply: "no other consideration than the furnishing of the program and the costs incidental to its production and broadcast are received by the licensee." The other entity could reimburse City College for the cost of broadcasting their programs, but the College couldn't make a profit beyond the cost of operating the station.

As for the other entity selling advertising on KSDS, the station would continue to be bound by paragraph (d), which prohibits out-and-out ads. It does permit "underwriting announcements" which can be nearly indistinguishable from ads as far as most of the general public is concerned!

The City College, as the licensee, would continue to be responsible for the legal operation of the station.

The Milwaukee Public Schools non-commercial station WYMS-FM is programmed by an outside group. However, it continues to be a non-commercial operation.

 

[Big 121]

Originally located at City College with a 2-ring antenna on the top wall of Balboa Stadium, KSDS gave the Radio Arts students a shot at on-air experience.
Most sounded like what they were; students. Some were pretty decent sounding, others- well they tried.
Late '60's saw the TX move to Mesa College, and student programming on phone lines, out of City. Walked by that antenna 4 days a week, on my way to
classes to complete my Degree in Electronics.
According to KSDS, all on air staff is volunteer; probably their biggest overhead is the power bill, and their annual license fee to Ibiqity for their "digital" stereo.
Hopefully,funding and donations hold up through these bad times.
Big 121

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Actually I think it is a paid on-air staff...of course they don't get paid big bucks.

The way i look at it, KSDS right now is sapping the San Diego Community College District of funds which should be going to directly educate their clients...the students...not provide some kind of niche market format. If some other educational/non-profit wants to do that and lose money that's great....but being a poor man's KPBS is not right.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

From what I read from their financials posted online at http://www.jazz88.org/financials.php they are bleeding about $300,000 a year....

Mmmmmmmm.....

 

[jprg]

Actually I know someone who is jazz DJ there and yes they are non-paid except for the PD and station manager. I also looked into doing a jazz show there and would be volunteer which is fine. Jazz radio is almost extinct in this country so it would be huge loss to sell it. KSDS is really the only station I listen to, other than that, it's the iPod

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Actually I know someone who is jazz DJ there and yes they are non-paid except for the PD and station manager. I also looked into doing a jazz show there and would be volunteer which is fine. Jazz radio is almost extinct in this country so it would be huge loss to sell it. KSDS is really the only station I listen to, other than that, it's the iPod

80,000 listeners isn't a whole hell of a lot....niche music formats will, unfortunately, be relegated to the Internet, etc.

 

[Big 121]

On the latest funds drive on KSDS, they said it costs them $3800.00 a DAY to bring Jazz to 88.3 .( $1.4 million a year.)
I thought it would be half that. Some digging around was in order. Here's what I found.(Subject to change at any time)
In addition to the Manager, & PD, there is an assistant PD and a full time engineer. Plus a staff... as many as eight. The operation is part of
the Radio and TV division. It's quite a bit of overhead for a non-profit operation, on the students and taxpayers dime.
Of course, the recession must be reducing the donations to a certain degree.

(Thanks to a long time buddy, for some of the details.)

Big 121

 

[sdwulfdawg]

On the latest funds drive on KSDS, they said it costs them $3800.00 a DAY to bring Jazz to 88.3 .( $1.4 million a year.)
I thought it would be half that. Some digging around was in order. Here's what I found.(Subject to change at any time)
In addition to the Manager, & PD, there is an assistant PD and a full time engineer. Plus a staff... as many as eight. The operation is part of
the Radio and TV division. It's quite a bit of overhead for a non-profit operation, on the students and taxpayers dime.
Of course, the recession must be reducing the donations to a certain degree.

(Thanks to a long time buddy, for some of the details.)

Big 121

KSDS is incredibly badly managed and it is only time that the board of the San Diego Community College put the station on the market or takes it off the air. In the latest Arbitrons which are published on here, they only have about 63,000 listeners and are ranked #33. They are cutting educators and classes meanwhile they keep sinking money into the station.

 

[TheBigA]

It cracks me up to hear their ID's mentioning San Diego State University: they don't do anything for students.

That's not the purpose of educational broadcasting. It's purpose is to broaden the university outside of the ivory tower. I know that's hard to understand in the age of greedy companies only concerned about themselves. But that's why the government and the FCC reserved this portion of the spectrum...to take programming risks, to program to small niche audiences, and to be more than the "vast wasteland" that exists in the commercial world. Those two words were the inspiration to public radio in 1967. They are still valid, maybe even moreso, today. So hooray that an educational broadcaster like KPBS still does their job and follows their mandate. They may be the only one, and they may not be able to last long.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

It cracks me up to hear their ID's mentioning San Diego State University: they don't do anything for students.

That's not the purpose of educational broadcasting. It's purpose is to broaden the university outside of the ivory tower. I know that's hard to understand in the age of greedy companies only concerned about themselves. But that's why the government and the FCC reserved this portion of the spectrum...to take programming risks, to program to small niche audiences, and to be more than the "vast wasteland" that exists in the commercial world. Those two words were the inspiration to public radio in 1967. They are still valid, maybe even moreso, today. So hooray that an educational broadcaster like KPBS still does their job and follows their mandate. They may be the only one, and they may not be able to last long.

That was then, this is now. You're talking about a time when schools and colleges could do this...when money was plentiful, the taxpayers were employed. KSDS painfully needs better management. Mark DeBoskey has alienated a lot of people in the San Diego broadcast community (and in local government where they are trying to get funding from the City of San Diego) because of his brusque attitude, in my opinion. He has incredibly incompetent people on his staff...following the whole attitude that managers tend to bring on people who reflect who they are as individuals.

KSDS needs to stop spending money like it is going out of style...sponsoring jazz festivals...at the overall detriment of San Diego City College and the San Diego Community College District.

 

[jprg]

Other than my iPod, KSDS is the only station I can bear to listen to and the only fresh and live station around. Long live Jazz 88.3!