I was the general manager of KSCR from 1990-1992. KSCR prior to 1990 operated as a carrier-current station that was heard only in a tiny number of campus dorms at 530 AM. Most of the carrier-current transmitters had become inoperative by 1988, and after that, the station could be heard in like all of 10 dorm ROOMS on the entire campus which of course meant in practicality that it had no listeners ever. The only other way to hear KSCR was for a short period in 1989 at low volume as background music through tiny "Radio Shack" mono speakers installed in one of the dining cafeterias. Pretty darn pitiful for the student radio station of one of L.A.'s major universities. After the cafeteria management decided KSCR's music was too alternative and turned off the speakers, the only way to hear KSCR was through the one speaker on the station's front door as it ceased to actually "broadcast" anywhere. The student staff had enough of this shameful neglect by USC of student radio, and the management concocted a plan to propose to USC administration that they would build a "leaky-FM" broadcast system, even though the station engineers knew that actually was not viable. Using funds provided by the administration, in 1991, the station began operating at 104.7FM illegally via an antenna (actually a metal rod from Home Depot) situated on top on Marks Tower, one of the campus dorm buildings. When cranked up, the station could easily be heard clearly throughout Hollywood. I remember driving up Highland by the Hollywood Bowl and still picking up KSCR with no problem over 12 miles from campus. Over the years, the management was prudent enough to keep the wattage toned down to a couple of miles around the campus although engineers would at times give in to temptation & crank it up temporarily. My understanding is sometime around 1998, an engineer from one of the surrounding 104.7FMs (can't remember the call letters) was driving around downtown and heard KSCR. He complained and the FM broadcast got shut down. Fortunately, internet webcasting was becoming an option soon, and that has allowed the station to have a new way of having a listening audience instead of fading into a farce that could be heard only through a speaker on the station's front door.
As for the question about KSCR's calls, it was never an issue while I was GM, but my guess is in the late 1970s, when KSCR was founded after USC turned KUSC into public radio that was not student-run, the KSCR calls were not taken and thus it was not a problem.
