1969 Staff (click to enlarge)
Introduction
Simply put, UCLA’s radio station, known today as KLA, has traveled a long road but in the forty-plus years since it was started, it hasn’t moved very far ahead. It was started in 1962 by a group of students who were supported by the student legislative council. It was then known as KCLA and was licensed under the FCC for low power AM radio broadcast. This meant that it was only heard within a small radius of its point of broadcast, basically the four residence halls: Dykstra, Hedrick, Rieber, and Sproul. Originally, the station was located in the basement of the residence hall Dykstra. It was soon moved to a room adjacent to the Ackerman Grand Ballroom where it is still located today.
As of 1968, the station, known then as KUCW and previously as KBRU, was running a 78-hour per week schedule including a diverse range of music, campus news, sports coverage, and campus speaker reports. It is interesting to note that today, KLA runs from 10am to 2am every day throughout the year, except for summer, totaling to 112 hours per week. (Schedule available here)
Expansion
Around the mid-to-late 1960s, the radio station was pushing for expansion. One small step was an upgrade of the broadcast frequency, which occured as KUCW moved from 820AM to 610AM. According to a Daily Bruin article, station engineers explained that this move would improve signal quality as the lower frequency contained less noise. The article also noted that the Communications Board also had allocated funds for various other technical improvements like new transmitters. It would seem as if KUCW was steadily growing but as time would tell, this was not the case.
Being that AM radio was limited, KUCW was pushing for a move to FM radio. Its chief engineer, Durwin Sharp, said that the chances of a move to FM were slim, citing that Chancellor Franklin Murphy hadn’t endorsed applying for permission to the Regents to pursue acquiring an FM license. Sharp also added that since a small number of students owned FM radios, that an FM broadcast wouldn’t be worthwhile. Another reason that Sharp expressed was that FM radio is mostly musical in nature and that while KUCW had many music programs, it also had a good deal of campus-related news and talk programs that wouldn’t fit in with standard FM radio practices.
Student response to expansion
A few years later, after KUCW had renamed to KLA, the topic of a move to FM radio was still a hot one. The Daily Bruin printed a letter to the editor in January of 1968 in which a student gives his personal input on the situation. Sam Aanestad, then a junior studying Zoology, pointed out that if KLA were to reach the West LA area then it must branch out from serving the interests of the campus community. In going public, KLA “takes on added University and civic responsibility.” Aanestad goes on to describe that a public radio station representing UCLA should not convey an image based on psychedelic rock and “Ozark mountain music” (southern rock). Just as well, student interest calls upon such things and would not be satisfied by a lack of such things. Aaenestad’s point is that a restructuring of programming would have to have been done if KLA were to broaden its listenership. KLA can’t just serve as a music station if it wants to represent UCLA and inform the public of campus happenings. Like the Daily Bruin that grew into a respectable college newspaper for not just catering to UCLA community, but rather the greater public, KLA would have to follow in a similar fashion.
Outcome
In the end, KLA did not move to FM. Chancellor Murphy never approved the idea to be sent on to the Regents and there just wasn’t enough support to push the subject. John Sandbrook, who served as Charles E. Young’s assistant for nearly two decades, states that financially sustaining a commercial radio station was not viable at the time. However, there are many people today who regret not pushing for an FCC license to broadcast back then. This is not to say that KLA wasn’t a serious station as former employees have gone on to work in professional radio.
Broadcasting Marathon Record
Until March of 1966, the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System marathon record was 36 hours. Coherently running a radio show for so long is a massive feat. But one weekend in March of '66, Glen Woodmanese, the news director of KUCW, broke the record by running a show for 37 1/2 hours. Woodmanese's not so modest comment in the Daily Bruin read "I could have gone 50, but I had three mid-terms Monday."
Woodmanese began his record broadcast on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and concluded at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. He had a dedicated group of students supporting him. Rhum House of the second floor of Rieber Hall listened in for msot of the broadcast. So dedicated were they that when the power was shut off in the dorms from 3 to 5 a.m. on Sunday, some people listened in via telephone.
First Black DJ
KLA remained relevant within the UCLA community after the matter of the possible move to FM was shot down. It received coverage in the Daily Bruin many times and was still growing, although in a smaller scope. One such point of growth occurred in February of 1970 when Dan Hewlett became KLA’s first black DJ. Hewlett’s show came on every Sunday night and played everything from the jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane to the blues of B.B. King and Muddy Waters. Hewlett also discussed political and campus happenings on his show, delivering 3 hours of music, politics, and campus news. Hewlett described his show as a “revolutionary type thing – turning people on.” Hewlett was very conscious of the Black movement and described radio as an “image maker” just like the rest of the media, which has caused the black population to suffer a “constrained image” and as such, he decided to open up his show to “any black or person with something to say.”
KLA Today
KLA continued to function throughout the 70s and in the 80s it actually did move to FM, although only in a local area. In the 90s it operated on a pirate radio set up, meaning that it was not licensed by the FCC. In 1999 the FCC caught wind of this and pulled the plug on the KLA broadcast. KLA then moved to being internet-only, currently broadcasting for anyone to hear at UCLARadio.com.
Station Managers for the '68/'69 School Year
General Manager: Phil Cogan
General Sales Manager: Scott Anderson
Operations Manager: Mary Jo Cohen
Program Director: Tom Greenleigh
Promotions Direction: Sharon Weisz
Chief Engineer: Marty Polon
News Director: Mitchell Cannold
Sports Director: Doug Kelly
Music Director: Steve Abelman
Air Personality Director: Don Enright
Assistant Engineer: Rich Lacy
Links
Bibliorgaphy
The Centennial Record of the University of California. University of California Printing Department. Berkeley, California. 1967.
UCLA University Archives Student File - Radio and Television: 1960-1969
Sandbrook, John. Class lecture. 23 May 2005.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 17 January , 1965.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 29 March , 1965.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 7 February, 1966.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 15 January, 1968.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 17 February , 1970.
UCLA Daily Bruin. 17 January , 1965.
