KCRW — A Tradition of Excellence

     There are certain cultural symbols which define a city. The Eiffel Tower is Paris. The Statue of Liberty is New York. San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are one and the same. In a megapolis as diffuse and diverse as Los Angeles, symbolic definition is problematic: the Hollywood sign, the Venice Boardwalk and Watts Tower all vie for supremacy as the city’s lodestone but none of them satisfy the requirements necessary to fully capture the symbolic essence of L.A.: the Hollywood sign is too shallow, too flat, too uni-dimensional, signifying only the thinnest veneer of Tinseltown; the Watts Tower too idiosyncratic, its creator, Simon Rodia, having suffused himself in his work so much that the Towers ultimately fail as a stand-in for extended civic symbology; and the Venice Boardwalk: well, it’s just way too kooky. Perhaps it takes something as diffuse as a radio signal to truly represent this city—radio waves beaming out through Southern California, listeners tuning in on freeway overpasses, living room couches, office mail rooms and along the grand boulevards which bisect the city like so many arteries criss-crossing the body of a behemoth—yes, perhaps those very radio waves are the perfect symbol of this extremely odd city, and if there is one radio station which truly captures the spirit of Los Angeles, defining the city as the evolving giant that it is, that station would have to be KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College.

     “I knew everything would change when I looked out at the ocean that day,” says KCRW’s General Manager, Ruth Seymour, describing a turning point for KCRW in the early 1980s when she found out the station had received a grant from the National Telecommunications Information Agency. “I was staying on the coast at Santa Barbara when I got that call and I knew that we would be OK. It was one of those rare moments in life where the future opens up and you know everything will change.” Things weren’t always so cheery at KCRW: established after World War Two as a vocational tool for veterans (‘CRW’ stands for College Radio Workshop) the station had become a neglected discard when Seymour was invited to take over towards the end of 1977. “There was only one chair that you could safely sit on and there was no typewriter that functioned,” recalls Seymour, who came to the station after serving as Head of Drama and Literature and Program Director at Pacifica’s KPFK. “The transmitter was located behind a desk. Now a transmitter’s capabilities depend on height and power—well, KCRW’s transmitter at that time was actually below sea level. Our signal only reached the Westside and that was it.” But Seymour accepted the challenge, daunting as it was: “I was out of work and I needed a job,” she recalls, “and this was in my area, so even though the station consisted of next to nothing at the time—I took it.”

     It hardly seems plausible that some twenty-five years ago KCRW did not exist as a live entity in the imagination of L.A.: that’s how much the station has become a preeminent feature in Southern California’s cultural topography. Seymour is quick to credit Dr. Richard Moore, past president of Santa Monica College, with the insight to recognize the potential of the station: “Richard Moore saw the vision of the station,” she says. “Without his aid, I don’t know if we would have survived those early fragile times.” KCRW’s profile in the community received a series of fortuitous boosts during the mid-1980s and early 1990s: the Iran-Contra Scandal, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill confirmation hearings, and the Gulf War prompted listeners to glue their ears to 89.9 on the FM dial; Seymour’s decision to carry National Public Radio’s Morning Edition for six full hours every morning made KCRW the station to tune to if one wanted the latest and best information regarding the state of the world. Meanwhile, KCRW’s first signature show, Morning Becomes Eclectic, brain-child of its original host, Isabel Holt, was being extremely well-served by Tom Schnabel, who is rightly credited with basically creating and popularizing the genre of World Music. Schnabel and his intriguing blend of jazz, rock, classical and world music was fresh and exciting; his encyclopedic knowledge of music was educational in the highest sense of that word: he taught an entire generation of L.A. musicians and music aficionados what to listen to and what to listen for. His successor on the show, Chris Douridas, broadened the show’s appeal and made it an indispensable part of the music scene in Southern California. And its current host (who also serves as KCRW’s Music Director), Nic Harcourt, is carrying on that tradition of excellence that has made Morning Becomes Eclectic one of the most—if not the most—important music programs in the world. It’s a testament to KCRW that Tom Schnabel and Chris Douridas, both of whom served as the station’s music director as well as hosting Morning Becomes Eclectic, are still on the air at KCRW with weekend shows, Café L.A. and newground. 

     But it was the station’s ability to attract a magnificent and truly eclectic roster of idiosyncratic talent which has more than anything else made KCRW the preeminent station in Southern California. Warren Olney, host of both Which Way L.A.? and To the Point, came to the station by one of those frequent acts of kismet which seem to have blessed the station during the last twenty-five years. Following the 1992 civil disturbance over the outcome of the Rodney King beating trial, KCRW and PBS TV station KCET co-produced a program on the riot and its aftermath: Olney, a veteran television newscaster, was to serve as the one-time host of this show; however, it immediately became obvious to Ruth Seymour that Olney’s equipoise in the face of the sober issues at hand was just what KCRW needed at that critical time in the city’s history; thus the creation of Olney’s first show, Which Way, L.A.? “I love KCRW,” says Olney. “I’ve been tremendously lucky to have this opportunity to reinvent myself after a career in TV.” Olney’s success with Which Way, L.A.? led to the creation of To the Point, syndicated nationally by Public Radio International which broadcasts the show in cities across the United States, including New York, Washington, D.C. and Seattle. Warren Olney also serves as the station’s point-man around town, broadcasting his shows from off-site locations on a regular basis and moderating various discussions and symposiums of importance to the community. “I come from a family which regards public service as a vital element of anyone’s life,” he says; and his pedigree backs that up: his great-grandfather was the mayor of Oakland, California; his grandfather served as a justice on the California Supreme Court, and his father was a U.S. assistant attorney general who created the civil rights division of the Justice Department. “Knowing that I’m making a contribution to the community inspires me,” says Warren Olney. “KCRW has made that possible.”

     It’s along the cutting edge of the cultural front that KCRW has probably made its most striking contributions to our cultural life. Besides being home-base to such divergent talents as Harry Shearer, host of the acerbic Le Show, and Sandra Tsing Loh and her screamingly funny Loh Life, the station has introduced listeners to such delights as Michael Silverblatt and his Bookworm show; Elvis Mitchell, host of The Treatment; Garth Trinidad of Chocolate City; and Jason Bentley and Metropolis. Bentley came to KCRW via the path of many of its D.J.’s: volunteer work. “I started volunteering at the station the summer after I graduated from SaMo,” says Bentley. “I answered phones at first, just like everybody who volunteers, and then I started working in the music library.” Bentley, a Santa Monica native, has always been a music junkie: “My father collected records and I just fell naturally right in. Going to record shops, looking for obscure titles, perusing catalogs—that’s what I’ve been doing all my life and that’s what I still do. I’m obsessive, I have this gigantic record collection.” Eventually, Bentley made a demo and got a chance to show his stuff: his electronic blend of music is now featured on Metropolis five nights a week in a prime slot, 7 to 10 p.m. “I host it, I produce it, but most importantly I see the show as a means of expression,” says Bentley, who works by day as an A&R man for Maverick Records. “The show is a tone, an environment, and the people at KCRW, especially our music director Nic Harcourt, have given me the freedom to create that. And it’s important to people. I’ve checked in at the airport and the woman behind the counter sees my name and asks me if I am the Jason Bentley. When I confess to that, she thanks me for the show and I feel like ‘Hey, I’m making a contribution here.’ That’s my role. In this village of L.A., that’s my role.”

     A hero. That’s Bentley’s role to Garth Trinidad, host of Chocolate City which follows Metropolis in the 10 p.m. to midnight slot. “Jason has been a huge influence on me,” says Trinidad, a graduate of Otis College of Art and Design. “I thought he was black. Then I meet him and here’s this skinny white kid. Now that’s heavy. I was just amazed by Jason and I still am amazed. He’s my hero.” Bentley is quick to return the compliment: “Garth is the hero, as far as I’m concerned. His show has such tremendous integrity because he has such integrity.” Trinidad also came to the air waves via the volunteer route. “I did an academic project on KCRW while I was a student at Moorpark Community College, so I came down here to observe and take some notes and I just sort of stayed.” After stints on the phone and as a file clerk, Trinidad became a programming assistant to long-time KCRW disc jockey Liza Richardson (The Drop). “One night Liza asked me what I really wanted to do and so I told her. She helped me produce a demo, critiqued it and mentored me along, and she still mentors me along.” Garth Trinidad credits his work at KCRW with “opening up a whole new world to me. Although we don’t have a visual picture of our audience when we’re doing a show, I know that people of all races are listening. And I’ve become part of an international music scene. I’ve had the opportunity to travel all across the globe, being a D.J.” Trinidad has also brought the world to his listeners: his musical palette includes jazz, hip-hop, house music, reggae, blues, and electronic; he has featured such diverse artists as the Black Eyed Peas, Me’Shell Ndegéocello, Les Nubians, Blackalicious and King Britt. “Doing Chocolate City on KCRW has opened up everything to me and that’s what I like doing to my audience.”

     “I like to have conversations with my guests, not interviews,” says Elvis Mitchell, host of The Treatment, a half-hour show which features guests as diverse as veteran film director Robert Altman and the young African-American actor Jamie Foxx. “I take culture seriously and I take the work of my guests seriously and they respond to that. I’m not just some uninformed entertainment reporter doing the usual obsequious bit.” Mitchell is indeed a serious player: he currently serves as the film critic for the New York Times and as entertainment critic for NPR’s Weekend Edition. “I’m most interested in those places where culture intersects—there’s a continuum between film and theatre and music and that’s the area where I like to explore,” says Mitchell, a graduate of Wayne State University. “I love radio, especially live radio, the pauses, the intimacy. I have approximately twenty-eight minutes per guest and to have a meaningful conversation while at the same time getting out all the information that has to be transmitted—that’s a delicate balance and when it works, it’s just magic.”

     Michael Silverblatt, host of Bookworm, got into radio by fate, fortune, divine happenstance, take your pick. “I was working for a p.r. firm and so I was at this dinner with a movie star and a producer and Ruth Seymour,” says Silverblatt in his inimitable New York accent. “Ruth and I started talking about Russian poetry —Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Yevtushenko—in the middle of this Hollywood meeting where we’re supposed to be getting this movie star on the air. It was such a pleasure and so thrilling!” Seymour had always wanted a book show on the air but the hosts always “knew everything and were as dull as could be, or passionate and didn’t know anything,” Silverblatt says with a chuckle. Silverblatt had the right combination: he’s passionate about books and he knows everything. Thus, Bookworm was born. “Ruth Seymour and KCRW offered me an opportunity to create a new life,” says Silverblatt whose roster of guests reads like a veritable who’s who of modern literature: Carlos Fuentes, Norman Mailer (who says Silverblatt is “the best reader in America”), Susan Sontag, Jonathan Franzen, Isabel Allende, W.G. Sebald, and Gore Vidal, just to name a few. “People are alienated from their own culture,” says Silverblatt who studied literature at SUNY Buffalo and Johns Hopkins University. “They are taught that they cannot understand their own culture. There is a wall between the artist and the audience. I want to break that wall down. Bookworm has allowed me to break at least a portion of that wall down.”

     Overseeing the musical sector of KCRW is Nic Harcourt, the station’s Music Director and the current host of Morning Becomes Eclectic. A native of Birmingham, England, Harcourt, like Silverblatt, happened into a radio career pretty much by accident. “Like every kid growing up in England, I was either going to be a soccer player or a rock star,” says the amiable Englishman. “Well, I wasn’t that good at football and even though I was in a few bands, I guess I wasn’t that good at being a rock star.” Harcourt wandered about the world a bit until he ended up on the doorstep of a commercial radio station in Woodstock, New York. Like so many other disc jockeys at KCRW, Harcourt started at the Woodstock station on purely a volunteer basis. “I ended up doing everything there, from sweeping the floors to being the news director to be being a music D.J. to being the program director,” says Harcourt. “It gave me a good solid ground in radio.” Nic Harcourt was swept away from Woodstock after landing his job at KCRW four years ago. “I knew that this was a high-profile position and I knew there were a lot of expectations built-in to the job. And certainly there was a period of adjustment, both for me and for the audience. But now I’m here and I’m very happy to be here.” Although Harcourt has no ambitions for super-star status within the music business, he’s quite cognizant of the fact that people within the business tune into his show. “I’d estimate that Morning Becomes Eclectic indirectly music-supervises half the movies that are made in L.A. But if you’re worried about all the people out there listening and what they might think of your show, then forget it—you’re doomed. It might sound peculiar but the best way to do a show is just to do it for yourself. If you’re digging it, chances are pretty good other people are digging it.” That would seem to be the case for Morning Becomes Eclectic: Harcourt was the first D.J. in L.A. to play tunes by Dido, David Gray, Coldplay and Pete Yorn, all of whom have vaulted from their exposure on the show to major success. “I’m not playing these songs so these artists can have huge break-out hits, I’m playing them because I like them. And if I like them, I’ll just keep playing them. I’m very pleased with what I’m doing. I mean I’m just a middle-class kid from the Industrial Midlands in England and here I am on this very wonderful place on the dial. It’s great.”

     89.9 isn’t simply a place on the dial, however. It’s also streaming three continuous channels on the KCRW web-site (www.kcrw.com). Jason Georges, the Webmaster at KCRW, is another former volunteer who now calls the station home. Like many another volunteer, Georges began by answering phones and soon found himself immersed in the station: “I started listening to KCRW when I was in elementary school,” says Georges. “I love working here. Every day something exciting happens.” KCRW features a music stream, a news stream and a simulcast stream; the site is now featured on Radio@AOL and as many as 48,000 people are visiting the site each day from everywhere around the globe, including Japan, Chile, Australia, England and South Africa. “We were one of the first radio stations to stream audio over the Web,” says George. “At first it sounded like an AM radio underwater. But now it’s very high quality and we’re streaming excellent stuff and that’s why people are visiting the site from all over the world.”

     It should be crystal clear by now that volunteers form the backbone of KCRW. “We could not exist without volunteers,” says Seymour. “They are very gifted people and we have everyone from people in their eighties with walkers to high school kids. It’s wonderful and again, it keeps us involved in the community.” Melinda Siegel, who started off as a volunteer at the station following the Iran-Contra hearing and has since become the associate producer of Bookworm, still volunteers one morning a week. “I meet lots of interesting people through volunteering,” says Siegel, “and it’s such an exciting atmosphere to work in. And besides, the station simply could not function without volunteers.”

     Santa Monica College is fortunate to have KCRW on its campus; indeed, the station forms part of the College’s educational mission. “I see radio as the embodiment of education,” says Seymour. “We are all here learning and teaching over the air waves every day.” And the station is not averse to having SMC students drop by and volunteer. “One of our disc jockeys, Raul Campos, was a Santa Monica College student and he started out as a volunteer,” says Seymour.

     KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College. And a great radio station. And the symbol of L.A.

Profiles Archive Summer 2002