Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Aztec Radio

Skot Norton (standing) and Josh Hoffman dig KCR’s new digs.
Skot Norton (standing) and Josh Hoffman dig KCR’s new digs.

“We spent almost eight years in the lady’s room in Aztec Center.” Skot Norton, KCR faculty/staff advisor, makes no joke when he describes the many humble locations on campus that the KCR studios have been allowed to occupy since the student-run radio station came to be in 1969. The restroom in question was no longer in use, as such, but fits into a chronology that includes a cubicle with carpet samples glued to the walls and the beer studio, so named for the hundreds of empties that encircled the broadcast booth.

On September 6, KCR will relaunch from what station backers hope is a permanent studio home in the communications building. Norton says new furniture and new equipment is on the way. “We’ve never had all-new everything.” He’d know. For 13 years, Norton spun records on KCR under the pseudonym of Lauston Ozonee. Funding for the new studio has come from KCR alumni donations and sales of Aztec Beach, a KCR-produced CD of original surf music.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Josh Hoffman, 22, was appointed KCR’s general manager by the associated students in June. In addition to the standard commercial and indie-rock free-form programming, Hoffman will include local bands. “New Music Mondays will feature local groups not heard on other local radio shows.” He invites submissions at kcrlive.org. Hoffman says KCR will also host showcases for local bands at a nearby El Cajon Boulevard pizzeria.

KCR began life as a senior project in 1966, around the same time that SDSU’s student-run KEBS radio was being retooled into NPR affiliate KPBS. At first, KCR programming was broadcast via carrier current transmitters placed in the surrounding dorms and also on 550 AM and 98.9 cable FM. But there was a power glitch, Norton says, that turned the concrete and steel dorm towers into transmitters. On a clear day, listeners were sometimes able to pick up KCR’s errant signal from as far away as North Park. “The FCC,” says Norton, “made us turn the power down.”

KCR is now available by Internet and via Cox Cable 956 and Southwest Cable 957. But it turns out the web option is not so new. “In 1995,” says Norton, “KCR was one of the first college stations to do live Internet radio.” Various misadventures, says Norton, bumped them off and on the air over the years, and the campus evictions didn’t help. Once, when they were between studios for a spell, KCR was essentially a six-tray CD player sending random cuts down line to the cable servers.

As GM, Hoffman has plans to increase coverage of campus news and sports. His master plan for the fall semester includes expanding student-sales and social-networking positions. The larger challenge for now, he says, is that nobody on campus really knows about KCR, a situation that Hoffman hopes to change before he graduates next spring.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dating Sites For Little People: Best Platforms & Tips

Next Article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets
Skot Norton (standing) and Josh Hoffman dig KCR’s new digs.
Skot Norton (standing) and Josh Hoffman dig KCR’s new digs.

“We spent almost eight years in the lady’s room in Aztec Center.” Skot Norton, KCR faculty/staff advisor, makes no joke when he describes the many humble locations on campus that the KCR studios have been allowed to occupy since the student-run radio station came to be in 1969. The restroom in question was no longer in use, as such, but fits into a chronology that includes a cubicle with carpet samples glued to the walls and the beer studio, so named for the hundreds of empties that encircled the broadcast booth.

On September 6, KCR will relaunch from what station backers hope is a permanent studio home in the communications building. Norton says new furniture and new equipment is on the way. “We’ve never had all-new everything.” He’d know. For 13 years, Norton spun records on KCR under the pseudonym of Lauston Ozonee. Funding for the new studio has come from KCR alumni donations and sales of Aztec Beach, a KCR-produced CD of original surf music.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Josh Hoffman, 22, was appointed KCR’s general manager by the associated students in June. In addition to the standard commercial and indie-rock free-form programming, Hoffman will include local bands. “New Music Mondays will feature local groups not heard on other local radio shows.” He invites submissions at kcrlive.org. Hoffman says KCR will also host showcases for local bands at a nearby El Cajon Boulevard pizzeria.

KCR began life as a senior project in 1966, around the same time that SDSU’s student-run KEBS radio was being retooled into NPR affiliate KPBS. At first, KCR programming was broadcast via carrier current transmitters placed in the surrounding dorms and also on 550 AM and 98.9 cable FM. But there was a power glitch, Norton says, that turned the concrete and steel dorm towers into transmitters. On a clear day, listeners were sometimes able to pick up KCR’s errant signal from as far away as North Park. “The FCC,” says Norton, “made us turn the power down.”

KCR is now available by Internet and via Cox Cable 956 and Southwest Cable 957. But it turns out the web option is not so new. “In 1995,” says Norton, “KCR was one of the first college stations to do live Internet radio.” Various misadventures, says Norton, bumped them off and on the air over the years, and the campus evictions didn’t help. Once, when they were between studios for a spell, KCR was essentially a six-tray CD player sending random cuts down line to the cable servers.

As GM, Hoffman has plans to increase coverage of campus news and sports. His master plan for the fall semester includes expanding student-sales and social-networking positions. The larger challenge for now, he says, is that nobody on campus really knows about KCR, a situation that Hoffman hopes to change before he graduates next spring.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Stinkfoot Orchestra conjures Zappa at Winstons

His music is a blend of technical excellence and not-so-subtle humor
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.