In the plight to acquire younger listeners and maintain adequate funds, public radio station K-JAZZ 88.1—which has broadcasted jazz and blues music from Cal State Long Beach for the last 25 years—is stretching to maintain its prominence.
“It is very difficult to raise money from the public for this particular niche format, and there is not a lot of money from other sources,” said Stephanie Levine Fried, station manager and general counsel for K-JAZZ. “When we say we need help financially, it is not unique to us. It has been an issue for years.”
Through an 11-day pledge drive that ended Sept. 28, K-JAZZ raised approximately $250,000, bringing their running fundraising total for 2008 to $865,000. They have already surpassed 2007 fundraising totals by $240,000.
“There are only four full-time jazz/blues stations in the nation. Our goals is to continue improving all aspects of the station so it can continue to be a premier jazz and blues radio station in the country,” Fried said.
Since changing management to Global Jazz, Inc. in April 2007, Fried said “we have really started from scratch. We have not yet reached what we need, but we have made significant gains with this pledge drive.”
Listeners like journalism major Terence Calacsan, now in his third year at CSULB, are strong supporters of K-JAZZ.
“It’s pretty cool to know one of the biggest jazz stations is right here on campus since jazz is a pretty small niche,” Calacsan said. “It is kind of sad that jazz is pretty much dying out. This station is what keeps it alive for the most part.”
Yet, to Calacsan’s knowledge, he is the only person out of his group of friends who listens to the station.
Other students were left at a loss when asked if they enjoy listening to K-JAZZ.
“I don’t even know what station it is on,” said Monica Martinez, a sophomore illustration major. “I normally listen to rock. I was not really exposed to [jazz] so I wouldn’t know. Maybe if they would have advertised it more.”
K-JAZZ is making efforts to expand its listener base.
“We are growing [our] audience of listeners. We have had a lot of success as far as programming, outreach and visibility in the community. These efforts will continue to help us raise more money for the station” Fried said.
K-JAZZ publicizes its station to younger listeners by holding free concerts around the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas, as well as trying to get students involved by offering them jobs.
“Our focus is on improving the station as far as our programming and just finding new and innovative ways to reach out to the community and to involve younger people” Fried said. “[We are working at] promoting jazz and blues music to the younger generation.”
However, Elizabeth Ureste, a junior physical education major, believes it takes more than concerts to grab the attention of younger audiences, considering that she has never heard of the station before.
“I think it is just airplay,” Ureste said. “More mainstream, top 40 [type music] gets played. That’s just what more people focus on.”
Mitch Swenson, a sophomore Spanish linguistics grad student, said he believes exposure to different types of music starts with the educational system.
Students “do not really hear what jazz is because they do not get exposed to it in school,” Swenson said. “All they ever get exposed to on television is rock and pop music.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Matt Kradle, a freshman kinesiology student.
“They probably get their favorite music from MTV,” Kradle said. “They do not really have to go far outside of television to get music that they like. They do not have to do too much exploring.”