KAZU is an NPR-member radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

, licensed in Pacific Grove, California

Pacific Grove, California

Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...

, United States. The station is currently owned and operated by the California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, Monterey Bay is a small public university in the California State University system on the site of the former U.S. Army base Fort Ord, on the Central Coast of California. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.CSUMB was founded in 1994 with...

.

Established

KAZU began broadcasting in August 1977 from an upstairs office in downtown Pacific Grove. The station was started in hopes of being a local community radio

Community radio

Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...

 station, with a focus on the south Monterey Bay cities. The station operated with 10 watts, and had about 90 volunteers who ran the on-air operation; a small board of directors oversaw the fiscal and legal operations of the corporation that owned KAZU was called The Great Silence Broadcasting Foundation.

Wider broadcast

Because of the low power, the reach was limited, so the station signal was added to the Monterey cable system in 1978. The transmitter was relocated to Hidden Hills, east of Monterey

Monterey, California

The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

 in 1980, and coverage was expanded to reach the entire Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....

 area. Programming and volunteer participation expanded as well, and the station migrated to larger studios in the same building in the mid-1980s.

Fire and relocation

A fire at the studio in the late 1990s briefly put KAZU off the air. Temporary studios were quickly built and the station moved out of downtown Pacific Grove to its current location near New Monterey. After a series of managers and program directors, the station struggled to survive high rents for the new studios and the old transmitter site. The locally produced music and talk programming remained popular with the community, but financial support did not grow sufficiently to cover the new expenses.

Financial collapse

In the late 1990s, the fiscal situation worsened, and cuts to staff were made. A new manager was hired in 1998, and plans were made to change the station to an NPR/PRI

Public Radio International

Public Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...

 affiliate and reduce volunteer programming.

The station was still unable to continue financially, so the board planned to give the station to an outside third-party non-profit. Both KUSP

KUSP

KUSP is a community supported, National Public Radio affiliated public radio station. Located in Santa Cruz, California, USA, the signal covers most of California's Central Coast area. Station content consists of about 2/3 news and information and 1/3 music content.-Online audio:KUSP offers a...

in Santa Cruz, and Cal State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB)

California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, Monterey Bay is a small public university in the California State University system on the site of the former U.S. Army base Fort Ord, on the Central Coast of California. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.CSUMB was founded in 1994 with...

 offered to take over KAZU operations. The board chose CSUMB

California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, Monterey Bay is a small public university in the California State University system on the site of the former U.S. Army base Fort Ord, on the Central Coast of California. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.CSUMB was founded in 1994 with...

. Further programming changes were made and by 1999, all volunteers were removed from programming.

External links

• http://www.well.com/user/dmsml/kazu/index.html