KUSC is making classical music relevant
The return of Rich Capparela and Dennis Bartel, and the demise of K-Mozart, boost the station in the ratings.
IN THE last year, listeners to classical music radio in Los Angeles have noticed something different about segments of the weekday sound of KUSC-FM (91.5) -- evidence of human beings talking to them live between the symphonies and concertos of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms. It's a change from the public station's deliberately generic classical programming that for the last nine years was prerecorded for distribution to more than 50 other outlets across the country with as little trace of Los Angeles or the announcers' personalities as possible.
Now, in afternoon drive-time, host Rich Capparela serves up irreverent observations about Los Angeles and traffic, along with bits of news he has gleaned that day about the classical world -- in addition to selections from the classical canon. In the mornings, another KUSC alumnus returned home: Dennis Bartel shares his quietly ironic views of just about everything alongside the music, indicative of his background as a published author of fiction and nonfiction.
Apparently reflecting public approval of these changes and combined with the demise of its only significant rival, KMZT-FM, KUSC's audience has boomed to an average weekly listenership of 525,800, as measured by the latest Arbitron ratings, pushing it to the No. 1 spot among local public stations, ahead of previous leader KPCC-FM (520,700), KCRW-FM (496,800) and KKJZ-FM (347,500).
KUSC already had the largest audience of any nonprofit classical station in the nation despite a decline in its membership numbers and audience in recent years. Its latest average quarter-hour share of the total radio audience in Los Angeles and Orange counties, a key statistic in radio ratings, more than doubled from the same period a year ago, from a 0.8 to a 1.9.
"What we were getting out of syndication was costing us too much in our ability to program the station locally," says KUSC General Manager Eric DeWeese, who arrived four years ago from WRKF-FM in Baton Rouge, La., to assist KUSC President Brenda Barnes by overseeing the station's day-to-day operations.
The changes have not included altering the station's largely mainstream classical repertoire, which is less adventurous than the classical programming at Cal State Northridge's KCSN-FM (88.5), where the hosts have freedom to play whatever they choose. KCSN's smaller signal only reaches about a third of the L.A. metro area, however, attracting in the recent survey 58,700 listeners per week.
