It\u2019s another bright, sunny and promising Thursday morning in Los Angeles in early October, but things are not going well for the morning team on the public radio station KCSN, known as the SoCal Sound.<\/p>\n
Morning show hosts Nic Harcourt and Jet Raskin are seven days into the station\u2019s eight-day \u201cshortfall\u201d fundraiser, named for the season and the funds the station is attempting to make up after its nearly $250,000 grant from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting was canceled after the organization was defunded by Congress in July.<\/p>\n
This morning, Harcourt and Raskin are experiencing their own shortfall. They\u2019re behind on their goal for the first two hours of the show, yet they are plowing ahead, pleading with their listeners to contribute to the cause, offering premiums such as concert tickets, vinyl records and a specially designed long-sleeve hoodie T-shirt with the words \u201cProtect Public Radio\u201d written on a graphic of an acoustic guitar held in a clenched fist.<\/p>\n
After the impassioned plea comes more music. David Bowie\u2019s \u201cNite Flights,\u201d a Walker Brothers song featured on the late legend\u2019s 1993 album \u201cBlack Tie White Noise,\u201d blares from the speakers. It\u2019s not the album version, but rather the \u201cMood Swings Remix\u201d released in 2010. It\u2019s followed by \u201cIco,\u201d a new song from upstart Canadian indie act Jo Passed\u2019s forthcoming album, that\u2019s been designated as the show\u2019s \u201cFresh Squeezed Track of the Day.\u201d You\u2019re not likely to hear the two songs back-to-back anywhere, especially on the radio, but that\u2019s the appeal of the SoCal Sound. The station has a playlist, but it allows its DJs to add their own picks to the mix, making it a listening experience on the radio dial.<\/p>\n
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The on-air mic in the station at 88.5 FM SoCal Sound. <\/p>\n
(Matt Blake)<\/p>\n
A few hours later, Harcourt and Raskin are breathing easier as the pledges start to roll in and they\u2019re nearly back on track. For Harcourt, the highs and lows of a fundraising campaign are nothing new. He estimates he\u2019s done more than 60 of them if you combine his years at KCSN and KCRW, the city\u2019s best-known public radio station which first introduced the British-born DJ to Los Angeles listeners in 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old-school way of doing it was two fund drives a year, a spring and a fall, but in recent years, public radio stations have found that that\u2019s not enough, so you\u2019ll find mini drives and pop-up drives or day here or day there,\u201d Harcourt said in a recent phone interview. (The station also receives support from a number of local sponsors and underwriters including My Valley Pass, the Pantages, the Hollywood Bowl and others.) Aside from the morning drive show, Harcourt is also heard weeknights from 6 to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
He got his start in radio at WDST, a small commercial station in Woodstock, N.Y., after a friend suggested he bring his knowledge and collection of records by artists from Australia, where he spent his mid-20s, to the station for a specialty show. Harcourt got the gig and eventually became the morning host and program director.<\/p>\n
At KCRW, he became synonymous with breaking new artists as the station\u2019s music director and host of \u201cMorning Becomes Eclectic,\u201d and those artists haven\u2019t forgotten. At their gig this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, French band Air thanked Harcourt from the stage, years after he gave them their big break in America.<\/p>\n
Raskin, his co-host since March 2020, is a relative newbie. An art history major at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, she switched her focus to broadcasting after an instructor said her dreams of becoming the head curator at the Getty Museum were unrealistic. She recalled listening to KCSN in her car, changed her major to broadcasting and transferred to California State University, Northridge, where the SoCal Sound has its studios. Initially, she was working in promotions until she was offered an overnight shift. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yes. You don\u2019t have to ask me twice. Of course I want a shift,\u2019\u201d she recalled. That led to weekends and ultimately the morning show. When general manager Patrick Osburn suggested that Harcourt add a co-host, he requested Raksin. She also flies solo from 6 to 7 a.m. weekdays on \u201cJet Into Work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The station\u2019s other regular staff is a mix of radio veterans, with most refugees from commercial radio who are thrilled to leave that world for a public radio station where they have more freedom. Music director and midday host Julie Slater\u2019s resume includes a lengthy stint at WXRK (K-Rock) New York, where she followed Howard Stern. Program director Marc Kaczor, who got the nickname Mookie from late rock \u2019n\u2019 roll madman Mojo Nixon<\/a> when they both worked at XTRA (91X) San Diego, is on from 2 to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n Perhaps the station\u2019s most well-known personality, Matt Pinfield is a former MTV VJ and one-time host of the popular alternative music show \u201c120 Minutes.\u201d He\u2019s on from 4 to 6 p.m. and is happy to be back on the air. In January, he suffered a life-threatening stroke<\/a> and caught MRSA pneumonia while recovering in the hospital.<\/p>\n SoCal Sound program director Marc Kaczor, left, and DJ\/MTV legend Matt Pinfield. <\/p>\n (Photo from SoCal Sound)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a lot of my abilities back,\u201d said Pinfield, who returned to the air in June. \u201cCertainly, I\u2019m a lot further along than they ever expected me to be. They told both my daughters that I was never going to walk or talk again and probably need 24-hour care.\u201d<\/p>\n The station also has several specialty shows, including Byron the Curator\u2019s \u201cBilingual Sounds,\u201d heard weekdays from 9 to 11 p.m., \u201cL.A. Buzz Bands\u201d and \u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Times,\u201d heard Sunday and Wednesday nights, respectively, hosted by former L.A. Times columnist Kevin Bronson and longtime pop music critic Robert Hilburn. While the station has 12 paid employees, the weekend staff is largely made up of volunteers.<\/p>\n Broadcasting from the campus of CSUN, the station struck a deal in 2017 with KSBR at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, which shares the 88.5 frequency. The partnership allows it to be heard in Orange County as well as the San Fernando Valley. Still, there are parts of Los Angeles where it\u2019s difficult to pick up the station on the radio, but it\u2019s also available to stream on the web and various radio apps. It also has a partnership with fellow public radio station KPCC, the news\/talk station known as LAist, where SoCal Sound DJs refer their listeners to for news.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n