  • Tyler Russell, program director for KX 93.5, poses in the radio station's under-construction offices in Laguna Beach. The nonprofit, community station will soon broadcast alternative rock and community affairs programming to the Laguna Beach area.

  • Tyler Russell, program director for KX 93.5, holds the future radio station's antenna over his head in Laguna Beach. The nonprofit, community station will soon broadcast from a local office to the Laguna Beach area.

  • Tyler Russell, program director for KX 93.5, looks through the future radio station's antenna in their under-construction offices in Laguna Beach. The nonprofit, community station will soon broadcast alternative rock and community affairs programming to the Laguna Beach area.

  • A postcard from the Tom Pulley Postcard Collection shows the signage Laguna Beach's only other radio station, KTED.

of

Expand

LAGUNA BEACH – Picturesque Laguna Canyon and rugged hillsides separate this beach town from the bustle and sprawl of the rest of Orange County, but they also block out most radio stations.

Starting in October, residents will be able to tune into music and more – without the static – at KX 93.5 FM. Laguna Beach’s only other radio station was KTED AM, which broadcasted from 1949-1951. The new, low-power operation will house its studio and 4-foot antenna in a small office complex on South Coast Highway, and creator Tyler Russell aims to make the programming a reflection of the community.

The station is the brainchild of the 23-year-old Chapman University alumnus, who is running it as a nonprofit group with the financial support of his father and other private investors. Despite having only a handful of years in the field, he describes himself as a corporate radio burnout after internships at Los Angeles-area stations and a stint on-air in Palm Springs.

“Commercial radio is going in the direction that is more syndicated, less local, more money driven,” he said.

He said commercial radio’s model, with the same songs in heavy rotation and no ties to the community, can’t last in a world in which music lovers can listen to their own playlists on any number of digital services and devices, he said.

Instead, Russell said, radio needs to get back to its roots with disc jockeys who take song requests and talk shows that provide information on local issues listeners can’t find elsewhere. With a hope of really making a change, Russell left his corporate radio job for work on a smaller scale.

“I feel like it’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s the way radio needs to go.”

More than 80 stations broadcast in Orange County, including several noncommercial ones. UC Irvine and Saddleback College’s stations allow students to learn the field and provide music and community programming as a public service. In Costa Mesa, KOCI airs music and talk programming at 101.5 FM.

KX 93.5 will broadcast to a 5-square-mile area between Crystal Cove and Crown Valley Parkway featuring “generational rock” from ’60s groups like the Zombies and modern bands like Bloc Party. Starting at 7p.m. on weekdays, the station will turn to community programming with volunteer hosts who will speak on topics such as politics and fitness.

Recent federal legislation allowed the FCC to license low-power stations for the first time since 1978. Russell said his new nonprofit station was able to acquire an existing local frequency. Approval from the Planning Commission came without a hitch, and the antenna, which will broadcast at 100 watts, was placed on the studio’s roof to get the best signal without conflicting with any neighbors’ views.

“I think it’s going to be neat having a local radio station,” Planning Commissioner Anne Johnson said. “It’s going to be lots of fun.”

With approvals in place, work began to transform the former fashion design offices into a studio. In addition to the antenna, equipment needs included a transmitter, sound board, automation software, editing software and, of course, microphones. Start-up costs were $25,000, and future day-to-day operations will depend on volunteers and community financial support. With four employees, however, Russell said, the broadcasts won’t sound amateur.

“It should sound like your typical FM station,” he said.

His idea of a new direction for radio is gaining support. When he advertised for station jobs, Russell said, he received more than 200 applications, some of them from established names in the industry. He’s confident the format will take off, and he hopes to use the station to build up a Laguna Beach music scene and perhaps a local music festival.

Orange County in general has a lack of local programming, with most of its over-the-air content coming from Los Angeles. Russell and his family had come to love the area while he was a Chapman student, so he jumped at a chance to move to the area.

“When we saw there was an available frequency here, it was a no-brainer,” he said.

As he planned, Russell turned to Jerry Price, dean of students at Chapman. The two had met during Russell’s time as general manager of the student radio station, for which Price serves as adviser.

Price, a Laguna Beach resident, said Russell’s plans, though ambitious, made sense for a community as involved as Laguna. In spite of its small size, Price said, Laguna Beach is full of possibilities for community content, as residents are interested in their local schools, civic government and nonprofit groups.

“It’s a community that has a lot of active conversations with itself about everything,” he said.

Price is on the board of the directors for the radio station’s nonprofit group, and he said its management is in good hands with Russell. In spite of his youth, Price said Russell thinks big while staying grounded and practical.

“He is an achiever beyond his years,” he said.

Contact the writer: 949-454-7309 orckoerner@ocregister.com

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.
https://www.ocregister.com/2012/09/21/radio-waves-to-break-on-laguna-beachs-shores/?shared=email&msg=fail
www.ocregister.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2021-21
211877
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:CO2KBPHOWJZFQRDSPBZIEX5IJLKGT2I4
<urn:uuid:6f7e451a-f5f6-475f-8eb8-2749b38becd5>
2021-05-06T09:34:23Z
192.0.66.2
text/html
sha1:KUDVHO32NLQ42OWBMJD7IDLJ5YNWWDH4
<urn:uuid:14df2f4c-0a3a-476f-b42b-dffdafcdc91d>
https://www.ocregister.com/2012/09/21/radio-waves-to-break-on-laguna-beachs-shores/?shared=email&msg=fail
response
<urn:uuid:56649373-2bb2-44b3-8aa2-7d7097e9da11>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-28.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/