KCPR 91.3 FM: The San Luis Sound
I joined Cal Poly’s student-run radio station almost by accident. Before long I was cueing records, making PSAs, checking FCC logs—and trying to keep dead air off 91.3 FM.
1978–82 · CAL POLY
Trial by Fire
KCPR is Cal Poly’s student-run radio station (K Cal Poly Radio). When I was living at Stenner Glen in 1978–79, a really nice guy in the suite next to me, Jerry Peek, was working at the station and encouraged me to join. I signed up for DJ training, which was mostly about FCC rules. At the time, you needed an FCC license to broadcast on KCPR, so I completed the training, took the test, and got my license.
At KCPR, they called your first time on the air a “trial by fire.” Mine was a one-hour shift, midnight to 1 a.m. on a weeknight, and I was NERVOUS! I had never done any public speaking before, and now my voice was going to be transmitted across San Luis Obispo (yikes!). After that, I picked up three-hour fill-in shifts until I got a regular time slot, usually when a new quarter started.
How KCPR Worked in 1978–82
The transmitter was 2,000 watts, which didn’t make it over Cuesta Grade. It was on a hill near the Highway 1 entrance to Cal Poly and was maintained by engineering students. I remember someone complained that when they tuned in KSBY-TV, they could hear KCPR. I don’t know what they did to fix that.
All of the music was on LPs or 45s. The station had the main broadcast room, a separate news studio, and a production studio. The main control room had a cart machine for station promos and Public Service Announcements, plus a reel-to-reel tape deck for recorded programs the station received and for DJs to record their own shows as “air checks.”
The Top 40 Experiment
When I started, the program director decided to run the station more like a Top 40 station. This was different from most college radio stations, which played music you didn’t hear on commercial stations. We were only supposed to play songs that had made Billboard’s Top 100 (or maybe it was Top 40—I don’t remember for certain).
We also had to play certain newer 45s at specific times. Those records were put into “rotation.” After our shift, we’d submit our playlist. When we got it back, someone had reviewed it and highlighted any songs that weren’t in the Top 100. Back then, KCPR sounded a lot like KZOZ.
This was one of the playlists I saved from a shift on April 5, 1981. I was a bad boy for playing those two highlighted songs!
Live Radio, Two Turntables
Before a shift, I’d come in and pull the records I planned to play. We had two turntables. While one record was playing live, I’d cue up the next one on the other turntable. It took a second or so for a record to come up to speed, so I had to plan for that.
Some songs ended abruptly, and I had fun with the segues—seeing how closely I could start the next record when the first one ended, with no dead air. With songs that faded out, I’d start the next song and “pot” the first turntable’s volume down as it faded. Pot was short for potentiometer, the dial on the control panel that controlled the volume for each device in the control room.
If I didn’t have a record chosen to play next, I went into panic mode. I’d need to pull one from the LPs stacked on the wall and quickly cue it up. If I needed time to catch up and pull more records, I’d put on a long song like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” That bought me a few minutes to get organized.
Listen: Me on KCPR
I also found one of my old KCPR air checks. Here’s a short clip of me on the air.
A short excerpt from one of my old KCPR air checks.
Traffic Director
I also served as Traffic Director. That meant going through the FCC logs and making sure the DJs filled them out correctly. If something was wrong, I had to send the DJ a notice telling them to go back and fix it. Here’s one of those notices.
Weird Al at KCPR
When I started at KCPR, Weird Al was also there. His show was Saturdays at 9 p.m. I never interacted with Al in person. I did, however, send him notes to correct his FCC logs—but he NEVER did :).
Weird Al and program director Christy Kuehler didn’t agree on where the station was headed. She wanted his show to follow the Top 40 format. In 1979, Al recorded “My Bologna” in the men’s restroom across the hall from KCPR on the second floor of Cal Poly’s Graphic Arts Building (Building 26). KCPR was part of the Journalism Department. The song started getting attention after Dr. Demento began playing it.
I wasn’t involved in the issues between Al and Christy, but a 2003 New Times interview with Al confirmed what I remembered about the format dispute. This part of the interview jumped out at me:
New Times: “You got kicked off KCPR for what, not following the format?”
Weird Al: “Basically. I wasn’t fired per se, but I was forced to quit.”
Al went on to explain that The Weird Al Show was a specialty program featuring comedy music and some new wave. He said Christy Kuehler was changing KCPR into a tightly run Top 40 station with color-coded album rotations, and that the new format took the fun out of doing the show.
Source: Glen Starkey, “Paid to be ‘Weird’: Cal Poly alum ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic goes back to school,” New Times, June 19, 2003. Read the interview.
Listen: Weird Al on KCPR
During Cal Poly’s 1999 Alumni Weekend, former KCPR DJs were allowed back on the air. Jerry Peek returned for a show and played excerpts from older KCPR broadcasts, including part of a 1979 Christmas special featuring Weird Al Yankovic. Jerry saved a recording of his 1999 show, so the clip below is a recording of Jerry replaying that 1979 broadcast.
Excerpt from Jerry Peek’s May 1, 1999 Alumni Weekend broadcast, replaying part of a 1979 KCPR Christmas special featuring Weird Al Yankovic.
Making PSAs
I had a lot of fun at KCPR. My first PSA “commercial” promoted a dance at Casa De Vida, a residential care facility in SLO. Jerry helped with the production and background sound effects. I didn’t know the station had submitted it to a statewide journalism competition, and we ended up winning third place for “Best PSA.” That was cool!
I also remember suddenly hearing my own voice on PSAs while I was in Korb’s Trading Post and, another time, the original Woodstock’s. Both had KCPR tuned in.
Inside the KCPR Studio
The control board
Each device in the room had its own dial and a black lever switch above it. Flipping the lever put that source live on the air, and the dial controlled its volume. I had to watch the VU meters to keep the levels out of the red.
The record wall
This is where the records were kept, in alphabetical order—unless a DJ put one back in the wrong spot. The current albums were stored under the desk to my left. I think there may also have been a small shelf in the back on the left.
The cart machine played Public Service Announcements and station promos. A green light meant the cart was cued to the beginning and ready to play.
Hitting the cart button.
On the air at the control board.
“KCPR, The San Luis Sound”
The News Studio and the reel-to-reel
The window on the left looked into the news studio. The reel-to-reel deck was part of the equipment in the main room.
The reel-to-reel deck is what I used to record my air checks. I could start the recorder from the main console before I turned on the microphone.
Looking Back
It’s funny to think that all of this started because Jerry Peek, the guy in the suite next door at Stenner Glen, encouraged me to join KCPR. I was terrified the first time I turned on the microphone, but the station became one of the most fun parts of my Cal Poly years. Somehow I still have playlists, photos, a log-error memo, recordings, and even a KCPR decal from that time. Nearly 50 years later, they make it pretty easy to remember what KCPR was like.
Sources & Credits
New Times interview with Weird Al — June 19, 2003
New Times archive
Audio source: Jerry Peek’s Radio Page — KCPR Alumni Weekend, May 1, 1999
Jerry Peek’s Radio Page