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Thursday, January 30, 1997

COMMUNICATIONS:

New emphasis on playlists to define station's identityBy Jennifer Mukai

Daily Bruin Contributor

Mark Liu sighs blissfully as his manager hands him a sticker which reads: "Parental Advisory: Don't shop at Wal-Mart." Holding the black and white decal reverentially, the third-year political science student proclaims, "This can go on my snowboard!" He pauses. "What was I saying? Something about professionalism?"

Professionalism actually is a major focus with the rebirth of KLA, UCLA's radio station. During the station's absence of about a year-and-a-half, Liu and his colleagues have worked at overhauling KLA's entire format.

"We want KLA as professional as we can possibly make it," stated Liu, the station's new program director. "We wanted to change its image into that of a real, viable entity here at UCLA, a real service to the students."

One major change in KLA's new format is the integration of regular playlists into every disc jockey's (DJ) show, excepting specialty shows. According to Liu, DJs were previously allowed to play whatever they liked, which led to a lot of inconsistency. Liu expressed hopes that the establishment of certain playlists will not only give the station more of an identity, but will allow KLA to prove a real training ground for students interested in professional radio.

"In the real world, you don't just walk into work and play whatever you want," he noted. "KROQ, for example, has very, very, very strict playlists."

He went on to say that though KLA will be less stringent than KROQ, it will certainly be more structured than it used to be.

Those playlists will be formatted with a focus on "alternative and rock," ranging from Tori Amos to Shonen Knife to Weird Al Yankovic. However, KLA's musical archives also include punk, metal, techno/industrial, rap, reggae, blues and jazz. Weekends will feature specialty shows all day Saturday, and techno, dance and hip-hop all day Sunday.

In addition, KLA will feature weekday talk shows covering topics as diverse as campus news, entertainment, relationships and politics. According to Liu, news and sports updates will be broadcast twice a day, in the morning and afternoon.

Roy Matayoshi, a fifth-year political science student and host of a show tentatively titled "KLA Metal," said he was glad to hear that the station is more formatted now.

"Previously, people didn't know what to expect from KLA," he said. Now that the station has more of a focus, musically speaking, he said he hopes listeners will be able to better identify with the station.

Jake Sexton, a fourth-year psychology and communications student who worked with Matayoshi at KLA two years ago, expressed similar hopes for a larger audience for the new KLA.

"We'll hopefully have more of an audience since we're using cable instead of the old AM electrical signal," he said. "I didn't listen to it (two years ago) because it had such bad reception."

When last on the air, KLA was available primarily through Century Cable FM radio. Its signal will now be transmitted through UCLA's cable system, which is jointly run by the university's telecommunications department and its Student Technology Center (STC). KLA will thus be available to the residence halls, Ackerman Student Union, and any other location on campus which is wired for cable television.

If people at these locations wish to access KLA's cable radio signal along with existing TV signals, however, they will need a cable "splitter" and adapter kit. These adapter kits are available at the STC now, according to STC manager Richard Kroon.

In spite of KLA's limited broadcast circuit, its world wide web site may manage to create greater access for off-campus listeners.

According to KLA webmaster April Garfield, live and archived broadcasts of sports events, news and other shows should eventually be available on the Internet.

When the required software has been decided upon, she added, it will be made available for free download off the world wide web. In the meantime, the KLA site features a broadcasting schedule, album charts, a listing of upcoming KLA events and a list of contacts at the station. Garfield said she'd like to add individual pages for each of the station's specialty shows, as well.

The delay in air date is not the first obstacle KLA has faced in its attempted comeback. Its struggle for structure has been made somewhat difficult by the absence of much of the station's older, more experienced staff. Many of those older staff members have graduated since KLA was last on the air.

"There are very few returning veterans," observed Interim General Manager Jason Preston. "Anyone on the air prior to 1995 is gone. Less than 10 people with on-air experience are still here."

Despite the relative inexperience of the majority of the new staff, Liu said he has confidence in them. Most of them, he explained, have had some radio experience at stations other than KLA. People with no on-air experience at all have been placed in departments such as production or promotions for now, garnering experience behind the scenes while being trained to DJ their own shows later on.

KLA was tentatively scheduled to go back on the air on Tuesday, but the date has been pushed back to next week. According to Student Media Director Arvli Ward, the ASUCLA Communications Board Executive Committee needs to hear about a few final details before KLA actually goes back on the air.

SHAWN LAKSMI/Daily Bruin

Michelle Chang, a fourth-year psychology student, runs through her weekly show at KLA, which tentatively premieres next week.