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college radio station KSDT, with view of record library. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Radio Station Visit #162: College Radio Station KSDT at UC San Diego

At the end of a long day of travel, I found myself in the relaxing digs of streaming college radio station KSDT at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In a quiet spot on campus, the station’s lobby door opens onto a pathway within the old student center complex. It’s near the student-run television station (Triton TV) and various socially-minded student services reside nearby, including a food pantry, LGBT Resource Center, Student Veterans Resource Center, Food Co-Op and a long-time collectively-run bookstore (Groundwork Books).

Entrance to college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Entrance to college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

On a sleepy June evening, just a few days after graduation, Programming Director Adriana Barrios and Media Director Emanuel Castro Cariño greeted me in the KSDT lobby for a chat and a tour. The station was on a brief summer hiatus, with live shows returning in July. In the absence of regular DJs, KSDT was running an automated mix of music from a big hard drive dubbed “Satan.”

View of campus from college radio station KSDT studio. Pictured: turntable, audio equipment, large window overlooking grass, trees. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
View of campus from KSDT studio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

While there’s no set music genre for KSDT, the station does work to support independent, underground artists. Castro Cariño described the station sound as “eclectic,” praising its “weird audience” of listeners, including a fan in Poland who enjoys the station’s surf/garage show. Barrios said that while there are quite a few shows playing “indie pop” and “SoundCloud rappers,” she’s encouraging people to bring in genres that aren’t common at KSDT since they have so much available time on the schedule. “The more diversity in music, the better,” she relayed, summing up her programming philosophy.

7-inch records at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
7-inch records at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

An enthusiastic fan of college radio, Barrios talked about her visits to stations in Boston and throughout California (thanks to University of California Radio Network conferences). Inspired in part by what she and other staffers have seen at other radio stations, KSDT is combing through its archives to uncover its 50+ year history.

Sticker at KSDT reads: "KSDT's 50th anniversary." Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Sticker at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

As is the case at many college radio stations, the current participants at KSDT don’t know too much about the station’s past. A decade ago, a 2009 UCSD Guardian article uncovered historical tidbits, namely pointing out that the station has never had a licensed over-the-air frequency. From the earliest days, KSDT operated over very low power, initially broadcasting to dorms in 1968 via AM carrier current. By 1973, the station was able to expand its reach to the broader San Diego community thanks to cable FM.

Vintage KSDT sticker that reads "95.7 FM CABLE KSDT" at the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Vintage KSDT sticker at the college radio station. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

A 1987 Los Angeles Times article pointed out that KSDT “…has a potentially massive listening audience. You can pick it up at 95.7 on Cox Cable FM, 95.5 on Southwestern Cable FM.” The L.A. Times explained that cable FM was a service utilized by a small percentage of cable customers in 1987, stating, “A spokesman for Cox said a lot of people just plain miss cable FM. Out of 278,000 Cox subscribers, only 3,000 get the FM service. He, of course, would like a higher number, as would KSDT. (It costs $3.95 a month.) KSDT reaches only a few dormitories, wired to receive the signal through electrical outlets–you just can’t get it over the airwaves.”

Vintage LPs at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Vintage LPs at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

As they toured me through the station, Barrios referred to vintage KSDT stickers emblazoned with long-forgotten frequencies from the station’s cable FM and AM carrier current days. She and Castro Cariño also pointed out file cabinets containing historical documents and reel-to-reel audio tapes housed in the station’s music library.

News archives in reel-to-reel tape box amid KSDT 7" records. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
News archives amid KSDT 7″ records. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Barrios shared that KSDT is in the process of recovering its history by going through files and piecing together the story of the station’s past. As for the rationale, she opined that while KSDT is certainly looking ahead to its future, they also want to make a conscious effort to ground themselves in where they’ve come from.

50th anniversary sign on wall at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
50th anniversary sign at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

It’s a group effort, with several folks at the station interested in delving into the station’s archival material, including video. KSDT’s Winter 2019 ‘zine even featured record reviews of some LPs from the KSDT library dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Barrios would also like to work on engaging with KSDT alumni is a more significant way and creating a plan for how to involve alumni DJs was on her summer to-do list.

View from lobby into KSDT studio/record library. Pictured: Letters K, S, D,T on pillar with shelves of LPs in distance. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
View from lobby into KSDT studio/record library. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Just past the lobby, KSDT’s spacious on-air studio has a large window overlooking a patio, with picnic tables and an eatery nearby. When broadcasting, speakers outside the studio beam the KSDT stream to passersby. Within the studio, there’s the requisite broadcasting equipment and the surrounding walls and shelves hold the recently alphabetized vinyl LPs, 7″ records, and even some vintage reel-to-reel tapes.

Shelves full of LPs at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
LPs at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

The studio has another window overlooking a small office (with plenty of sticker-covered surfaces) as well as a roll-up door/window that can be raised to create an open expanse between the lobby and the studio. A short hallway leads from the lobby to a music practice room.

Sound board at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Sound board at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

A student-run college radio station, KSDT has a staff of 12 students and around 100 DJs every quarter doing one-hour shows. Additionally, the station runs a music practice room with a membership of around 50 to 70 people. A unique project (I’m not aware of a practice room run by any other college radio station), I was told that the practice room is the only space on the UCSD campus outside of the music department that provides instruments and space for musicians to practice. Castro Cariño recounted that a few years back it was a “passion project” by the students who ultimately built the space.

KSDT Practice Room. Pictured: keybaord, stool, and audio equipment in background. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
KSDT Practice Room. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

A haven for both musicians and audio engineers, the practice room is stocked with drums, a piano, guitar, various percussion instruments, amps, cables, and microphones. In addition to being a helpful space for artists, it also benefits the station by bringing musical talent in to KSDT.

Audio equipment in the KSDT music practice room. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Audio equipment in the KSDT music practice room. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

With summer break underway, Barrios was preparing for her senior year at UCSD while Castro Cariño was heading out into the world as a college graduate. At KSDT since his sophomore year, he said that while some might say it’s “bittersweet” to be moving on, he’s ready for the next phase and even has some ideas percolating on how to do community radio back in his home town. In part, he’d like to try to replicate the inspiring community that he found at KSDT. Reflecting back on his first moments at the station, he was struck by its “homey” feel, explaining that it was one of the places on campus where he felt “socially calm,” “at home” and “at peace.”

Emanuel Castro Cariño holds up "Environments: Totally New Concepts in Sound-Disc 4" LP in KSDT music library. LP has photo of lightning in the center. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Emanuel Castro Cariño in KSDT music library. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Barrios didn’t anticipate how important KSDT would become for her when she jokingly proposed hosting a show she called “Fake Indie, Real Talk” her first year of college. She told me that she didn’t know much about music and was intimidated by the seemingly music savvy DJs. Just wrapping up her second year at Programming Director when we met, she told me, “I’m so happy I applied as a joke,” adding that KSDT is “probably THE coolest thing on campus.”

Adriana Barrios at KSDT. LPs in record library in the background. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Adriana Barrios at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

It’s also a place where people seem to really care about the work that they are doing both on and off air. Barrios started up a new “training quarter” program in fall, 2018 to provide more structure for new DJs. The components of the program include orientation (including training on how to spin vinyl records), DJ shadowing, and a series of non-prime-time solo hours on KSDT.

Sticker-covered door at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Sticker-covered door at college radio station KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Additionally, as part of the effort to make their time in radio a bit more of an educational experience, KSDT has a programming review process in which interns listen to shows at a particular time of day and provide feedback to the DJs/hosts. Barrios explained, “It’s really hard to do radio when you’ve never done radio before.” New DJs are given suggestions on how to improve their shows across a range of areas. Barrios described the reviews as “holistic,” with Castro Cariño adding that much of what they are aiming for is helping on-air hosts to be better communicators.

KSDT 'zine in the college radio station's lobby. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
KSDT ‘zine in the college radio station’s lobby. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Both Barrios and Castro Cariño talked about how special it is to participate in college radio, citing being part of a creative community as a huge plus, especially at a university that they described as “STEM-focused.” It’s a sentiment that’s a common refrain at student-run radio stations and rings true for me as well: college radio can be an escape from the day-to-day stress of academics and a place to connect with fellow music lovers, artists, and soon-to-be radio nerds (in the best possible way).

Sticker-covered table at KSDT. Sticker in center is old and faded, reads: "TUDENTS WANTED TO "LISTE...THE CITY"...." Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor
Sticker-covered table at KSDT. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

Thanks to Adriana Barrios and Emanuel Castro Cariño for spending a Tuesday night hanging out with me and schooling me about all things KSDT. This is my 162nd radio station tour report and my 107th college radio station tour. See my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives. I recap my San Diego-area college radio travels on Radio Survivor Podcast #202.

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