KCSM (FM)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KCSM is a radio station in San Mateo, California, broadcasting locally on 91.1 MHz. The station broadcasts jazz music, 24 hours a day, commercial-free. The radio station is not-for-profit, and listener-supported. The broadcast is mirrored as streaming media on the World Wide Web, extending the station's audience far beyond the Bay Area. Owned by the San Mateo Community College District with sister station KCSM-TV, the station serves the San Francisco Bay Area from studios at the College of San Mateo.

[edit] History

KCSM FM and TV were originally established by the College of San Mateo as training facilities for radio and TV broadcasters. Many well-known media pesonalities were educated at CSM, including KGO Radio's production director Michael Amatori, tabloid TV reporter Steve Wilson and ESPN sportscaster and San Francisco Giants announcer Jon Miller.

Between 1964 and 1980, CSM offered a full range of courses in broadcasting and broadcast electronics, unusual for a community college; they were much more extensive than better known 4-year university programs. The station and its companion FM were staffed and operated by students. This was discontinued in the 1980s, and today KCSM is operated by professional broadcasters.

KCSM began a "jazz kick" in 1986 playing straight ahead jazz during the week and weekends. KCSM also had specialty music programming such as bluegrass ("Bay Area Bluegrass Sunday"), classical, world and others.

In 1987, two local shows began, titled "Studio 170" and "New Frontiers". "Studio 170" was hosted and produced by Jay Peterson (JP) and "New Frontiers" was produced and hosted by Phil Adcock. Jay and Phil featured "New Age" and electronic music which wasn't heard hardly anywhere else in Bay Area radio. These two programs were on the air early Saturday mornings when most people were asleep, but these locally produced programs had a huge local following in the Bay Area and gave radio exposure to many Windham Hill artists as well as artists on smaller labels.

By the late 80's and early 90's, most of the music and talk programming gave way to jazz. With the exception of a few NPR programs such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition, the majority of programming was jazz and most of the air staff left in favor of jazz DJ's.

In 1994, legendary station KJAZ was sold and the jazz format went away. KCSM took over many of KJAZ's jazz CDs and vinyl recordings and added them to the library. KCSM is just one of a small handful of non-commercial stations that features a 24 hour jazz format.

[edit] External links

• KCSM Web Page
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KCSM
• Radio Locator information on KCSM