#kcpr

I was in the station between the years of 2016 to 2019, during which I had three trainees and worked in two management positions. The station changed quite a bit during my three years there as it had undergone some really drastic changes right before I joined, including the firing and banning of community DJs, a mass migration of the local music scene from SLO to other cities, the cancellation of all themed-shows and most talk shows, and the abandoning of CDs and vinyl as the standard music format. The former cult-like following that KCPR had built up since the ‘90s had mostly vanished, and many people vilified the station as elitist and hipster. Many DJs voluntarily quit due to these changes, and the station was split as to how to continue into the future. 

During my time at the station, I was torn between seeking to return the station to how it was, or attempting to progress the station in a better forward direction. During my first full year in the station, we had a management team that possessed the knowledge of how to run the station, but lacked a cohesive plan of how to do it. There was generally a lot of apathy, and little to no cohesion as so many station members were divided as how to run everything. At this point, the station was run like a business, but so many people were not on board that it was difficult to accomplish anything. As the old management team left, I joined my second year in the station as the content director, although at that point, we had even less of a direction to go in as the previous management team had set all the new standards and left us with little direction to take them in. Thus, we accomplished even less during this year, although our content output increased and we began making higher-quality video performances and interviews. By the end of my second year in the station, the management team hardly even met to discuss how to run the station, and thus there was little direction for anyone. DJs neglected to play currents because the MDs weren’t adding currents on a weekly basis and many DJs stopped even showing up to their shows; those who did often played their sets directly off Youtube or Spotify, ignoring the vast amount of music in our library. During this time, we had few parties outside the station and people generally did not get along very well. 

At the end of this year, a new management team took over and immediately began reorganizing the station, allowing for more freedom on-air and pushing for more of a presence in the community. Thus, when we resumed during my last year in the station, there was a more defined plan as to how to run everything, and the staff was more interested in doing work for the station, as well as organizing parties and hanging out. As we were only allowed to hire one trainee class, we hired one very large group of people, and began integrating them into the station through parties and hanging out outside of the station. People in the station became closer during this time and it was much more social than during the past year. We also had an adviser from the journalism department come into the station with an increased presence, which at first seemed limiting, but as the year progressed, we realized that she largely represented our interests as the rest of the department continued to try to limit what we could do. Although she commandeered the beloved MD office (this personally hurt me), she generally knew what she was doing and acted in our best interests, whether we liked it or not. During the course of the year, we had various bands play live on-air, something that we weren’t able to do for a couple years, became better-acquainted with the Zetta program, and even allowed some special formats and talk shows. We partnered with some local shows, promoted local bands, and began improving our relationship with some local businesses, most notably Boo-Boo Records downtown. The staff was generally happier and more united about the direction the station was going in, and our listener base slowly began to re embrace the station. 

This is one of my favorite bands to come out of the San Luis Obispo/Cal Poly scene. Sadly they had to disband recently due to the graduation and departure of guitarist Nic Kane, but their performances and accompanying recordings made an impact on my view of local music in SLO. Seeing them at one of the last remaining DIY house venues in SLO (referred to as 2K7), they packed quite a bit of noise into a small living room. Crowded with people, I was only able to get a slight glimpse of their performance, but the quaintness of the room allowed for the sound to reverberate fully. 

Immediately, their distorted and melancholy sound struck me as reminiscent of Duster, which is one of my favorite lo-fi bands. The production on this album is very similar to that of Duster’s, although it sounds a bit cleaner as I’m assuming it was not recorded with analog. Although this band is no longer around, bassist Matt Hahn continues to play in local bands, most notably a new project called >:Epipens.