KAZI radio: The left side doing it right

Austin community radio station, broadcasting at the far left of the dial on 88.7 FM, faces the future with new equipment, professional sound

By Deborah Sengupta Stith
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tucked away in an expanding bank of business developments off Highway 290 on Austin's far East side is an unremarkable '80s-style office complex that houses KAZI 88.7 FM Austin. The community radio station occupies a two-office suite with a bland exterior that opens into a modern and surprisingly high-tech facility. Following an expansion completed last year, the station boasts a sizable and well-outfitted on-air studio and two side production studios, all of which appear to be downright state-of-the-art. In addition, the building provides office spaces for Station Manager Steve Savage and Program Director Marion Nickerson as well as a roomy conference room the station uses for regular meetings of its volunteer staff.

This is a new era for KAZI, which began broadcasting on the 88.7 FM frequency in 1982. The station was launched by a group of students and community organizers led by the late John Warfield, professor of African American Studies at the University of Texas, as a media outlet designed to provide an African American voice in Austin. In the early days the station focused on news and information programming and the music played was primarily gospel. Over time the music segments were expanded. "They added a little jazz and then they added a little R&B," says KAZI veteran Nickerson. "As the radio environment evolved we just kind of added the things that were more current."

Even as the station expanded its programming, the operation remained low tech, run on a shoestring budget for well over a decade. When Savage came aboard as station manager in July 1996, the station was still broadcasting in mono. "We didn't have efficient equipment," Savage says. "We were still using cart machines, reel to reel. Slowly, we started doing fundraisers and eventually getting equipment."

According to Nickerson, when Savage took over the business management of the station, the whole operation leapt forward. A self-proclaimed "technology junkie" with a passion for radio, Savage prides himself on staying on top of the industry's trends. "When a new piece of equipment comes out that could advance the station I want to get it," Savage says. "A lot of times we don't have the funding so we have to save up for it or go get sponsorship for it."

Most of the station's current equipment is part of a major upgrade completed in 2006, which was around the time Savage, Nickerson and company began to feel like they had outgrown the modest office space KAZI had occupied for around 15 years. (In the early days the station was located on Manor Road.) As they watched other businesses surrounding them drifting away they began to plan their own relocation. But then their leasing agent made them an offer they couldn't refuse, agreeing to knock down a wall and expand the station's space into the vacant office next door in exchange for a five-year contract to stay put. KAZI took the deal and their facilities were upgraded to the sleek setup they occupy today.

Along with all the technical expansions, KAZI has also undergone a serious upgrade in the quality of programming over the last couple years. KAZI broadcasts 24 hours a day with a format that still includes a good selection of news and information programming including broadcasts of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now" at noon each weekday, live broadcasts of Austin City Council each week and several high-quality in-house talk shows including the daily "Wake-Up Call" at 6:30 a.m. and the excellent "Dad Show" offering parenting advice at 6 p.m. Tuesdays.

A wide variety of music programming covers jazz, blues, reggae, R&B, gospel, hip-hop, rap, pop and zydeco, what Savage refers to as "the sounds of blackness, all music that started from a black form." All of the music programming has an emphasis on local music, classics and underground sounds. The hip-hop and R&B played on KAZI, for example, differs dramatically, one might even say refreshingly, from that played on the city's two commercial stations. "We play music they never play," Savage says. "They pretty much play the commercial stuff, the stuff you see on the videos all the time. We take a drastically different approach. We probably play 40-50 songs that they're not playing. Local based [stuff, as well as music from] surrounding areas, Houston, Dallas. They play more national artists, top ten, people who have already made it"

Savage is the station's only full-time employee. Nickerson, an engineer and a secretary are all employed part-time. Every one of the DJs and talk show hosts are volunteers. You might not know that, however, from the level of polish and poise many of them exhibit, rivaling and, arguably, exceeding much of the paid talent at Austin's commercial stations. Over the past two years KAZI focused on increasing the station's professionalism, pulling people off the air and retraining them both on the new equipment and software systems and also on good radio presentation techniques. The changes are evident, as the station is consistently listenable and generally superior to most community-run operations this low brow radio fan has encountered.

The improvements in quality, unfortunately, have not translated into an era of financial prosperity for the station. Like most non-profits, and, for that matter, commercial media outlets, the current economic climate has not been kind to the station. "It's had a drastic impact," Savage says. "We had long-term sponsors we don't have anymore. We had a lot of mom and pop sponsors that we lost over the last 2-3 months. We definitely feel the crunch."

But as the station moves forward in preparation for SummerFest, KAZI's yearly birthday celebration and largest annual fundraiser, Nickerson and Savage remain positive.

"Our listeners are very generous to us and our sponsors are super generous to us," Savage says. "We have a great diversity of listeners. When we do stuff in the city it's a diverse group that shows up; it's not just the African Americans."

"A lot of our programs bring people to us," Nickerson adds, "and that's what we're proud of."