KCRW

KCRW is not anything special in a NPR radio station. Most of the talent left 10 – 15 years ago, with encouragement from «management» (whoever they may be.)
They do BEG WELL AND OFTEN (BUT THAT OTHER NPR STATION IN PASADENA AREA BEATS THEM HANDS DOWN FOR SOPHISTICATED BEGGING!)
Someone must be raking in the $$$.
But my biggest GRIPE is the extremely limited reception range. Today I bought a new «head unit» for my wife’s car to hopefully improve their reception. ($ 350 bucks) She likes to listen to their «news» on the way home from work — but with the old unit it was cutting in and out, and picket-​fencing. Annoying to her.
But the new unit does not improve reception since we are about 18 miles east of their transmitter location, somewhere in Laurel Canyon area (their description)
And my 2014 Camry unit does not pick it up any better. They may have 6900 watts of power — but they are not on top of Mt Wilson (where their competitor, with 600 watts is located.) FM (frequency modulation) is «line of sight» just like television. AM you can often pickup from San Francisco and in the past I used to listen to DOA in Denver, Co. «A clear reception station.» Don’t know if they still exists — but the significance is that AM travels by bouncing of the atmosphere, so much further reception is possible.
With the internet many of these stations are available. But you can’t always drive around in a computer to pick them up.
My stations of PREFERENCE: KKJZ — JAZZ & BLUES — AND KUSC CLASSICAL MUSIC.
BOTH HAVE GOOD RECEPTION IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD.

If you are considering joking KCRW, I suggest it. The Fringe a Benefits are wonderful and Dyllan in Membership was extremely helpful when I needed to my a manual adjustment to my web form after I sent it.

The members supporting KCRW Santa Monica Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Indio Palm Springs, Oxnard Ventura, and Mojave. We’re community service of Santa Monica College and NPR for Southern California.

You won’t find a better radio station with more eclectic music programming. It is my favorite radio station to listen to — one that I have listened to quite faithfully since moving to LA/​Orange County back in 2010.
The only program that I would say is not generally in my realm of musical tastes is Henry Rollins’ show on Sunday nights from 8 – 10 pm. The music he plays is often incredibly strange (literally eerie sounding) or just really loud and raucous. It must suit someone’s tastes though, because he has been a regular staple for quite awhile.
I also enjoy the talk and news programming — especially Press Play with Madeline Brand every weekday at noon. The topics covered are often interesting, insightful, and sometimes just fun.

Best music shows on the radio and streaming on the web! I also love that krcw puts so much effort into creating a vibrant (and often free) dj and live music scene in LA.

They would get 5 stars if it wasn’ for, uh, eh, Warren, uh, Olney. Such high quality radio should not tolerate such a poor host. He drags down that station

Hey look at me, I listen to kcrw. I’m so cool.
It’s like LA’s gentrification has radio representation.
I imagined there was a brainstorming meeting about 10 years ago where they decided on their brand words: «smug, elitist, foolish, sellout» I’m sure went on the white-​board in prominent letters.
You can hear all of this in the mere utterance of the four words «k c r w». I imagine they say it from some kind of recliner with a monocle (see attached). Then they have these events with I kid you not, modern folksy country bands, over-​priced food-​trucks, and bars selling those expensive micro-​brews that sons of millionaires make in their bathtubs out in pomona.
I have the station programmed in my car because on rare occasion, it’s slightly better than some 18 year old’s first radio show on KXLU. But to be honest, the squeaky voiced teenager in that basement at LMU seems to outperfom the basement of SMC 90% of the time.
Occasionally I’ll drift the dial to some opera on KUSC to listen to something less pretentious and narcissistic.
They found a comfort zone, a target audience, then went on auto-​pilot. The Woolworths of NPR.

Absolutely Love this station. Specially on weekend mid-​night with 89.9. Dope tunes.

Absolutely mediocre radio. Nothing really eclectic about morning becomes eclectic — bunch of bands emulating the Beatles for another 100 years (yawn) KCRW used to be strange and somewhat courageous but got bland for buck$ in the late 90s (around the time they took Joe Frank off the air) We should demand better than this! Check out WFMU.

Ive been a listener of KCRW since discovering Snap & Reggae Central in the mid 80s. When LA stations like KMET, KNAC, KABC and my fav KSCA came and went KCRW remains the last one standing. The only thing i dont really like all that much is that KCRW, although being public has taken on a more corporate role in it’s advertising, promos and fund drives which are now longer and done quarterly. But i guess you gotta roll with it you know. I’ve since moved out of the area but listen to KCRW over the internet daily from the Bay Area and when im in town i always tune it in.

This station carries a lot of syndicated programs that I enjoy. I used to like Morning Becomes Eclectic, but I feel that in recent times it’s become more like Music for My Mother’s Hair Salon.
I think this whole sustaining membership is kind of sketchy. I get it from the station’s perspective that it’s nice to not have to renew people’s contributions each year. It reminds me of everything that is gross about churches in that sense that it seems to downplay that you will be giving your bank account number and be debited monthly until you cancel.
I had a glorious moment of coming out of freelancing in the peak of the recession in 2009. With my newly found biweekly paycheck I celebrated by buying the big bottle of the expensive shampoo, not painstakingly looking at price tags when grocery shopping and donating money to things that I thought were good to support. I always like to support public radio!
So I call on one of the many pledge drives and I offer my support. I tell the volunteer that I want to give $ 120 dollars. He thanks me and starts taking my info. I give him my name, address and phone number. When I think he’s going to ask for a credit card number he instead asks me for my bank account and routing numbers. I don’t think much of it beyond maybe they hope to avoid credit card fees. So toward the end of the call the guy «confirms» that I know I’m going to be giving $ 120 every month debited from my checking account. I stop him and tell him that I don’t agree, that I am giving them $ 120 for the year.
Fast forward 18 or so months later and a replacement bank card due to getting pinged. I get a call one night and it’s a guy saying, «hi this is KCRW calling about your bank account number changing.» I’m stunned as I have no idea how this radio station knows that I had to get a new bank account number. I start asking questions and when the guy I’m talking to who claims to be from the station sounds confused and has no answers. As you might imagine this freaks me out. Here’s a guy who knows about my bank account, but nothing else.
Turns out the people calling me were not from the station, they were at a call center the station contracts out to call people who stop paying.
So I call the station and start asking questions like how did you know my bank account number changed? Since I cancelled the old account number at my bank I couldn’t just log in to see the history. the bank was able to send my statements for the past two years. I talked to a handful of people who had no idea what they were talking about. When I asked how many months I’d been charged by them I was told three months. Another person told me 9.
When I got those statements from my bank I saw that KCRW had been debiting my account WITHOUT my authorization for almost two years at $ 20 a month.
So despite the fact that I specifically told the volunteer who thought I’d be giving $ 120 a month that I would be giving $ 120 for the year. Somehow, mysteriously they ended up instead debiting my checking account $ 20 a month and this went on well beyond that year.
Finally I received a call from a female employee who wanted to try to work things out. She, like so many other people I spoke with treated me as if I just didn’t understand how things work. Meaning that everyone is just told to give monthly. It blew me away how strong arm this tactic was. It’s my money, I certainly know how much I want to give you. Yet I kept getting the impression that they thought I was somehow doing it wrong.
My conversation with the female employee went on for some time. I kept using terms like fraud and theft as that’s what you do when you take someone’s money without their authorization. I could tell she was very nervous and had few if any calls like mine. She was nice and listened, which set her apart from all of her coworkers. In the end I decided to let the station keep the money they stole from me because of my dealings with her.
Fast forward another year or so. I get a call from this same female employee saying that I was chosen as a winner of Coachella tickets. I thought it was a pleasant surprise and it did cross my mind that maybe this was not a random winning and that this was her way of making things right. Of course I could ask such a question.
So I received paperwork to claim the tickets and to pay tax on them. I invite a friend from out of town to fly to LA and attend with me. A few months later the employee calls me, freaked out, her boss is upset as it turns out I wasn’t random.
They ended up firing her and trying to tell me some BS story about contest rules making me ineligible because I had not donated in the last 6 months. Turns out, I donated within that time and I insisted on getting the tickets as I had a friend coming into town.
The whole thing leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. The one person there who helped me ends up getting canned for office politics.

Was a subscriber for about 30 years. Without Tom Schnabel and Harry Shearer, the heart and soul are gone.):

Great music, very few ads, and unbiased news. Definitely one of the best radio stations in LA, if not THE BEST. Thank you for giving me something to listen to during traffic!

Had the best time with the band here. Very professional hosts and they were very funny and down to earth. They made us all feel very welcome.

I see that KCRW is now offering a Groupon for half off its membership, plus a t-​shirt or one of those ubiquitous hoodies favored by people who like to keep their faces from public view. How ironic for a purported public radio station: first, they charge «dues,» despite the tax and grant dollars they receive, and second, that they feel the need to go into that dreaded capitalist markeplace they’re always bad-​mouthing to compete for even more bucks. Sorry, I’ll tune in when w/​in range … and I’ll be listening.

I love the Morning Becomes Eclectic. Superb variety of indie music.

I started listening to KCRW several years ago because I greatly enjoyed the music. Then I was really into listening to politics during election years. After all that hub-​bub was over I started taking in the news with NPR and some of their other shows. I’ve really gotten into «All Things Considered». It’s so awesome that this show covers anything from the life of farmers in the US, to dung beetles, to what’s happening in world. I love it all and it’s always great to have something fascinating to listen to while in traffic.
Anyway, I appreciate KCRW so much I decided to become a monthly member during the WInter Drive. That paid off greatly with my Fringe Benefits Card for discounts throughout LA and Orange Counties. I got an added bonus when I won the Playa Viva sweepstakes in January. That was a wonderful surprise that I hope to use later this year! Thanks again!!!

Once and innovative station, now virtually all loops. Boring. Most of the talented DJ’s left the station years ago. Westside snob radio for transplants who don’t have a clue. KCSN is better.

Great local station that keeps me up to date on current events. Love that they make the effort to present both liberal and conservative sides of issues, though of course they do tend to feature stories that the left leaning crowd tends to take interest in…

I’ve been a fan of KCRW for years now. It was my first introduction into Public Radio and I have been in love with it ever since. Although some people may disagree, I think it’s about as close to unbiased news you can find in the media these days. I can’t say the same about all NPR stations, but KCRW really makes an effort not to lean in one particular political direction.
In true LA fashion, the best shows on the station are about the movie biz. The Business and The Treatment are the shows I wait all week to listen to. Such an interesting look behind the scenes of the entertainment industry! Elvis Mitchell is fantastic and obviously someone who is looked up to in the entertainment world as one of it’s top journalists. You can tell by how his guests are always excited to be on his program, even if they are the type who normally don’t do much press. And Kim Masters, she is wonderful as well. She has introduced me to so many behind the scenes people I never would have known about otherwise.
When I think about KCRW, I think about the thought I had the first I listened to it in my car years ago, «Wow, I am listening to public radio… and I like it… I’m officially a grown up now!». So thanks for turning me into a grown up KCRW!

If you are not a member or listener of KCRW and you’ve stumbled across this Unilocal review take heed of this recommendation to tune your dial to 89.9 FM, stream from your web browser, or down load their streaming App. Here’s the content that I listen to most:
* Morning Becomes Eclectic with Jason Bentley — since this sow is on at 9 am and I drive into work at 8am I listen to day old MBE on my iPhone app each morning
* Garth Trinadad — at night I’ll often turn on the smooth sounds of Garth Trinadad
* On Saturday and Sunday I’ll try to catch part of music polymath Henry Rollins take me on broad forays across music spectrums
* Evan Kleiman Good Eats
* Which Way LA with Warren Olney
* Guest DJ Project —
* 5 Things Blog —

I was a fan of KCRW before I even lived in LA… my friends in LA would constantly speak about this «kick ass station» so I checked them out online. Now that I’ve lived here for a while… I listen to KCRW and my boyfriend was a subscriber.
I love everything about this station. the music, Morning becomes Electic (my boyfriend and I have a joke where we say everything becomes eclectic. Such as «Dinner becomes eclectic», «shower becomes eclectic». you get the idea), the DJ’s, guest DJ’s, etc. KCRW is a great gift to the community from Santa Monica College.
Listen to this and NPR and you won’t listen to any of that other radio crap again.

I was driving back from Palm Springs tonight and looked forward to a few hours of KCRW until I heard the voice of Henry Rollins. How did he get here? Really, KCRW, why did you hire this decibel dripper who is more interested in his own voice and his inane stories than playing music? (Sorry, Mr. Rollins, instead of spinning yarns about Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath on a Saturday night, how about getting reacquainted with a turntable and play songs that listeners may want to hear? It’s really not about you.)
I love you KCRW and you’ll still get my five stars, but Mr. Rollins’ two hours on the radio are two too many. Can’t you find a nice midwest college radio station for him to inhabit?

Best radio station in Los Angeles!
KCRW is known for broadcast of cutting edge music, as well as originating numerous news-​talk-​information and cultural programs that are distributed nationwide.
KCRW is a recognized for new music from around the world, with trend setting hosts such as Music Director Nic Harcourt, who features live in-​studio sessions and interviews with established and emerging artists on Morning Becomes Eclectic and the nationally syndicated Sounds Eclectic; music supervisor and electronica expert Jason Bentley with Metropolis; indie and alternative rock on The Open Road with music supervisor Gary Calamar. Other programs include neo-​soul and funk on Chocolate City with Garth Trinidad; Nocturna with Raul Campos features dance rhythms and Latin beats; New Ground with Chris Douridas spotlights the latest singer-​songwriters and music in all genres.
KCRW features the best of underground flavors, independent records, NPR News and progressive major releases; they play music I love, by artists I believe in, all hand selected by real DJs.
(note) No need to hire a DJ for your next house party. Just crank up Nocturna or Chocolate City.