KSER brings its mix to town
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, January 31, 2004
Outside, rain was so heavy that cars zipping by on Highway 99 had their wipers going full speed. Inside, Jennifer Kallen was spending a mellow morning in the Sunlit Room.
She picked out a beguiling tune by Be Good Tanyas, offering a bit of biography about the bluegrass trio from British Columbia. "They sing mountain songs in a velvety kind of voice," the disc jockey told listeners Thursday.
Kallen, 42, is a part-time disc jockey — very part-time. She’s one of more than 80 volunteers who keep KSER (90.7 FM) on the air 24 hours a day.
"I’m a surgical coordinator," she said. "This is a mental break from my stressful job."
A mental break is an apt description of the Sunlit Room. The eclectic music program airs 8 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays on Snohomish County’s noncommercial community radio station.
"My favorite genre is singer-songwriter folk," said Kallen, who drives from West Seattle to KSER’s studio in a Lynnwood strip mall to host the show Thursday mornings.
Later this month, her drive will be longer. KSER is moving to downtown Everett.
Its new home at 2623 Wetmore Ave. "gives us a higher profile and an opportunity to be more involved," said John McAlpine, president of the nonprofit KSER Foundation, which owns and runs the station.
The date KSER begins broadcasting from Everett hasn’t been set yet. But the station invites the public to an open house 2-7 p.m. Saturday at the Everett Symphony office, 2710 Colby Ave.
Station manager Ed Bremer said the move has been a long time coming. "It will give us access to the community, and gives the community access to us. Everett is the social center of Snohomish County," he said.
Bremer, the only paid member on KSER’s staff, said an Everett location has been a goal since KSER separated from the Jack Straw Foundation in 1994. The Seattle-based nonprofit foundation started KSER in 1991 with a studio and transmitter at 14920 Highway 99, north of Lynnwood. When Jack Straw divested itself of the station, a group of listeners was invited to take over.
The broadcast license was transferred to the KSER Foundation in 1995. In 1997, KSER’s power was raised from 1,000 watts to 5,800 watts, and the transmitter was moved from Lynnwood to Soper Hill near Lake Stevens.
Since the boost in power, KSER can be heard from Shoreline to Bellingham, from Port Townsend to Arlington.
In a survey, the National Federal of Community Broadcasters found that KSER reaches as many as 50,000 people a month. Listeners find news from the British Broadcasting Corp., Everett AquaSox baseball broadcasts, blues, reggae and classical music, and a Sunday storytelling show called Global Griot.
Bremer calls it a "lean and mean" operation supported by memberships, on-air fund-raising and income from renting its tower to cellphone companies. "A basic membership is $40. Some people send $5 a year, and we’re delighted to get it," Bremer said.
Cheech One-Road hosts an American Indian music program 6-8 p.m. Sundays on KSER.
"I started the show three years ago. It’s catching on," said One-Road, 56, of Seattle. "People define American Indian music as powwow music or flutes. But it’s anything — jazz, blues, traditional. I collect albums, and I bring in some of my own."
Thursday morning, he was helping box up KSER’s extensive music collection for the move. Shelves are labeled by regions and genres — Africa, South America, Celtic, reggae, classical, jazz, blues, pop and more.
Taryn Joel, another disc jockey, was picking selections for Monday’s Sunlit Room broadcast.
"I found KSER by chance. I was listening to it while housecleaning," said Joel, a 44-year-old fan of the band String Cheese Incident. "It’s very eclectic — world music, reggae — I don’t know of any other station so versatile."
Bremer, 51, who came to radio by way of news and public affairs programming, admits he isn’t wild about everything on KSER. But he thinks listeners should give it a whirl anyway.
"If they tune in to 90.7 and hear something they don’t like, just wait. They’ll hear something they do like," Bremer said. "It’s an acquired taste."
Relocation means lively new on-air offerings, Bremer said.
"The mayor can stop in. Citizens, too," he said. "My first year in Everett was 1990. It was like a ghost town. This gives us a great opportunity to be part of the rebirth of Everett."
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
