KCLU radio expands along Central Coast

NPR station has received more than 200 awards

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The KCLU staff includes Jim Rondeau, Mary Olson, Mia Karnatz-Shifflet and Lance Orozco.

Photo: Brian Stethem

(SANTA MARIA, Calif. – May 9, 2013) National Public Radio station KCLU is expanding its reach to include northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County on 89.7 FM in Santa Maria.

KCLU plans to begin broadcasting to listeners in the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Nipomo, Guadalupe and the Five Cities area on June 18.

The station will air local news, traffic reports and weather forecasts in addition to syndicated programs from NPR, Public Radio International and the BBC. Chosen specifically to serve the needs of listeners in this area, the programming will vary from what is broadcast by KCLU throughout Ventura County on 88.3 FM and in Santa Barbara and surrounding cities on 102.3 FM and 1340 AM.

A community service of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, KCLU debuted in Ventura County in 1994, and the signal was expanded to include Santa Barbara and part of Montecito four years later. The purchase of a station in 2008 increased KCLU’s signal strength in the Santa Barbara area and expanded its reach to include Goleta, Isla Vista and Ventura County’s Rincon. The station now serves more than 90,000 listeners in the two counties.

News Director Lance Orozco and Jim Rondeau, director of operations and programming, have garnered more than 200 awards for their local news coverage and public affairs programming. Orozco won a 2010 National Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association and will receive a 2012 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists on June 21 in Washington, D.C. General Manager Mary Olson has been with the station since its debut.

For more information on KCLU or to listen to live and archived programming, visit http://www.kclu.org.

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