A Service of Saddleback College and
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge
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Local Content & Services Report:
| Telling Public Radio's Story | |
| The purpose of this section is to give you an opportunity to tell us and your community about the activities you have engaged in to address community needs by outlining key services provided, and the local value and impact of those services. Please report on activities that occured in Fiscal Year 2023. Responses may be shared with Congress or the public. Grantees are required to post a copy of this report (Section 6 only) to their website no later than ten (10) days after the submission of the report to CPB. CPB recommends placing the report in an "About" or similar section on your website. This section had previously been optional. Response to this section of the SAS is now mandatory. |
Joint licensee Grantees that have filed a 2023 Local Content and Services Report as part of meeting the requirement for TV CSG funding may state they have done so in the corresponding questions below, so long as all of the questions below were addressed as they relate to radio operations in such report. You must include the date the report was submitted to CPB along with the TV Grantee ID under which it was submitted. |
| 1. Describe your overall goals and approach to address identified community issues, needs, and interests through your station’s vital local services, such as multiplatform long and short-form content, digital and in-person engagement, education services, community information, partnership support, and other activities, and audiences you reached or new audiences you engaged. |
The SoCal Sound (KCSN) is all about music discovery - dedicated to curating a blend of established, emerging, and diverse artists, including new, deep, and local music. The SoCal Sound works to provide a platform for artists who wouldn't have the opportunity for airplay on commercial radio stations. The SoCal Sound's goal is to fill the music discovery void left by the consolidation of commercial media nationally & streaming algorithms driven by fan fervor. As a public, member-supported audio service with broadcast and digital distribution, we embrace the independence our nonprofit status affords us by super-serving Southern California and listeners worldwide. |
| 2. Describe key initiatives and the variety of partners with whom you collaborated, including other public media outlets, community nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, the business community, teachers and parents, etc. This will illustrate the many ways you’re connected across the community and engaged with other important organizations in the area. |
Through our partnership with the LA Regional Food Bank & Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County we helped to provide meals for those in the community facing food insecurities. The SoCal Sound partners with nonprofit CicLAvia, annually promoting & participating in their events that catalyze vibrant public spaces, active transportation, and good health through car-free streets. Each Fall & Spring semester, The SoCal Sound works with the CSUN student-run Public Relations firm, Agency 398, so they may gain hands-on experience working for a media client in the number 2 radio market. Through internships and volunteer opportunities, The SoCal Sound and The SoCal Sound's LatinAlt HD-3 mentor California State University, Northridge, and Saddleback College students seeking careers in the broadcast and music industries. In collaboration with the public news radio outlet LAist (KPCC) & other non-commercial public radio stations in California, The SoCal Sound celebrates the unique community service provided by these nonprofit organizations that are a part of their local communities rather than nationally syndicated programming. During the holiday season, The SoCal Sound helps promote Les Perry's annual Toy Drive benefiting LA Family Housing, which collects toys for underserved children in Los Angeles. In Orange County, The SoCal Sound partners with the nonprofit Surfing Heritage & Culture Center (SHACC) in San Clemente to collect toys for the Boys & Girls Club of the South Coast Area. The SoCal Sound promotes & participates in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest literary festival in the nation open to the public, that has evolved to include live bands, poetry readings, film screenings, and artists creating their work on-site. |
| 3. What impact did your key initiatives and partnerships have in your community? Describe any known measurable impact, such as increased awareness, learning or understanding about particular issues. Describe indicators of success, such as connecting people to needed resources or strengthening conversational ties across diverse neighborhoods. Did a partner see an increase in requests for related resources? Please include direct feedback from a partner(s) or from a person(s) served. |
For all of the initiatives described in Section 2, we received positive feedback, via written correspondence from our outreach partners, email messages, social media posts and telephone conversations that indicate to us the positive, measurable impact of these efforts. For example, the Station's partnership with CicLAvia brought awareness of and participation in traffic-free access to portions of the City's streets and parks for a day, encouraging participants to consider alternatives to driving. |
| 4. Please describe any efforts (e.g. programming, production, engagement activities) you have made to investigate and/or meet the needs of minority and other diverse audiences (including, but not limited to, new immigrants, people for whom English is a second language and illiterate adults) during Fiscal Year 2023, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of these audiences during Fiscal Year 2024. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English, please note the language broadcast. |
The SoCal Sound has increased the number of Latin Alternative music additions into the regular rotation of its programming. The SoCal Sound has expanded its Bilingual Sounds program, hosted by Byron Gonzalez, from one to five nights a week. The SoCal Sound's LatinAlt HD-3 channel's mission is to serve and provide thoughtful music radio programming that is fresh yet familiar, to serve Southern California's diverse bilingual and culturally rich communities. The SoCal Sound & LatinAlt HD-3 captured and published interviews and sessions from the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York. Year-round, The SoCal Sound produces & promotes a large volume of live sessions with a diverse array of artists from local, new, emerging, and various backgrounds published on numerous digital and audio platforms. Every first Wednesday of the month is Women Crush Wednesday, spotlighting women who rock with an all-women artists & women-fronted bands playlist all day. The SoCal Sound airs the syndicated show SHEROES Radio hosted by Carmel Holt weekly. SHEROES' mission is to turn up the volume of women's voices on the airwaves and in music across genres and generations. The SoCal Sound's Artist in Residence guest DJ series, airing every Saturday, sees a range of artists with month-long residencies from all backgrounds and genres. |
| 5. Please assess the impact that your CPB funding had on your ability to serve your community. What were you able to do with your grant that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't receive it? | The primary benefit of the CBG grant was in the area of staffing equity and programming diversity. We were able to apply a portion of the grant to bring back key staffing positions to pre-pandemic levels. RE: Programming diversity, we were able to significantly grow our Latin alternative / HD 2 / streaming by hiring a full-time Program Director and is now able to serve the Latin music community in the Southern CA area with a promotional presence. We are able to be present and support Latin music festivals and events that we previously did not have the resources to execute. RE: Staffing equity, : In the past 3 years, our on-air staff heavily male, while the station’s Triple-A format targets 50% M/F demos. The CSG grant contributed to our ability to bring in more needed female talent. Today, we are proud to say we have a male / female morning team, M-F 6am-10am, A female in M-F midday, and several other diverse shows in evening and weekends |
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