Note from Lorenzo to the Volunteers

KCHU is licensed as a non-commercial radio station. This means that we are not here just to be a juke-box, or to feed the egos of people who want to go on the air and play.

It means that in our programming we should try to be creative --- and maybe even instructional.

Sometimes, when you listen to KCHU for great periods of time --- you get the feeling that the only reason the station is on the air is [1] for the playing of records and [2] for the asking of money.

Which really should not be our sole goal

We are here to enlighten, instruct, delight --- and, in general, fill the gap left by other radio stations in the area.

If you are coming in here and being a deejay --- we are all missing the opportunity offered by this frequency. We should not simply act out our role models set for us by Gorden McLendon. We should use the freedom --- the magnificient freedom that we are given by the government, and by the charter of Agape Broadcasting foundation --- to try for some enlightenment and informing of our listeners, and would-be listeners. There is a good chance that if you were to put some tough, good, interesting, in-depth meaningful interview, or discussion or call-in or reading on your program: your pleas for money would have more pizazz, more credibility.

There are sixty broadcast stations in this city; 55 of them are cheapo deejay operations --- spinning the platters. Of the handful that do talk programming --- none have the compariative freedom that we do: to experiment with all ideas, extensively.

Here below are some suggestions on how you can stop being a simple mechanical disk jockey --- and have some part in carrying this station into maturity.

• Read the newspapers. Find out who is coming to town, or who is in town already, doing something interesting. Call him or her up --- ask them down to be on your program. If they can't make it --- ask permission to call them up during your show, put them on the air in interview.

• The FCC is concerned that broadcasters discover the "community problems." Why don't you ask around, find out what the comminity problems really are: set up a series of 30 - 45 - 60 minute discussions centering around those community problems. Ask for listener feedback.

• You run across some good or interesting article --- not in the dailies or "D" magazine, which your listeners all read anyway --- but in The New York Times or Psychology Today or Atlas. Read passages aloud over the air --- space them out with appropriate music. Ask your listeners to call in and comment.

• Anytime you hear through your friends that someone interesting is doing something or worthwile --- invite the person over to the station. Ask good questions; ask the listeners to call in with good questions.

• Instead of just spinning records, and reading off the record jackets--- why don't you go to the library and do some real research on the material you are presenting. Find out the roots, the history, the worth the value of what you are presenting. Share it with your listeners.

• One of the great possibilities in thus type of radio is through "production." To do this, what you have to do is borrow one of the station's recorders, go out on the streets with it, interview people, about anything --- bring the raw tape back, edit it down, present it during your program with appropriate comment. If it's good enough, we can send it out on the network to the other like-minded stations.