On a Sunday morning, when most college students were likely asleep, KUCR Music Director Diya Anantharaman cheerfully greeted me at University of California, Riverside’s college radio station. Off-the-beaten path, KUCR 88.3 FM occupies a couple of low-slung aging buildings that are adjacent to residence halls and apartments near the northern edge of campus.
A visit to KUCR is like a step back in time (in the best possible way), with tidbits of station history dotting the walls and studios. Vintage embossed labels meticulously describe the location and functionality of decades-old audio equipment and retro signage communicates station rules as well as what’s behind various office doors (including “restroom/storage”). While these indicators of KUCR’s long run as a station (broadcasts began from this very building in 1966) ooze with nostalgic charm; the station continues to have a vibrant presence in 2025.
Third year student Anantharaman was so enthusiastic about college radio, that they applied to be at KUCR before even starting school at UC Riverside. Having made playlists since high school, they began as a KUCR DJ as a first-year student and took on the role of music director as a sophomore. Describing KUCR is “one of my favorite places to be,” Anantharaman added that a benefit of the “very welcoming” college radio station is that it serves as an “art space” on campus.
As one might expect from a college radio music director, Anantharaman’s own show is quite experimental and often features artist interviews and a mix of poetry, electronic music, harsh noise, metal, Bollywood music, and much more. They said that sometimes the weather influences their playlist, with one goal of the show to be “perceptive” to what’s going on around them.
Anantharaman characterized most DJs at KUCR as being diverse in terms of their music selections and said that there aren’t too many restrictions as far as what you can and cannot do on your show. Hosts include students, alumni, and even some UC Riverside professors. While most of KUCR’s new music adds are digital, they also add some CDs and the station’s library includes a portion of their vinyl library. A mail tub of FCC-friendly CDs sits in the main studio, in close reach in case of technology emergencies during which DJs might not have access to the mostly-played digital music files.
Snapshot of College Radio Station KUCR’s Early Days
KUCR’s emphasis on diversity in music and news was in place from the very beginning. The station’s original sign-on script when it launched on 88.1 FM in October 1966 reads in part that KUCR planned to “present a wide variety of music,” with a particular focus on music “geared to the college community” and “which is not readily available from other local radio stations.”
KUCR alumnus and former station manager Bob Stubenrauch’s remembrances of the early years of the college radio station offer a fascinating glimpse at how quickly students were able to ramp up their operations and reach listeners across the country during the Vietnam War. By the 1968-1969 academic year, KUCR was on the air 24 hours a day and had a staff of 120, with 75 on-air DJs. The station was also part of the UC Radio News Network, which “bloomed in the 68-69 year as student unrest & protests continued to spread & grow,” according to Stubenrauch. He explains that the network began doing a combined news show three times a week featuring content from various University of California-based student radio stations. This eventually led to the production of daily live reports from throughout the network, as the pace of demonstrations and protests increased on all the campuses.
By 1970, KUCR was regularly sharing and receiving campus news and protest coverage with college radio stations from all over the United States. According to Stubenrauch, “…we began calling college radio stations all over the nation, asking them to tell us what was going on at their schools. We became a primary news gathering & dissemination source for campus radio stations all over the country. Harvard, Yale, New York University, University of Chicago & many other were onboard to give & receive news clips to & from KUCR.”
KUCR Schedule Offers a Mix of Radio Programming
As was the case in its early days, the current KUCR schedule features a broad mix of news and music programming. Locally-produced and syndicated news and public affairs shows airing on KUCR include “Children’s Hour,” “Autotalk,” “Philosophy Talk,” “Big Picture Science,” “Alternative Radio” and more. A long-time highlight of the schedule is Radio Aztlan, a Chicano/Latino alternative program that has been on the air for 35+ years and features a mix of music, interviews, and a community calendar.
KUCR’s music shows cover a range of genres including jazz, reggae, folk, classical, R&B, soul, rock, electronic, blues, and more. Whimsical names like “Sonic Bloom,” “Vibe Check,” “Outsider Roundup,” “Radio Prosthesis,” “Musick 4 Riots” and “Hippie Love Turbo” hint at the often hard-to-pin-down mix of sounds.
A recent promotional flyer for DJ Amos Figueroa’s Monday afternoon show “Biodigital Dreams” is indicative of that music breadth. The show “features 90’s and 2000’s music that evokes feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality.” While it’s not uncommon for DJs to create artwork to promote their radio shows, it was nice to see that KUCR also makes an effort to publicize their DJs. During my tour around KUCR in early February 2025, one of the first things to catch my eye were clippings from the school newspaper, The Highlander, featuring profiles of KUCR DJs, that were ads run by the station.
Promoting KUCR + An Extra Special Leo Blais Sign
In addition to getting the word out about KUCR through the UC Riverside newspaper, the station also regularly tables on campus, provides DJs for local events, collaborated with local music festival Mucho Gusto, and recently hosted a karaoke night. I was also glad to see that KUCR was on the radar of musician Leo Blais, who sent the station TWO copies of personalized KUCR signs.
While I’ve seen his creations in college radio stations from coast to coast, this is the first time that I’ve spotted an identical duo of Leo Blais signs in one station. One is perched next to a teddy bear high on a shelf in KUCR’s lobby, while another sits in the KUCR interview room stacked on top of a receiver and CD player.
Thanks to KUCR + Station Tour Archive
Thanks to Diya Anantharaman for the wonderful tour of KUCR. It was great to finally get the opportunity to visit and add to my nearly complete roster of visits to stations on University of California campuses. Other UC radio tours include UC Berkeley’s KALX, UC Davis’ KDVS, UC Santa Cruz’s KZSC, UC Santa Barbara’s KCSB, UC Irvine’s KUCI, and UC San Diego’s KSDT.
This is my 175th radio station tour report and my 117th college radio station recap. View all my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in our archives.
