KSCO Radio for Sale, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS

KSCO Radio for Sale

By Jondi Gumz

Michael Zwerling has been in love with KSCO since he was a high school kid broadcasting Santa Cruz High On The Air in the mid1960s. As the station owner since 1991, he’s created a radio station that’s a voice for pretty much everyone.

But now, at 71 — his birthday was Nov. 9 — he has a new love in his life, Amy Hao, co-host of the China Watch show on KSCO and a veteran traveler, and he wants to spend his time traveling with her.

The couple, who met in 2019, are “totally into free speech,” Zwerling said.

They recently returned from a twoweek safari in Africa.

“Amy’s not happy unless she’s traveling, and she wants to take me to all these places,” Zwerling said.

That’s why he’s looking for a buyer for KSCO 1080 AM, with sister station KOMY 1340, and the one-acre of flat land at 2300 Portola Drive, Santa Cruz, overlooking Corcoran Lagoon.

Asking price is $1.5 million cash for the two radio stations and the broadcasting business.

Asking price is $6 million cash for the property, which includes the Art Deco studio building, garage, parking lot, concrete event patio, plus the three broadcast towers in the lagoon, which give the 10-kilowatt station the power of a 50-kilowatt station on dry land, according to Zwerling.

He said he’s open to keeping the land and leasing it to the next radio station owner for $15,000 a month.

Of course, a developer admiring the view at Silicon Beach could buy the property and go through the often onerous county permitting process, seeking to change the zoning from broadcasting to something else.

Every Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon, Zwerling — who dubs himself MZ — hosts the Saturday Special, an eclectic show that might feature him singing karaoke, proponents and opponents of a proposed empty home tax in Santa Cruz, or the recently fired CEO of the Santa Cruz County Fair.

In an earthquake — remember Loma Prieta in 1989 — a wildfire or major winter storm, KSCO provides a lifeline, replacing regular programs with news updates on current conditions, road closures and the like.

Zwerling leans conservative, but not all the listeners are.

In fact, Zwerling boasts that former Sen. Henry Mello (from 1980 to 1992) listened to KSCO on his way home from Sacramento.

Conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh held the morning slot from 9 a.m. to noon until he died. Now Rob Carson, who used to write jokes for Limbaugh, fills that spot.

Local Talent

Watsonville local Charles Freedman offers local news talk from noon to 2 p.m. His claim to fame is you can call and actually get on the air. He has encyclopedic knowledge of tunes from the 20s and 30s, used for his bumper music, playing requests, too.

Program director Rosemary Chalmers, with her delightful British accent, helms God Morning Monterey Bay from 6 to 9 p.m.

Other local hosts include: • Gary Shapiro, From the Bookshelf, interviewing authors • Pamela Fugitt-Hetrick of Money

Moves, financial tips and tools • Jonathan Parkhurst, My Empowered

Hour, talking to people who have made a new life for themselves after incarceration and inspired others • Conservative Kristin Hurley of Mama

Bears Radio • Dave Michaels, co-pilot of Flight 1080

General manager Michael Olson at KSCO radio, which boasts an Art Deco studio.

Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz

from 4 to 7 p.m. and selling supplements produced by Dr. Joel Wallach, 82, the veterinarian-turned-naturopathic doctor who discovered that remedying nutrition deficiencies is the way to health.

Sales of those Youngevity products by Dave Michaels help finance KSCO operations.

But the radio operation isn’t a big money-maker.

In fact, Zwerling said he always operated the station at a deficit because he hasn’t had the heart to lay off any of his “great” staff.

“KSCO Sale” page 25

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