KUSC 'on a roll'

KUSC, at 91.5 FM, is "the largest listener-supported classical music station in the country and one of the last bastions of full-time classical music and arts programming on public radio," author Kay Mills says in a freelance story for Trojan Family Magazine. When competitor K-Mozart gave up classical, the station took off:

There is no doubt that the station is currently on a roll: The latest Arbitron ratings rank it as the most listened-to public radio station in Southern California, ahead of public radio powerhouses KPCC and KCRW; it has had three million-dollar-plus on-air fundraising drives since spring 2007; it picked up 8,000 members and thousands more listeners after K-Mozart, L.A.�s longtime commercial classical music station, changed its format; and it is looking beyond recorded music, both airing and reporting on a growing range of local concerts and other arts events, and exploring new ways of using the Internet.

�It�s daunting but also an incredibly exciting time to be covering the arts in L.A.,� says Gail Eichenthal, the station�s program director. �As an indicator, the New York Times wrote that L.A. has become the symphonic capital of the world,� she says. �There was also a major spread in the New York Times Magazine on Los Angeles as a great center for the visual arts, from lofts to museums.� And the appointment of 26-year-old Gustavo Dudamel as the next music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has created headlines around the world. (With the excitement surrounding what some Philharmonic fans call �Dudamel sightings,� KUSC added live broadcasts of two sold-out concerts he conducted on successive Sundays last spring.)

Eichenthal, the story says, "returned to KUSC in 2005 after a 16-year absence, when she was an anchor and reporter at KNX 1070 Newsradio."

Also in the magazine: When John Wayne was a Trojan, and a little history piece on the first college credit course taught on Los Angeles television: "Shakespeare on TV."