KCLU opens new broadcasting center

If you were listening to KCLU, Ventura County's National Public Radio outlet, late Saturday night, you didn't hear anything for about two hours.

A crew of employees and volunteers were moving the station from its original digs in Mt. Clef Hall at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, to its new building on the campus.

By Monday morning, the station was again broadcasting live. This time, though, in state-of-the art studios built in less than a year with funds raised from a capital campaign. KCLU held a dedication ceremony on Friday afternoon featuring local officials, donors and community members.

"It was really time," said Mary Olson, general manager of KCLU.

"There was a seminal moment for me during the big fires in the Conejo Valley a few years back when we were in the studio getting all these calls from the Red Cross and the Ventura County Fire Department updating us on the latest information and Lance Orozco called in and said he had to go on the air now," Olson said. Unfortunately, the limitations of phone lines, production studio space and Orozco's battery packs running low meant he didn't get on air in time.

"Until that point, I always felt we'd met our mission at KCLU to serve the community," Olson said. "But I saw we were being limited and so we started talking to the university about moving to a bigger space."

The new building, located on Campus Drive across from University Village, is called the KCLU Broadcast Center and it is part of CLU's campaign to expand the university's commitment and its reach into the community, according to Chris Kimball, president of CLU.

"I can't think of any better way that CLU's values are expressed than through KCLU," Kimball said in remarks at the ceremony. "They are committed to educating the public about the world in which we live and they are committed to excellence. But mostly, they're also about serving the community."

The building, which is a two-story, cream-colored cement and brick structure, is some 6,900 square feet inside. KCLU's old facility in Mt. Clef Hall was 400 square feet.

"All the production studios are soundproofed from floor to ceiling," Olson said. "And all of our equipment is state of the art."

Olson said the station is still raising funds to purchase more equipment for some of the studios. The building cost $3 million and $3 million was raised in the campaign co-chaired by actor Larry Hagman and his wife Maj. Hagman was on hand for the dedication.

The building also features an education and classroom laboratory for what will become a student-run Internet based radio station and for the first time, a dedicated newsroom and studio, which has already gotten its first use.

"I got to put it into action when the military tanker plane crashed this week at Point Mugu," said Lance Orozco, KCLU's news director. "It was great to be able to get into the studio and have enough room, not have to bump elbows with anybody, to bring the story to the air." Orozco's office is just across the hall from the newsroom and the new studio provides him with the ability to get stories produced more efficiently, he said.

Joe and Pat Paulucci, who own PTS Furniture in Thousand Oaks, were the primary donors to the new station.

"We feel very strongly about KCLU," said Joe Paulucci. "We've become a sound-byte society and the whole story doesn't get told a lot of times."

--- Published in the Ventura County Star on May 21, 2011