ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Science and the City
Urban ecology has
perfect locale at
downtown college…

Championship Turf Tender
Mesa College gridiron
gets facelift…

Sounds of Success
KSDS scores ratings, awards…

New Home in Urban Village
Mid-City Center opens in
revitalized area…

Reaching Out to Local Teens Outreach coordinator goes into high schools to talk college…

In the Spirit of the Season
Faculty/staff support
holiday charities…

Pace Yourself
Self-paced GED and
basic skills brush-up…

Fill 'er Up With Fries
Biodiesel is fuel source
of tomorrow…

Chancellor's Column
Students need better
info on transfer…

Development News
Fund-raising activities…

Factoids
Miscellaneous tidbits of news…

Newsmakers Accomplishments by faculty and staff…

Sounds of Success

From awards to Arbitron ratings, KSDS-FM, the district’s all-jazz radio station, is hearing the sweet sounds of success.

“Jazz Latino!,” a weekly program hosted by Fred Ubaldo, Jr., has won an Award of Distinction from The Communicator Awards, a national organization dedicated to recognizing excellence in print and broadcast communications.

The award honors individuals and organizations whose outstanding achievements “exhibit a high standard of excellence and…serve as a benchmark for the [communications] industry,” according to the Texas-based organization.

San Diego native Ubaldo, a working musician with a background in composition, has hosted “JazzLatino!” since 1995. He attributes the program’s success and popularity to the infectious rhythms of Cuban and Latin music that constitute much of the program’s playlist. “You just can’t sit still when you are listening to this music,” he said.

Ratings soar
And there are many more ears tuned to KSDS these days. The latest Arbitron radio ratings survey shows a dramatic increase in audience for KSDS. Research provided by Radio Research Consortium, the provider of Arbitron data to public radio stations, reports that the number of people listening during a typical 15-minute period increased 100 percent, from 900 persons in spring 2000 to 1,800 in the fall 2000 survey. The station’s rating, expressed as a percentage of all possible listeners in the San Diego metropolitan area, increased from 1 percent to 1.6 percent. The station’s cumulative audience (number of different people who tune in at least once per week) increased from 24,900 in spring 2000 to 39,400 in the most recent survey, an increase of more than 36 percent. The number of hours spent listening to the station by a typical listener increased from 4.3 to 5.8 hours.

Mary Woodworth, station manager, attributes the increase to various factors: the power increase to 3,000 watts, an award-winning format, outreach efforts, the quarterly program guide, the station’s website and streaming audio, favorable press articles, and friend-making events. These events included the San Diego Chargers Blood Drive, the San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival, the Adams Avenue Street Fair, StreetScene and the Jazz Artist Guild’s monthly jazz sessions.

KSDS celebrates its 50-year jubilee throughout 2001. Founded in 1951, KSDS Jazz 88 is a noncommercial educational station owned and operated by the San Diego Community College District, providing 24-hour broadcasting in an all-jazz format. Studios are located at San Diego City College. The station, honored this past year with a Bronze World Medal for Best Jazz format at the New York Festival Awards, is currently seeking FCC approval for a power upgrade to 22,000 watts and is testing at 3,000 watts. The station has requested approval to test at 12,000 watts as the next step in the power upgrade.