Residents of Bakersfield may soon have a new station to tune into on the radio dial.
89.7 KSVG Savage Radio is expected to be on the air within a year, and after three years of submitting applications, hiring lawyers, engineers and resubmitting applications, Kern Community Radio Inc. founders and radio lovers Greg Looney and Jake Chavez have received their permit to build from the Federal Communications Commission, and have begun to spread the word.
“Me and Greg were about to burst,” said Chavez. “We could have started raising money four years ago, but we just couldn’t talk about it, because if someone else applied on the same frequency and they had a bit of a better application, we would of have lost our opportunity.”
Fearful of having to compete with other applications, Chavez and Looney kept their project a secret until they obtained their permit to build.
“What was great was that no one else applied. We showed up to play the baseball game, but the other team didn’t show up. So as long as we got the application right, we would get it,” said Loony.
“No competition, that’s how secret we kept it. But then again, I can think of 10 people now who would apply if they would have known,” Chavez said.
As the former owner of Downtown Records, Chavez was informed by an employee, at the time, about a possible opening for a community radio station.
“My manager, Dave, was at a gig here in town and came across a guy named Todd Urick, and he is part of an organization called Common Frequency,” he said. “They were going around cities in California to try to get interest in applying in this NCE window, and he happened to talk to Dave about it, and Dave goes ‘My boss owns a record store, and he has done college and pirate radio.’ ”
“First person I thought of right here. I go ‘We got to do this application! OK, I got to call Greg Looney’ that was the first thing,” said Chavez.
“He says ‘we got less than a 10 percent chance’ and I said ‘It’s better than zero percent,’ ” said Looney.
“Our engineers and lawyers are still astounded that we got where we are out today,” said Chavez “We barely had a chance.”
Upon receiving their permit to build and the right to name their radio station, Chavez and Looney decided to name it KSVG Savage Radio in honor of Kris Savage, a mutual friend who passed away during the time of the application process.
Long-time music lovers Looney and Chavez fell in love with music at an early age.
“It was my senior year of high school, and I was on the football team. I was quarterback and the night of the homecoming game I got in a big argument on the sidelines with my head coach about a play,” said Looney. “My dad was the offensive coordinator, and when I got home after the game he took my music away for a week for arguing with the coach in front of everybody, and that’s when it hit me that music was everything to me.
“That’s when I decided that I wanted to do something in music, and I didn’t care what it was, for better or for worse.”
After graduating high school, Looney moved back to Bakersfield to live with his mom and stepdad where he enrolled at Bakersfield College and began working for the school radio show and from there his love for radio grew.
“I was a junior at East High and my friend was a punk rocker and had a show at KBBC at Bakersfield College. We asked him if we could go up there and watch him do a show and I got to play a song,” said Chavez. “I played Cockney Reject’s “Bad Man” for my cousin Alex. That was the first time I played on the radio, and I think I was hooked from then on.”
As for musical format for KSVG, expect to hear anything from Mazzy Star in the morning to Black Flag at night.
“We plan to offer an eclectic mix of music. Heavy on the punk side and the indie side, but you might turn it on and hear a Merle Haggard, Buck Owens country show. Or, you might hear John Coltrane and some Blue Note Stuff,” said Chavez.
“You listen to KRAB radio, and it’s like you took a time machine to 1998,” said Looney. “The rock we’ll be playing will be like the Sonics back in 1965 but then we’ll play present-day stuff. It’s going to be a huge, huge variety. It’s going to be insane.”
“Since we started this radio has been dying, little by little. It wasn’t when we started,” said Chavez
“[Radio] isn’t personable anymore’ ” said Looney. “It’s like you’re listening to a robot. You’re lucky to hear a human voice to let you know what you’re listening to.”
With shows ranging from local a tattoo artist answering question from inquiring callers, to local kids talking about skateboard issues in town and local news updates, KSVG plans to be a resource to the community and its people.
“We don’t own the station, when we retire it goes on to the people of Bakersfield,” said Chavez.
As a non-profit radio station, KSVG is depending on government grants to help get the station up and running, as well as help from the community. Looney and Chavez plan on having fund-raising car washes, as well as eventually opening a thrift store to help raise the funds needed to maintain the station. Donations are currently being accepted at the station’s website www.KSVG.org via PayPal.
For updates and for those who are interested in making a donation, visit the station’s website or become a fan on Facebook to keep up-to-date with the station’s progress.