KFSR (90.7 FM) is an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

. Founded in 1982, the station's

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

is held by

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

. KFSR broadcasts jazz, blues and other genres from the campus of

History and public events

Radio station KFSR was founded in 1982 at

,. The primary format at that time was jazz in the morning and mostly new wave music from noon until 2:00am. Weekend programming was varied, including country/western, soul/rap, and public affairs programming. The station also aired many FSU sporting events. A typical broadcast week could include as many as 30 volunteer student announcers/DJs, mostly from the university's Radio-Television Department. A single-page promotional newsletter, The Dead Air Diary, was printed from 1983–85 and distributed at local record stores. For its ten-year anniversary in 1992, the station compiled and produced ''A Decade of Homicide, Raisins and Heat'', a collection of songs by local Fresno rock bands. The album included an assorted mix of musical styles including

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

Thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

, and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, but not

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

. In 1994, the university's campus station aired coverage of Fresno State volleyball, basketball, and softball home games. In 2002, the station director was Matthew Boam who went by the nickname "The Bucket". The station celebrated its twentieth anniversary by holding a reunion for former KFSR members. Focusing on its role is to promote local music, the station put together a two-day concert to celebrate KFSR and celebrate local musicians. The station also produced a 21-track CD of local music to coincide with the bands appearing at the concert. The station began holding membership drives in 2003, as well as a community affairs program about air quality. In 2005, local musicians came together to hold a three-day concert to raise funds for KFSR. In December 2006, the station began to air the syndicated ''

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

'', hosted by

Garrison Keillor Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (called ''Garrison Keillor's Radio ...

References

External links

Official KFSR website
* {{California college radio FSR Radio stations established in 1982 FSR 1982 establishments in California