KPFK to Start on the Thematic Route

KPFK-FM (90.7), which recently underwent a management overhaul, will unveil a new weekday schedule Wednesday that is intended to provide listeners with a clearer and more consistent program lineup.

Executives at the listener-sponsored station hope the schedule--made up of Monday-through-Friday “strips” of thematically connected shows--will attract a wider audience and win back listeners who had abandoned KPFK because of its “hodgepodge” scheduling, said newly named program director Gwen Walters.

“It’s important that KPFK begin to address radio listening the way people in 1995 listen to the radio, and we really weren’t doing that,” Walters said. “We had something very different on an hour-by-hour basis and on a daily basis. It was very inconsistent.”

In ousting KPFK’s general manager, assistant general manager and program director last month, parent Pacifica Radio said the station needed to improve its multicultural programming and “provide this programming in a more structured manner.”

“Whereas we had somewhat of a hodgepodge before, we’ll have similar themes across the board now,” Walters said. “We are eclectic, and we still want to honor that, but we really want to add to that excitement by putting like-sounding, like-minded programming in the same time each day.”

Each weekday will kick off from 6 to 7 a.m. with “100 Days of Congress” (through March), followed by the current morning drive-time program, “Up for Air,” from 7 to 9 a.m., with longtime host Ariana Manov being joined by a new co-host, Marcus Frommer. “100 Days of Congress” will repeat from 9 to 10 a.m.

At 10 a.m. will come the two-hour “Many Worlds of Music,” followed at noon by another two-hour program, “Music Multicultural.”

Then it will be the hourlong “Pacifica Archive Presents” at 2 p.m., “Pacifica Network News” at 3 p.m. and, at 3:30, “Planet Health,” a new series offering views on alternative medicine, environmental health and politics.

From 4:30 to 6 p.m., KPFK will run another new show called “Beneath the Surface,” which highlights ideas and activities of the various racial, ethnic and religious communities of Southern California.

After 6 p.m., the station will air its regular “KPFK Evening News,” followed by music and arts shows that will vary each day.