FM Stations
KHSU	N	90.5	Arcata		KCSN		88.5	Northridge
KHSR		91.9	Crescent City		KAZU		90.3	Pacific Grove
KPFA	#	94.1	Berkeley		KPCC		89.3	Pasadena
KPFB	N	89.3	Berkeley		KZYX		90.7	Philo
KNCA1		89.7	Burney		KZYX1	N	90.7	Ukiah
KCHO	N	91.7	Chico		KZYZ	N	91.5	Willits
KFPR	N	88.9	Redding		KWMR	N	90.5	Pt. Reyes Stn
KZFR	#	90.1	Chico		KNHT1	N	107.3	Rio Dell
KSPC		88.7	Claremont		KXJZ	N	88.9	Sacramento
KKUP	N	91.5	Cupertino		KUOP3		91.3	Stockton
KKUP1		91.5	Los Gatos		KXPR		90.9	Sacramento
KFCF		88.1	Fresno		KXSR	N	91.7	Groveland
KSJV		91.5	Fresno		KVCR		91.9	San Bernardino
KTQX		90.1	Bakersfield		KPBS		89.5	San Diego
KUBO		88.7	Calexico		KSDS	#	88.3	San Diego
KHDC		90.9	Chualar		KALW		91.7	San Francisco
KMPO		88.7	Modesto		KPOO		89.5	San Francisco
KVPR		89.3	Fresno		KQED		88.5	San Francisco
KPRX		89.1	Bakersfield		KQEI	N	89.3	N. Highlands
KMUD	N	91.1	Garberville		KCBX		90.1	San Luis Obispo
KMUE		88.3	Eureka		KSBX	N	88.7	Santa Barbara
KIDE	N	91.3	Hoopa		KCSM		91.1	San Mateo
KPFZ		104.5	Lakeport		KUSP		88.9	Santa Cruz
KKJZ	#	88.1	Long Beach		KBDH	N	91.7	San Ardo
KUOR2		89.1	Redlands		KCRW		89.9	Santa Monica
KPFK		90.7	Los Angeles		KCRI	N	89.3	Indio
KUSC		91.5	Los Angeles		KCRY	N	88.1	Mojave
KPSC	N	88.5	Palm Springs		KCRU	N	89.1	Oxnard
KQSC	N	88.7	Santa Barbara		KBBF		89.1	Santa Rosa
KDSC	N	91.1	Thousand Oaks		KRCB	N	91.1	Santa Rosa
KSBR		88.5	Mission Viejo		KCLU	N	88.3	Thousand Oaks
KNSQ 1	N	88.1	Mt. Shasta		KUFW	#	90.5	Woodlake
KVMR		89.5	Nevada City		KNYR 1	N	91.3	Yreka

AM Stations
KPMO1	N	1300	Mendocino
KMJC1	N	620	Mt. Shasta
KSYC1	N	1490	Yreka

¹ Operated by Jefferson Public Radio, Ashland, OR.
² Licensed to University of Redlands, Redlands, CA.
² Operated by KJZZ, Long Beach, CA.
³ Licensed to University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA. Operated by KXJZ, Sacramento, CA.

General Comments

Public radio in California is provided by 64 FM stations, two boosters and 62 translators licensed to universities or colleges, community organizations, one local school board and a Native American corporation.  Only five of the stations -- KVCR, KPBS, KQED, KRCB, and KCSM -- are operated by joint-radio/TV licensees.   The FM coverage provided by California public broadcasters has been able to keep pace with the state's growing population.  As urban areas grow more densely populated and the population spreads to previously sparsely-populated areas, radio service has been extended to formerly unserved geographic areas.  Many California public broadcasters operate extensive translator networks to reach outlying areas; a listing of these translators follows at the end of this section.  Public radio service in the northernmost part of the state is provided by Jefferson Public Radio (JPR), located in Oregon.  JPR operates a series of FM stations and translators in the northern part of state as well as the only public AM stations in the state. California's growth in population and public radio service has allowed for many areas of the state to enjoy multiple formats of public radio from distinct providers.  This opportunity for multiple services is particularly true in the San Francisco Bay area, the Sacramento-Central Valley region, the Monterey Bay region, and most of Southern California extending from Santa Barbara to San Diego and east into the desert communities of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

FM Service 

The 1989 PTFP coverage study reported that California was served by 37 public FM radio stations and 21 translators.  Twenty-six stations and 49 translators have been built in California since the 1989 study.  Since 1989 there has been a significant population increase in the state as well as an increase in the percentage of the population receiving a public radio signal.  Significant improvement in public radio coverage occurred in all well-populated areas of the state.   In northern California, new facilities have extended and filled in coverage:  

*    along the Pacific coast and the Coast Range Mountains.
*    in the Cascade Mountains and the Sacramento Valley from Redding south to Sacramento and west to Sonoma County.

  In southern California, new facilities extended and filled in coverage:  

*    from San Francisco Bay south along the Big Sur coast and Sierra Madre Mountains.
*    from southern Santa Barbara County through Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties.
*    in San Bernardino County from its border with Los Angeles County northeast across the Mohave Desert toward Las Vegas.
*    in Riverside southeast through Palm Springs toward the Imperial Valley.
*    in San Diego and Imperial counties on California's border with Mexico.  

Five stations that were broadcasting in 1989 but did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the study at that time -- KPFB Berkeley, KSPC Claremont, KUOR Redlands, KSDS San Diego and KUFW Woodlake -- now meet criteria for inclusion in this coverage study. These stations are indicated with a # symbol on the station list.   The percentage of California’s population receiving a FM public radio signal increased from 96% in 1989 to 97.2% currently.  Due to an increase of over 10 million residents, however, the actual number of persons not receiving a FM public radio signal also increased from 842,000 in 1989 to 951,620 currently.

AM Service  

There are three AM public radio stations operating in California. All are licensed to Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) of Ashland, Oregon. These stations were acquired by JPR between 1998 and 2002.  KSYC 1490 kHz Yreka operates at 1 kW unlimited with a non-directional pattern.  KMJC 620 kHz Mt. Shasta operates at 1 kW daytime and 29 watts nighttime unlimited with a non-directional pattern.  KPMO 1300 kHz Mendocino operates at 5 kW daytime and 77 watts nighttime unlimited with a non-directional pattern. Residents of the extreme southeast corner of the state near Arizona receive AM Service from KAWC(AM) Yuma, Arizona.

Service from Adjacent States

Four FM stations, three AM stations and sixteen of the FM translators in California are operated by broadcasters located in Oregon and Nevada.  California residents living near the state’s northern and eastern borders also receive public radio service from stations in Oregon, Nevada and Arizona; including an AM station in Yuma, Arizona.

Unserved Areas

Much of the remaining uncovered parts of the state are remote areas of rugged mountainous terrain or desert. In either case these areas harbor a sparse and widely dispersed population. Due principally to terrain variations, several of the most heavily populated counties in the state also contain the largest pockets of unserved residents. The total number of unserved residents in California is 951,620.

Region A 

KXPR Sacramento is completing two construction projects to erect repeater stations. Together, KXJS Sutter in Sutter County and KQNC Quincy in Plumas County will add nearly 50,000 people to the total number of residents receiving a public radio signal in California.   KZYX Philo is completing the installation of repeater station KZYZ in Laughlin, California, which will extend public radio service to nearly 8,000 California residents.   KWMR Point Reyes Station is completing a project to extend signal coverage to several thousand people along the Pacific coast in Marin County.   In this northern region of the state, approximately 30,000 people remain unserved.  This unserved population is scattered through portions of Del Norte, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Trinity, Mendocino and Lake counties.

Regions B, C & D

In these regions of the state that include portions of northeastern, eastern and southeastern California, approximately 150,000 people are unserved in areas that include Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Alpine, Tuolomne, Inyo and Mono counties.  Mono County, on the California-Nevada border north of Death Valley, has the smallest percentage of residents covered by a public radio signal in the state -- 8.7%.  Much of the uncovered area in these regions is remote desert and mountainous terrain. National forests, parks, monuments and military reservations occupy sizable portions of these regions. Existing services do cover small population clusters. These areas are far enough away from larger population centers that they are not experiencing the population growth found elsewhere in the state. The spotty coverage found in Region D is largely on top of uninhabited mountain ridges

Region E 

KCRU Oxnard is completing a project to expand its signal coverage to approximately 60,000 people.  In late February 2004, KAZU Pacific Grove received a construction permit from the FCC to install a FM booster station at Carmel Highlands on the Pacific coast just south of Pacific Grove.   Santa Barbara County has 68,455 residents without public radio service. Along with terrain and distance factors similar to those in the counties above, a channel 6 TV station in nearby San Luis Obispo may also limit coverage options here.   Kern County, north of Los Angeles, has an unserved population of nearly 40,000 and even Los Angeles County has over 17,000 unserved residents.   Of the total 951,620 California residents not receiving a public radio signal, 590,000 (62%) reside in San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.   These counties are typical of the topographical conditions public radio stations must overcome as they attempt to extend radio coverage through the remainder of the state. Each county is crossed by mountain ranges that shade coverage within ravines and canyons and also have expansive deserts that disperse populations to small pockets scattered across a wide expanse. These counties also have large areas devoted to national forests, parks and military reservations.   In each of these areas and the other uncovered areas of California, provided there are no frequency interference issues, translators and repeating stations are the likely answers to extending public radio coverage in the state.

Translators listed by operating station
Facilities in italics operated by out‑of‑state broadcasters

KHSU Arcata, CA					KCSM San Mateo, CA
K206AU	N	89.1	Ferndale		K214CS	N	90.7	Sonoma
K209EF	N	89.7	Garberville		KUSP Santa Cruz, CA
K259AL	N	99.7	Willow Creek		K290AE		105.9	Big Sur Valley
KPFA Berkeley, CA					K207DH	N	89.3	Carmel Highlands
K279AE	N	103.7	Auburn		K206BQ	N	89.1	Hollister
KCHO Chico, CA					K212AA	N	90.3	Los Gatos
K278AB	N	103.5	Alturas		K217EK	N	91.3	Palo Colorado
K216CM	N	91.1	Bibber					Canyon
K220EB	N	91.9	Burney		K207CN	N	89.3	Santa Cruz
K209AY		89.7	Chester		KCRW Santa Monica, CA
K232CW	N	90.9	Hayfork		K215BA	N	90.9	Beaumont
K208BJ1	N	89.5	Weaverville		K272DI	N	102.3	Fillmore
K214BS	N	90.7	Yreka		K209CN	N	89.7	Gorman
KMUD Garberville, CA					K210CL	N	89.9	Lemon Grove
K205BT	N	88.9	Laytonville		K271AC		102.1	Ojai
KPFK Los Angeles, CA					K202DJ	N	88.3	Palmdale
K254AH	N	98.7	Isla Vista		K214CR	N	90.7	Twenty-Nine Palms
KSBR	Mission Viejo, CA				KRCB Santa Rosa, CA
K206AA	N	89.1	Laguna Beach		K215CQ	N	90.9	Santa Rosa
KZYX	Philo, CA				KCLU Thousand Oaks, CA
K202BE	88.3	Fort Bragg			K272DT	N	102.3	Santa Barbara
KXJZ	Sacramento, CA				KNPR Las Vegas, NV
K259AP	N	99.7	Davis		K204BW3	N	88.7	Death Valley
K219BK	N	91.7	Stockton		KUNR Reno, NV
K211EH	N	90.1	Truckee		K215BQ	N	90.9	Bishop
KXPR	Sacramento, CA				K220DB	N	91.9	Susanville
K259AP	N	99.7	Davis		K205DG	N	88.9	Tahoe City
K201AJ	N	88.1	S. Lake Tahoe		K201FV	N	88.1	Truckee
K215DS	N	90.9	Truckee		KSOR Ashland, OR
KVCR San Bernardino, CA					K217AS		91.3	Big Bend,
K204AE2	N	88.7	China Lake					Bush Bar
K201CD	N	88.1	Victorville		K215BI	N	90.9	Burney
KPBS San Diego, CA					K206A	N	89.1	Callahan
K206AC	N	89.1	San Diego		K215BP	N	90.9	Central Valley
KQED San Francisco, CA					K206AE		89.1	Crescent City
K201BV	N	88.1	Benicia-Martinez		K216FE		91.1	Crescent City
K202CT	N	88.3	Santa Rosa		K216BD		91.1	Fort Jones
KCBX	San Luis Obispo, CA				K220BZ		91.9	Happy Camp
K215AH	N	90.9	Avila Beach		K202AP		88.3	McCloud
K215AF	N	90.9	Cambria		K208AH		89.5	Weed
K216AG	N	91.1	Cayucos		K207BU		89.3	Yreka
K215AG	N	90.9	Solvang

¹ Licensed to Weaverville Translator Company Inc., Weaverville, CA. Operated by KCHO, Chico, CA.
²  Licensed to Indian Wells Valley TV Booster Inc., Ridgecrest, CA. Operated by KVCR, San Bernardino, CA.
³   Licensed to Death Valley Natural History Assn., Death Valley, CA. Operated by KNPR, Las Vegas, NV.