Spheres of Influence : KUCI’s Eclectic DJs of Subculture Make Up in Enthusiasm What They Don’t Have in Watts

NEWPORT BEACH — The familiar beat of “Killer Instinct,” an underground hip-hop groove by Styles of Beyond, rumbles through Hogue Barmichael’s sound system, compelling patrons to swarm the dance floor. Colorful spotlights dart through the smoky air. These college-age pleasure-seekers know this midweek party as X-Large, an event orchestrated by Cheapshot and Jester.

The two men first delivered this track to hip-hop fans during their Monday night radio show on 200-watt KUCI-FM (88.9). Behind the kooky pseudonyms that mark the on-air personas at the UC Irvine station are a band of music fiends determined to celebrate and cultivate the county’s many subcultures. Bands Sublime, No Doubt, Coolio and Busta Rhymes all performed live on 88.9 before becoming MTV staples, though the station reliably reaches only the county’s midsection.

Despite its lack of power, the station’s influence ripples throughout the county, in L.A. and beyond. Pop’s latest darling, ska, can thank among its early champions Tazy Phyllipz and his Saturday KUCI set, “The Ska Parade” (noon to 2 p.m.). Now in syndication, the show airs on three other stations including 91X-FM (91.1) in San Diego. The latest rockabilly and swing revival has been fueled locally in part by deejays Jeff Scott, Jesse and Russell. And a dozen or so shows surveying every electronica offshoot nourish O.C.’s burgeoning underground.

“KUCI is very supportive in building up scenes and creating interest in them,” said club impresario Jaime Munoz. To sustain that momentum, and as a return favor to the deejays who plug his gigs, Munoz promotes the station on his ads and fliers.

Performances by touring and local acts have become a station trademark. With from four to eight a week--a high number for a station of any size--the staff is accustomed to the vibrations underfoot in the 2,000-square-foot trailer module that has housed the station since 1995. (It’s a step up from KUCI’s lowly start 28 years ago in a closet in the physical sciences building.)

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The emphasis on new music has drawn the attention of industry watchers.

KUCI is “a valuable station on the West Coast for breaking new artists and giving viable yet less commercial acts play,” says Thembisa S. Mshaka, rap editor of Gavin, a San Francisco-based trade magazine in which KUCI reports its playlists, including Cheapshot and Jester’s hip-hop list. For a station to participate, it must meet “influence as pacesetters on the record-buying public.”

An oft-cited example of that influence involves Sublime’s cracking of commercial radio, namely the L.A. powerhouse KROQ FM (106.7). The band’s “Date Rape” single appeared with some 20 other bands on “The Ska Parade,” a CD compiled and financed by Phyllipz and his brother and ska scene documenter Albino Brown. It not only gave exposure to the bands and antics on Phyllipz’s show but also contributed to KUCI’s annual operating budget of $55,000 (an amount that doesn’t include the salaries of a media coordinator and engineer and stipends to the station’s four managers).

Working in ’95 as a KROQ “promotions geek,” Phyllipz lobbied for airplay of the CD, pushing the Sublime cut in particular, to boost sales. The CD sold 26,000 copies, the single charted, and Phyllipz still cherishes the nod the band gave him in a Billboard interview.

He hopes his next project, “The Ska Parade: Runnin’ Naked Thru the Cornfield,” scheduled for release Nov. 25, will skank to similar success. It features exclusive tracks from such commercially successful bands as Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, Let’s Go Bowling, plus ska veterans the Equators and the Specials.

Phyllipz, a Northern Californian, discovered the station when he arrived on campus in 1989. When a news reader skipped out on one of the many afternoons on which Phyllipz was hanging out there, he stepped in. “KUCI was the coolest thing happening in Irvine at the time,” he said.

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Many of deejays, all of them volunteers, share his passion.

“KUCI is a labor of love,” said the Archpope Dach the Only, whose Saturday night slot, “Closed Caskets for the Living Impaired” (10 p.m. to midnight), claims goth fans beyond the station’s reach. “Most, if not all of us, put our heart, soul and all our money into making a difference in the community--if not to further our particular scenes.”

Dach, too, is compiling tracks for an album that he can’t yet afford to produce. Also in the works: Better Tombs and Gargoyles, a ‘zine based on his show and filled with band interviews, listener contributions and a playlist.

Others at the station who would rather skirt the technical concerns of publishing can contribute reviews, interviews and stories to the station’s guide. The quarterly has grown in recent years from a single sheet listing the programming schedule to a newsprint magazine with enough advertising to be self-supporting: 15,000 free copies are distributed in record shops around the county. Deejays also reach out to listeners via their own pages linked to the KUCI Web site (https://www.kuci.org) or e-mail ([email protected]).

Meanwhile, KUCI’s public affairs programming has expanded from three to 20 hours per week in the ‘90s, notes media coordinator and 14-year KUCI staffer Kevin Stockdale. From the standard public radio fare to chat shows on issues concerning Spanish speakers, it accounts for one-third of the schedule.

Stockdale considers this a significant part the station’s role, particularly after it got more power, going from 25 to the current 200 watts, in 1993. “I guess with the expansion of the signal, more people have wanted to serve their community.”

The only thing missing is a straight news broadcast. The last one, figures Stockdale, aired two years ago. “With a student-run operation, there’s a lack of interest to do the news,” he said, “especially when the news is available anywhere else.” Another factor: UCI has no journalism department.

Stockdale says the station has little hope of further increasing its wattage because a Los Angeles college station, KXLU, holds a preexisting claim on the 88.9 bandwidth. So as not to interfere with its signal range, KUCI had to configure a broadcast pattern that resembles a lima bean.

But he’s unfazed. “If we can’t get people to hear the station through more power, we’ll get more people within our reach to listen by always improving the programming.”

General manager Chris Bradbury, known as Christopher Robin to listeners of his experimental electronica program, “The Darkest Lunchpail in Heaven,” (Saturdays, 6 to 8 p.m.), echoes the mind-set of many of his staff.

“My biggest goal is to get the creepers out of the bedroom,” he says. “You know, those people tucked away in their bedrooms. If we could just bring them out for a night, they could prove that there’s more to Orange County’s culture than surfing and shopping.”