San Diego has a new voice on its airwaves. After six years of effort, the community radio station KNSJ, which stands for Networking for Social Justice, launched last week at 89.1 FM.
The station will be a mix of local music and news, said Kali Katt, the program coordinator. That includes the UC San Diego electronic music collective Smashing Beats, a news program hosted by East County Magazine's Miriam Raftery and a show about holistic health.
Spanish language programming will air from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. nightly and national news from the BBC and the left-leaning Pacifica Radio network will also be included.
"We're really focused on education and providing the community with content that will fill in holes and gaps in information," Katt said. "We also want community feedback about what they like and what they want to hear."
The nonprofit Activist San Diego is parenting the project.
Citizen journalists will cover some of the local news, Katt said, and that fits perfectly with the station's emphasis on community.
"We feel like this is a way to bring the community into the project, which is what we've wanted to do the whole time," she said. "It's a community radio station, so we want the community to be involved."
Content can be submitted by calling (619) 283-1100 or emailing content@knsj.org.
San Diego had another progressive talk radio station, Air America's KLSD, that went belly up in 2007. But Katt said KNSJ will be different. It will have fewer national programs and will include a mix of music and talk.
"We don't want people to be sitting there for hours and hours and hours listening to somebody talk," she said. "I don't think anybody would find that super entertaining."
