50 watts and four cities

It’s a typical Saturday at KOCI. Brent Kahlen, general manager and director of the nonprofit community radio station is trying to figure out what’s wrong with the station’s Internet feed, but he’s also has to engineer local real estate agent Troy Davis’ weekly radio show on the economy. This week, Davis is interviewing Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street.

Luckily, the station’s attorney Barry Jorgensen, whose goes by the DJ name “Dr. Barry” can play engineer, so Kahlen can call the phone company.

Right now Kahlen and three of his friends are juggling full-time jobs while working at the radio station on evenings and weekends. Kahlen works 40 hours a week restructuring troubled businesses when he’s not spinning records.

Kahlen has big plans for KOCI. He wants to do more remote broadcasting from local events, hire paid employees to staff the station and build a play list of 4,000 to 5,000 songs, but all of that takes time and money.

KOCI is looking for underwriters and donors to cover its operating costs and expand.

The station plays an eclectic mix of classic rock and blues and offers original programming. It also offers up some of its airtime to highlight community events like Relay for Life and Lions Club functions.

The station is commercial free, and depends entirely on donations to cover its costs. KOCI’s current operating budget covers its overhead and not much else, Kahlen said.

“There’s nothing really community-oriented in Orange County anymore. All of the radio stations here are out of L.A.,” Kahlen said. “We play things that you’ll never hear on another radio station.”

Much of the station’s play list comes from Jorgensens’ extensive collection of LPs. He and Kahlen, who worked together in radio in the 1960s and ’70s, vowed they would one day would own a radio station together.

“I carried these records around for 40 years, and now they have a home,” Jorgensen said.

Cardboard boxes of donated records are stacked around the station’s cramped offices, waiting to be cataloged and digitally recorded.

The station is manned by about nine or 10 volunteers who do everything from answer the phones to alphabetize old LPs.

The station’s offices are on the third floor of the Newport Office Tower, at the corner of Irvine Avenue and East 17th Street in Newport Beach. KOCI’s antenna is visible on the roof of the building. The 50-watt station can be heard only in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine and Tustin.

The station has been broadcasting for about a year and a half, one of about 800 low-power community radio stations across the country.

“If we could just get out from under worrying about how to pay the rent every month and paying the phone bill, we could do more and really become an important part of the community,” said Jorgensen, who hosts a weekly program called “Dr. Barry’s Travelin’ Medicine and Blues Show,” which airs Sunday afternoons.