KDRW


KDRW is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to and serving Santa Barbara, California. The station is owned by Santa Monica College and serves as a repeater of KCRW and its public radio format. However, KDRW also originates some programming locally from its studios on the campus of Antioch University Santa Barbara.
KDRW broadcasts in HD.

History

The station first signed on in January 1985 as KSCA. Owned by the University of Southern California, the non-commercial KSCA broadcast classical music programming as a simulcast of KUSC. The call letters changed to KFAC in 1991, then to KQSC in 2004.
In February 2014, public radio station KCRW of Santa Monica, California purchased Santa Barbara classical station KDB for $1 million; the acquisition allows KCRW to extend its reach into the Santa Barbara area. With the Santa Barbara market facing the possible elimination of classical music programming, USC purchased KDB and that station began relaying KUSC's programming. Upon closing of the transaction on August 27, 2014 — a deal which also saw KQSC going to KCRW — KQSC changed its call letters to KDRW-FM and began simulcasting KCRW. The station's call letters changed again on October 1, 2014 to simply KDRW.
Unlike a typical repeater station that simply rebroadcasts its parent station's signal and programming, KDRW offers some locally originated programming. The station's Santa Barbara studios are located on the campus of Antioch University Santa Barbara. Local news reports are made in cooperation with weekly newspaper the Santa Barbara Independent and a local nonprofit organization specializing in investigative journalism.