Cupertino Music Station Marks 50 Years With 'Psychedelic Marathon'

CUPERTINO, CA — Cupertino-based community radio station KKUP is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend with a “Psychedelic Marathon,” playing music from artists like The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.

The station launched in 1972, when a group of local college students applied for a license after a private school in Los Altos gave up its educational radio station.

It took three years of bake sales and car washes to raise money. The father of one of the students helped them get a non-commercial license. The city of Cupertino gave them a studio site. And a friendly engineer from the area found them a transmitter site on Mount Umunhum.

“And we went on the air in 1972, and at the time I just had no idea it was going to last 50 years,” Dana Jang, one of the founders, told Patch.

The station, which plays a variety of music, is staffed by volunteers and supported 100 percent by listeners. It launched playing a lot of folk music, with jazz, blues and reggae tunes that many commercial stations weren’t playing, according to Jang.

Through the past half century, the station has built a community of loyal listeners and remains strong on 91.5 FM to this day.

“There's been changes in ownership, changes in staff, changes in programs,” Jang said. “But KKUP has evolved and still kept the same theme of being eclectic and diverse.”

One of KKUP’s calling cards is that it was among the first community radio stations to launch without being affiliated with a school. After KKUP started, other community stations sprang up around the country, according to Jang.

“We kind of broke the ceiling there,” he said.

Click here for more information about KKUP. The "Psychedelic Marathon" takes place Friday through Sunday.