The wheels keep turning on plans to give Malibu a radio station, as local activist Hans Laetz received approval on Monday from the FCC to install a radio station transmitter at Zuma Beach.
Officially dubbed KBU 97.5, Laetz said the next steps to get the station up and running will be fundraising to pay for the transmitter and organizing the overwhelming number of pitches for shows and DJs he’s received since The Malibu Times first reported his radio station endeavor in December. The transmitter is tentatively scheduled to be located at the new Point Dume Fire Station 71, which is still under construction. However, other site options are being explored.
KBU 97.5 should be “a historic call sign for old Malibu people. Falcon Cable had a cable-only radio station called KBU in Malibu decades ago. Some of my [potential] volunteer programmers used to have radio shows on the old KBU,” Laetz told The Malibu Times.
Laetz is still awaiting construction approval of a second radio station in eastern Malibu, 99.1. If approved, the station’s second signal could expand coverage as far as Topanga.
Other local stations such as KCRW Santa Monica, KCLU Thousand Oaks and KPCC Pasadena are all “very supportive” of the new Malibu station, Laetz said.