KXLU 88.9 FMKXLU 88.9 FM

KXLU has broadcast from the blufftops of Loyola Marymount University since 1957, non-commercial and educational by licence, student-run in practice, and it marked sixty years on air in 2017. Its reputation was built through the eighties and nineties, when the station was the place in Los Angeles to hear punk and underground rock before the commercial stations would touch any of it. The format has not loosened since: no playlist, no advertising, students and volunteers choosing everything.

The other half of the station is older than most of its DJs. Alma del Barrio, started in the autumn of 1973 by two LMU students, Enrique Kiki Soto and Raul Villa, is the granddaddy of Latin music programmes in Los Angeles and holds the weekends. Around it run shows like A Fistful of Vinyl, She Rocks! and Alien Air Music, most of them hosted by students.