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DJ Sunshine, who has been involved with KZSU since 1977, participated along with many other KZSU alums in the 60th anniversary broadcast of the station this past week. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6668
John Shen

DJ Sunshine, who has been involved with KZSU since 1977, participated along with many other KZSU alums in the 60th anniversary broadcast of the station this past week.

KZSU celebrated its sixtieth anniversary last week with a 60-hour marathon and reflected on the campus radio station’s trials and tribulations.

To celebrate its 60 years on the airwaves, KZSU kicked off a 60-hour marathon on the morning of Jan. 4. Each hour corresponded to a year that the station has broadcast, and during that hour, only music that was released during that year could be played. During the first hour — representing the year 1947 — the deejay played “In the Still of the Night” by Jo Stafford and “Blue Moon” by Billy Eckstine. Then, for the last hour, deejays spun songs like “Song for Sunshine” by Belle and Sebastian.

Aside from offering a chance to play an eclectic mix of tunes, the anniversary also gave past and present deejays a chance to reflect on the station’s ups and downs. KZSU deejays said they were proud of the role it played throughout the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

“KZSU stayed on the air throughout the crisis, and worked with emergency services to bring essential information to the Stanford campus and the surrounding community,” said KZSU General Manager Kathryn Todd, a graduate student in physics.

The station has also encountered its share of obstacles along the way. Funding is a constant problem for KZSU — the station actually invented the Special Fee Funding option that the ASSU runs. KZSU officials said competition for this funding is steep.

“We use this money to pay a part-time professional engineer to keep the station running in compliance with FCC regulations and to maintain our equipment,” Todd said. “One year we lost this funding, and it was a real struggle to keep the station running.”

The station needs a steady flow of cash to replace, repair and maintain pieces of equipment, as well as pay for the rather large phone bill due that accumulates from the good number of listeners who call in. The University’s support for KZSU has waned in the years since Donald Kennedy’s presidency, officials added.

The station first began broadcasting in 1941, but America’s entry into World War II led KZSU to halt its programming until January 1947. It originally began as an AM station, but in 1964, it finally got a license to broadcast over the FM network. On April 6, 1947, the station began broadcasting from the studio in the basement of Memorial Auditorium, where it continues to operate today.

For the anniversary celebration, 32 alumni returned to campus to participated in the live broadcast. The founding engineer, Fred W. Terman, even attended the marathon.

KZSU Promotions Director Adrian Bischoff said he was happy with the celebration.

“I have to say,” he said, “I think it was a total success.”