Live Kinetic Coverage Moves to Student Run 105.1 KRFH

Ahead of the pack, one Kinetic Sculpture entrant, Avery Arbaugh, races to the finish in 2019. [Photo by Mark McKenna]

This year’s live radio coverage of the Kinetic Grand Championship will be on 105.1 FM KRFH and KRFH.net. After 23 years of continuous on-air reporting from the Kinetic Sculpture Race, KHUM has ceded that honor to Student Run Radio, KRFH. Broadcasting live from the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, 105.1 KRFH will have a team of student reporters in the field all three days of the race to report on what is going on and interview participants and spectators. Student reporters will bring all the color and pageantry offered by this spectacular that has been the largest event in Humboldt County to listeners in Humboldt and online. “No one can be in all the race locations at once, so radio coverage is a great way to keep tabs on all the thrills and spills,” says Cliff Berkowitz, race announcer and faculty advisor to KRFH. For those concerned about COVID safety, listening from home is a way to avoid the crowds.

Berkowitz brings his decades of kinetic experience to KRFH. He has been Faculty Advisor for the past 11 years and is the founder of KHUM. “I’ve always had a few students involved in reporting. I am very excited for the opportunity this year for my students not only take over reporting, but up the game,” said Berkowitz. This year Cal poly Humboldt is offering a 2-unit class, JMC 490 Reporting the Kinetic Sculpture Race.

This class adds to the longstanding hands-on experience students gain in Cal Poly Humboldt’s Journalism and Mass Communications department. This practical approach is in alignment with the Cal Poly educational goals of giving students real-world experience. The department already has several award-winning student run media entities including The Lumberjack, The Osprey, El Leñador, and KRFH radio. Students in Kinetic Reporting will act as on-air anchors and reporters gaining authentic experience of how to do radio journalism.

Berkowitz will be aided in teaching by his wife Amy, who shares announcer duties for the race and has as many years’ experience in race coverage. She has taught in the Journalism and Mass Communications department at Humboldt, and currently teaches at College of the Redwoods. She continues to be on the air on KHUM, which she co-founded. Cliff Berkowitz adds, “I am also excited to be using some new technology from the field to be able to have more reports from more people on the air.”

KRFH broadcasts over the FM airwaves on 105.1 and can be heard anywhere in the world on KRFH.NET. Kinetic coverage will begin at 10am on Saturday, May 28^th and go through the Memorial Day Weekend.