Radio station KRML in Carmel remains in limbo

May 31, 2009

The album cover of Clint Eastwood's 'Play Misty For Me'

One of the small treats of staying in Carmel is walking the side streets that intersect with Ocean Ave. My favorite trek is along San Carlos Ave. My favorite pub, Brophy’s is on 4th and San Carlos. And through the years, I’ve stayed at Carmel Lodge and Hofsas House on San Carlos and well as the Pine Inn, Tradewinds, Normandy Inn and Tally Ho — all within a few blocks of the route that took me past KRML, the jazz station and its accompanying gift shop and jazz museum.

On morning runs, I often waved or otherwise acknowledged the DJ behind the street front glass window. On several night walks, I’ve reminisced about my father’s appreciation for jazz while visiting the store. On later evening treks after a visit to Brophy’s or Jack London’s, I liked to walk past the studio, listen to the jazz and window shop.

But it’s all no longer. The building that housed  the station featured in Clint Eastwood’s movie Play Misty For Me is vacant and the station’s fate is in limbo.

As succinctly described in the Monterey County Weekly:

“The former radio station studio and jazz store on Carmel’s San Carlos Street are shuttered. The phone line is out of service, and the website’s ‘listen online’ link is defunct. But like a Hollywood ghost that sings beyond the grave, KRML radio continues broadcasting jazz 24/7 on 1410 AM.”

The newspaper reported that station owner David Kimball is facing personal bankruptcy, his lender, Monterey County Bank, is assisting in the search for a new buyer or buyers and that George Fuller, KRML operation manager, is manually changing programs for the station’s jazz format broadcast on 1410 AM at least twice a day.

The newspaper also reported a new studio is pending on nearby Dolores Street.

The price for the station is reported $1-$1.5 million and, according to the Monterey County Weekly, several potential buyers have expressed interest.

Kimball purchased the 51-year-old station in 2004.

“Hopefully soon we will rebuild the studio, Fuller told the newspaper. “It would be disastrous to just turn it off.”

Posted in Monterey Peninsula Leisure