Radio station receives $1M donation




FRIENDS OF THE AIRWAVES— Dennis and Linda Fenton, early employees of Amgen and supporters of Cal Lutheran’s KCLU radio station since its inception, recently gifted the station with $1 million.

FRIENDS OF THE AIRWAVES— Dennis and Linda Fenton, early employees of Amgen and supporters of Cal Lutheran’s KCLU radio station since its inception, recently gifted the station with $1 million.

A Westlake Village couple has donated $1 million to support and expand the award-winning news department of KCLU Radio.

The Linda and Dennis Fenton KCLU Radio News Endowment will be used to hire personnel and enhance equipment, programming and production.

The National Public Radio station serves Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The Fentons have contributed to KCLU since it debuted in 1994. Linda Fenton became a member during the inaugural fundraising drive. She joined the KCLU Advisory Board in March.

The New York natives moved to California in 1982 to become two of the early employees of Amgen when it was a biotechnology startup. Linda Fenton retired in 1987 to raise their son, Douglass.

Dennis Fenton retired in 2008 as executive vice president of operations. He currently serves on several corporate boards and is vice chair of the board of the Keck Graduate Institute.

KCLU has received more than 200 awards for its local news coverage. News director Lance Orozco, the station’s only full-time reporter, has won two national awards: a 2012 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a 2010 National Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.

A new KCLU Broadcast Center, with the station’s first dedicated newsroom, opened in 2011. Two years later, KCLU purchased a Santa Maria station to expand its range to northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County.

KCLU now has more than 100,000 weekly listeners.

The station can be heard in Ventura County at 88.3 FM and online at kclu.org.


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