KFI Helps Feed Kids

KFI (640 AM) hosted a 17-hour “Pasta-Thon” earlier this month in order to raise funds and food to help feed local children in need. In doing so the popular talk station was able to raise a record-setting $435,000 and over 109,000 pounds of pasta for Caterina’s Club.

It was the ninth year for the event; this year KFI personalities Bill Handel, Jennifer Jones Lee, Gary Hoffmann, Shannon Farren, John Kobylt, Ken Chiampou and Tim Conway, Jr. were at the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove encouraging listeners to donate money, pasta and sauce. The children in need are underprivileged kids who live in motels without access to a kitchen.

Caterina’s Club is the brainchild of Chef Bruno Serato and his mother, Caterina. The two had visited the Boys and Girls Club in Anaheim, just down the street from Bruno’s restaurant, Anaheim White House.They noticed a young boy eating potato chips for dinner because his family could not afford a meal … Caterina insisted that Bruno make him some pasta.

Soon they realized that there were more hungry children than they ever imagined. So he began making pasta for 72 children, five nights per week. Those humble numbers grew to where they are today, in which he and his organization serves over 3500 warm dinners to hungry children every night.  That’s more than 2.8 million meals since 2005.

The event this year was sponsored by KFI with the help of partners Smart and Final and Barilla Pasta.

Said KFI programmer Robin Bertolucci, “Over the past nine years the Pasta-Thon has raised close to $2.8 million and over 500,000 points of pasta and sauce. We are honored to join our listeners in support of Chef Bruno Serato and his outstanding organization.”

Added KFI Executive Producer Michelle Cube in an on-line blog, “Thank you to all the KFI listeners, clients, friends and families that came together for another HUGELY successful KFI PastaThon to benefit Caterina’s Club. I’m never amazed at how generous the KFI audience is. But I am amazed at how much this event grows each year, thanks to you telling just one more person each year about it.”

Seasonal Sounds

For the 10th consecutive year, Sounds of the Season will once again be heard on Ken Borgers’ internet tribute to the original KNOB (now KLAX, 97.9 FM). You can find it at www.JazzKnob.org. Or jazz www.knob.org, if the mood suits you better.

It’s a 36-hour program that starts at noon Christmas Eve and ends at midnight on Christmas day. The show features jazz instrumental and vocal interpretations of holiday music favorites; a highlight of the annual program is a reading of the classic “Twas the Night Before Christmas” by the late, great LA Jazz DJ Chuck Niles, to be heard this year six times: noon and 6 p.m. December 24th; and at midnight, 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. December 25th.

JazzKnob.org harkens back to Sleepy Stein’s KNOB/Long Beach, playing mainstream jazz 24 hours a day. Stein was the owner of the original KNOB, launched in 1957 with just 320 watts at its original frequency of 103.1 FM. One year later, he was able to increase power to 79,000 watts by moving to a new frequency, 97.9.

Stein sold the station in 1966; the new owners changed the format to MOR (Middle of the Road), then Beautiful Music and eventually soft rock. Today the station is known as La Raza, playing Regional Mexican music.

A separate, though very similar, version of Sounds of the Season is produced by Borgers for KSDS/San Diego (88.3 FM).

More Holiday Music

Mellow holiday tunes, I suppose they could be called, can be found on KNX93FM.com. Not continuously, but interspersed throughout the netcast day. Definitely worth checking out.

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