“Both of us had a need to invest in programming but neither had the money,” USC Radio president Brenda Barnes says. “We each wanted to produce better quality programs more efficiently.”

The network employed both Los Angeles-based announcers, such as Charles Andrews, Alan Chapman and Kimberlea Daggy, and Denver-based announcers, such as Pat Alexander, Steve Blatt, David Rutherford and Monika Vischer. Sacred Classics host Stephanie Wendt was based in Minneapolis.

By this spring, however, Barnes and the Classical Public Radio Network decided that it didn’t make sense to have two companies in the broadcasting world “when we really need to be dealing with the possibilities of the Internet.”

Also, KUSC wanted its programming to be more local, says general manager Eric DeWeese.

“We had been in the past all about classical music. You could take many of the hours and put them on any station.

“But now there are more local references,” along with an increased emphasis on covering the arts in Southern California.

The network remains as a holding operation for possible Internet options, Barnes says, and the Los Angeles-based announcers – along with three behind-the-scenes staff members – have become KUSC employees.

There are now more live, local broadcasts, which Barnes views as a plus. On the downside: “It was very hard to come to this decision, but you have to see the handwriting on the wall,” she adds. “The network had started when there was no such thing as iTunes or iPods, all these things that everybody uses. The world has really changed.”