December 1, 2022

Dear KWAVE Staff,

It has been a pleasure working with you all over these many years, and after December 31, 2022, I will no longer be at KWAVE. I received an offer at a content distribution company and, after much prayer and consideration, have realized that this opportunity is from the Lord.

I started at KWAVE on Saturday, January 1, 2000. The midnight to 6 AM shift. Back then, we were in a converted garage in San Clemente off El Camino Real. There was no automation. We jockeyed CDs for the entire shift to play music. Commercials and IDs were played off of the Instant Replay. I worked that weekend overnight shift for a couple of years while picking up some weekday evening shifts. One of those notable weekday evening shifts was the evening of September 11, 2001. I remember coming into the studio and seeing the aftermath of one of the busiest news days that the KWAVE News Department had ever had.

I eventually expressed a desire to come on board full-time and was given the role of Promotions Assistant. There weren’t any social media back then, and the role consisted of attending all the events that the Promotions Director didn’t want to attend. It was fun being a 19-year-old kid representing the station at different random events.

My role again shifted to Assistant Music Director when another staff member departed, and the person who was scheduling the music at the time went to fill that role. My job was to add music and tag music in the scheduling software so that we had good transitions and no back-to-back artists or other musical mistakes. My experience leading worship in high school allowed me to craft music blocks as if we were running a worship service. It was a lot of fun being able to make these playlists that so many people were listening to.

In 2002, it was decided that KWAVE would move from San Clemente to our current studios in Santa Ana. We had purchased an automation system (Scott Studio’s SS32), and being the most computer-savvy person on staff at the time; I had the job of loading all the music into the automation. This was usually done while I was on the air. In February of 2003, we made the move, and programming started flowing out from the new Santa Ana studios. This is where my role became more technically focused instead of operationally focused.

At that time, the station did not have a full-time on-staff engineer to handle technical issues. We would fill out a paper work order, and the Facilities Department (at the time Logos Management) would come down and take care of it. Sometimes that resulted in long delays for urgent repairs. I began to help fill those requests and transitioned into a staff engineer role.

Since that time, the studios have been remodeled, and we’ve upgraded from an analog facility to a cutting-edge Audio Over IP system that gives us an incredible amount of flexibility and automation. Our stations grew from one to about fifty, then settled at three for a while. Eventually, we came down to the two stations we have today: KWVE and KSDW.

I’ve learned so much from my time here. From designing studios, pulling cables, wiring stations, and maintaining a directional AM station (which had a distant contact report all the way from Australia at one point) to building and maintaining rugged and dangerous mountaintop facilities across two states.

I have seen many sunrises and sunsets from all of our sites. Many of which will forever be burned into my memory. Many experiences of times where we’ve broken down on the road to a mountain site, traversing snow drifts in a Polaris Ranger, sliding into ditches in the mud, cutting downed trees out of the road, and dodging dirt bikers and hikers.

But my time hasn’t been just about equipment and solitary life. People are a very important part of my time. I remember some of the wise words that my first General Manager in radio gave me: There is truth in humor. Not sure how I’ve used that in life, but I remember it! I feel blessed to have worked with some amazing people during my time, Frank Montenegro, Jymi Stewart, Tamera Kaye, Kay Poland, Dave Parks, Kyle Cole, Mike Iwerks, Ryan Wormald, Jason Vreeke, Dan Sessum, Noah Ostunio, John Jackson, Larry Wormald, Chad, Brian, Jessica, Esther, Priscilla, Phil, Bob, Jerry, Rory, Deloy, Eric… and many, many others. I’m sorry if I’ve missed listing your name. It has been an honor to work with all of you. We’ve all had many laughs, tears, frustrations, and joys during our time. I thank you for all your patience, kindness, encouragement, and friendship with me through the years.

I look forward to seeing the station grow and flourish to serve the Body of Christ in the greater Los Angeles area.

I will be leaving Southern California in the middle of January and moving to the Denver area. I’ve never lived outside of Southern California, so this will be an exciting adventure. If you ever find yourself in the Denver area, send me a text, and we’ll grab coffee (hopefully, by then, I’ll have found a good local coffee place).

Until then, I shall be around, trying to get Eric up to speed on as many things as possible. There are so many projects to do that I don’t doubt that he will be busy for years to come.

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve the Body of Christ through radio over these 23 years. I wish you all the best, and I look forward to staying in touch.

Sincerely,

Marcos O’Rourke

“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”