SANTA CRUZ >> KSCO Radio is losing more than $40,000 each month and the nearly 70-year-old station broadcasting across the Monterey Bay is turning to its listeners for support.

“KSCO has been my primary philanthropic project for over two decades, ladies and gentlemen, and I could use some help,” says station owner Michael Zwerling, 65, in a two-minute message airing about 12 times per day since Thursday.

“If you like KSCO and want to help it survive and thrive, send money,” Zwerling continues in the appeal that also solicits advertising from local businesses. “Anything at all will help.”

Broadcasting from its station on Portola Drive, KSCO-1080 AM, is known for its lineup of colorful local talk shows and as a station that at times courts controversy by airing extreme perspectives on both sides of the political spectrum.

Longtime host Rosemary Chalmers greets weekday listeners with local news, culture and weather on Good Morning Monterey Bay from 6-9 a.m. Then, Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated conservative talk show takes over from 9 a.m. to noon.

Each day the station airs about seven hours of local programming, according to station manager Michael Olson, setting the station apart from many local AM stations that fill their airtime entirely with syndicated shows.

The station regularly featured as many as 89 local voices as of 2016, Olson said.

Creating a fertile environment for so many Santa Cruz County broadcasters keeps the station’s staffing overhead high, but Zwerling views that local focus as essential.

“I don’t even want to be in the business unless we can have a real station with real people, a real heart, a real soul,” Zwerling said.

Hearing a fundraising appeal on the radio is something with which NPR and PBS listeners are all-too familiar. But KSCO, unlike public radio, is a privately-owned business purchased by the Zwerling family in 1991.

“We’re certainly not a 501(c)3 but we have been, ever since I owned the station, a nonprofit not by choice,” said Zwerling.

Zwerling said he has been able to finance KSCO through his income from multilevel marketing company Youngevity, which sells mineral supplements. KSCO broadcasts a syndicated program related to the supplement company and advertises for it through its website, but Zwerling said the businesses are operated separately.

Despite the financial hurdles, Zwerling said he is committed to keeping the station on the air.

Exact numbers were not immediately available, but Zwerling said donations and advertiser inquiries have already begun rolling in.

KSCO, which came on air in 1947, will celebrate its 70th anniversary in September.

“KSCO has long been known as a station that is there for its community in times of problems — fires, floods, earthquakes — you name it, we’re there, and we always will be,” Chalmers said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

Contributions to KSCO may be made in person, through mail, or online at ksco.com/donate.