KBEACH program takes a bite into 'Buffy'

By Chan Tran
Daily Forty-Niner

Imagine a slumber party in which hyper-chatty girls blabber in staccato rhythms about everything and nothing all at the same time.

This is what listeners experience while listening to the two-year-old "Succubus Club" radio show on KBEACH, Cal State Long Beach's Internet station.

Every Wednesday between 6 and 8 p.m., the airwaves of KBEACH become a breeding ground for "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" fans when CSULB alumnae and co-hosts Candace Simkins (Candy), and Janice Pope (Kitty) bring their own special brand of humor and girl-talk on the radio.

Chan Tran/Daily Forty-Niner

Candace "Candy" Simkins, left, and Janice "Kitty" Pope, right, on the air during a "Succubus Club" show at KBEACH.

The talk may be random -- school, classes, social issues, entertainment issues -- but everything centers on their mutual adoration for all things connected with "Buffy."

Regardless of the complexities, "Succubus Club," named after a fictional vampire club from the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, got its start in a very casual way.

"I was working at the radio station when it used to be in the film department during summer '98 and I met Janice," Simkins said. "I found out that she liked 'Buffy,' and she came up with the idea to devote a whole show about it."

Two years later, the simple idea has blossomed into a weekly show.

Through the glass window of the main studio room, Candy and Kitty invite listeners and callers to participate in giveaways, contests, trivia and opinions -- all based on either a particular episode of "Buffy" or the television program as a whole. A popular feature is the "Kitty Torture" trivia where co-host Kitty asks 10 detailed questions and awards prizes.

The duo also plays music from different episodes hoping to give exposure to unsigned bands.

But according to the co-hosts, people do not want to admit to liking the show until they are given a chance to talk about it.

"They don't admit unless somebody else mentions it and then they go off with how much they really like the show," Simkins said. "People feel it is still a cult show."

Lisa Bryan, a film production major and long-time listener, said the appeal of the show weighs on the fact that there are not many avenues to discuss the show in the Los Angeles and Orange County area.

She said her most memorable experience was the first time she heard the show.

"The first time I listened to it was the best because I was new in the area and I didn't have any way of hearing anything like this before," said Bryan, who was a guest on the show last Wednesday.

If you ask Simkins and Pope what makes the show work, the answers are the same: chemistry and friendship.

"It's so easy to talk to her," Simkins said. "The way we are on the show is how we really are in person."

"I could tell her everything. We feed off each other," Pope said.

But such typical answers add balance to an atypical show.

As Kitty puts it in her online bio from the Succubus Club Web site: "I think we were still a little shy about admitting to the world that we loved the show ... but I can say is thank the goddess that everything fell into place."