Historic jazz radio station gets the financial blues.

The former radio station studio and jazz store on Carmel’s San Carlos Street are shuttered. The phone line is out of service, and the website’s “listen online” link is defunct. But like a Hollywood ghost that sings beyond the grave, KRML radio continues broadcasting jazz 24/7 on 1410 AM.

With the station’s current owner facing personal bankruptcy, the lender, Monterey County Bank, is assisting in the search for a new buyer. Station owner David Kimball could not be reached.

While a new studio on Dolores Street awaits construction, KRML Operations Manager George Fuller is manually changing the programming through the transmitter on Rio Road at least twice daily.

“Hopefully soon we will rebuild the studio, ” he says. “It would be disastrous to just turn it off.”

There have been no layoffs, to the knowledge of Monterey County Bank CEO Charles Chrietzberg.

“There’s been a lot of miscommunication,” he says. “All that’s happened other than them moving is David has filed personal bankruptcy. He’s still the owner, and the bank’s working with him to find a buyer.”

The sale price is $1 million to $1.5 million, he says, and five groups are interested: two from out of the area, and three local. There are no written offers yet.

One of the local groups is a nonprofit, Chrietzberg adds, and there’s a “good possibility” the station could become a legal nonprofit.

“I’d say it’s been ‘non-profit’ for awhile,” he chuckles.

Former senior vice president and show host Gary Hamada says he is representing one of the local groups interested in buying KRML.

The 51-year-old station is something of a historical landmark, especially since being featured in Clint Eastwood’s classic, Play Misty for Me. The studio had been housed in one of Eastwood’s properties since Kimball bought it in 2004.

Though the financial prospects are shaky, Fuller is optimistic about KRML’s reinvention: “It’s gonna rise from the ashes and be a whole lot better.”