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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1979)
Page 10 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1979 Planned in ’67 Prairie View A&M. radio station should open by 1980 By RICHARD OLIVER Battalion Reporter Prairie View A&M University’s plans for a new radio station are fi nally beginning to take shape, and none too soon. Prairie View’s station, KPVU, first expected to open in May, is now tentatively scheduled to open Jan. 1, 1980. The station is slated to be non commercial and to operate at a fre quency of 91.3. It will have 10,000 watts of power, according to Ivory Nelson, vice-president of research and special programs for Prairie View A&M. “They’re keeping the publicity pretty tight, and I don’t know why,” said Dr. C.A. Wood, the school’s di rector of student publications and official in charge of publicity con cerning the station. “They” are Nelson and Shirley Staples, head of the Department of Mass Communications at Prairie View A&M. “We haven’t released any infor mation yet for the simple reason that we are still in the planning and development stages,” said Staples. “When everything is ready to go, we’ll put out some publicity. We’re naturally holding off until that time comes.” Wood believes the station will possibly be open as early as Sep tember. but Nelson disagrees. “We could possibly shoot for Sep tember, but that’s being a little un realistic,” he said. “Probably we ll begin operations on Jan. 1, 1980.” According to Health, Education and Welfare regulations, the station must be operating by January 1980. HEW gave Prairie View A&M a two-year grant of $125,000 on Jan. 3, 1978, to install a station. The school was required to match the grant with $44,351. Asked if the opening date of the station would miss the HEW dead line, Wood was reluctant to com ment. , “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “We should be getting some publicity out about it soon.” Staples, however, admitted there might be some difficulty. “There could be some problem in meeting the deadline,” she said, “but we’re very optimistic about it all happening on time.” Nelson was more specific. “We’ll be cutting it razor close any way you look at it,” he said. “I don’t think there will be much prob lem once we have everything here and ready to go.” Asked when everything would be “ready to go,” Nelson replied he wasn’t sure. “We have many things up in the air right now,” he said. “We’ve got to get equipment, a staff, etc., and I don’t know when all that will come together.” Staples said planning of the sta tion had been going on for 12 years, but every year has presented prob lems. “This whole thing goes back to 1967,” she said. “It has just been one thing after another. Every year we run into something to set us back. There are deadlines to meet,, rules to go by and decisions to be made. It’s not an overnight thing by any means. “If it comes to that point where we realized we would probably miss the deadline, we’d apply for an ex tension,” she said. “I think the gov ernment only asks that they be notified sufficiently ahead of time.” But Prairie View A&M might not be able to get that extension, says Adolph Koenig, an official in the communications division of HEW in Washington, D.C. “If this is a two-year grant stem ming from Jan. 3, 1978, they have until Jan. 3, 1980, to get it open,” he said. “Of course, an extension can be given, but it all depends on the circumstances surrounding the de lay. ” Nelson believes the construction of the station should cost about $175,000. He also said once the equipment arrives, the construction should begin. “We’ve ordered the equipment,” he said. “This will be a first-class radio station, and we’ve been work ing on this for four or five years. It’s a high-priority thing for us.” The original operating budget projected for the station for the first year was $60,800, but Nelson is un certain what the budget is now. “We won’t know anything really until the station is completed and on A SYMPHONY OF SALADS SBISA DINING CENTER BASEMENT 10:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday If you have money to invest Optional Retirement Plan Tax Sheltered Annuity Deferred Compensation Financial Planning Call Hays Qlovar GUGGENHEIM GLOVER, ASSOCIATES 779-5555 BB&L pays the maximum rate on 6-month Money Market Certificates. This week’s rate is 9.627% BB&L pays maximum interest on Money Market Certificates. No financial institution here — or in a metropolitan area — can pay you more on 6-month Money Market Certificates. Call us today about a Money Market Certificate. It’s a 6-month investment for $10,000 or more paying maximum interest. Your savings institution Money Market Certificate rate is established weekly for the 6-month term of the certificate and is subject to change at renewal. Federal regulations impose a severe penalty for early withdrawal. Compound interest is prohibited by law. the air,” he said. “It really isn’t a matter of cost for us, we just want the station. When you want some thing bad enough, it’s going to get done.” Asked the reason for the delay in construction, Nelson said it all amounted to a miscalculation. “Because of the station’s fre quency, we needed a special an tenna,” he said. “We wanted a larger station than just 10,000 watts, but it would interfere with some sta tion in Seguin, so we had to keep it down. Also, getting together all the equipment has taken a little more time than we expected. We’ve got it all on order, and we’ll have a staff ready, so now it’s just a matter of construction.” According to Don Simons, man ager of KAMU-FM in College Sta tion, once the station equipment is in and everything is ready to go, it shouldn’t take too long to get on the “Our equipment arrived in January of 1977, and we (KAMU) were on the air by March of the same year, so it doesn’t take too long,” he said. “If their deadline isn’t until Jan. 1, 1980, they still have enough time.” Staples said KPVU, like KAMU, will be partially funded by school funds and partially funded by the community. “We’ve been looking for other ways to fund the station,” she said. “There are perhaps some other fed eral grants we could receive. It’s really not wise to think the station could exist without legislative fund ing. Also, KAMU had a very suc cessful auction recently, so we may go that direction.” Staples and Nelson are both un sure of the total mileage range of a 10,000-watt station, but Simons said it will be more than 60 miles. “It all depends on the height of the tower,” he said. “Our 3,000- watt station (KAMU) can reach about 21 miles, so I imagine KPVU will reach 60 miles or more.” He also said he believes the sta tion would probably reach Texas A&M. Nelson said once the station is on the air, it will be housed in the Communications Building on the Prairie View A&M campus. When asked the reason the ft tion was being built, Staples saiii was really a matter of necessity “The station is being built to ms the needs of the community,Mi said. “There is no other tele* munications outlet within a 35-mil radius of Prairie View that can'"" the needs of the community, s are basically a rural area. Peopl | who are somewhat isolated pick up most radio stations. Pee all have specific needs, and will first-class radio station, wecanbra^— . excellent programming to mti .. those needs. Umv€ “The station can serve with ps hold it gramming covering education,]d day ar lie affairs, farm and market report (jj ||( | (1| community opinion forums a ^ rs j^ community group concerns, with ■ being too political. We can also pi £ the kind of music they wanttohij from country-western to progress jazz to rock.” "Liberated sow’ gets own awari Wednesday Night 7-12 [TEXAS HALL OF FAM presents “The Debonaires United Press International BATON ROUGE, La. - Carl Gunter, D-DeVille, wasteii time at the start of the legisl session Monday in retalial against a woman who gave himil “Oink-Oink” of the year awadl opposing an equal community pcf erty bill in 1978. Holding aloft an 18-by-24 incif I cr 5 5 painting of a piglet trying ted cat ion food from its mother’s Cunter declared it the “Sow oil Year” award for Marty Beasley, nal act AGGIES GET IN WITH CURRENT I.D. 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