THE BATTALION
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1979
Page 3
Silver Taps set for Tuesday
for A&M. doctoral student
Computer saves
KAMU work, cash
l * m
Battalion photo by Sam Stroder
Debbie Monroe, a disc jockey for KAMU-FM, works on
(the station’s audio board. Among other things, KAMU uses
an automated system that alternates music tapes with up
dated weather reports. National Public Radio network shows
[and live local news. Station manager Jacola Bolger says most
listeners can’t tell automated broadcasts from live shows.
n hwrice up 3 cents a month in Texas
By MARJORIE MCLAUGHLIN
Battalion Reporter
One employee at KAMU-FM
works 11-12 hours a day, never
takes a lunch break and never picks
up a paycheck.
The employee is “Proteus,” a sys
tem named after the computer in
the 1976 movie, “Demon Seed.”
Proteus is programmed with a
daily schedule which instructs it to
alternate music tapes with updated
weather reports. National Public
Radio network shows and live local
news at the proper times.
Station manager Jacola Bolger
said even regular listeners have
trouble telling when the automated
system is operating.
“We’ve done a good job of blend
ing the live programming with the
automatic programming,” she said.
Bolger said that as far as she
knew, KAMU-FM, a member of the
National Public Radio network, is
the only public radio station in the
country using the automated sys
tem.
According to Bolger, Proteus
hasn’t eliminated any jobs yet at the
station. “We haven’t cut back on
anyone,” Bolger said. “It just re
duces the number of hours that any
one person has to work a week.
Previously, the disc jockeys had
to split up the 18-hour, seven-day-
a-week job among themselves.
The students still work on the
weekends, but Proteus works from 6
a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. The
students work from 5 p.m. until
midnight weekdays.
Besides reducing the work load,
Bolger said that the system will save
the station money — something that
a non-commercial radio station,
funded primarily by donations,
never has enough of.
“Buying the system will save the
price of paying wages for more
workers,” Bolger said.
Bolger said the system has been
operating since January.
“When it was installed, it was
such a new system that it didn’t
even have an instruction book,”
Bolger said.
An engineer from the company
that manufactures Proteus (the real
name of the system is Control-16)
gave KAMU workers a three-day in
structional course on how to operate
the computer, but after that, the
station was on its own, Bolger said.
“Most of what we know about the
system we have learned by trial and
error,” she said.
Prices cover
plant theft,
speaker says
When the customer gives the
auto parts dealer $50 for a water
pump for the old flivver, he’s paying
for more than the cost of the part
and a reasonable mark-up.
He’s also paying for the thousands
of dollars worth of water pumps and
other industrial and manufactured
items that are stolen from the fac
tory each year. The losses are usu
ally made up in higher retail prices.
“Industrial theft is greater than
ever before,” said C.G. Keele, se
curity director for General Motors.
“We call it the ‘parts after’ market
and although some of the thievery
comes from the employees who
walks out of the plant with the stock
in his lunch pail, the majority of
losses are highly sophisticated thefts
of truckloads of lots and greater
quantities.”
Speaking at an industrial security
seminar held for industry experts at
Texas A&M University, Keele said
it is nearly impossible to place a dol
lar amount on the value of products
that are stolen each year from the
manufacturer. Many of the thefts
occur without the thief ever han
dling the goods, he explained.
“if the thief knows the inventory
and accounting techniques, goods
can be shipped, received and the
transaction erased with the push of a
few buttons."
Silver Taps will be held Tuesday
night for 44-year-old John J. Burke,
a Texas A&M University doctoral
student who died Sept. 12 in Massa
chusetts of cancer.
Services were held in Malden,
Mass., for Burke, a student in the
business administration program
here, said officials.
Burke is the second student fatal
ity of the current academic year.
The Silver Taps ceremony begins at
10:30 p. m.
B-CS gasoline sales decline
By FLOYD WILTZ
Battalion Reporter
Gasoline prices in Brazos County
ise in September even though con-
■imption went down, according to
Ian informal survey of gasoline
ialers and distributors last week.
The average price of gasoline in
Ihina tour
fields
germplasms
An agricultural exchange team’s
cquisition of important germplasm
fsorghums, millets, soybeans and
egetables on a recent visit to China
hould benefit the United States, a
dentist with the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station says.
Dr. Fred R. Miller, interna-
onally known grain sorghum re-
earch leader with TAES at Texas
t&M University, made this obser-
ation following a just-completed
ive-week visit to the People’s Re-
mblic of China.
“Our foremost objectives were to
tudy and arrange for the acquisition
• | if germplasm of major food and feed
J :rops. Seed of some of these impor-
ant Chinese crop collections are
leing returned to the U.S. in the
ifficial pouch of our agricultural at-
ache.
. “Following a period of quaran-
:ine, the crops will undergo a seed
ncrease here, and then will be dis-
:ributed to research scientists
iave un«<- country,” Miller
' said.
ud KenJ^ (2j 1 i nese soybean and millet
varieties are as good — and in some
r respects, better — than U.S. varie-
r ties. But our sorghums are far
y ear ’ 1 1 superior to those we studied during
inistrepD^our tour of the PRC,” Miller said.'
The scientist said that U.S. re-
edij
have tiroi
etter
na ,
of the Ad
fe said.
nnedv
lent
amf
ense ora
ne is u"" 1
31'V
Texas rose 3 cents a gallon, accord
ing to a report from the American
Automobile Association. The report
listed the average price for regular
as 89 cents a gallon; 93 cents a gallon
for unleaded; and 96 cents a gallon
for premium.
Most area service station dealers
said they had expected the return
ing Aggies to put a dent in the gas
supply, but that instead, consump
tion has gone down.
“The supply is plentiful,” Broach
Oil Company marketing director
Kenny Broach said Friday. Broach
Oil manages the Redmond Terrace
Amoco service station in College
Station, and 42 convenience store
gasoline pumps throughout East
Texas.
Broach said his prices rose 3 cents
during the second week of Sep
tember.
“We’ve even extended to being
open on weekends,’’ Vickie
Chouinard of D&B Oil Company
said.
Some service station dealers were
not sure about gasoline supplies for
October since this is the month
when the refineries turn most of
their production facilities to man
ufacturing heating oil for the winter.
An employee of the Gulf service
station at 420 Texas Ave. said the
station had 90-95 percent of the
gasoline allocation it had last Sep
tember. He said he expected to
have enough for the beginning of
October but didn’t know about the
end of the month.
Claude Dobbins of Dobbin’s Fina
said he has plenty of gas, but ex
pects Texas A&M’s home games to
take a lot of the current supply.
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Illustrations enlarged.
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onist rep
ratio
quibble i searc h ers should he able to supple-
H eS ment American crops with the
newly acquired germplasm. Some of
the Chinese varieties are quite old
and trace back to native wild strains
that still exist there.
“Additionally, we should benefit
in food production by studying the
Chinese technology for growing
amounts of vegetables per unit of
land. However, we will need to add
the quality factors which were miss
ing,” Miller said.
“Perhaps one of the greatest ben
efits to the U.S. will be in follow-up
study on how to use a crop to its
fullest potential, for the Chinese
have perfected this technique. We
, | were impressed by how they take
IC -uiilfi sorghum crops and harvest the
grain, then compost the leaves and
residue, and then use the stalks for
fuel,” he said.
Miller was the only Texan invited
to serve with the agricultural scien-
1 I tific exchange team for the China
visit. The U.S. recently entered into
^>1 the new exchange program, which
rP ftJ involves reciprocal visits from scien
tists of countries involved.
-m' ( Miller and hi's fellow team mem-
S} t/ hers visited the Academies of Ag
ricultural Sciences and nearby pro
duction units around Peking, Shan
dong, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and
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