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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1980)
P!d at stomer is e day af- fthe resi- sn’t paid, in the ered dis- ie office rs should iy well in void long custom- ork order le before turned at because system. >uted us- lual con- lual resi- ’s bill, idard de average exceeds to deter- the pre- )tion. He dyusesa previous onsump- its cus- of $60. Harrison senior, irs her i in my during a were 20 tween us. when we girl, but I vital part between on Rex a n my re glad. It ork for. d wiser. . I can’t saloon, ustomers re they in for a anybody Elaine alon in ey’re at coming else is “Some ’re too e.” same , a styi- school were them look is in and tOidiuA/o epnu, joj. uooAoq on Happy Birthday Channel 15! «r 1 . • * Texas A&M University has renamed one of its streets to “Sesame Street,” to com memorate the 10th birthday of PBS station KAMU Channel 15, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. The name Sesame Street was chosen to honor the children’s show, which is also celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Photo by Janet Golub The Hearne High School Eagle Band were events of the celebration. part of a parade, one of the scheduled Photo by Janet Golub One of the celebration’s young participants enjoys a cho colate chip cookie while looking at his Sesame Street CartOOn bOOk. Photo b Y Beck y Matthews by Becky Matthews Battalion Reporter If someone walks up to you on campus tomorrow and musically asks, “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street,” don’t punch him or walk off muttering ab out (big) bird brains. As of Feb. 15, there really is a Sesame Street at Texas A&M University. The street, which leads to the parking lot next to the Joe Hiram Moore Communications Center, was officially marked with a special Sesame Street sign from the Chil dren’s Television Workshop at the Friday celebration of Channel 15’s 10th birthday. Rod Zent, The KAMU station manager, explained on the hour- long live broadcast of the celebra tion that Sesame Street was chosen to be the theme because Sesame Street is also celebrating its 10th birthday this year. About 12:30 p.m., a crowd began gathering at the University Center. Members of the Hearne High School band as well as approxi mately 300 pre-school and elemen tary school kids gathered in prepa ration for a parade down on Hous ton Street. The kids brought home made Sesame Street nametags, banners and posters and they were given helium-filled balloons to carry in the parade. The children from one school turned themselves into miniature TV sets by wearing brown grocery sacks with little screens cut out of the front. At 1 p.m., the station began to broadcast coverage of the cere mony on the front porch of the com munications center as the parade started down at the other end of the street. The band led off the parade and the little kids scampered behind it like the kids who followed the Pied Piper. The mayors of both Bryan and College Station as well as repre sentatives of both the A&M Consoli dated School District and the Bryan Independent School District official ly declared Feb. 15, 1980, to be KAMU Public Television Day. Dr. Jarvis Miller, president of Texas A&M, congratulated the sta tion for its 10 years of public service and said that he was very proud of the community’s support of KAMU in the past two years. After the parade, the children were brought into the studio of the station where they were inter viewed about Sesame Street and the characters in Sesame Street. The Cookie Monster was very popular, but Big Bird barely edged out ahead to be the most popular Sesame Stieet character. After the interviews, the children were taken outside the station where they were given Sesame Street magazines and punch and cookies. According to Rodger Lewis, the program director of the station, the most important aspect of the birth day celebration is that KAMU began broadcasting on weekday mornings beginning on that day. Before Feb. 15, the station began its broadcast day at 2:30 p.m. Now it begins broadcasting at 7:45 a.m. The station is currently planning to broadcast material carried direct ly off the Public Broadcasting Sys tem network without any locally pro duced programs. It hopes to ex pand to local programs, education programs and classic movies if the support and demand for the prog rams justifies it. The change to a full day of broad- casting will help people in the Bryan-College Station community understand when KAMU is broad casting. Previously, when KAMU was not on the air the cable companies would insert programming from another station. This caused people to be confused as to when KAMU was broadcasting and when broad casts came from another station. When KAMU first began broad casting, it had 76 transmitter fai lures in the first 13 weeks. They were working in a building which had been condemned after World War I and using equipment which was over 22-years-old. In 1970, it became a PBS station and in 1972 it moved from the old building to the Joe Hiram Moore Communications Center where they had all new equipment. ■■■MMHalMeSBNl a n rp a-i 0 5. tJ 0)