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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1988)
The Battalion College Station, Texas Thursday, August 4,1988 fll'V l mr ibei Keeping tradition alive Ted Slone, Class of ’68, shows his family and friends the graves of Reveilles I, II, and III Tues day. The Lorri. Photo by Sam B. Myers group was visiting Slone’s daughter. KANM to play receives funding on FM airwaves ibi By Fiona Soltes Reporter he idea has been in the air for years, but the music tained tied up on cable. But 90.9 KANM should fi- ly make to the public airwaves within the next year. Tyan-College Station radio listeners will be treated he reggae, New Age, jazz and progressive music cur- V tfiently offered by the campus cable station KANM, be- i: cause of a Department of Student Activities grant, hicti®The station should begin broadcasting over the FM jehiiffiways by the summer of 1989 offering an alternative dno!|opop40 music stations. of a We’ve been trying to get the station off cable for 14 jears now, but the funds weren’t there,” Ted Lowe, sta- pri manager, said. He declined to say how much ney was donated by the department. yfiR .owe, a senior psychology major, said the station Hist stay on cable until it is recognized by the govern- lent and receives an Federal Communications Com- ti license, which usually takes from about 9 months to a year. Kince the station’s start 14 years ago, KANM has de fined its music as “alternative,” or anything other than op 40 music played by other stations, Lowe said. ||‘We ban any songs that have been in the Top 100 luring the last 12 years,” he said. “We want to provide Dts of college music, individual dance music and im- taed music so that our listeners won’t be bored with b| same old stuff.” The music played each hour depends on the disc- Key, Lowe said. The DJs, who pay dues each month told one of the 66 time slots, can play any music they : during their time. The station plays about 70 percent college progres- tive-type music, he said, which is generally the type 33.3 F(VI CABLE • TEXAS AStIVI UIMIVERS I T r made popular by word-of-mouth rather than by fre quent radio play. “About 5 percent of our programs are heavy metal, but sometimes that’s not really alternative music,” he said. “We also encourage jazz, reggae and New Age mu sic. Of course, we have one or two strange, bizarre shows. But our disc jockeys are limited only by what they can’t play, not by what they can.” Lowe said the only other limitations on DJs concern profanity. “We want to be an alternative,” he said. “We’re a little rebellious, maybe, but not abusive to the ears.” Lowe said even though expanding to the FM airways will include more of the non-University public, he doesn’t see any problems with being accepted. “We already have a strong following with businesses in the area,” he said. “I think, though, that we pick up an audience that other radio stations don’t reach. Many of our listeners probably wouldn’t listen to the radio at all if it wasn’t for us.” Jon Burke, a sophomore theater arts major who has a progressive music show on the station, said breaking away from cable can only be positive. “Once our DJs know that their shows will be picked up easier and by more people,” he said, “they’ll work harder at being professional and run tighter shows. It also will be a positive experience for Bryan-College Sta tion. We can give the people a chance to hear some thing that maybe they’ve never heard before.” Reagan: Budget bill hurts defense policy WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Reagan vetoed a $299.5 billion Pentagon budget bill Wednesday, charging congressional Democrats with partisan politics and saying the bill would signal “weakness and ac commodation” in U.S. defense pol icy. Although the bill has become en tangled in election-year politics and leading Republicans had urged the president to veto it, Reagan disa vowed any political motives. “These are issues of national secu rity and they must remain above partisan politics,” belaid. “The partisan politics is on the other side,” he added. The bill essentially would have au thorized the spending levels Reagan sought, but sought to rearrange spending priorities. Administration officials complained that the legis lation contained language that would have tied the president’s hands on future arms control nego tiations with the Soviet Union. Reagan also objected to the bill on grounds it would “cripple the very concept” behind Star Wars, his space-based missile defense system. The president made his an nouncement after walking into the White House press briefing room with a copy of the bulky bill in his hands. “The bill would signal a basic change in the direction of our na tional defense,” he said. “A change away from strength and proven-suc cess and back toward weakness and accommodation of the 1970s.” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D- Mass., responding to the veto, said Reagan “faces a difficult test be tween now and November to main tain a proper separation between his roles as president and political cam It passed both chambers July 14, by votes generally along party lines. The vote was 229-183 in the House and 64-30 in the Senate. It takes a two-thirds vote of both houses to override. Reagan said the bill would mean “unilateral concessions to the Soviets — concessions that would reduce my bargaining leverage at the confer ence table at the very moment when that leverage has produced its most fruitful results,” the president said. “I have been patient as the liberals paigner. On this issue, he should not in Congress attempted to erode our have abdicated his responsibility to military strength, the strength that the country as president and com- has provided the basis for our diplo- mander-in-chief — he should have matic success,” he said. “But I can be patient no longer. Congress needs to get back to work and come up with a bill I can sign.” • In addition, the bill reduces spending for a space-based intercep tor that is under development as the first phase of an eventual SDI J5ro- gram. The Pentagon wanted $330 signed the defense bill.” Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., the third-ranking Democrat in the House, noted that Vice President George Bush had supported the veto and said, “If he wants (Penta gon mismanagement) debated for the next few months, that is all right ^million, but the bill restricts the total with us. George Bush wants to play to $85 million. politics. The defense veto will come back to haunt them.” Bush is the cer tain Republican presidential nomi nee. The veto may be difficult to over ride in the Democratic-controlled Congress, particularly in the House. The measure requires retirement of three aging, missile-firing Posei don submarines as new subs are built, continuing a policy of gener ally keeping the United States near weapons limits imposed by the unra- tified SALT II nuclear treaty. Investigators believe human error caused downing of airliner WASHINGTON (AP) — Military investigators believe a U.S. Navy cruiser attacked and destroyed an Iranian airliner July 3 because of hu man mistakes made under the stress of combat, defense officials said Wednesday. Because of the mistakes, the cap tain of the USS Vincennes believed his ship had survived its first combat only to confront an approaching, “hostile” Iranian jet fighter, said the sources, who insisted on anonymity. In reality, the radar contact was a civilian airliner with 290 people aboard that had just taken off from a large military base at Bandar Abbas, Iran. The classification of that radar contact as hostile appears to have been made by crewmen in the heat of battle without adequate technical justification, said one official. There is no evidence the cruiser’s sophisticated Aegis radar air defense system malfunctioned or that it pre sented technical data to justify the “hostile” classification, the source added. “There were no problems with Aegis,” said the official. “Perhaps understandably, there was misinter pretation,” said another official. The ship was on high alert at the time. Iranian fighters had been de tected operating from the same air field just a short time earlier, and the Vincennes had just survived its first combat action in the gulf, a fight with three Iranian gunboats, the source noted. Very quickly, almost upon takeoff, the plane was classified as hostile, said one source. “Here you had a bunch of people believing that the inbound was hos tile and thought to be a threat,” the official said. “So here you’ve got a mindset. “And you’ve got something (a contact) that obviously was not re sponding to warnings, which further suggests that it might be hostile. It’s not as simple as just saying human error. They didn’t purposely shoot down an airliner.” The sources agreed to discuss the military investigation Wednesday following reports by the New York Times and ABC News. Pentagon spokesmen declined comment, saying the inquiry find ings were still being reviewed by Gen. George B. Crist, the head of the U.S. Central Command, and had yet to be forwarded to Washington. Crist must decide whether he “en dorses,” or accepts, the findings of his investigative team, which was led by Rear Adm. William Fogarty, the Pentagon noted. President Reagan, in a brief ques- tion-and-answer exchange with re porters, also declined comment on the matter. “I have read and heard and seen what is being said about the report and assigning the blame to the peo ple in the radar room interprpeting the signals and all,” Reagan said. “I can’t comment because neither the military nor my office has received the report.” The official report currently runs at least 70 pages and is accompanied by documentatation and testimony from crewmen that exceeds 1,000 pages, said one source. The Times, in its report, said it appeared the Vincennes crew mis took an electronic identification sig nal from a C-130 aircraft at Bandar Abbas to be from the passenger air liner. Trade bill approved by Senate WASHINGTON — The Sen ate approved and sent to Presi dent Reagan Wednesday a major bill Wednesday to combat the massive U.S. deficits in world trade. The lawmakers finished work with strong hopes Reagan would sign the legislation and end three years of wrangling over the issue. “This is a strong bill but not a protectionist bill,” Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., told the Senate before the 85-11 vote. “It is de signed to enforce the rules of in ternational trade. It makes Amer ican trade policy credible for once.” The measure had been dor mant on the Senate calendar for two weeks but was rejuvenated Tuesday when Reagan said that he would not veto a separate piece of legislation requiring com panies to give employees advance notice of plant-closings and large- scale layoffs. “If we are going to get this bill, and we need this bill, we are going to have to defeat some of the amendments that are going to be offered,” Sen. Robert Pack- wood, R-Ore. told the Senate. By wide margins, the Senate then voted to table, or kill, pro posed changes that would have curbed imports of Soviet fur, strengthened presidential control over trade retaliation machinery and barred the government from granting preferred trade status to the Soviet Union. The administration’s eagerness to secure such authorization fig ured heavily in Reagan’s decision Tuesday not to veto the plant closing legislation. New cashier annex to open in Pavilion sacf ramm to give nominating speech JWASHINGTON (AP) • lid Wednesday he will — Sen. Phil Gramm offer the nation a glimpse of George Bush’s “vision of America” when he gives the nominating speech for Bush at the Republican National Convention. ■“It is a great opportunity for me to talk about the vice president, about his service to America, which ranges over almost half a century — from his days as a naval pilot flying off the (USS) San into to being the greatest vice president we’ve ever had,” Gramm said. ■Gramm is the latest Texan to come to the fore of| national politics as both parties battle fiercely for the Lone Star State’s treasure trove of 29 elec- jrds ' 0ra ^ votes ' n the November election. The state’s senior senator, Lloyd Bentsen, is e Democratic nominee for vice president; Bush Jan adopted Texan who calls Houston home; and at the Democratic National Convention, ■exas state Treasurer Ann Richards gave the keynote address, Agriculture Commissioner Jim ■ightower spoke during prime time, and former Rep. Barbara Jordan seconded Bentsen’s nomi nation. 261 Gramm said he would use his prime-time op portunity in New Orleans to “really remind peo ple what the world was like that cold day in Jan uary when Ronald Reagan and George Bush took the oath of office. . . . their proud record and what they’ve achieved.” He will compare those accomplishments to the record of Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. Gramm was a Democratic representative when Reagan and Bush took office in 1981. He re signed his seat in 1983, then immediately won it back as a Republican. He was elected to the Sen ate the next year. “I’m the vice president’s senator and I also be lieve deeply George Bush should be elected pres ident, and I have total confidence in his ability to be president,” Gramm said. Texas GOP Chairman Fred Meyer said he was elated with Gramm’s selection. “There is hardly anybody in the Republican Party better known throughout the United States than Phil Gramm,” Meyer said. “He is a very good speaker, very highly regarded by moder ates and conservatives.” Gramm was orginally scheduled to give a prime-time address with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole during the convention, and the two were to have compared Democratic and Republi can positions on a wide range of issues. “My role has been upgraded since then,” Gramm said Wednesday. “The vice president called me yesterday and asked me to give the nominating speech. Obviously, I was very hon ored to be asked. It’s a great opportunity.” Gramm said he was on a trip to the Soviet Union during the Democratic National Conven tion and missed Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s lengthy nominating speech for Dukakis. “I wanted to see what the Democratic plank would be like if it were fulfilled so I was looking at the Soviet economy,” Gramm said. Gramm said he has no doubt the Republicans will carry Texas when the votes are counted in November. His fellow Texas senator would not agree, he said, “but he has a vested interest and I don’t.” By Alan Sembera Staff Writer All student-related transactions that are now processed at the Coke Building will soon be handled in the first floor of the Pavilion at a new cashier annex, which is scheduled to open by next week. The cashiers will begin operating Friday, according to a Fiscal Depart ment memorandum to Texas A&M administrators. But a worker at the unfinished fa cility said it probably won’t be ready until early next week. The new cashier stations will han dle all student fee payments, dis bursement of financial aid and other student transactions, the memoran dum said. The cashiers only will provide stu dent services, the memo said. Departmental business such as de posits, travel advances, temporary working funds, travelers checks and other non-student business still will be prdcessed at the Coke Building. The memorandum also stated that the Fiscal Department loan sec tion will move from the Coke Build ing to the first floor of the Pavilion. After Friday, it said, students who need to pick up loans, pay back loans or discuss payment problems should go to the Pavilion. Applications for financial aid should still be made at the Student Financial Aid office on the second floor of the Pavilion. An outside drop box for fee pay ments will be added at the east end of the Pavilion. The exact opening date of the new facilities could not be con firmed. Thomas Taylor, controller of the Fiscal Department, is out of town until Friday and could not be reached for comment, his secretary said. Bob Piwonka, manager of student financial services, also could not be reached. His secretary said Piwonka had been told not to make statements to the press. Only Taylor could comment, she said.
