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.