Wednesday, January 25,1989
The Battalion
Page 7
7
New sounds at KANM
Better equipment means better student radio
By Juliette Rizzo
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STAFF WRITER
Students who tune in to KANM, Texas A&M’s stu
dent-operated radio station, will be turning up the vol
ume to hear the new sounds and improved specialized
programming offered by the station this spring. At least
that’s what KANM programmers hope.
In anticipation of switching from a cable broadcast
station to an FCC (Federal Communications Commis
sion) licensed station in the fall, Alex Luke, KANM pro
gram director, said the station is in the process of ac
quiring new equipment to enhance the quality of its
broadcast.
“We are working to acquire new equipment with
plans to install it sometime within the next month,” he
said. “We are planning to be on the air in the fall or, by
the latest, next spring. And one thing required to go
over the air is good equipment.”
Last year, after working with Student Government
and the Fiscal Department, the station received a sub
stantial amount of money from the University for fur
ther development of the station.
“We set aside some of the money for new equip
ment,” Luke said, “and an allotment to go over the air.”
Essentially, as far as equipment goes, Luke said they
are “getting a new station.” Since the station has been
broadcasting for the last 15 years, a lot of the equipment
is old and in need of replacement, he said.
Pending Final delivery are a new 10-channel mixing
board for disc jockey’s use in mixing cassette tapes to re
cords and compact discs, CD players, cassette tape
decks, and an on-the-air sign. KANM also is waiting for
approval to have a transmitter site on campus.
Steve Krebbs, KAN M’s engineer, said the station’s
outlook for the future looks promising.
“Since we broadcast on cable, we’re not getting
enough publicity,” he said. “After all, not everyone can
afford cable. We should attract a bigger audience.”
Luke said it is hard to believe the station has been
around for so many years and so few students know
about it.
He also feels that no one really knows it is a student
organization or that the station broadcasts, merely be
cause it is a cable station.
“We are a student organization just like the sailing
99.3 FfVl CABLE • TEXAS AS.IV1 UfM IVER S I T T
club,” he said.“We have a small but loyal audience, and
it has been steadily increasing.”
He said this semester looks to be one of the best yet as
far as specialty programming.
“We program according to the response we get,” he
said. “We offer a wide variety of music from hard core
punk and new wave/progressive to classical, Christian
rock, country, reggae, and classic rock. We even have a
Broadway show, and this semester, we will have a fe
male vocalist’s show and a classical music broadcast
from OPAS (Opera and Performing Arts Society).
He said their best response is from the new wave
shows because more DJs are willing to do them. The
shows make up as much as 60 percent of the format.
“We offer almost anything as long as there is a DJ,”
he said. “This is our best semester yet for specialty
shows.”
In the future, if the station begins operating as an
FCC licensed station and assumes a full FM broadcast, it
will have to operate under FCC regulations and have its
DJs licensed. But the station will remain programming
as a free-format station.
Krebbs said the station’s constitution currently states
that the station refrain from playing the same Top-40
songs that are played on local stations. This will con
tinue when the station is licensed to assure the
uniqueness of the station. Music selection may have to
change slightly to meet with regulations in terms of pro
fanity, he said.
The station will broadcast this semester 24 hours a
day, seven days a week on FM channel 99.9.
Texas oil drillers stay cautious
despite jump in crude prices
HOUSTON (AP) — Texas oil
producers who might otherwise be
celebrating the jump in crude prices
at the start of the new year are in
stead taking a cautious approach
and citing their history.
Only a year ago, the industry had
kicked off 1988 with renewed opti
mism; prices were up, OPEC gener
ally was behaving, predictions were
improving and increased activity in
the oilpatch suggested that most oth
ers felt the same way.
It was beginning to look more and
more as if 1987 had been the bottom
and 1988 would be the year for the
gradual rebirth of Texas oilFields.
It didn’t turn out that way.
Widespread predictions that
crude prices could average in the
$18-per-barrel range and gradually
keep rising were replaced within
months by fears that prices could dip
below $10 per barrel.
Industry watcher Baker Hughes
Inc. projected an average 1,070 rigs
would be searching for oil and gas
during 1988, but by year-end the
number proved to be 936 — some 14
percent below the predicted level.
The number of drilling permits is
sued in Texas during January 1988
was nearly 18 percent higher than in
the same month of 1987. But by
year-end the number was down 11.5
percent and there were 5 percent
fewer producing wells.
In fact, as the shining New Year’s
predictions began to tarnish, drilling
and production declined so quickly
that many companies underspent
their budgets.
“We didn’t have all that bad of a
price last year on oil, but what we
also didn’t have was stability,” said
Earl Swift, president and chief exec
utive officer of Houston-based Swift
Energy Co. “If you’re going to try
and make 20-year projections, you
like to see the price stay the same for
at least a day or two.
“Even if the average turns out to
be $16 or $17 (per barrel), if it’s $ 12
now it’s hard to forecast that it’s
going to be $17 tomorrow.”
Although Swift and others believe
anew OPEC accord reached last No
vember could add stability this year,
last year’s results brought further re
trenchment and caution among
Texas producers.
Houston company bucks trend,
plans 197-foot European rig
GALENA PARK (AP) — In a rar
ity these days for the economically
depressed oilfield equipment indus
try, a Houston-area manufacturer
Tuesday dedicated a new oil rig that
officials said would be the largest
and deepest land rig to drill in Eu
rope.
T he 197-foot-tall rig was assem
bled by Houston-based National Oil-
well for INA-Naftaplin of Yugosla
via and will be used to drill in the
Dinarides area of that country near
the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
The $10.5 million so-called “su
per-deep” rig is capable of drilling
three wells simultaneously to depths
of up to 25,000 feet and is touted as
having a unique brake system that
controls the speed of the pipe going
into the holes in the earth.
“All of our new business is for
overseas,” said Donald W. Vogel
sang, general manager of drilling
equipment for National Oilwell.
“There was an abundance of rigs or
dered during the boom days, and
there are a lot available rigs (for do
mestic use).”
Bozidar Omrcen, vice president
for INA-Naftaplin, saw the rig for
the first time Tuesday at a Texas
barbecue that marked the comple
tion of the 10-month project.
“We are very satisfied,” he said.
“This is a big day. A lot of people are
here to celebrate.”
His company pumped 22 million
barrels of oil in 1986 and is the lead
ing marketer of oil and gas in Yugo
slavia. Tuesday’s delivery is the larg
est of three rigs made for INA-
Naftaplin.
The celebration in a warehouse
adjacent to the rig was a dim re
minder of the heady days of the late
1970s and early 1980s, when oil
prices approached $40 per barrel,
construction of oil rigs was non-stop
and rig dedication parties were the
norm.
Pat Smith, spokesman for Na
tional Oilwell, recalled times when at
least seven rigs were being assem
bled at one time in the industrial
area east of Houston.
For some companies now, seven
rigs would be a good year, industry
officials acknowledge.
For example, this week’s latest
Baker Hughes Inc. count of rigs
looking for oil in the United States
was 789. The lowest the count
reached last year was 880. In Decem
ber 1981, the tally peaked at 4,500.
The rig sent off Tuesday is the
first to be completed in months by
National Oilwell, company chairman
Bob Smith said.
Despite crude prices that have
topped $19 per barrel in the futures
market this month, many industry
experts are predicting a flat year and
projecting an aVerage $15-per-bar-
rel oil.
“I think most companies felt that
oil prices would stay in the $16-to
$18-a-barrel range for most of 1988,
and they planned their budgets
based on that belief,” said Victor
Burk, a partner in the Houston of
fice of the accounting firm Arthur
Andersen & Co.
“As they got into late summer and
the prices started softening, the
companies started reassessing some
of the projects they had planned,”
Burk said. “And then as prices
dropped even more in October, a lot
of projects were put on the shelf.”
Hardest hit were the state’s inde
pendent oil companies that focus on
the “upstream” exploration and pro
duction business.
“It was a disappointing year for
the industry as a whole, especially
the exploration phase of it,” Hous
ton independent oilman Michel T.
Halbouty said.
“There are very few wells being
built onshore,” he said. “What little
exploration there is onshore was be
ing done by the surviving indepen
dents, and there are very few of us
left.”
The Residence
Hall Association
is now accepting applications for the following
positions:
■Public Relations
Director
-Texas Residence Hall
Association Conference Chair
Applications are now available in the RHA Office, 215 Pavilion
and are due Mon., January 30th. If you have any questions please
contact Mary at 260-0151
MSC JORDAN INSTITUTE
FOR INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
YOU ARE HERE
...but don't you
wont to know about
the rest of the world!
The MSC Jordan Institute aims to bring the world closer to the
Texas A&M campus through international speakers, exhibitions,
and travel; cultural programs, and international career seminars.
All interested students are invited to apply for membership in
the Jordan office— located in the Browsing Library, Room 223G
of the MSC. New membership application deadline is Jan.27.
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Southwestern Black Student
Leadership Conference
January 26-29,1989
Today’s Black Leaders: Our Hope For Tomorrow
jj
Career Fair
January 27-28
Companies:
Kroger Co.
Shell Oil
J.C. Penny
Westinghouse
Conoco
U.S. Marines
Chase Education Finance
9:00a.m.-5:00p.m.
231 Memorial Student Center
Touche Ross
Exxon
U.S. Air Force
Southwestern Bell
C.I.A
American Airlines
UT School of Allied Health
NCNB-Dallas
Mobil
Inroads/D-FW
Tenneco
Prufrock
AT&T
For Information
151 BizzelWest
845-4551
* Must have a resume for admittance.
Center for Retailing Studies presents
Don't
Guess
Go
Retail!
January 29,1989
College Station Hilton
2:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Reception 6:00 to 7:30
CALL BATTALION CLASSIFIED 845-2611
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