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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2003)
THE BATTALli ?nt dies ofcan(| e Robley Nalls, a stl pe architecture maw iM, died of cancer Ap; 50, is survived byfij :rs Barbara and jneral services werelj ;day, April 23. tlver Taps ceremonyfl 'vlalls is schedulerl :s iued from pagelj ii number of 262 employees for observation toi ital. one of sixi indie SARS. ever, a sign outsidij which was cord police tape, saide^ side — from patiei ;nt — was being I stem the spread of j irus. university official,! inly give his suntj id he didn’t knwl itients were inthelns hospital Web site v J 20 beds. It was/ how many hospitals ill be inside, spread of SARS on virtually ei f society in Chinai to business -o as the nation’s sivj on postponed the! ofessional season. United States w vernment, like In some Shiites demasl esting, how wo i-type govemmenn: ; everything int 'hat isn’t goingtoh iiis” meeting April If j i sored by Garner, f sentatives butboyfl*! ups opposed tot ation. Some belsj :e a president on In longtime exile I was supported by f| i building an op ig will be heir Baghdad area, I ones said. nhua News Agei U.S. Embassy Foreign Ministrys ad no details y’s discussions, spokesman said the talks j ive to mutual ifflli and finding the North luestion peacefully] Korea and Cl® against the Unilj the 1950-53 ich ended witho®| aty. North Korea ^ ton have no and are still technic)] BATTALli ck, Editor in Chief ice. Managing Editor ■bb, Copy/Design Directoi cia, News Editor Asst. News Editor ^an, Asst. News Editor sley, Aggielife Editor Vsst. Aggielife Editor tdson, Asst. Aggielife Ed® 1 1 i, Sci/Tech Editor ter, Opinion Editor n, Asst. Opinion Editor v, Sports Editor aub, Asst. Sports Editor boto Editor ion, Asst. Photo Editor na, Graphics Editor Radio Producer ttsch, Webmaster SSN #1055-4726) is publMt^ riday during the fall and spring** through Thursday during tries'^ niversity holidays and exampi^l riversity. Periodicals Postage^’] 77840. 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Aggielife The Battalion Page 3A • Friday, April 25, 2003 istening to the beat of a different station Students take a break from mainstream music by tuning into campus radio station KANM By Lauren Romero THE BATTALION When Paige Jobe gets tired of mainstream radio, she simply tunes [n to KANM, Texas A&M’s student radio station. “KANM provides a fresh perspective to music,” said Jobe, a sen- dt education major. “I like it because you hear a lot of bands that |rou can’t hear any other place.” Scott Towle, KANM’s public relations director and a graduate jtudent in Mays Business School, describes KANM as the “college tation of College Station” and the “alternative to alternative. Towle laid often students are disappointed by the conventional choices found on the radio. “Students get a chance to be exposed to music (on KANM) they ran’t hear anywhere else,” he said. I KANM is a recognized student organization that plays unsigned pands. Many artists, such as Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional and Bowling for Soup were played on KANM before pitting more prominent radio stations. Matthew Crawford, the KANM station manager and a senior pmputer engineering major, said KANM is very different from bther stations in the area. “We aren’t focused on ratings or cash flow,” he said. “We are ocused solely on providing unique and interesting content to A&M ind the Bryan-College Station community.” I Crawford said having a student radio station is important to the \&M community, because it is a resource for unique music. It Iso provides an opportunity for people interested in becoming lisc jockeys to get experience without the pressure of commercial Interests, he said. Contrary to other radio stations around College Station, the DJs at kANM are not professionals in the field; they are learning the trade and are not paid. I While A&M supports KANM, it is not enough to pay the bjs. For this reason, funding for the station is one of its main problems, he said. “We’ve tried many different things to get funding, from visiting k&M clubs to writing letters to fonner students,” he said. “We use a rial-and-error process, but so far have not succeeded. A lot of it is ust finding the proper channels. “KANM has approximately 75 DJs each semester.” Crawford said DJs are selected based upon a combination of the proposed music selections, availability and experience. Although [here are 81 time slots available each semester, he said it’s rare that [he late night and early morning slots get filled. Because the DJs aren’t being paid and still must find time to study, they often choose time slots that will work around their school Schedule, Crawford said. “If they have a test or project the next day and must miss their show, they can contact the Programming Office to be excused and we will arrange for alternate content,” he said. Mustafa Ahmad, a DJ liaison at KANM, said he picked a time slot that worked best for him. For Mustafa Ahmad, a DJ liaison at KANM, said being a DJ is a welcome break from classes. “I don’t see being a DJ as a responsibility or a burden of some sort,” he said. “If you’re passionate about something — music in this case — then playing the music that you love is never something you dread. Instead, it’s a way to relax.” Crawford said most of the time he spends at the station is between classes and after class. “I’ve leaned how to balance the time I give to the station and the time I spend on my classes,” he said. “My grades did suffer a little bit when I first became station manager, but now I know the limits I need to put on my involvement.” Towle also said he’s learned to budget his time spent at the station. “I have to hold office hours for four hours a week,” he said. “If I don’t have any stuff to do for the radio station, I normally do homework.” Because the DJs are still learning, the main qualification for the DJs is that they have a strong music knowledge, Crawford said. “Our main concern with the DJs is that they have a good under standing of the music they are playing and expose our listeners to new and lesser known artists,” he said. In addition to the DJs, the officers help keep the station running by managing finance, promotion, programming, music, equipment maintenance and other administrative functions. Towle said the officers all have common goals of increasing awareness at KANM and ensuring that the listeners are getting quali ty shows. However, this is hard to do without much funding. Towle said the DJs have to pay dues each semester, which is the main source of funding, and it is used to pay bills and other expenses. “The lack of funding we receive increases our time and effort put into the station,” he said. “Even though KANM does not yet have a EM license, it broad casts through EM cable.” The station has recently been making improvements in the studio and making Internet streaming available. Most of KANM’s listeners now listen on the Internet, Towle said. DJs sign on to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger as KANMDJ so students can make instant requests. The station gets a lot of positive feedback, even from non-Aggies. Once, a listener from New Zealand called to say he really liked the show and listened every week, Towle said. KANM has also had callers from New Orleans, New York and Illinois. Crawford said that in the immediate future KANM would like to repair the AM signal and upgrade and replace some equipment. Currently, KANM is running screensavers in the Open Access ADAM A. KRAZER • THE BATTALION Travis Ziebro, left, a senior mechanical engineering major, and Matt Brown,right, a senior anthropology major, host “Dynamic Viscosity,” a techno music show that airs Thursdays at midnight on KANM. Labs on campus and putting up posters and flyers for different DJs’ shows. There are also broadcasts outside the MSC, where those involved with the station give away CDs, shirts and stickers. The biggest strength of the station, Towle said, is KANM’s officers. Crawford said that since he has been the station manager, the offi cers have done many things to improve the station. “We have moved from the comer of Koldus to the MSC base ment, improved officer communication and moved most of our record keeping and administration online,” he said. “Moving our records online has allowed our listeners to see what our DJs are playing in near real time and look through our archives to make instant requests.” A TTENTION GRADUATING SENIORS YOU’VE GOT THE EDUCATION EDGE WITH A MITSUBISHI MOTORS wake up and drive MITSUBISHI BIGGER BETTER ZERO EVENT X \v V 1JOB^' ZERO DOWN PAYMENT ZERO INTEREST PAYMENTS AND ZERO CAR PAYMENTS TIL 2004. PLUS GET $1500 CASH BACK’ - Guaranteed ^ ' Approval** ** * 1500 CASH BACK VALID FOR 2003 MITSUBISHI GALANT WITH EDUCATION EDGE. 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