PSU Magazine Winter 1999

,, I R adio KPSU broadcasts seven days a week from a tiny air room in the subbasement of Smith Center. It might take awhile to find a radio that can even catch the signal (it's at 1450 on the AM dial), and even then it might only work with an extra long antenna pointed just so. But once found , the signal is loud and clear. Very loud , indeed. It is often , in fact, broadcasting ear-rend– ing rock and roll music. "You're listening to Psychotic Japanese Chihuahua on radio KPSU," a voice says. "Stay tuned for Shrinkrap." Traditionally, college radio is a fo rum for new music and ideas. But student-run KPSU is a little bit different even among the different. It offers music programs showcasing genres many people have never heard of before-such as "lndie" rock, hip hop and ska-– alongs ide sober public affairs including a show about father– hood, another about cancer, and the award-winning program on psychology, Shrinkrap. Somehow, KPSU succeeds at tying together different strands of the campus community, and has done so since way before its first broadcast on October 1, 1994. Kristin Kibler, a student and the station 's manager, has been at KPSU longer than almost anyone, since July 1994. But even she wasn't yet on the scene when students first agitated to create KPSU, or, rather, recreate it. There had been a station in the early 1970s, and the basic equipment of a small air room remained. About eight years ago, a core of interested students and staff canvassed the campus to start a new station, earning thousands of signatures in just a few days. They successfully lobbied the administration for support, then researched the best ways to obtain a bandwidth, or broad- casting frequency - an almost impos– sible task. The students found a way to lease air time by the hour from KBPS, the radio station of the Portland Public Schools. KPSU started airing from 5 p.m. to midnight; now the station runs from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. "I think there's definitely an educati onal aspect to KPSU, because there's an adviser but we do every– thing down here ourselves," Kibler says. That includes se lling ads, fund raising, promotion, graphic design, marketing. "Probably everything that PSU offers, there's something you can do with it here," she adds. Last year even a student in child development led three class– rooms of youngsters through the air room and made "carts," or station identifica– tion recordings, that are st ill used on air. Funded by student fees, the ration is also branching out into a wider funding base, offering memberships for listeners, and underwriters' grants for businesses to sponsor particular programs. In early January the station held a big kickoff party to launch its two biggest new promotions, the KPSU Listener's Card, which members can use/ or discounts at local businesses, and a spec ial KPSU compilation CD featuring many of the inde– pendent rock and hiphop bands that play live on the air every week (many of whom also played this year on the KPSU Stage at the North by Northwest contemporary music festival in Portland). In a sense, perhaps it's fa ir to say KPSU is less like a typical radio station, and more like a cultural state– ment. "It can be whatever the volun– teers make it," Kibler says. 0 WINTER 1999 PSU MAGAZINE 15