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Wednesday, November 27, 1996

MEDIA:

Many obstacles made KLA's comeback slow; new web page hopes to create greater access for studentsBy Jennifer Mukai

Daily Bruin Contributor

"UCLA RADIO IS BACK," blared the ads.

"UCLA had a radio station?" asked second-year economics student Ryan Glover.

That surprise was not uncommon among students who saw the ads this week announcing the return of KLA, UCLA's radio station.

According to Student Media Director Arvli Ward, KLA vanished at the end of the 1994-95 academic year because Ackerman Grand Ballroom ­ the location of the radio station's offices ­ was being renovated. Since then, he said, numerous obstacles made KLA's return a slow one.

A major factor, said Ward, was the struggle to move from a closed circuit to the FM airwaves. From its birth in the 1960s, KLA was a "closed carrier current" station, available only to locations wired to it. Over the last 30 years, those locations gradually expanded to include such places as the dorms and Ackerman Student Union. During KLA's absence, an attempt was made to purchase a broadcast frequency, but that hope never materialized.

"In a sort of strange reversal, we had a donor for potential funding, but nothing to buy," said Ward of the difficulty in finding an available FM frequency at that time.

Nonetheless, KLA is now on the verge of a comeback. It will remain a closed carrier current for now, and will be wired to the dormitories by the time it goes back on the air, currently targeted for January 1997.

"There was never a question that it would return," Ward said. "How, when, where we would deliver a signal ­ these were things that needed to be worked out over time. It was a process of the pieces coming together."

KLA will be going interactive when it does return in January. Jason Preston, KLA General Manager two years ago and currently Interim General Manager, announced at an orientation meeting Monday night that a KLA world wide web site is under development.

"We're trying to nail down as many ways as we can to be heard," stated Preston. This, he continued, was one way to get past the problem of not having a radio transmitter that would allow KLA to be heard across the airwaves.

The web site will feature, among other things, live and archived broadcasts of music, shows, and Bruin sports events. According to Preston, students will be able to surf other sites on the web or work on a paper with KLA streaming through their computer speakers. He added that the software that would make this possible hasn't been decided on yet, but will be made freely available to students at no charge.

Preston expressed hopes that the web site will eventually take on its own identity of sorts, saying, "KLA Online will hopefully become almost its own entity, and music would just be a part of it."

At Monday night's meeting, Preston expressed similar openness in the search for both KLA's identity and for its new staff. Of the former, he described KLA as being a sort of cross between the stations KROQ and KCRW. But, he added, KLA is trying to find its own audience.

"KLA is geared toward alternative (music)," he stated, but emphasized that the station will offer weekend specialty shows possibly covering genres as diverse as reggae, industrial, classical and blues.

"You don't have to be an alternative music fan (to work here), you don't even have to be a music fan," he said. He went on to cite a number of departments and positions that would be opening up to students, including news, sports, promotions, production, programming, operations and engineering, and a web department. Students in the audience seemed intrigued by another department, the "rolling party unit," which will travel around to do "spinning for parties."

First-year theater student Kristi Chong had trouble deciding what kind of show she'd like to host, if she were to eventually host one. At a community college radio station she worked at, she said, the DJs had no control over the playlist.

"This is the first station I've heard of where we have this much freedom," she remarked. She finally decided that she would probably like to feature musical theater shows like "Starlight Express" and "Jesus Christ Superstar." Or, she added, she might want to air '80s music or Motown.

First-year biology student Chris Zoumalan is interested in his own comedy talk show on society and life in general.

"I have a cynical view of things sometimes," he said. "I'd like to see how people respond to that."

Preston called Monday's orientation a "preemptive meeting," saying that a larger meeting will be held in the first week of January to select staff and DJs.

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