After being off the airwaves, SMU’s student-run radiostation, KPNI, is getting ready to make a comeback with itsre-launch focusing on Web radio. The station revamp is expected tobring in new listeners from campus and around the world.
KPNI recently moved into the Belo newsroom as a part of thejournalism division and is no longer affiliated with the StudentMedia Co.
“Being a part of the journalism department provides uswith access to the wide variety of expertise available from theprofessors here,” station manager and junior journalism majorEmily Powell said.
The popularity of Web-casting has grown quickly in the past fewyears as a way to hear music from all over the world. Brian Fox,the assistant station manager and junior electrical engineeringmajor, said that this move to a new digital medium provides KPNIwith a much-needed way to reach listeners.
Fox said, “Our new digital station will offer much greaterstability and hopefully greater listener accessibility. We want allthe students here to listen. It’s their station.”
Powell agreed, saying, “We are working towards a formatall students can enjoy. Our new slogan is ‘Our format isyou’ because we’re here to be a creative outlet for allthe students here. We want every student to have avoice.”
Once KPNI goes digital, students who create and producecommentary, either music or news, have the option of submitting arecording of their program to be placed in rotation on SMU-TV.
Since its rocky start in 1947, KPNI has been forced to changewhere it can be heard, how it could be heard and even its name.According to the station’s Web site, KPNI, previously namedKSMU, moved from AM to FM, became a pirate radio station and thenbecame nonexistent.
Students’ reactions to the changes at KPNI varied.
Sophomore Devin Pitts, a mechanical engineering major, wassurprised to find out there was a radio station, while seniorpsychology major Liz Tanner said, “I haven’t listenedto it, but I’ve heard that they are changing. I thinkit’s an awesome idea.”
KPNI will be out on the Boulevard this Saturday, playing music,handing out a myriad of different music paraphernalia and showingeveryone its SMU spirit, Powell said.
For now, KPNI staff is working to get the station running whilegetting settled in its new home.
