NEW RADIO STATION AT SEMO WILL HOLD EVENTS THIS WEEK TO BOOST OPERATION; KMXQ OPERATES OUT OF REMODELED QUARTERS THAT HOUSED KRCU

Southeast Missouri State University senior Randy Williams labors in obscurity as manager of a new campus radio station.

"Right now we are probably one of the best-kept secrets on campus," he said Tuesday. "It's a little frustrating because people don't know about it."

Although the station KMXQ, 530 AM began broadcasting from a small studio in the Grauel Building last October, Williams concedes that few students on campus are even aware of its existence.

Williams hopes that a grand-opening celebration, which begins today and runs through Friday, will help to promote the station.

The station plans to broadcast live from Towers cafeteria during the dinner hours, from 4-6 p.m., all three days. There will be a number of prizes given out, including CDs, Williams said.

"We've been broadcasting on the air since October, but we just really haven't done a lot of promotional-type things," he said.

"We started this station to represent the students as well as be a good lab for the students in the radio option," explained Williams, who became interested in radio in high school after viewing the movie, "Good Morning, Vietnam."

The university previously had a campus radio station. But in November 1990 that station, KRCU, 90.9 FM, became a National Public Radio station, with an emphasis on classical music and other fine-arts programming.

"The reason the station was started was because students no longer had a student station," said Williams. NPR programming doesn't appeal to the majority of students, said Williams.

KMXQ operates out of remodeled quarters, which once housed the KRCU studio.

It's funded by the university, although Williams said he hopes the station can eventually sell advertising to raise a little money. "What we would like to do is raise money to print T-shirts and bumper stickers and things like that."

Unlike a regular radio station, however, KMXQ is transmitted by cable to all the campus residence halls. The signal is also received in the University Center and the Grauel Building, and efforts are under way to provide a direct link to the Student Recreation Center as well, Williams said.

A low-power transmitter at each building is used to broadcast the signal. "If you are standing about 50 to 100 feet outside of the building, you couldn't pick up the station," he explained.

The station is on the air 24 hours a day, six days a week, Sunday through Friday. The station, which is operated entirely by students, broadcasts locally each day from 7-9 a.m., and from 5-11 p.m.

The remainder of the music programming is provided through the Super Audio Network, which is transmitted by the local television cable operator, TCI Cablevision of Missouri, Williams said.

The campus studio broadcasts involve a wide range of music. "We play six different formats of music and mix them together," he said.

The station features Christian rock, rap, alternative, heavy metal, country and classic rock.

"This is the only station in Cape Girardeau mixing all the music together," he said.