Station Breaks

Kirk Baird

Friday, Feb. 18, 2000 | 8:51 a.m.

Forget network daytime television. Las Vegas has had its own version of a soap opera playing out on the UNLV campus for nearly two years.

The setting is the campus radio station, KUNV 91.5-FM.

Ever since the station switched from a predominantly college rock format to an almost all-jazz format,there's been controversy and intrigue, money lost and gained, protests and lots of politicking.

The cast is composed of several groups:

* There's the Nevada College Radio Alliance, formerly Rock Radio Alliance, whose stated mission is to return KUNV to the students, both in terms of operations -- meaning students serving as management and on-air talent -- and format. The NCRA wants KUNV to revert to a predominantly rock 'n' roll play list.

* There's Don Fuller, KUNV general manager. Fuller's been there for five years. It was his idea to change the financially troubled station's format to jazz as a means of restoring profitability.

* There's the student senate, which recently voted not to allocate $60,000 for KUNV because of what Student Body President Jennifer Peck said was lack of increasing student involvement in the station.

* Then there's the recently formed advisory board, which is composed of 11 members: four students, four faculty members or administrators, two from the radio profession and one member of the community. It's the job of the board to determine the station's future. Before it could do that, though, the board needed to know the history of the station and what it was up against.

Baby steps

KUNV began in the early '80s as a completely student-run entity. Starting as a low-powered lark, the rock 'n' roll station continued to grow and eventually was broadcasting with 15,000-watt capacity.

In the mid-'90s, however, KUNV fell upon hard times. Listenership was down, as was ad revenue. Fuller said that in a student survey conducted about the same time, 90 percent of those polled either were not aware of the station or did not tune in. Fuller said he tried to talk to those at KUNV involved with the rock format about how to better promote the station and turn it around, while still maintaining a rock playlist, but to no avail. So he pushed to turn the station to all-jazz.

"I don't care about the station's format. What I've got to do is make this a healthy station," Fuller said. "It's not a personal thing at all."

So the station went to full-time jazz on May 18, 1998. By then the students had given up control of KUNV. But a faction of students wanted it back and to return it to its original rock format. The Rock Avenue Alliance was born. Named for a popular program on the station, one of the first things the group did was organize a protest in the form of a concert in early June of the same year. The show featured 10 acts and was a great success, said Brian Alvarez, a student activist with NCRA and a founding member.

But the protest didn't attract just students.

"Congresswomen Shelley Berkley, who was a candidate at the time, came and spoke," Alvarez said. "We've kept in touch with her ... she said if there's anything she can do, she would help us. We haven't needed her services just yet."

In August 1998 the Rock Avenue Alliance stepped up its pressure when it met with the state Board of Regents, which owns KUNV's license, to discuss the station's future. The regents then turned it over to UNLV President Carol Harter, who in turn created a task force.

The job of the task force was to evaluate the status of the station. In the group's opinion, KUNV presented educational opportunities for students, and it was recommended that the station be turned over to the provost office, which handles reports from the academic colleges. It also suggested that an advisory board be formed to review the situation and make a decision concerning the station's format and student involvement.

And that's how the advisory board came to be. Formed in the spring of 1999, the group's first meeting was in April. However, the two radio professionals and one community member were not not aboard at that time, having not yet been approved. By the next meeting the board was in place, but by then the student representatives were graduating, so replacements had to be found.

Plus, with summer approaching, the group decided to break until the fall semester, when everyone would be able to attend the meetings.

In September the fully-staffed board devoted its first meeting of the semester to hearing representatives from the NCRA, the beginning of a series of conferences with the various groups involved.

It was the beginning of what David Henry, director of the Hank Greenspun School of Communication and chair of the advisory board, said is the group's first objective: trying to assess where the radio station is now, and "how it operates in the context of the university, how it differentiates from other types of radio stations."

And although the argument of past students in the NCRA was that KUNV was a student station, Henry said that the reality is that it's a university station, not only for students, but faculty and administrators. "Right now, the station has a budget of a quarter-million dollars and the students pledge about $60,000 of that," he said.

Actually, not anymore, since the student senate voted to rescind its funding to KUNV. It was a move that drew concern from many, including regent Howard Rosenberg. "If the students want a voice in this, they're going about it the wrong way," Rosenberg said. "You have to pay to sit at the table."

As for the argument that not enough students are involved with the station, he said it simply takes time. "What I've been told is that there are upwards of 10 interns at the station," Rosenberg said. "I'm hoping that when the students see this (process) is indeed working, they might reconsider their support."

Peck said that she has seen some positive signs from KUNV, and put a proposal in front of the student senate Feb. 7 to give $20,000 to the station as a sign of good faith. It didn't pass. "The senate felt like we had already given (KUNV) that chance last year, and they want to see significant improvements before they give them more money," she said.

Back at the station

As Fuller conducted a recent tour of KUNV, on the third floor of the Moyer Student Union building on the UNLV campus, he acted like a proud father pointing out his children's accomplishments. Only in this case it's new equipment, such as a control board the disc jockeys use and digital audio tape machines, or the larger office space with more computers for everyone.

It seems he's got a reason to smile.

When he took over the station it was in disarray, he said. The station was unprofessional, with no budget and no projections as to where the station was going and how it was going to get there. The equipment was in disrepair. "If this was a business, in the shape it was in, it would have been gone a long time ago," he said.

As proof, he said that shortly after his appointment as interim general manager, the administration began a search for a replacement. There were no takers. Perhaps as a testament to the job he's done, the administration dropped "interim" from his title two years ago, making him a full-time general manager.

And on Tuesday afternoon he related this news: KUNV was among five nominees for jazz station of the year by Gavin, a media-based magazine Fuller called "the bible for the recording and music industry."

"I want to take this station in a direction where it is a credit to the university and it enhances the president's ideas for the university. The station should be a part of that," he said.

To do that, Fuller wants to continue to update the equipment, to better match the real-world environment students will one day be a part of, and to make KUNV as professional-sounding as possible.

Only through community support (read: money) is that possible, he said. And the only way to get that support is to offer the public something it wants. In a jazz format, Fuller said he's found that something.

He said KUNV ratings and revenue are both on the rise since the format change. For example, in the spring of '97, before the format switch, KUNV had a cumulative audience of 26,100 in a 24-hour period. A year later, after the switch, the station recorded a 35,500 cumulative. And the revenues from the latest fiscal year, 1998-99, were at an all-time high of $59,000.

Alvarez does not deny the station was faring badly -- both in ratings and revenue. However, he contends that was simply because Fuller and his staff didn't like the format and, therefore, didn't promote it.

"In 1997 (KUNV) won the college radio station of the year thanks to the 'Rock Avenue' program," he said. "They also won rock music programmer of the year. Don Fuller didn't care. His agenda was to bring all jazz to that station. It was the only programming he liked that would bring a constant flow of money" to the station.

The station management never gave incentives to the listeners in the form of on-air promotions, Alvarez said. "They only focused on jazz programming and didn't care what students thought and (about) the programs that were successful."

It's an accusation Fuller denies, saying he doesn't care which direction the station goes as long as it stays profitable and offers students a chance to get real-world experience. "I'm trying to create a healthy structure ... you put out a product that will do that. That's all I'm about."

As for the loss of student senate funding, Fuller said that he found the decision "rather disappointing," but there's nothing he can do about it. He said that although there aren't as many students involved in the station as in years' past, those who are there are getting better experience.

Fuller also hopes to develop a relationship with other areas of the school, such as the School of Journalism. "There's potential here," he said. But that potential takes money, and without the money from the senate it becomes more difficult to hire more students, Fuller said.

The future

What will happen to KUNV is anybody's guess.

Some would like to see it remain the way it is, while others would like for the students to have another station. The latter idea became more plausible when the Federal Communications Commission recently said that it isn't concerned with low-powered stations, nor does it oversee FM cable systems, which do not broadcast over the air.

While using a low-powered station or going with cable are both viable alternatives for students, there are drawbacks. The low-watt station would barely generate a signal three miles from its source. So, in a commuter school such as UNLV, many students would be out of range for a good portion of the broadcast. A UNLV cable station would also be limited, in this case to buildings on campus that are wired for cable systems.

Neither option is an acceptable alternative to the NCRA, said Alvarez, who feels that the more powerful KUNV provides students with a voice for the community. Fuller, however, sees either method as a sort of feeder system to KUNV. Students would run the station, and as they developed their communication skills, they could work their way up to the more "professional" atmosphere of KUNV.

Regardless of the viewpoint, both options are expected to be addressed by the advisory board, perhaps as early as today.

Meanwhile, Fuller said he's been talking with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting about bringing in some consultants familiar with college radio who can offer advice on the direction of the station. In turn, he said he hopes that the board of regents, student government and everyone else involved can reach an agreement on the direction of the station.

"I just want people to come up with a program that works," he said. "I want people to realize what a jewel we have here.

And once that's done?

"I'm outta here," he said, a smile beginning to form.

As for the NCRA, members of the group will continue to meet once a week at a coffee shop near campus to discuss their plans, as they have done since the organization's inception. Right now Alvarez said that the group is taking a wait-and-see approach. But if things don't begin to change at the station in terms of increasing the number of student volunteers, and if there isn't both a format and management makeover, he said the NCRA will become "very aggressive" in its protest.

"We were very tame last time, but this time there's no holds barred," said Alvarez, who's delaying his graduation at least one semester to help with the potential protests. "This time our lobbying efforts could include attacking the university's funding that they get from the state. It will probably include involving the state Legislature and definitely the national news.

"The sky's the limit," he said.

The plot thickens ... stay tuned.

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