By Annie Holub
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 16, 1997

The latest from the kids at KAMP

Tanith L. Balaban Arizona Daily Wildcat Mike Schneider, a molecular and cellular biology senior (left) and Steve Krolikowski a psychology and computer science senior, attempt to find the KAMP signal on the old radio.

It's happened to all of us. Flipping through local radio stations and finding that the same song is being played on more than one station simultaneously.

Off campus, the only possible reactions are to slam a cassette into the deck, turn the radio off or start screaming the words to the "Reading Rainbow" theme or some other miscellaneous quickly-recalled ditty in order to drown out the relentless sounds of whatever the hit of the day is.

On campus, fortunately, you've got some other options.

KAMP student radio, 1570 AM or TCI channels 98 and 60, brings the students at the University of Arizona diverse listening pleasure from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Although a small station, that admittedly doesn't come in too well on the average radio dial, KAMP has been working hard over the past few years to expand listenership and make the airwaves surrounding the campus interesting and anti-monotonous. Everything from punk to retro, hip hop to oldies, metal to ska and electronic to a capella can be heard at some point on KAMP.

"Our bread and butter is normal college rock/alternative," says Program Director Kevin Kleinhenz. "But people do play country every once in a while."

With 157 members, KAMP has been growing and expanding over the past couple of years, enlarging listenership and broadcast time. Four years ago, KAMP was only on the air from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and "we're thinking about expanding again," says Klienhenz.

Just recently, KAMP got the Memorial Student Union wired. Speakers in front of Domino's will be rockin' out with KAMP specialties from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., every day. Speakers in the ceiling by Louie's Lower Level also provide the progressive and collegiate forum for music. So if you're crusin' through the Student Union, stop and chew to some new and upcoming bands that you might never have heard before.

Tanith L. Balaban Arizona Daily Wildcat Above: Tamara Clark, an undeclared sophomore, gets on the airwaves in between cueing up songs for KAMP radio.

"We'll play something three to four weeks before the commercial radio stations do," says Kleinhenz. In that way, he continues, "we're helping out the bands."

About 40 compact discs a week come in from the College Music Journal and the many KAMPers get to sift through and see what's actually good. Everyone has to review CDs and follow certain rules.

Thinking you may want to join the ranks of college radio station disc jockeys? All you have to do is show up for the meetings, which are held Wednesdays at 5 p.m. in Old Chemistry, Room 111. "Anybody's allowed to come in," says Kleinhenz, "we encourage them to come and see if they're interested." First time KAMPers with little or no experience DJing become assistants for the older and wiser staffers so that they can learn how to use the equipment and become almighty DJs next semester.

As with all radio stations, the repertoire is not complete without talk shows. A half-hour news program runs daily, as does an hour-long sports show. Once a week, they'll do an interview. The Comedy Corner starts out the typical KAMP day, running from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 to 10 a.m. on Fridays. A faculty member does an informative Hispanic Hour show on Thursdays.

KAMP started out 10 years ago as more of a club. It was first broadcast exclusively through the cable station and it wasn't until three years ago that the station got the AM frequency. Originally, the station was broadcasting on 30 watts, but apparently that was interfering with another frequency, so the Federal Communications Commission required KAMP to bring the wattage down to "somewhere between 18 and 20, which is useless," says Klienhenz. Still, the station is sometimes detectable within very close proximity of campus and the nature of AM frequency makes it easier to pick up at night.

It's obvious that there's a problem when university students can't actually hear what KAMP has to offer. If you can't hear it, you don't know what you're missing and that's an unfortunate disadvantage to the media force that KAMP could become. Back when the wattage was at 30, KAMP could be heard even on the interstate at night. Now, it tends toward static and fuzz even five blocks north of campus. KAMP has been progressing toward solving this problem, the first step being the speakers in the Student Union. As for the next step, the station is working on getting a RealAudio server so that they can broadcast over the Internet, says Music Director Alec Kosky.

Right now, however, KAMP can be heard most Wednesdays on the Mall from noon to 1 p.m. Sometimes DJs will just go out and play some discs and other times some of the specialty shows showcase their particular interests. Interactive games are occasionally played on the Mall and when concerts are impending, "we'll have ticket giveaways, CD giveaways and all that," Klienhenz says.

As for the final frontier, KAMP is in the process of getting a FM frequency, which would inevitably make the station much more accessible to not only students but the entire community. Right now, KAMP is in the midst of a frequency check, during which the FCC checks to see if there are any available frequencies in Tucson. The whole process, including the check, paperwork, getting the right equipment, engineer and so on, can take anywhere from six months to a year, says Kleinhenz.

Nonetheless, the station is there and playing good music that's chosen by the members and DJs who are always overjoyed when they get requests from listeners. You potential listeners need to know that KAMP is out there and at your listening disposal. If you have some time to kill, take a seat on those white wire Alice-in-Wonderland type chairs around the Student Union and you might just hear something that really turns your ears inside out, if ears could in fact turn themselves inside out.

The KAMP schedule is currently being revamped, so for more accurate showtimes, names and the like, you can call the station at 621-8173. The request number is 621-5806.