KSLU, Saint Louis University’s student-run radio station, started a long walk toward the recognition it deserves.
The station recently secured 15 hours of weekly airtime on KDHX 88.1 FM, a local radio station. It will be broadcast in two on-campus eateries, Grand Market and The Bean. It has been featured on and invited back to XM Radio channel 43 XMU, where it showcased SLU’s musical tastes. Appearances indicate that SLU’s radio station is on its way to wider recognition.
KSLU’s steps toward a greater presence on campus-though well-earned and long-overdue-are better defined as small steps than as bounding leaps.
True, the station will be broadcast on local radio, but it will only be heard on High Definition radio. Unless you have purchased a $100 HD radio for your vehicle or $150 HD radio for your home, you’ll only hear static when searching for KSLU.
Plus, when KSLU’s KDHX hours begin in September, it will likely play in the middle of the night. Not that that would deter collegiate insomniacs from tuning in, but for those of us trying to fulfill an eight-hour sleep quota, we may miss KSLU’s debut.
Though the station will be aired in Grand Market and The Bean, the feed will not be live. Instead, the restaurants will pipe in pre-recorded DJ playlists, while students eat, chatter and study. Though pre-produced lists may actually benefit students-most of us can’t study to head-banging heavy metal, so tunes tailored to each venue’s needs will be apropos-it would still be marvelous to hear KSLU on the radio, in real time.
And really, why should organizers stop with Grand Market and The Bean? KSLU could extend the same system to the lobbies of residence halls, to the Griesedieck cafeteria, to the Billiken Club and, when the weather finally clears, to SLURuba.
The prospect of SLU owning its own station simply isn’t plausible. There aren’t any FM stations on the market; if there were, the cost of owning and operating one would be astronomical. But it’s still difficult to shake the pleasant thought of traipsing out to the Quad, bocce balls and croquet mallets in hand, to partake in a few lawn sports amid delightful melodies spun by KSLU.
KSLU, we’re proud of your advances, and we’re rooting for you. But, once you get the new changes onto the airwaves, you’ll have to turn up the volume-because even now, we simply can’t hear you.