University Daily Kansan Monday, Sept. 14, 1953
Student Station KDGU Takes Air at 4 Today
Station KDGU, wired wireless campus radio station, will take to the air waves for the first time at 4 p.m. today.
Freshmen women at North College
Freshmen women at North College and Corbin hills will hear the result of two years of planning by the University to offer students interested in radio a chance to develop that interest with practical experience
THIS IS STATION KDGU. YOUR ... Engineering personnel watch the control panel in the control room as Mark Gilman, education senior and station announcer, rehearses on the other side of the glass in Studio A.
and study. For the first time a Bachelor of science degree in journalism with a major in radio may be obtained.
The student-managed and operated station, dialed at 630 kilocyles, will be on the air from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Studios are located in Rooms 217 and 220 Journalism building.
The project was begun in the fall of 1951 when Eurton W. Marvin, dean of the school of Journalism, appointed a committee to work out a radio curriculum. In March 1953, Frankl'n D. Murphy, chancellor, approved the laboratory station with pilot installation in North College and Corbin halls.
Courses leading to a degree in the radio-journalism sequence which are open this fall are Fundamentals of Speech, Reading and Interpretation, Reporting I, Introduction to Radio, Radio Speaking, Continuity Writing, News and Special Events, and a lab course in Journalism. This course is offered for students in a supervisory or manager capacity at the station.
"The University's objective was to set up a sequence that would be all-inclusive, so that students could do a number of things in radio, and to draw upon the appropriate resources of the University," said Dean Marvin. To do that, three nuts were combined into a department of speech and drama, and the educational radio stations KANU and KFKU, for advanced students.
Don Dixon, associate professor of speech and drama, is director of the new curriculum. He's enthused about the sequence because "it gives students experience in actually managing and operating a radio station. They can develop types of programming and search for more efficient methods, but above all, it develops their initiative," he said.
—Photos by Jerry Knudson and Eileen Foey
OBLONG TABLE DISCUSSION—Programming and policy are discussed around the table microphone by Mary Kinnane, Gene Reynolds, instructor in speech and faculty adviser; Don Dixon, associate professor of speech and drama and director of the radio curriculum; Patricia Mitchell, college senior and chief engineer; Dave Hicks, and Lynn Osborn.
Station manager is Lynn Osborne, assistant instructor in speech and graduate student, who sets the policy for the station. "We plan to give the freshmen women the type of programs they want," he said "and eventually operate more than four hours each day."
Mary Kimmane, assistant instructor in speech and graduate student, is program manager, and Gene Reynolds, instructor in speech and drama, is faculty adviser. Other staff members are college seniors Jo Ann March, traffic manager; Carolyn West, continuity chief, and Dave Hirks, businessman; Eleanor Newen, businessman; Elizabeth special events editor; Patricia Mitchell, college senior, chief engineer; Russell Wigglesworth, journalism senior, and Glen Yancey, business junior, engineers and announcers.
Ed Smith, college senior; Jim Doherty, engineering sophomore, and Ward Ferguson, college seniors, engineers and Bob Brooks, journalism junior, and Mark Gilman, college senior, announcers.
More than 5,000 records from the Lang-Worth transcription library will form the backbone of the station's programming, particularly until classes resume and "live" shows can be presented. Students in the radio-journalism sequence will work with staff members at the station.
ALMOST ON THE AIR-Studying the script just before spinning the platter is Russell Wigglesworth, journalism junior, KDGU engineer and announcer. With one hand keeping the record from whirling on the turntable, with the other he prepares to twist the volume dial on the control panel, or console, to "bring up" the music.