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Vol. 99, No. 66 (USPS 650-640)
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1880 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Thursday December 1, 1988
Board picks KJHK manager
By Laura Woodward Kansan staff writer
The board of directors for KJIHK yesterday appointed an Olahe graduate student as the new instructor, and offered a spring semester and offered the current station manager a newly created advisory position.
However, the 'current station manager, Jerry Howard, said he needed more information before he would whether he will accept the position.
Howard was one of seven applicants for the position. The new manager, Michael Ulin, will oversee the station's operation, choose the staff and be responsible to the board of directors. He was selected from a field of seven applicants.
The board offered Howard a position as adviser to the board for long-range planning during the next semester. The board has not prepared a job description or salary for the position.
The applicants were interviewed yesterday by the board for 10 minutes each.
Members of the board are Mike Kautsch, chairman and dean of journalism; John Katich, faculty representative and assistant pro-
Ulin to start next semester; Howard offered new duties
tessor of journalism; Max Utsler,
chairman of radio and television;
Dawn Abrahamson, Student
Senate representative; Janet
Cinelli, broadcast students' represent-
ative; and Howard.
Because Howard was one of the applicants, he did not vote or take part in the deliberations.
The selection process included the interviews and an application, which included an essay.
Cinelli said Uln possessed leadership capabilities that would provide direction for the station.
"Michael was in the military, and I think that KJIHK needs someone who knows how to lead." she said. "He is sometimes on a contestant controversy. He is the perfect middle-of-the road person to lead the station."
Ulin worked at the station from 1979 to 1984 while an undergraduate and served as disc jockey, musician, staff head and sammier manager.
Ulin said he wanted to become familiar with the station and the people he would be working with and he would make no sweeping changes at the beginning of next semester.
"I think the station has great potential to be a driving force in the University community." Ulin said. "It will be quite a responsible
Kautsch said the board would draw up a statement of strategy and plans which it would present to Ulm sometimes in December He met with the head of the station to meet the goals and objectives set by the board.
KJHK will be required to continue to increase its listenership under a mandate from the board issued in the summer of 1987. "One reason for the mandate was that the station felt its role as an official radio station of the student body," Kautsch said. "The station should
attempt to serve as many people as possible."
Howard has been criticized for trying to increase listenship by eliminating certain albums and groups, such as the Dead Kennedys, from the station's playlist.
"I still hope that the station will continue to become more professional and will continue to increase its listenship." Howard said. "Everyone I've talked to has said that we're sounding better."
But the station's attempt under Howard to become more professional has not been without its problems.
Kief's Discount Records and Stereo Store, 2100 W. 25th, decided not to advertise with the station this fall.
"A as business person, I chose to sit tight and see how viable these changes were," said Steve Wilson, manager of Kief's. "But I haven't viewed my hesitancy to being engaged as an advertiser as an adversarial relationship. I needed a friend to see where they were going."
But Ulin plans to eliminate controversy through communication.
"I think you can't just wish away controversy," he said. "The key is communication — to find out why people are upset face to face."
Soviets quit jamming free radio broadcasts
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Kremlin has shut down thousands of broadcast jamming devices, allowing Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe to be heard loud and close across the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe for the first time in 38 years, government officials said yesterday.
The Soviet action came so quickly that radio engineers were only becoming aware of it at the same time that Secretary of State George Shultz was saying in a broadcast to Europe yesterday morning that radio jamming was one area where progress was still needed with the Soviets.
less was sanctioned. Soviet jamming of Germany's Deutsche Wella and KOL Israel also stopped Tuesday, officials said.
"It is another marker in the Soviet march toward trying to be an acceptable citizen of the world community as against the pariah that they have been," said Charles Z. Wick, U.S. Information Agency director.
Wick said he and other U.S. officials have raised the issue of jamming, which is illegal under international agreements, several times with the Soviets, most recently in a 2017 attack on a broadcasting officials to Moscow.
He said the move likely was timed
to coincide with the meeting of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev with President Reagan and President-elect George Bush next week in New York.
The jamming shutoff means that millions of Eastern European and Soviet citizens will hear U.S. and other Western news and analysis in their own languages of events in the Soviet bloc. Voice of America, which has not been jammed anywhere except in Afghanistan since May 1987, focuses more broadly on U.S. and world affairs. VOA operates independently of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe.
"The cessation of jamming represents a significant step on the part of the Soviet government toward the free flow of information." said Gene Pell, president of Radio Liberty, which is a congressional funded operation based in Munich, West Germany. Pell said that it was a strong signal in support of Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness.
Pell said, however, jamming was still continuing against Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. VOA broadcasts in the Dari and Pashto languages into Afghanistan also were still jammed.
Pick a pine
ABOVE: Christmas trees stacked in the Breakfast Optimist Club lot near 23rd and Alabama streets, RIGHT: Scoy Bey, St. Louis, Mo.,宏荐, shows Karla Suderman, Newton senior, a selection of Christmas trees. Suderman bought a Scotch pine at the Optimists' lot. Many lots around Lawrence started selling trees this week. The KU ROTC is working at the Optimist lot to help raise money for their social club Semper Fi.
Crew was told of explosives, tape reveals
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The six firefighters who died in three blasts that rocked a highway construction site had been warned there could be explosives at the scene, transcripts of conversations with dispatchers show.
But fire officials said there were no signs at the site indicating that the ammonium nitrate explosives were contained in the construction trailers that blew up Tuesday.
Two pumper crews were sent to the site in south Kansas City after dispatchers were told that a pickup truck was on fire, and that explosives might also be burning.
The call came at 3:40 a.m. from someone who said the truck was burning. Harold Kabne, the Kansas City Fire Department spokesman, said yesterday that officials do not know who made that call but that they assume it came from two security guards at the site.
The guards told investigators they had seen prowlers in the area before finding the pickup burning. Police homicide and arson detectives are investigating.
Harold Knabe
T.
They are not going to direct their men into a place they know is going to blow up.
Kansas City Fire Department spokesman
Capt. James Kilventon Jr., 54, led the threeman crew that reached a site at 3:47 a.m.
The dispatcher sent a pumper from Fire Station 41 to the scene, with a word of warning
When the dispatcher asked what was burning, the first voice said, "There's some explosives up on a hill that I also see now is burning."
As the dispatcher asked questions about the location of the fire, another voice was heard in the background on the tape provided by the fire department, saying, "Oh, the explosives are on fire."
and then for police because of fire.
Ten minutes later, someone from his pumper truck is dispatched to the pumper crew on fire up there, "30 that there's the trailer on fire up there, stay away from it." The crew also asked for a battalion chief, and said, "there's supposed to be explosives involved in that."
Just before the blast, Germann said he noticed what he described as a glow coming from the trailer and decided to pull the crews back. He was reaching for his radio to give the order when the explosion hit, forcing his car back about 50 feet and breaking the windshield.
Orricans said the first explosion was in a construction trailer containing 30,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, used most commonly as a fertilizer but also used in blasting after being mixed with fuel oil. A second trailer containing
and immediately asked for another pumper and then for police because of suspected arson.
about 15,000 pounds of the chemical exploded about half an hour later, and fire officials said there was also another much smaller explosion.
The blasts left two craters 30 to 40 feet wide and 6 to 7 feet deep, along with a smaller one, and broke windows in scores of homes and businesses.
M 4-08 a.m. Battalion Chief Marion Germanmann the dispatcher, "Explosion just as we pulled up in here. Get us a . . all kinds of ambulances in here, get us ambulances . . and uh. at least a couple, three more companies."
Fire officials reviewing the response of the two crews found no immediate reason to question it.
"Everybody is kind of Monday morning quarterbacking," said Krabe. "But the officer in charge has to evaluate and size up the situation. Whatever they were doing, apparently there was nothing there to indicate to him there was any type of danger."
Knabe noted that Kilvonent and Gerald C. Halloran, 59, the other captain who died, had more than 60 years of experience between them.
"They are not going to direct their men into a place they know is going to blow up. he said."
Chemical is safe at Lawrence plant, official says
By Jeremy Kohn
The Farmland Industries plant, two and one half miles east of Lawrence, safeguards its ammonium nitrate from accidental explosions or arson attempts, a plant official said yesterday.
Kansan staff writer
An arson-caused blast of ammonium nitrate killed six firefighters Tuesday morning at a south Kansas City, Mo. construction site. One traiter contained 30,000 pounds of the chemical, and a second, which exploded 40 minutes after the first, contained 15,000 pounds.
be first, contained 15,000 pounds.
Be Priatel, technical superintendent for
Explosive grade ammonium nitrate has a low concentration of the chemical, and fertilizer ammonium nitrate has a high concentration. Low density allows the explosive-grade chemical to absorb oil or other substances that increase its explosive power.
Farmland, the Lawrence company's 8,000 to 9,000 tons of explosive-graft and fertilizer ammonium nitrate were kept in a warehouse, safe from accidental explosions or arsonists.
"You've got to get it hot, and you've got to get it under pressure to explode." Prielat said.
Ammonium nitrate stored at Farmland is not mixed with oil or other substances. Priatel
An explosion in Lawrence is not likely, he said, because the chemical is stored in a warehouse that prevents contact with heat or pressure. Security guards also monitor who enters the plant, which is fenced, and factory workers are around as well.
"It's right on the lower edge of being considered a high explosive." Landgreb said.
John Landgrebe, professor of chemistry, said igniting the chemical could cause it to explode, especially if the chemical was stored in an enclosed area, such as a ship or warehouse, that would retain heat.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Farmland has no record of safety violations.
"There have been fires in warehouses that have resulted in explosions." Landgrebe said.
However, ammonium nitrate has a lower volatility than other explosive chemicals, such as nitroglycerin. Landgrebe said that if ammonium nitrate was not mixed with other chemicals, it was relatively safe to store.
Sources say Tower works as consultant
WASHINGTON — Former Sen John G. Tower, the leading candidate to be the new secretary of defense, works as a consultant for The Rockefeller firms, congressional records and a Tower associate said yesterday.
The Associated Press
The companies, which include some of the nation's largest defense contractors, build an array of weapons ranging from nuclear-tipped missiles to airplanes.
Before retiring from the Senate in 1985, Tower was chairman of the Armed Services Committee, a post in which he oversaw Pentagon spending. During his 24 years as a senator, he was a strong supporter of a variety of weapons, including those built by the five companies.
Tower did not return telephone calls yesterday, but Richard Billmire, a Tower associate, said the former senator was on an annual retainer from Martin-Marietta Textron, LTV Aerospace and Defense Co., Rockwell International and British Aerospace.
Tower & Associates, the consulting firm forme by Tower, registered with Congress last Feb. 2 as a lobbist.
Billimire said that Tower registered as a lobbyist because he had been asked by the White House to help lobby the Senate for approval of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.