While nearly every student at Nicholls State University has explored Talbot Hall, few have taken the time to venture into the sticker covered, CD filled room known as the KNSU studio.
When your radio is tuned to 91.5 FM in the Thibodaux area, you will find yourself listening to Nicholls’ own student run radio station under station manager Nicholas Gremillion, mass communication senior from Covington.
“I started here in the fall of 2010, and I was just a volunteer DJ, and I got promoted to assistant program director, and then I applies for station manager and got the job,” Gremillion said.
This is Gremillion’s first semester as manager, and he has high hopes and plans for KNSU, starting with increasing its use to Nicholls students.
In the past, KNSU has been made up of mostly alternative rock. Gremillion says that he is ready to change that by adding as many different genres as possible.
“We just want to play music that’s relevant to college students,” Gremillion said. “A lot of people these days have really diverse tastes in music, and they don’t want to hear just one genre. A problem in the past is we haven’t really played a lot of hip-hop, but I’m trying to have a pretty strong hip-hop and underground rap category.”
Gremillion said that the station will begin featuring music by unsigned bands from around the Thibodaux area.
“We really want to give all the local, unsigned artists around here a solid amount of airtime,” he said. “We have plans to have a show three days a week that plays nothing but local. There’s an amazing local music scene around here of all different types of music.”
While the station’s programming will be made up of mostly music, Gremillion said that there will be a variety of guests and shows on the air including a Nicholls public affairs show done by the mass communication department where someone from the university will discuss an ongoing topic on the air.
“We do campus announcements and community announcements, so it’s very relevant for the faculty and student population to listen to KNSU,” Gremillion said.
Gremillion also hopes to begin streaming the station online for listeners to hear KNSU over their computers.
“Online presence is huge, and the fact that we are not online is just beyond me,” he said. “The technology has been around for a very long time.”
According to Gramillion, KNSU’s biggest problem in the past was getting students to tune in. He hopes to change this during his time as the station’s manager.
“There’s no awareness about this whatsoever,” he said. “The people that do listen, however, say they love the station.”
In an attempt to help promote the station, KNSU will be involved with several events around the area. One of these events is called Shark After Dark. KNSU, the art club, the student programming association and student recreation will put it on. It will be held on August 25th at the Ayo pool.
“It’s a pool party put on where they will show a movie at the pool,” Gremillion said. “We are also going to have two local unsigned bands from the Thibodaux Houma area play for two hours before the movie.”
KNSU will also be putting on a contest for students to design the station’s new logo. The selected winner will earn two tickets to VooDoo Fest at the end of October.
KNSU will also be broadcasting the entire Houmapalooza concert on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 in downtown Houma.
KNSU’s staff has toured both Southeastern University’s and Louisiana State University’s radio stations.
“They were both extremely helpful and hospitable, and both gave us a lot of info,” he said. “The station manager of KLSU is going to be coming down here sometime in the fall to help us out.”
Gremillion’s main goal is to get KNSU organized with a staff that will run like a real radio station.
“We have an unlimited potential towards what we can do, but everything we do as a station has to have at least one to three people commit to it,” he said. “The only problem with KNSU is that the entire university doesn’t listen to the station. It’s the university’s greatest untapped resource because if everyone is listening to the station, it unites the campus.”
Gremillion is scheduled to graduate in 2013, but he wants his work with KNSU to carry on to the next station manager.
“We’re just trying to rebuild and get the station back up to par,” he said. “I may not be able to accomplish everything in the course of my tenure here, but I hope to set it up to potentially keep going on.”
Gremillion said that he knows for a fact that he will be station manager for one year, but that is all he knows for now.
“I hope to do as much for KNSU in my time here as possible,” he said. “My future is cloudy, and I can’t say what’s going to happen.”
