Brightly colored LPs line the walls, their usefulness relegated to aesthetic in this digital world. Tired student workers and DJs crash on the couch, “Austin Powers” blaring on the TV. A lone voice can be heard in the background. “It is now 7:49 a.m., if you have a 7:30 class, you are officially 20 minutes late.” John Zeringue, aka Vacherie Boy, mass communication senior from, of course, Vacherie, greets awakening students on 91.5 KNSU with a mix of metal and mayhem, the perfect antidote to late night study session hangovers. In existence since 1971, the student run radio station recently received its new broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission and immediately began broadcasting on Thursday, Sept. 2. “Our license expired over the summer and we were waiting for the FCC to fax us permission to resume broadcasting,” station manager Joshua Mcknight, aka Maximus, mass communication senior from Buffalo, N.Y. said. ” We immediately began broadcasting.”
The station receives its operating funds from a student-assessed fee of $3. Additional revenues are earned through the underwriting of programs by local businesses.
“We are not a commercial radio station,” McKnight aid. “We have to do things a little differently.”
With 11 returning DJs and staff members, the station is planning on hiring 11 additional DJs this week. According to McKnight, the incoming freshman class has shown a lot of interest in working at the station.
“They’re hyper,” Mckinght said. “They have a lot of energy and are excited about working here.”
Working at the station is more than just an ordinary on-campus job. Student workers often spend a lot of their non-class time hanging out at the station during the day and participating in Halo tournaments and other activities on the weekends.
“The experience involves me with people of not only different backgrounds but also different majors. We all bring something different to the radio station,” said Farrell Harrison, aka Fuzzy Furl, culinary arts sophomore from Chalmette. “We have psych majors, culinary, MACO (mass communication) majors, all types.”
“I really enjoy the company of the people I work with,” Zeringue said. “I feel I have made friends for life.”
It is this sense of community that often attracts incoming students to the radio station. A large majority of returning DJs and staff members started working at KNSU as freshmen. “I was walking to class the first part of my freshman fall semester, and I saw the radio tower,” Harrison said. “Good, I thought, they have a radio station. I walked in and have been working there ever since.”
Zeringue echoed Harrison’s sentiments.
“The people I have met and the friends I have made while working here have really made the difference. I am a lot more involved on campus, especially since I started working here.”
The station offers a broad mix of programming. From alternative to metal, R & B to country, most bases are covered. There is even a talk radio program, “Free Speech at Nicholls,” hosted by Glenn Antizzo, associate professor in the history and social sciences department, and student staffer Jayson Lee, a government junior from Thibodaux.
“It is a call-in program that reflects issues on campus as well as those problems in the world that affect Nicholls students,” Harrison said. “It is my favorite program.”
KNSU is currently in the middle of renovating and updating the facilities. The changes being made will allow the station to broadcast seven days a week, 24 hours a day. In addition to extended broadcast hours the station will also resume web casting, giving students and, effectively, anyone in the world, the ability to listen to the radio station over the Internet.
“(Working at the station) made me love my experience at Nicholls,” McKnight said. “I never thought I could have this much fun at college.
