days. Back in 1988 under their old KNLU calls they became one of the earliest college staitons to webcast. KLPI started out as WLPI-AM, a thesis paper on the subject of carrier currents that was written for a graduate Electrical Engineering class in 1966.By 1969 the students from this class rented an office on Railroad Avenue with their own money and founded the start-up and operation of a real WLPI-AM. The station prospered and by 1972 switched to FM operation at 10 watts. But by December of 1982 they were running at 4,000 watts. But then after they applied to go to 20,000 watts things just fell apart.
Louisiana Tech University had a problem. Their transmitter was very old and falling apart. Normally a schools 
board of directors would choose (by not choosing) to allow the transmitter to die a slow death and refuse to take action until it went to that great parts store in the sky. But in their defence transmitters are not cheap, and can't exactly get picked up at Radio Shack. This was going to cost a cool 100 grand easily.
But while approaching senility the KLPI transmitter began to cause interference with research and experiments in the on-campus science labs. This forced their hand. They asked KLPI to power down to reduce the problem so they could get back to doing nothing and not fixing the problem.
As an Engineer I am absolutly flustered by "not-fixing" as a solution. The "do-nothing" option makes me batty. Read more here. So KLPI after 4 decades of forward movement... takes a step backward.
board of directors would choose (by not choosing) to allow the transmitter to die a slow death and refuse to take action until it went to that great parts store in the sky. But in their defence transmitters are not cheap, and can't exactly get picked up at Radio Shack. This was going to cost a cool 100 grand easily.But while approaching senility the KLPI transmitter began to cause interference with research and experiments in the on-campus science labs. This forced their hand. They asked KLPI to power down to reduce the problem so they could get back to doing nothing and not fixing the problem.
As an Engineer I am absolutly flustered by "not-fixing" as a solution. The "do-nothing" option makes me batty. Read more here. So KLPI after 4 decades of forward movement... takes a step backward.
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I was a DJ at KLPI from '82 to '87, it was a great station but there was little support for it among the university. There was also a problem with the station coming in over cable TV, due (I think) to the cable being installed without good filters. It is sad, indeed, that such a great station is being allowed to die.
ReplyDeleteChris
I was the General Manager of KLPI from 1996-1999. A few points: KLPI was never KNLU... you're thinking of the ULM (University of Louisiana at Monroe) station KXUL. Also, the station is slowly dying for two reasons: 1. it is not (or at least it wasn't) tied to any academic curriculums or courses, which means the school doesn't care if they live or die, and 2. it's entirely student-run. KLPI still retains the bad reputation it got in the 80's and early 90's (counterculture, drug use, harshly critical of the university, etc.) and there is no university employee that can be threatened with unemployment to get the station to be a lapdog. In short LATech has never been comfortable with its own radio station and after dealing with many in the administration during my time there I'm convinced they would pull the plug tomorrow if it wasn't such an established organization. I'm still disgusted that my 20kW proposal was shelved until I graduated, then it vanished.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the info. I'll make a correction!
ReplyDeleteWell guess what everyone, its 2008 and the station is still up and running perfectly fine. Actually probably better than ever. Even though we haven't gotten our transmitter, we are on the breaking verge of getting it. This is still and will be a great station for many years, so stop loosing faith in hands that take care of this place.
ReplyDeleteHey guess what? It's 2008 and KLPI is still up and running just as proudly as ever. Even though we have yet to get the transmitter, we are closer than ever. FYI KLPI was never KNLU as the other person said.. yes WLPI but now we are so proudly standing strong and loud with KLPI. So don't loose faith or lack it for that matter in the hands that keep this station running day to day, year after year. Look forward to seeing it stay for awhile.
ReplyDeleteDJ and Exec Member-2008