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Glitch kept KDIC off air

by Nikoloz Sakvarelidze

College radio stations across the nation are often accused of being plagued with problems because of technical malfunctions and employee inexperience. Last week KDIC had a technical problem that went a bit beyond the usual.

KDIC was off the air for a week beginning last Tuesday when the station's transmitter failed. The problem turned out to be a matter of switches being in a wrong position, but it took time to bring in a mechanic to identify and fix the problem.

The mechanic told station manager Graeme Miller '06 that he thought the problem was caused by the students breaking in the cooling station where the station's transmitter was housed. "He said that there were some hooligans in there messing around with the heating equipment," said Miller.

Student DJ Chris Farstad '09 said that he was surprised that the problem was so small. "I was secretly hoping that it was something major, so we could get new equipment," Farstad said.

KDIC employees are taking the problem seriously. "It's kind of bad, because it's kind of hard to get people to listen to the radio station anyway," said DJ Joe McNertney '06. "Going off air for a week [doesn't help that]."

Miller agreed. "It adds to the impression that the radio station is unprofessional and flaky," he said.

This was the first time that the station had been off air due to mechanical problem in at least three or four years, according to Miller. KDIC often has minor problems in the studio, but major problems with the transmitter are rare.

KDIC is not large enough to employ a full-time mechanic to fix problems when they arise. Instead, the station hires the mechanic for the University of Iowa's radio stations, Jim Davies, to come in when KDIC has a problem. Davies also works for many other stations in Iowa, including KGRN. He was not able to come in immediately to fix KDIC's problem, but when he did come in on Sunday, he was able to fix it in a few minutes.

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