# KZSU strives to make programs accessible
## 
### Liesl Olson 
KZSU's location — in the
dark, hidden basement of Memo
rial Auditorium — reflects the
place the radio station has in the
lives of many Stanford students.
But this quarter, the station's
new programs and projects have
focused on making their infa
mously random programming
more accessible without compro
mising diversity.
"We've become really just a
radio station located on the Stan
ford campus, rather than a Stan
ford radio station," said general
manager Noah Fogelson, a senior.
He said a large part of
KZSU's audience comes from
listeners around the Bay area,
who consistently tune into par
ticular programs not found on
commercial radio.
"We think that Stanford stu

dents don't listen to us because
they're not used to listening to
us," said senior Daniel Rosenberg,
the station *8 program director.
Rosenberg noted that many
students simply don't listen to
college radio in general.
"College radio and commercial
radio are completely different.
We don't try to compete with the
classic rock stations on commer
cial radio," Rosenberg said. "Col
lege radio is an alternative to
commercial radio rather than a
step below it."
Freshman Rob Whitlock
echoed the voice of many stu
dents when he said, "I don't even
know what number KZSU is on
the dial."
So the station is pandering to
students this quarter in hopes of
attracting more listeners and
dispelling some dressed-in-black
myths about the radio station,

Rosenberg said.
They will DJ student parties
for free, playing music that the
students want to hear in
exchange for publicity on party
flyers and banners.
Rosenberg said KZSU is also
trying to boost visibility through
involvement in the Friday Hip-
Hop nights at the Coffee House
and the recent "Rave," an all
night music festival, at the
Enchanted Broccoli Forest.
"Basically, we want to show
the community that KZSU is
staffed by humans rather than
mutants," he said.
But according to Rosenberg,
the station will continue to pre
serve its diverse programming.
There is a rap show that has
been running for about seven
years. Jazz and reggae play along
side Christian music, women's
music and Greek music in separate

shows, he pointed out.
These varied — or "random,"
some students say —programs
pose a dilemma, Rosenberg said.
"We discovered through a tele
phone poll done recently among
Stanford students that radio is
listened to mostly as background
music," Rosenberg said. "But the
diversity of most of our shows
makes them unable to be listened
to as background music."
This year, the regular music
programs, business talk show
and sports broadcasting have also
been supplemented by a program
called "Talk Back," which airs
discussions between people on
opposite sides of campus issues.
Some recent topics have con
cerned the debate about the
women's self-defense class being
cut and a confrontation between
first-year law student Keith
Rabois and Otero Resident
Assistant Dennis Matthies about
a homophobic comment Rabois
directed at Matthies' residence.
Student disc jockeys run all of
the station's shows and pro
grams. These DJs have most like
ly worked their way onto the air,
spending time around the radio
station doing staff work before
they receive their own shows.
But sophomore DJ Jennifer
Tsao, whose radio name is
"Faustina" (a party-goer from
"The Great Gatsby") went
straight to the top when she pro
posed an innovative show focusing
on the "linear ascetic of music."
On her show, "A Trip to Hell,"
she plays avant-garde classical
music back-to-back with indus
trial music, connecting the roots
of one within the other.
KZSU thought her idea was
so original that she was instant
ly given a time slot for her show
when she proposed her idea.
"We usually start new disc
jockeys off with a really heinous
time slot, like 3 to 6 a.m., and
they have to do a lot of work to
do around the station first,"
Rosenberg said.
However, he offered a bit of
inspiration to aspiring DJs — "If
they come to the station with a
really good idea, like Jennifer's,
and demand a show, we may just
give it to them."


Joshua Folk — Daily
"Talk Back" producer and director Wendy Lack is one of many students who have helped to change
Stanford radio station KZSU's format in order to make it more accessible to listeners.