Last Friday KNDS celebrated its 20th anniversary as a student-run radio station. Though a radio station had existed on campus before KNDS was created, it didn’t have a lot of student involvement opportunities, so it was only in 2004 that the opportunity to get involved in the running of a radio station was made available to NDSU students.
“We were originally in a building between the Alumni Center and Bison Turf…when this project started we were moved from Ceres Hall to give us this little space to work in,” said Cloy Todola, who was the general manager of KNDS when it was in its early stages. The radio station started with about a dozen students in a radio class, and Todola, then a graduate student, was asked to be the project’s advisor. While students worked on setting up the studio and getting the correct equipment to get it up and running, Todola took care of the administrative tasks that would allow KNDS to operate as a radio station.
Many hurdles had to be jumped before KNDS could get on the air. A fledgling radio station needs a license, called a construction permit, from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be permitted to broadcast. There were so many things to do before KNDS could begin broadcasting that they ended up having to ask for extensions on their initial FCC licensing, since once an FCC license is issued to a station it has a year to get on the air before it expires.
Though there had previously been a radio station on campus, they had been a fully licensed station and their antenna was far away, out of the reach of KNDS, a low-power station. Before installing an antenna, however, the Federal Aviation Administration needed to approve the location to avoid endangering planes landing at or taking off from the nearby Hector International Airport. The station’s antenna now stands atop Ladd Hall, well below the flight path of any plane.
“To make it easier to get the licensing we needed, KNDS partnered with a community radio group from the Fargo Theatre, what is now the Radio Free Fargo station, and shared a permit application,” said Tobola. “They worked with us very closely and they had an engineer who helped a lot with the technical side of the station.” Once the station was up and running, there were still some challenges—it was difficult to maintain continuity when students came and went in the typical college pattern so there was always someone to be trained, but KNDS has been going strong ever since.
Todola tunes in to KNDS from time to time and thinks it still serves its original purpose: to serve as a community resource, expand listeners’ views and introduce them to new music. Most importantly, KNDS gives students a chance to get involved in radio and provides them with experience they can use in their future careers.