KUNM

KUNM is a public radio station broadcasting on FM 89.9 MHz from high atop Sandia Crest, with broadcasts originating from the third floor of Oñate Hall, on the campus of the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As of April 3, 2008, KUNM has translators broadcasting at 90.5 in Eagle Nest-Cimarron (K213ET), 91.1 in Cuba (K216CU) and at 91.9 in Nageezi (Dzilth-Na-O-Dit) (K220EM).
In addition, KUNM has full-power transmitters at 88.7 Socorro (KBOM), 91.9 Espanola (KRAR), and 90.9 Arroyo Seco (KRRT). Translators at 91.1 in Arroyo Seco (K216AL) and at 91.9 in Taos (K220AV) went silent with the upgrade to KRRT's transmitter status. At writing, KUNM features a range of locally produced music shows, local and national news coverage, and public affairs programming.
The call letters "KUNM" reference the University of New Mexico. The call letters "KBOM" are sardonic humour: the transmitter reaches the Trinity Nuclear Test Site. "KRAR" stands for "Rio Arriba Radio", since Espanola is located in Rio Arriba County. KRRT stands for "Radio Relay Taos".
The station is currently funded through a combination of listener sponsorship, underwriting by local businesses and support from nonprofits, student fees, and various other sources.
Listener support accounts for a little over 50% of the station's total annual operating budget.
KUNM broadcasts in HD.
History.
The following brief, and very incomplete, history of KUNM is largely compiled from internal documents, available to any on-air volunteer, written by former station manager Steve van Dresser and long-time station volunteer Claude Stephenson.
KUNM began life in 1960 as KNMD, a carrier current AM radio station on the campus. According to former station manager Steve van Dresser, "small AM transmitters [were] located in each dorm [at UNM]" and the Student Union Building. The signal was broadcast... through the AC power circuits... from about 2 in the afternoon until about 6".
According to longtime station volunteer Claude Stephenson, fraternity and sorority members, as well as other students living off campus, complained that their student fees were being used to pay for a service they could not receive. In 1964, the Radio Board decided the best solution was to obtain a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) educational broadcast license for a transmitter on Sandia Crest. The board ultimately decided in 1965 to broadcast from a transmitter on top of the Student Union Building "until the funds [could] be gathered to move [the transmitter] to [Sandia] Crest". The Board of Regents made the application in March 1966 for a construction permit.
The station desired the call letters KUNM but ran into an objection from another Albuquerque radio station: KBNM, which had adopted those call letters on March 18, 1966. As a result, on October 19, 1966, the station went on the air with the provisional call letters KLNB. The station was able to claim the KUNM call letters several weeks later. The original transmitter broadcast with an effective radiated power of 3,700 watts.
It was at roughly this time that Ramsey Lewis's "The In Crowd" became a part of the station's musical history. According to van Dresser, this is the period during which the station began airing the cutting-edge music of the mid-to-late 1960s. Stephenson dates "The In Crowd" as becoming an important musical milestone in the station's history to 1968.
At the same time, the station was, in his words, "literally in the middle" of the "third most violent [campus] confrontation" in the wake of the "Cambodian Incursion" during the Vietnam War, during which the New Mexico National Guard was called out to expel students who "took over the Student Union Building". The first and second most violent confrontations, van Dresser reports, occurred at Kent State University and Jackson State University. He says KUNM provided a "feed" to CBS news and "did live networking with Pacifica" during the event.
Van Dresser was succeeded by L. A. "Woody" Woodworth, formerly the station's program director, as station manager. Woodworth was, in turn, "I think", as van Dresser puts it, succeeded by Mike Wolfe.
In 1974, KUNM filed to move its transmitter to Sandia Crest. Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KOB-AM-TV, filed a petition to deny to the application, but the application was conditionally approved in 1975. KUNM moved its studios from the Student Union Building to Oñate Hall in 1976, and the Sandia Crest transmitter site was turned on in September of that year.
KUNM became a member of NPR in 1978, following the bankruptcy and closure of KIPC. Funding for this transition was accomplished through benefit concerts at the Kiva Auditorium in downtown Albuquerque. The station's first national broadcast contribution was an exclusive interview with Manuel Noriega by a KUNM news reporter.
KUNM was among the first radio stations to carry Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" in the mid-199s. John McCall, a UNM law student appointed as Radio Board member, and Spencer Walaitis, a KUNM volunteer and community activist/musician, campaigned for the program and encountered some opposition on the Radio Board. According to McCall, when the two went to address a volunteer meeting and encourage support for inclusion of "DN!" in the program lineup, Walaitis suffered a heart attack shortly after his speech to the volunteers. He died there in Oñate Hall despite valiant efforts of the volunteers to save him. He left behind a wife and young children. After the death of Spencer Walaitis there was very little opposition to the inclusion of "DN!" in the program lineup. The transmitter atop the crest of the Sandia Mountains (Sandia Crest) was upgraded to broadcast a digital signal in November 2006.
Signal expansions.
In 2008, KUNM launched three high-power repeaters. KBOM in Socorro signed on February 15, 2008, broadcasting from "Mountain M" at 88.7 MHz. KRAR in Española followed on April 1, 2008, with 6,000 watts from Black Mesa on 91.9 MHz. Two days later, the new Arroyo Seco station, KRRT 90.9 MHz, came into service. The new stations replaced translators at 91.1 in Taos (K220AV) and 91.9 in Arroyo Seco (K216AL).
Programming.
Five times a week, KUNM airs the live call-in show Native America Calling. Native America Calling is the only nationally syndicated call-in talk show focusing on Native American issues. In fall of 2006, the in-house, half-hour "Evening Report" was reformatted to incorporate local and regional news stories into NPR's national newsmagazine All Things Considered thus eliminating some NPR stories.
Early weekday afternoons highlight locally produced jazz programming, and "Free Form" which features local hosts playing a wide range of music. Late mornings feature classical music from American Public Media. Evening music programming varies from acoustic folk to experimental electronic.
Weekend programming is primarily volunteer-produced music, talk and radio theater programs including a program produced by and with youth, "Generation Justice". The weekend often closes out on Sunday evenings with a broadcast of the national radio theater show Playing On Air.
KUNM broadcasts syndicated programming for several hours each day. National Public Radio (NPR) is broadcast during the morning and evening "drive time", interspersed with local news. NPR programming provides national news programs seven days a week. KUNM is an NPR Member station. Pacifica Radio programming includes Democracy Now!, Public Radio International programming includes Afropop Worldwide, American Public Media programming includes Performance Today.
Role of Volunteers at KUNM.
KUNM is a hybrid station combining characteristics of a public station, complete with National Public Radio and other nationally syndicated programming, with day-time and evening prime time local programming produced by an active base of volunteers from the local community as well as the University of New Mexico student body. Currently there are nearly 100 volunteers producing about 75% of the on-air content.
Volunteers at KUNM have played a central role in the functioning of the station over the years. In 1987 recently hired Station Manager Tim Singleton made it known that the station's "Morning" and "Afternoon Freeform" programs were to be replaced with more standard NPR-style jazz and classical programming, including nationally syndicated programming produced outside of New Mexico. The response of the volunteers was an 18-month strike, with strong community support, and accompanying first amendment and other legal actions against the University of New Mexico. A settlement was reached in the Fall of 1988, that included a re-vamped Radio Board with a significant amount of say on programming changes, and a Volunteer Agreement that clarifies volunteer rights at the station.