Hi-Line Living: Rock on Radio

The KNMC lineup this year is diverse and more extensive than it has been in years.

Everything from old school country, pop dance music, indie rock and classic rock can be heard over their airwaves on 90.1 This Montana State University-Northern station is the oldest college radio station in Montana, and it is still going strong and growing stronger.

The college station allows both students and community members to host shows. The split of current deejays is about half students and half nonstudents.

The controls are very easy to learn, said station manager Rick Linie, and hosting, discovering new music and sharing it is satisfying.

Dave Martens just began a new weekly show Thursday, but has had a lot of experience with the station. He said he plans to play a lot of archived Montana recordings of garage and country bands, as well as other things. He started working on an archive of Montana recordings with a friend at a radio station in Missoula.

Martens said he thinks KNMC is important to the community of Havre.

"Well, it's an independent voice for community members and music enthusiasts to share music and share ideas," Martens. "I think it's important to have a vehicle like that in any community and on college campuses."

"This is the most deejays we've had in years," Linie said.

Becka Stone had her second-ever show Thursday. She plays electronic music. She said she has always wanted to do a college radio show but had not found the time until now.

"There aren't a lot of electronic shows in the area," Stone said. "So I feel like I can just come in here and turn the music up loud alone and have my own show. If someone else likes it, that's great. If not, that's alright, too."

Although the schedule for the station is more full than it has been for years, Linie said he is always looking for more deejays to fill the remaining slots. He said anybody who wants to do so can visit him at the station Tuesdays and Wednesdays or call the station at 265-3709 and leave a message.

He said the hardest day to fill up is Saturday, which currently has no shows scheduled. He guessed that most people do not want to give up their Saturdays in order to do a weekly show, so that has made it difficult to fill over the years.

He said Tuesday two people had left their numbers, so it seems more interested amateur deejays are filing into the schedule.

"So, this year, I think it's the highest number of deejays we've had in about the last five years," Linie said.

He said the station has been going through some upgrades as well.

"Over the weekend we got the new computer going so now it sounds way better," Linie said Tuesday.

He said when he replaced the computers, he also replaced the MP3s, which were of varying quality, with WAVE files, which is what CDs use.

"A lot of them just really didn't sound good at all," Linie said. "So now the sound quality should be 100 percent better."

He added the sound is much more consistent than it was before. In addition to the new and improved sound, he cleaned up what was on the autopilot playlist.

"Now there's a lot newer stuff on there," he said. "The old system was pretty old and there was a lot older music on it. I put Jack White's new album up there, the latest Black Keys - it'll be a lot better-sounding music and a lot newer music."

He also got rid of the large amount of country music that was on the playlist, which was the most popular complaint he received about the station. There are still country deejays who play older country music, but all that is left on autopilot is Johnny Cash.

"The juxtaposition shouldn't be quite as jarring," Linie said. "It doesn't quite go from Slim Whitman to Metallica now. Not that I mind jarring juxtapositions, but in order to get more people to listen, I think we need to just tighten that up a little bit."

He said he is also going to try and re-establish businesses listening to the station. He said he knows a lot of the businesses in town do not play the station because they think it is too extreme. The station should have a much smoother transition between genres while it is on autopilot.

Linie said the advisory board for the radio has also grown in size. There are now around 10 people who are on the board and he thinks that they will help the station figure out the right direction of its future.

One of the differences in the station this year that has helped it gain popularity, as well, is the fact that there are now more people in the booth during more times of the week. People passing by can now see that there is life within the window that faces the hallway near the entrance of the Student Union Building.

"Now there's somebody up here during the day so as students go by the station, they actually look over because there's actually someone in it," Linie said. " ... As opposed to what it has been - them walking by - silence, darkness."

There is talk of restarting the radio course that students at Northern can take for credit while they host their own shows at the station. Linie said Martens will likely teach the course if and when it comes. He said if they could get the course running again, student involvement would increase exponentially.

Linie said that he thinks that KNMC has an important place at Northern. With the cuts to the liberal arts programs at the university, the station is a remnant of those programs.

"I think the station has jumped in and helped fill that void a little bit," Linie said. "There's obviously some tough decisions that had to be made with Northern courses. ... As some of the liberal arts have gone away maybe the station can fill a little of the void just by letting them know there is something you can do up here that's fun, and you can get quite involved in something that is media-related."

The diversity of the deejays and shows, along with a chance to hear something not heard every day, makes KNMC an asset to music and community in Havre.