KBOM - History

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. According to van Dresser, "small AM transmitters located in each dorm " 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 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.

Van Dresser continues: "the station applied to use the call letters KUNM when it went FM". The application was apparently "held up" by a commercial Spanish-language station, KBNM, which argued that its listeners might confuse "B" with "V", and that the post office might subsequently confuse "V" with "U", while the station which would eventually become KUNM continued to originate its broadcasts from the basement of the Student Union Building on the UNM campus.

Stephenson says the Radio Board decided, in 1965, to broadcast from a transmitter on top of the Student Union Building "until the funds be gathered to move to Crest".

It was at roughly this time that Ramsey Lewis' "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 'sities.

At the same time, the station was, in his words, "literally in the middle" of the "third most violent 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.

Stephenson reports that in 1965, "Senate Bill 59 authorizing the creation of a student FM station with antenna on the ". According to Stephenson, the UNM Board of Regents applied to the FCC, on behalf of the Student Council, for a 100 watt, educational band, FM station in June 1965, and that the license was granted to the Regents under the call letters KNMD.

Stephenson continues: in 1966, "KNMD files a construction permit with the FCC for 90.1 FM at 3.6 Kilowatts. The FCC grants KNMD a name change to KUNM. Before broadcast is to begin and program guides mailed out, a local commercial station with similar call letters files suit to stop the station from broadcasting as KUNM. Station broadcasts as KNLB." (See above.) According to Stephenson, KNLB finally became KUNM in October 1966.

Stephenson dates "The In Crowd" as becoming an important musical milestone in the station's history to 1968.

According to Stephenson, KUNM's attempt to move its transmitter to Sandia Crest was "blocked" by KKOB AM in 1973. He adds that KUNM moved its studios from the Student Union Building to Oñate Hall in 1976, and "finally" began broadcasting from Sandia Crest in September of that year.

KUNM became a member of NPR in 1978, following the bankruptcy 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-90's. 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 Onate 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.

On the afternoon of February 15, 2008, KUNM went ON AIR in Socorro from high atop "Mountain M" at 88.7 MHz with the transmitter call letters KBOM.

On the afternoon of April 1, 2008, KUNM went ON AIR in Española from atop Black Mesa at 6000 Watts at 91.9 MHz with the transmitter call letters KRAR.

On the afternoon of April 3, 2008, KUNM went ON AIR in Arroyo Seco at 90.9 MHz with the transmitter call letters KRRT, eliminating interference between translators and transmitters which had occurred since KRAR went ON AIR two days prior. At the same time, the translators at 91.1 in Taos (K220AV) and 91.9 in Arroyo Seco (K216AL) were permanently retired from service.

KUNM is broadcasting an HD signal. While this could enable much broader programming to be broadcast on other channels (HD2, HD3, etc.), KUNM to date has chosen not to do so.