by Roy Taylor, Daily Vidette Reporter

A petition circulated by ISU’s student radio station WZND may expand the station’s listening areas to the Bone Student Center.

The petitions, which were circulated among classrooms and the campus last week, will be collected Wednesday, said Cynthia Laulette, general manager of WZND.

Seventeen WZND directors passed around petitions explaining to faculty and students why the radio stations playing areas should include the Bone Student Center.

According to representatives of the station, WZND paid for the student center’s cable hookup in 1985 so it could be heard there. The station was aired in the student center for several years but has recently been denied airtime.

According to Debbie Million, auditorium manager’s assistant at the BSC, the center’s directors decided they would air the station. But because of cable complications, the reception was poor.

She said the technical crew for the student center is currently working on the cable problem but it is unsure of how much time it will take.

Million said the BSC would like to air the music to support the ISU radio station.

“It is going to happen from what I can tell,” she said.

A director at WZND, who wished not to be named, said workers and students alike enjoyed listening to the station in the student center.

“We had and still have a lot of advertisers in the student center, “ she said.

The director said the station made the switch to cable while she was employed at ISU, and “it really was a step up for us, because the student center physically could not receive the station until then.” That is when WZND paid the costs to have the student center wired for cable, she said.

Lauletta said the station has been “really pursuing” the issue this year. “If you think about it, it only makes sense that the student union would play the student radio station,” she said.

Lauletta also pointed out that WZND is completely student-run, and the students pay Bone Student Center fees in their tuition payments.

“It’s not that we’re just working here for fun, people hold important positions here. This is something people put on their resumes. We are a business,” Lauletta said.

Lauletta added that the station is nominated for a promotions and marketing award form the National Association of College Broadcasters this year, an award it won in 1991.

Lauletta stated she has been in contact with the director of the student center, and he had said that there was an engineering problem.

WZND offered to send their engineer over to fix the problem, but that suggestion was not acted upon, Lauletta said.

Students at the station initiated a petition drive in response, she said.

Within the next several weeks, Lauletta said the number of signatures will be calculated by Monica Hunter, Public Relations Promotions Assistant for WZND.

So far, Lauletta said the responses to the petition have been great.

“Everyone I’ve asked has been more than willing to sign the petition, Lauletta said.