KUCI-FM Gets Approval to Boost Signal

After years of lobbying for a power increase, tiny student-run radio station KUCI-FM has received Federal Communications Commission approval to increase its signal from 24 to 200 watts, a station official said Monday.

The boost will eventually give the station a clearer signal in its Irvine-Newport Beach coverage area as well as the strength to reach into central Orange County, as far as Placentia. KUCI also will be able to broadcast in stereo for the first time and, by switching to a different type of signal, will be easier to pick up with a car antenna.

To do all that, however, the station needs new equipment that will cost about $70,000, said Kevin Stockdale, the station’s broadcast media coordinator (and paid adviser to the station’s staff of student volunteers). The station may be able to lease the equipment, including a new directional broadcast antenna, for an initial investment of between $10,000 and $20,000, Stockdale said.

KUCI (88.9) is a non-commercial station featuring student-produced music programs focusing on alternative rock, as well as jazz, reggae, folk and blues, and a smattering of public-affairs programming. The station has long sought a stronger signal, but was frustrated because it shares a signal with station KXOU, which broadcasts at 3,000 watts from Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles.

A 1987 change in FCC regulations allowed greater use of directional broadcast antennas, Stockdale said. A directional antenna allows a station to boost its signal to a specific area without interfering with a neighboring signal.

KUCI’s application to raise the power of its signal reached the FCC in August, 1990, and Stockdale said station personnel hoped for approval in about six months. However, the application was not approved until Sept. 20, and station officials did not learn of the approval until late last week.

“We’ve dreamed of this probably for about a decade,” Stockdale said, acknowledging that the FCC approval is just “the tip of the iceberg.” Now the station must secure the money for the equipment.

The university may assist in buying the equipment, although the station itself may have to raise the money. KUCI could not acquire the funding or the equipment until the FCC approved the signal change, Stockdale said.