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KUCI (88.9 FM) is honoring its past this week with a 20th anniversary celebration and alumni reunion, but the weak-signaled UC Irvine campus radio station also is embarking on a major break with the past that its managers say will improve its chances of becoming a more significant presence on the Orange County airwaves.
The change is organizational: Starting in January, responsibility for funding and oversight of the student-run station will shift from the UCI student government to the college administrative department known as University Advancement. University Advancement is responsible for public relations, fund raising and other university activities involving contact with alumni and the general public.
The switch, recently approved by university officials after several months of discussion, promises several important pluses for KUCI, according to Kevin Stockdale, the paid adviser to the radio station's staff of student volunteers.
For one thing, it will free KUCI from its frequent turf battles and financial haggling with the student government body, Associated Students of UC Irvine (ASUCI). For another, it promises a more reliable source of funding for station needs-possibly including the large investment, estimated at $60,000 to $70,000, that it would take to boost the station's power from a meager 24 watts to 100 watts. At 100 watts, Stockdale said, KUCI would be a clear presence on the radio through much of central Orange County, with good reception extending about 10 miles from the campus. The current range for reliable reception is just a few miles.
(No decisions have been made yet about funding levels for KUCI under University Advancement, Stockdale said. And money isn't the...