Tune in to KMNR

Inside a small studio in Altman Hall, a handful of students can be found at all hours with headphones on their ears and a microphone in their faces.

Welcome to KMNR radio at Missouri S&T, riding Rolla’s airwaves at 89.7FM. A free format station, it’s the only one in town where listeners are just as likely to hear progressive metal as funk.

The station earned its original call letters, KMSM, in 1964 when the Federal Communications Commission approved of the campus-owned, student-run radio station. It became KMNR in 1972 to pay homage to the university’s mascot, Joe Miner.

Nearly 50 years after its founding, the station is still going strong. It recently quadrupled its listening capacity to an 80-mile radius by placing a new transmitter on top of Thomas Jefferson Residence Hall, says Steven Naji, KMNR’s public relations director.

For Rebecca Mosley, a senior in architectural engineering from Overland Park, Kan., KMNR has been a part of college life since her freshman year. She and James Veerkamp, a senior in aerospace engineering from Sugar Land, Texas, host the “First Invent the Universe” show on Monday evenings from 8 to 10.

“It’s fun,” she says. “I get to play whatever music I want — with some guidelines — and our library is massive.”

By Mindy Limback