Student Senate will vote tonight on paying for $75,000 of KJHK’s move to the Kansas Union.

KJHK, the student-run campus radio station, is located in the Sudler Annex — commonly called “the shack” — a building near JRP Hall. The University gave KJHK until fall 2009 to move out of the building. the Sudler Annex was donated to the University in 1929 and does not meet current building codes, including handicap accessibility.

KJHK has proposed a move to the third floor of the Kansas Union, which would be a $245,200 remodel project. The alcoves next to the FedEx Kinko’s center would be remodeled into a studio and production center for the radio station.

KJHK plans to contribute $100,000 of its own money, and the Kansas Union will pay for $20,000 of the project. The station is asking Student Senate for $75,000 from the Student Senate Reserve Account, which has almost $360,000. The account is made up of money that from previous years that isn’t spent. The station hopes to raise the remaining $50,200.

Danielle Basci, Houston senior and station manager, said the building was too old for the station. She is one of more than 140 students involved with the radio station, which has 3,260 listeners daily.

“We always joke that it’s about to fall off that hill,” Basci said.

Tom Johnson, general manager and program director at KJHK, said KJHK needed to be updated and made more visible to the campus population. Right now, KJHK broadcasts from “the shack,” produces in the Dole Human Development Center and has a business office in the Kansas Union. Johnson said the distance between the different parts of the station made it difficult to operate cohesively.

“I think it’s really hard for KJHK to show students how many opportunities it offers,” Johnson said.

Basci said the station was working on raising the remaining money by looking for support from local businesses. She said the station would also hold a donation drive on the air if necessary. She said the move would give the station more of a presence on campus and attract more students like her. Basci, an art history major, stumbled on the station while driving around. Basci now plans to work in radio after graduation thanks to her experience working for KJHK.

Johnson said Senate wouldn’t be giving money to the station and its workers with no return. In exchange for the $75,000, KJHK will offer 70 campus groups 24 free advertisements a year for the next eight years, time that would cost normal advertisers $80,640. Currently the station can broadcast public service announcements about groups, but it doesn’t advertise events.

Johnson said the station couldn’t offer free advertising to student groups promoting events that generate revenue because of a Federal Communications Commission policy that says groups must pay for that kind of advertisement.

Sam Schlageck, Manhattan senior and fine arts senator, was involved in writing the bill. He said the exchange of advertising time would make the offer appeal to other senators.

“That’s what sweetens the deal for us,” Schlageck said. “It makes this legislation a lot easier to pass.”

Schlageck said he got involved with the project after being appointed as a Senate representative to the KJHK Advisory Board and he eventually helped write the legislation. Schlageck said senators should like the bill because the Reserve Account money often goes unused.

The bill to fund KJHK went to Senate committees last semester. A bill must be seen and passed by two committees before it can be voted on at full Senate. Schlageck said the bill passed in the Student Rights Committee but failed in Finance Committee because members felt like they didn’t have enough information. Last week the finance committee passed the bill because the station provided more information about how the $75,000 would be spent.

If Senate doesn’t approve the $75,000 tonight, Johnson said it would prolong the station’s time in Sudler Annex. The station would eventually have to move anyway because of buidling codes. He said the group was creative by nature and would just have to raise the money.

“Raising $50,000 is nothing like raising $125,000,” Johnson said.

—Edited by Madeline Hyden