Fall 1983
Students build a new transmitter without university assistance.
Dez Crawford recounts how she and and a group of KLSU deejays secretly constructed a new radio transmitter atop the Life Sciences building. Dez Crawford Oral History Interview, Mss. 4700.2593, LLMVC, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, La.
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DEZ CRAWFORD: And when we got that permit, we built the tower on top of the Life Sciences building. And it was built by Paul Burt -- who was a radio engineer, not a physical engineer -- two other students who had some engineering background with actual mechanical engineers . . . Paul Burt, Tony Larosa, Miles Jackson, Elizabeth Chinn Dade . . . Who else was there? Of course myself and David [Crawford], and there were a couple of other people who helped alternately. We put it up in about the course of a week. We'd go up there after the Life Science building closed. We'd load all the gear onto the freight elevator. We'd go to the roof. We had rented a gin pole from AAA, which is the thing you ratchet heavy things up with as you build a tower. I had climbing gear because I was outdoorsy. I made a couple of Swiss seats, which are the seats that you use when you're climbing that you can hook on to. I made a couple of them out of webbing . . . webbing, and rope, and crossing my fingers. A couple of carabiners for the people who would actually be up on the tower. Dave and Paul Burt climbed the tower and we were tensioning the wires, and tensioning the guy lines, and putting in bolts, and getting the transmitter . . . I'm sorry, getting the antenna up there and . . . We did this all when no one was looking, and all the sudden the dean looks up and says, "How the hell did that get up there?" About two years later [laughs]. Nobody noticed it. But, you know, all the sudden, it's like, "We got it! We're going to broadcast. We're building that tower." And when the university said, "Well we have to put in an application and we have to put in for a . . . We have to put in for a work order and that might take six months," We all looked at each other and said, "We're doing this." And that was entirely built by students. Lo and behold, it's still there.
Dez Crawford recounts how she and and a group of KLSU deejays secretly constructed a new radio transmitter atop the Life Sciences building. Dez Crawford Oral History Interview, Mss. 4700.2593, LLMVC, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, La.
View Transcript
DEZ CRAWFORD: And when we got that permit, we built the tower on top of the Life Sciences building. And it was built by Paul Burt -- who was a radio engineer, not a physical engineer -- two other students who had some engineering background with actual mechanical engineers . . . Paul Burt, Tony Larosa, Miles Jackson, Elizabeth Chinn Dade . . . Who else was there? Of course myself and David [Crawford], and there were a couple of other people who helped alternately. We put it up in about the course of a week. We'd go up there after the Life Science building closed. We'd load all the gear onto the freight elevator. We'd go to the roof. We had rented a gin pole from AAA, which is the thing you ratchet heavy things up with as you build a tower. I had climbing gear because I was outdoorsy. I made a couple of Swiss seats, which are the seats that you use when you're climbing that you can hook on to. I made a couple of them out of webbing . . . webbing, and rope, and crossing my fingers. A couple of carabiners for the people who would actually be up on the tower. Dave and Paul Burt climbed the tower and we were tensioning the wires, and tensioning the guy lines, and putting in bolts, and getting the transmitter . . . I'm sorry, getting the antenna up there and . . . We did this all when no one was looking, and all the sudden the dean looks up and says, "How the hell did that get up there?" About two years later [laughs]. Nobody noticed it. But, you know, all the sudden, it's like, "We got it! We're going to broadcast. We're building that tower." And when the university said, "Well we have to put in an application and we have to put in for a . . . We have to put in for a work order and that might take six months," We all looked at each other and said, "We're doing this." And that was entirely built by students. Lo and behold, it's still there.
