Fp.\ kr< new music a Doost By Joni Balter Radio fans in the city that two years ago couldn’t support one mod ern new wve music station now have two such stations on their radio dial. There’s the student-run “new music radio” station, KCMU, 90.5 FM, operat ed out of the. University of Washington, which is now boosting its power; and going stereo., Arid now there’s also KJET, 1600 AM, the newest station in town. KJET is- the latest metamorphosis of KZOK-AM, the pitifully low-rated sister station of KZOK-FM. In fact, all of the voices heard on ' KJET are KZOK-FM staffers.'Some have changed their on-air persona to •' match the flavor of the new station and its music fare: The Clash, Blondie, Nick Lowe, Human/League, and'The Motels, to mention 1 " a'few. For example, Robin Erickson, who hosts the 4-8 p.m. show on the FM station, is the "Bag Lady” on KJET’s 6- a.m.-to-noon program. Erickson isn’t- called the Bag- Lady because, of .over work or lack of sleep. KJET is fully automated,' so Erickson and others pre-reoord their (comments hours be- , forepair time. ' Automation and an AM mono phonic-broadcast are two disadvan tages : KJET suffers coinpared to KCMU, according to Joe Kertzer, KCMU station, manager. -51 think they (KJET) are going to have an uphill battle. They’re a mono station on- AM," he said. KCMU this weekend was fine-tuning its own transformation to stereo. That arid a pending power boost, from 10 to 180 watts, are expected to significantly improve the station’s reception aU over the city and will be: operative in the next few' days, said Kertzer. With those $5,000 worth of im provements in place, Kertzer doesn’t expect to lose listeners to KJET. In- stead, he believes the more modern. music,- the merrier., Kertzer said, that he hopes' KJET’s- inore commercial format will introduce more people to v new .music. Steve Larson, KJET program di rector, believes radio listeners are bet ter prepared for new music now than they were two years ago when KZAM- AM, “The Rock of the ’80s," launched' its new wave format. KZAM-AM’s so-, called “modern mono” format lasted one year, at which point station itian-.j agement cut off the juice because.the'- format did not produce bankable rat-’ mgs. KJET’s Larson believes two fac tors will protect his station from a similar fate. For one thing, Larson said, the old station, KZOK-AM, which most recent ly had a “golden oldies” format, had such low ratings that KJET chould only improve on them. Secondly, he said, KZAM-AM was “trying to expose too much product too quickly. We’re going to go slow, start with the bare bones (modern rock) format and expand it as we go." Right now, the station’s main groups are The Cars, Blondie, The Pretenders, The Clash, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, according to Larson. KJET also plays many local bands with a modern rock sound, such as’ The Allies, No Cheese Please, The Heats and Cowboys. Although Larson admits the switch on May 31 to the modern rock was a process of elimination of for mats already being done by. other ^established stations, he also takes his modern music mission seriously. “l; see this as what music is evolv ing to,” he-said. “If you look at the records the companies are releasing now,'-as much’ as thice out of five are modern music.” That may be an over zealous anal ysis, according to people in the local music business, including Kertzer. But Kertzer, KCMU fans and fans of the now-defunct “Rock of the ’80s” seem to have their fingers crossed for KJET. As the only commercial mod ern rock station in town, its survival ultimately will bring more respect to a musical genre that has existed only on the fringe. i - Joni Balter is a Seattle free’ lance writer. being taken to combat rabies in can Dream Continues Follows