Remember "Pump Up the Volume," with Christian Slater? It's OK to admit it, we're all friends here.

Christian Slater, for chrissakes, at his friggin' best. That movie was so sick when I was young -- but not enough to make me overcome electrical clutziness.

KLPI, Tech's wayward station, needs something. I mean, it's an open forum.

Remember when we were kids and everybody wanted to be a D.J. The voice on the radio was just plain sexy for no other reason than the smokiness added by frequency modulated transmission.

KLPI needs some Christian Slater ("Pump Up the Volume" not "Bed of Roses"). It needs some rebellion and some truth. It needs people who have that music bug, like sports writers have for football, i.e. Josh Milton and the Techsters.

KLPI is just not 91X, but you can hardly blame them. ULM is big, and I'm willing to bet better funded.

I often find myself listening to 91X, or straining to lengthen my antenna and catch 99X out of Shreveport over KLPI, and I find myself doing that because it's just better music.

Yep, I said it.

Something must be done. No more whisper-to-scream nu-metal, crappy singers with cracking voices or drummers who can't keep tempo. No more wannabes.

No more of it I say. I don't care if all you ever wanted was to eat popcorn with some chick, man, quit whining about it. Get yourself a J-O-B, friend.

Every blue moon the powers that be decide to play some A Perfect Circle or some Alice in Chains or something, and there is much rejoicing. KLPI christened my ears to The Mars Volta. Gimme some Floyd, some Dave and Tim Reynolds.

As an enthusiast, I gravitate to musicianship, and I find a lack of real inspiration or depth in most "new" music played on KLPI. I hear the same songs at the same time of day from afternoon to afternoon. Thanks, Mr. Mp3 List Loop.

I also find the D.J.'s pretty flat and boring, but it's not their fault. Nobody gives them any recognition; where is there any motivation to be good at what you do?

KLPI once did radio shows, as recently as last year. I was invited to discuss the closing of Fantasy Video, the Pink Building, while I was a reporter.Where did this kind of presence go?

I guess the newspaper could do something for them if the crew at KLPI came up with a roster of D.J.'s with regular shows big enough to run as events. That's just one idea.

Lots of things could be done to help them, funding being probably the primary one. Maybe hire a director that gets paid and fund the D.J.'s for their time and effort. So many things could happen.

Maybe air Tech games on KLPI with commentary from a real sports fanatic. It's always fun to listen to somebody with a connection to who is playing get really emotional.

Random thought -- try pre-recorded Tech Band of Pride shows; I get a kick out of listening to them do covers. Let's get those under-appreciated people some love.

Nick Todaro is a senior journalism and serves as associate editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to nst005@latech.edu.