Starting Oct. 2, the student run nightly news report will be extended from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. The broadcast will also be moved from 10 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Becky Rohde, student news director, said only having 15 minutes limited the program from expanding in areas they wanted to venture into.

We are trying to expand the realm of opportunities that students can get involved in, she said. It may take a while to get the kinks out, but it shouldn’t take too long to be at full speed.

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As part of the extra 15 minutes, six minutes of feature stories will be introduced consisting of consumer issues, sports and entertainment.

The nightly news used to be solely the responsibility of the radio-television department, but now has formed a partnership with Broadcasting Services.

Now for the first time the program has created paid positions, and their will be an in-depth weather report.

Richard Kuenneke, news producer, said there is a lot of work to do between now and Oct. 2.

If we plan well, everything will be fine, he said. We are at a timeslot of higher visiblity, so we need to make sure all of the little things are taking care of.

Kuenneke said this move is a monumental move for the program, the department and the University.

We are beginning a new tradition of teaching students to be broadcast journalists, he said. The students and everyone else involved want this to happen.

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This can be a source of pride and a showpiece for the station as well as the university.

Anyone interested in the news broadcast may audition Friday, Aug. 25. Audition packets and sign up sheets will be available today in the communications building room 1015. Students of all academic status are welcome to audition.