Campus radio station WPSU 91.1-FM will reach about 30,000 more listeners if its owner, the University's Board of Trustees, wins a court battle this May, said station manager Dave Dzikowski.

Board Attorney Neal Friedman said WPSU is competing for a new frequency against three other applicants: the American Indian Broadcast Group, Inc., the Advanced Broadcast Technology, Inc., and Destiny Communications, Inc.

Federal court decides if radio station owners are worthy applicants for a new frequency. Friedman said he will attempt to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that WPSU is the best applicant May 15.

"We are confident the University will prevail," Friedman said.

The station now serves 92,000 people, which excludes many residents on the north side of State College and even students in East Halls, Dzikowski said. By supplementing its current dial location with a 94.5 frequency, the station would have more power to reach a larger audience, he said, noting that WPSU would probably use both frequencies, perhaps eventually dropping the original frequency.

Preference is given to local applicants but a judge in recent pre-hearing meetings with the FCC ruled that WPSU is not local because the 32 members of the board of trustees are scattered throughout the country, Friedman said.

WPSU is clearly a local station because it has been operating at University Park for 35 years and because the University that owns it has been firmly established here since 1855, Dzikowski said.

"The board of trustees as a legal entity is very stable," he said.

The best argument not already invalidated in the pre-hearing meetings is that if this request is denied, WPSU has no other options to increase its audience, Friedman said. While purchasing wattage is an easier way to add listeners, he said, such an increase would cause interference with WJAC Channel 6 in Johnstown - which is immediately adjacent to WPSU's broadcast area.

Representatives from Johnstown and WPSU have tried for 10 to 15 years and have done engineering studies to solve the problem without changing WPSU's frequency, but to no avail, he said.

Friedman offered other arguments to justify WPSU's claim to the frequency, but at the pre-hearing meetings, the judge deemed many of these arguments invalid.

"We provide demonstratively superior programming," Dzikowski said, alluding to WPSU's "diversified" public radio service -- with blocks of a certain type of music, such as classical, jazz and reggae, played on each show. This differs from album-oriented radio, which the other applicants wish to broadcast, he said.

Another AOR station would be a clone of stations already operating in the area, he said, but arguments about the type of programming are not accepted in court, Dzikowski said.

A survey taken in October 1988 by Robert A. Baukus, associate professor of advertising, shows that out of 301 people, 83.7 percent would prefer the public radio format. Another survey taken in July 1988 by Dzikowski and John Nichols, associate professor of mass communications, shows that of 177 people contacted, 92 percent favor the grant of an additional frequency to WPSU, Friedman said.