Walking into WPSU's radio station, you notice posters of Sonic Youth, the Mekons and Queen Latifah adorning walls. Judging from the decor, you may think the students have taken over -- but in reality, the University runs the show.

Rick Springfield's New Beginnings is displayed with the words, "WPSU is my one and only true love (sigh)" bubbled in. This youth-oriented facade is just that. Only 12 hours each week to play the new Beasties or Rollins Band albums puts these DJs in the minority.

"A student takeover would be good," said DJ Gregg Foreman.

Since the radio station is run by National Public Radio, the new music slots are from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

"It's not for the students. The students should have their own radio station," said DJ Megan Farrell (senior-English). "The hours suck, most people aren't up that time."

Despite WEHR's (East Halls radio station) presence as a student-run organization, its frequency cannot be felt past East Halls.

New music director Steve Liu (junior-world literature) concedes that even though WPSU broadcasts to more than 39,000 students, the committee members -- student leaders and School of Communications faculty -- think the station's main audience is permanent State College residents.

"The administration looks down upon this because they think it alienates the audience," Liu said. "It's really anal when it comes to new music."

Program Director Don Klees (senior-film) doesn't agree with Liu but sees his point.

"There's over 100,000 people in the State College area . . . do you suggest we should leave them out in the cold? But yes, there is a need for a student-run radio station," Klees said. "I think the student body should express a need for it."

Aside from the committee, the FCC's profanity ruling has greatly affected new music shows.

"It's really annoying obviously because half the songs you want to play you can't because of a word or two, especially this time slot --there's a lot of songs you can't play," said Martin "Muddy" Waters (junior-architectual engineering)

Klees said that if complaints are made after a policy is violated, the FCC can penalize a station with fines.

"The laws are very ambiguous," Klees said.

But even with the new music show's limited hours, it compares well with the most popular college radio stations in the country. Judging from the College Media Journal's top 150 chart, the radio station plays what college students want to hear and can't hear on other stations.

All the new music DJs decide what gets played; they'll spin any record as long as it's not classic rock. Buried behind stacks of records, CD piles and a mike, DJs select songs they know.

Most DJs try to educate themselves by reading up on the latest music in magazines like B-Side, Dirt (the fanzine), Alternative Press and CMJ.

"It's completely subjective. Half of the time we just go in there and wing it," Farrell said. "We play Helmet. We love Helmet. We play Velocity Girl, Urge Overkill, Peg Boy and Seaweed."

Aside from playing anything but the mainstream, this semester the program started inviting local bands to play live in the studio. Within the space of a medium-sized closet, groups gather around a table of mikes to play informally.

So far Junction and Jay Cheddar and the Cheesetones have tested these FM airwaves.

"It was a lot of fun. There's no pressure, it was just the four of us in this little newsroom," said Bob Sweeny (junior-general arts), the Cheesetones' bassist. "I think it's pretty cool."

With unpolished DJs, most of the shows feature little dialogue. But some have a distinguished personality. "The Rhubarb and Custard Show," featuring Waters and Richard "Dickie" Heath (junior-architectual engineering), lend a British slant to their program.

On the air every Wednesday from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., Waters and Heath play a variety of European imports as well as dish thick satirical humor.

They said they laugh at things that go wrong. For instance, once the weather card had a mistake in it, and they read it with the mistake. Then Waters retorted that there would be no weather tomorrow, Heath said.

"It's new music and us having fun," Heath said.