Although separations can be painful (Burt and Loni, John and Lorena), staffers at WPSU-FM are looking forward to their upcoming split.

WPSU will expand into two diverse stations this year, a move that has been in the planning stages for a little more than a year. Jennifer Micija, WPSU vice president program director, said the new station will cater to the varied musical desires of University students.

"The new station will give us more of an opportunity to expand and reach out to the student community on campus," said Micija (senior-journalism), adding that the station will probably be ready to broadcast at the start of Fall Semester '94.

The current lineup of music aired on the station is not totally suited to the listening pleasures of students, said Jeff West, president of WPSU's student organization. Although a few hours each night are devoted to music exclusively for students --including such shows as "New Music," "Jam 91" and "Metal Machine" -- the majority of programming is jazz, folk or classical selections.

A typical college town is composed of two types of stations -- public radio, which serves the community, and college radio, which pursues student programming goals, said David Dzikowski, WPSU station manager.

"The student college stations play music for students, giving interested parties an opportunity to function in all aspects of radio operations," Dzikowski said.

The station is currently awaiting a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast the new channel on FM frequency 90.7. The license will be held by the University Board of Trustees while the station will be run on a daily operational level by the administrative staff at WPSX-TV (TCI channel 3) and the student organization headed by West, Dzikowski said.

The station's call letters will be determined at a later date. Micija said she hopes to get interested students involved with that process.

"It has to be catchy, easy-to-say and, of course, something that hasn't been used," she said. As for what the actual programming lineup for the new station will consist of, Micija said it will basically run any programming students are willing to put together.

With a lot of work ahead of him, West (junior-broadcast cable) is highly optimistic about the station's probable success.

"Once the word gets out and it gets going, they'll come out in droves," he said.