To the great dismay of much of the campus, Iowa State’s FM radio station, KUSR, has fallen silent this semester.

We want it back on the air.

According to station officials, KUSR has run into problems with the Federal Communications Commission over its wattage and its broadcasting band. Officials estimate that it will take at least until next semester before the station is back up and running.

In the mean time, Iowa State students will have to put up with a broadcasting market that is saturated with country music, stale jurassic rock, “alternative” stations that stole their playlist from Tazzle’s and sleepy elevator music, which seems to be ever so popular with the 40-year-old office worker.

No other station in central Iowa came close to offering the variety of music and programming that KUSR offered. No other stations in the area were run by students. Programming was varied and unpredictable. The DJs didn’t have degrees from the Casey Kasem school of broadcasting. And requests were nearly always played within a few minutes.

KUSR was virtually the only place students could turn to when they wanted to hear music and programming that they had never heard on the radio before. It was a station where music lovers controlled the formats — not the mindless, profit-driven marketers.

So while students anxiously await the return of ISU’s campus radio station next semester, a pair of headphones with a cassette player or CD player attached may be a good investment for the time being.