To the KAOS director

I wrote an email to the manager of KAOS because since they moved in to the newly remodled CAB they have broadcast their signal on the Red Square day and night via a speaker outside the building.  Evergreen can be a very quiet place when it's allowed to be and walking across Red Square can be a very relaxing couple of minutes before jumping in to the grind of work, this broadcast just puts me on edge.  In the same way the never ending drum circles did before they put limits on them a couple years ago.

I don't think this is particularly well written but it's about all I could muster before the work day!

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I’m a big fan of KAOS and community radio in general, I’ve worked in radio in the past and think it’s an invaluable resource for a thriving community.  That said, I value the option to choose when to listen to the excellent programming available and don’t like it being imposed upon me by not having an off button.

There are a moments on campus when the buildings, squares and signs settle in to the landscape (in between the beeping of buses, dull idling throb of cars, the roaring of weed-whackers, lawnmowers, and leaf blowers, pressure washers, drum circles, protestors, etc)  and these moment are precious to me, when I can just listen to the natural place where Evergreen exists.  There is a non-human music that is all around the campus if only we could hear it.

With the KAOS PA broadcasting all the time those moments are increasingly rare if not extinct.

The sounds of KAOS are far more important and good to be relegated to a background noise status on Red Square becoming the equivalent of Evergreen muzak, something everyone hears but no one listens to. It’s not really fair to compare KAOS to the drum circles that went on everyday until a limit was imposed on them, but there are some similarities to the challenges of unsolicited sound.  The PA is a far cry from the open broadcast booth windows that let the live signal drift down outside the CAB.

In short, if you are keeping track of community members for or against the KAOS PA, please put me in the against column.

Thanks for the great work of KAOS and your attention.