In his first public appearance since being named the new president of Sacramento State, CSU San Marcos President Alex Gonzalez helped break ground Tuesday on the new site for Capital Public Radio to be located on campus.

Wearing hard hats and clutching shovels, Gonzalez along with President Donald Gerth, ASI President Eric Guerra and CPR board members ceremoniously dug into the dirt on the site for the 18,000 square foot building situated at the corner of State University Drive East and Folsom Boulevard.

“We have moved back to campus where we were founded, so it’s a real homecoming for us,” said Michael Lazar, president and general manager of Captial Public Radio.

Capitol Public Radio operates at two frequencies, KXPR 90.9 and KXJZ 88.9 and is currently housed in a building on American River Drive.

Lazar said constructing a new home for CPR was a project four years in the making that will take another year for construction.

Construction is something Gonzales said he was accustomed to.

“I have my own hard hat with my name on it because that’s what we’ve been doing for the past six years at San Marcos,” Gonzalez said of the rapid expansion experienced at his university.

The station will be a semi-circle building centered around a 290 foot broadcasting tower. Business offices as well as broadcasting stations for the jazz, classical, and news programs will be housed there.

All walls in the building radiate from the tower, creating non-parallel walls that are acoustically perfect for broadcasting, said architect Ed Kado.

The materials used for construction will reduce external noise coming from nearby Highway 50, Kado said.

Guerra described his years as a CSUS student and all the development he?s seen, from a dirt patch where Mendecino Hall is now located to the new CPR location.

“It’s been enjoyable to see all the resources coming to this university,” he said.

Gonzalez’s appearance at the event reflected his development leadership through expansion at CSU, San Marcos, and also the plans he has for Sac State’s expansion.

“I’m going to try to do everything I can to build up the university the way the university wants to be built,” Gonzalez said.

He said aging buildings, expanding the landlocked campus, and developing academic as well as social structures as a focus.

“We can maximize the resources we have with an eye on how we can meet demands and needs of students,” he said.

The new CPR station will be the first building funded under a new bond rule enacted by the Board of Trustees that would allow the state to fund the public building through bonds and then lease it back to CPR.

Lazar said a Capital Campaign would be used to raise the extra money needed for furniture and equipment.

KXPR started as student-run radio station KERS on the CSUS campus in 1970. KERS signed off the air eight years later and in 1979 became KXPR.. The original studios were located in the theater arts building and business offices in various separate locations.

In 1985, KXPR moved to its current station on American River Drive, which was intended to be a temporary location since the building is not designed with the soundproofing necessary for a radio station.