A gut-wrenching scream ripped through the bunker-like room, then another, decibels louder, driving the volume meter wild.
Collapsing with laughter, Croaky the Frog was bouncing off the “Strauss waltz blue” walls as the screamers tallied their score and announced the results to their loyal listeners.
Welcome to the wacky world of prep radio at Hinsdale Central High School, where such on-air antics as screaming contests and guys dropping by in shaggy green frog costumes have catapulted the deejay team of Tomas Medina and Jay Rausch to the top of the charts on the school’s WHSD-FM 88.7-“we play the hits.”
“I don’t know. I just get a grin out of the `Tomas and Jay Show.’ It’s definitely the No. 1 show (at Hinsdale Central),” said prep station manager Jeremy Rogers, a radio personality and junior who shares the Wednesday afternoon slot with senior Cap Pedersen.
“They love it. They eat it up. It’s the hottest thing since ketchup in a squeeze bottle,” said Medina, a senior, about fan reaction to his screaming contest routine, which he alternates on air with gigs such as impressions of Donald Duck, “Star Wars’ ” Chewbacca and Swami Tomas, who spits on a piece of paper, then “reads” the results for kids who call in-a teen’s take on tea leaves.
It turns out prep sports stars aren’t the only ones bent on making a name for themselves: These high school radio jocks are just as keen on grabbing their slice of fame.
But the prep radio business is certainly not all fun and games. In fact, most of the student sportscasters, newscasters, deejays and behind-the-scenes broadcast engineers are gaining valuable on-the-job experience that will serve them well in the exploding communications field.
To school administrators, prep radio and television stations are part of their increasing efforts to stress what is called tech prep: classes and activities that teach kids how to put book learning to work in real-world situations. This school-to-career approach to education is what business executives have been demanding for years, according to Bernard Eiserloh, tech/prep coordinator for the DAOES/COD School-To-Work Initiative, a state-funded program in which he works with 23 DuPage area high schools to foster such efforts. “Whenever I talk with business people, from CEOs of Motorola or Caterpillar to small business owners, they all say the same thing: `Why haven’t we started school-to-work programs 20 years ago.’ “
Downers Grove North freshmen Dan Harland and Jack Minster seem to like the idea of in-school work training. This deejay twosome, as smooth and professional as the Hinsdale team is wacky, has crafted a Wednesday night show dubbed “Frog Power Radio” that keeps the phones ringing off the hook at the school’s WDGC-FM 88.3.
Friends since 1st grade, Minster likes alternative music and the Chicago Bears while Harland goes for rap and the Green Bay Packers. They banter easily between music selections as they cue up the next CD and juggle the phone, which rarely stops ringing.
Harland sits at the control board, the nerve center of the operation, manipulating the switches and knobs that control what goes on the air and riding the bleep-out button when the rapper Ice Cube gets raunchy.
Minster, perched at a second microphone in the cramped, poster-plastered studio, hops up constantly to answer the phone or dig into his gym bag full of CDs to satisfy a listener’s request.
Communications instructor Laura Frasier said she has never seen a prep deejay team become so popular in the three years she has been general manager and faculty adviser for the station.
Frasier teaches a series of radio and television classes at Downers Grove North in which the kids learn everything from the history of broadcasting (“a real groaner,” she admits) to FCC rules and regulations; deejay tips; promotion, production and management techniques; and engineering skills. Students finish the radio course with their FCC restricted radiotelephone operator license. That allows them to handle basic broadcasting duties, from performing transmitter readings to broadcasting on-air.
When Frasier took over the adviser’s role, about 25 kids were involved with the radio and television stations, shared by Downers Grove North and South High Schools. Today, more than 200 are active at North and another 50 at the South campus, under the tutelage of adviser Ruth Brickwell. These numbers continue to grow. Frasier said more than 50 percent of these students will go on to advanced communications studies after high school.
FCC-licensed high school stations such as Hinsdale and Downers Grove, which have been on the air for decades and are the only two in DuPage County, are a rarity in the radio world. And though broadcast band allocations are scarce, other high schools in the county plan to vie for air time in the next several years. They are testing the waters with closed-circuit radio stations that broadcast only within their schools.
At Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, junior Will Byington was the driving force behind WVHS Warrior Radio, which started broadcasting in fall 1994 in the cafeteria during lunch. “I’m the one who gets all the complaints and compliments,” said Byington, acknowledging a suggestion from a student listener while giving a tour of the facilities.
Forty students now belong to the WVHS Radio Club. Of these, 15 have scheduled deejay slots on the closed-circuit operation.
In the next several years, the school hopes to have a broadcast license for the station, said Angelique Wellendorf, an English teacher who with Ed Howerton serves as adviser to prep deejays.
In addition to radio, long-range plans at Waubonsie Valley call for a television station and television and radio broadcasting classes, although Wellendorf said their implementation may have to wait until construction is completed on the district’s Indian Prairie High School, projected to open in 1997.
Addison Trail High School negotiated an arrangement with the village of Addison and Jones Intercable Network four years ago and now has its own cable Channel 18, which broadcasts student-produced vidoes, taped broadcasts of student events and a running text bulletin board of student information.
At St. Charles High School, student deejays play music throughout the school day from a closed-circuit radio studio, built in 1993, that overlooks the cafeteria.
St. Charles Assistant Principal Robert McBride hopes to apply for an FCC license and go on the air with the station in another year or two. McBride wants to “tap into the speech classes, the debate classes” and other academic areas to put together an intercurricular approach.
Whether on air or in-house, at least one thing remains constant for the high school stations: Most of the students have been bitten by the broadcast bug.
“Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been interested in radio and television,” said Waubonsie freshman announcer Rob Mathews. “I’d watch the newscasters on Channel 5 and set up my own tape recorder and make up the news.”
Downers Grove’s Dan Harland, who doubles as a sportscaster on WDGC, said he even announces the plays when he’s pressing the joystick at home on his Sega video game. “I guess I’m just sick,” he said about his fascination for broadcasting. “Anything in that line of work would be pretty cool for me.”
Harland is not alone. Most of the prep radio and television students have ambitions of advancing in the broadcasting industry. Ruth Johnson, a junior who is student chief engineer for Downers Grove’s radio and TV stations, dreams of being the chief engineer for a major market station, if not a national network.
Junior Dan Franzen, another Downers Grove student broadcaster, wants to own his own production company. “I’ll be your station manager and get your bands for you,” chimed in senior Sherrye Ehrenberg, the Monday afternoon Downers Grove deejay. “And I’ll be your engineer and keep your studio spotless,” added Johnson, already recognizing the value of networking.
In the meantime, they’re learning the tricks of the trade while still in high school. Downers Grove senior El’Ahrai Stanek produces, directs and stars in “Facelift TV,” his own half-hour television show on the school’s cable Channel 29, shown on Cablevision of Chicago.
Minster and Harland have mastered Marketing 101. They plastered Downers Grove North High School with neon posters announcing the debut of their F.P.R. (Frog Power Radio) show. “I knew frog was kind of a derogatory word (for freshman), so I figured maybe we should use it back at (the upper classmen),” said Dan, explaining the name.
At Waubonsie Valley High School, Will Byington carries a datebook stuffed with business cards of radio pros he has contacted for tips on to how to run a station. Professional broadcasters have also pitched in at Downers Grove North to help stretch limited funds.
Blane Webster, chief engineer for WLIT-FM 93.9, who lives only a few blocks from the school, is a Downers Grove radio alum who frequently finds parts, repairs the antiquated WDCG transmitter and donates CDs. Other alums help as well. Local businesses donate materials and giveaways for an on-air mention as sponsors; no advertising is allowed on the not-for-profit stations.
St. Charles High School plans to pay for its projected $30,000 annual radio budget with student fund-raisers, profits from the school store and a contribution from the District 303 Board.
At Hinsdale, a look around the well-worn studio shows funding is also tight. The station is the stepchild of the school, according to the student deejays, who painted the walls the knock-out color they dubbed “Strauss waltz blue.” But the low budget doesn’t dampen their spirits.
Like high school TV and radio personalities everywhere, these preps are getting ready for prime time.
