Andy Mullen hadn’t been back to Chesterton High School since his 2001 graduation, but was irresistibly drawn to Sunday’s open house celebrating the 50th anniversary of WDSO-FM, the student-run radio station.
Some of the best times that Mullen remembers from high school were being on the air and hanging around the studio.
“It changed my life. I am not even kidding,” Mullen said.
Mullen went on to a career in broadcasting, working first at Vincennes University’s public television and radio station and later for a number of radio stations before leaving the business.
Former student broadcasters, fans of the station’s expansive musical format and student volunteers were on hand for the open house from noon to 3 p.m. at Chesterton High School.
The studios and rooms were set up to mark the radio station’s different eras, from the 1970s through the present day. There were photos galore, along with artifacts and antiquated equipment. After the open house, a celebration was held at the Moose Lodge in Chesterton.
Matthew Waters, another 2001 grad, was at the front entrance of Chesterton High School to greet Mullen, whom he hadn’t seen in years. They spent their high school days working alongside each other at the radio station.
Waters returned after his college graduation in 2005 to join the Chesterton High staff, teaching the fundamentals of broadcasting along with acting as the advisor for WDSO 88.3 FM.
When he was a student, Waters enjoyed learning all of the intricacies of working on the radio in the days when it was less automated and more labor-intensive.
As a teacher, Waters said he finds joy in watching how students blossom through their experience of working at the radio station.
For instance, Waters remembers a student his freshman year who had trouble stringing together complete sentences. By the time that student was a senior, Waters said he “had the gift of the gab.”
Chesterton High School’s venture into the radio business began in the early 1970s when Greg Odle, a student, managed to persuade then-high school principal William Crockett that there should be a student-run radio station.
It started as an in-house affair as the broadcasts could only be heard within the walls of the old high school building off Morgan Avenue, which later became Chesterton Middle School and is now being converted into the Duneland YMCA Healthy Living Campus.
The school obtained a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license and became official on Nov. 24, 1976, as the 10-watt station could be picked up outside the high school halls. Eventually, a tower was built on top of the old high school building that broadcast a 400-watt signal. The station started at 89.1 FM, but switched in the 1980s to its present 88.3 FM frequency.
The old handwritten radio log from that first broadcast shows that the station signed on with the song, “I’ve Got a Name” by Jim Croce. And WDSO certainly made a name for itself in the community.
Brian Babcock, a 1988 graduate, looked at the log as he sat down in a chair with the old familiar radio gear surrounding him Sunday afternoon. There was even an old United Press International teletype machine, which used to transmit wired copy that the students would read on the air.
Babcock recalls how he played the song “Fight for Your Right (to Party)” by the Beastie Boys, and was later reprimanded by James Cavallo, the English teacher supervising the radio station, who didn’t appreciate being awakened at 6 a.m. by that song on his alarm clock-radio.
When he was a student, Babcock got to broadcast the high school football and basketball games. He recalls how his father told him about listening to his broadcast of the Chesterton vs. Valparaiso football game with his fellow steelworkers during their shift at the old Bethlehem Steel works, which is now Cleveland-Cliffs in Burns Harbor.
Another highlight for Babcock was broadcasting a charity basketball game between some members of the Chicago Bears and Chesterton High School. Babcock said that Otis Wilson, a prominent Bears player from the 1985 Super Bowl champion team, joined him for commentary on the game.
Years later, when Babcock’s daughter, Courtney, went through Chesterton High School, she was also a WDSO volunteer.
Aly Malinovsky, a 17-year-old junior, also has a family connection to WDSO. Her parents met while they were students working at the radio station in the late 1990s.
Aly said her parents would talk about how they used to be on the radio. She told them that she wasn’t impressed.
But Aly said her mind changed when she got older and started listening to the radio station. She is now one of the news directors at the station.
There have been a lot of changes in technology in the communications business, but Aly said the basics are similar between now and her parents’ days.
Emily Fletcher, a 2003 Chesterton High School graduate who did some volunteer work at WDSO as a student, has been the station’s manager for the past five years.
Fletcher said the advances in technology make it easier for students these days.
Students are on the air between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Fletcher said she has about 30 volunteers to handle the time slots. A computerized broadcast covers the hours that students aren’t on the air.
Fletcher said when the old high school building was turned over to the YMCA, the station could no longer use that tower. She said they are now renting part of a tower owned by WBEZ-FM off of Tremont Road. She said because of the tower’s height, they can reach with 200 watts a larger area of Northwest Indiana.
The music format has moved away from exclusively classic rock toward an eclectic mix, like that of a college radio station, Fletcher said. A relatively unknown indie artist’s recording could be played, followed by a Taylor Swift song and then a rootsy 1950s tune, like “Hound Dog” from Big Mama Thornton.
A couple in their early 70s from Portage wore their WDSO T-shirts to Sunday’s open house. They wouldn’t disclose their full names, but the man said WDSO is their favorite radio station because the format “fits the bill.”
Duneland School Board President Brandon Kroft believes WDSO has become an important institution for Chesterton High School and the Duneland community. Personally, it is also a family tradition as he was a radio volunteer along with his younger brother and sister, and a generation later, his son.
When he was a student in 1991, Kroft said he and fellow senior Daryl Anderson stayed on the air for 24 straight hours during the annual radiothon fundraiser at the suggestion of then News Director Diana Eagan. They wanted to go 30 hours, but didn’t quite make it.
“As a student, WDSO reminded me of a teenager-run version of WKRP (a TV sitcom about a rock station). It was one part learning, one part fun and another part circus,” Kroft said. “As a WDSO alum, I can’t tell you how much I loved driving around the region and randomly hearing my son on the same radio station.”
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
