Andover Grad Named WBFH Station Manager

The first time Pete Bowers read the news for a radio broadcast he was, by his own admission, terrible and was told to “work on it.”

He was a student at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant and, following his inauspicious beginning, went on to work for three radio stations in the college community. He worked as assistant news director, assistant sports director, disc jockey and production and sales manager.

Now he as been named station manager of WBFH, the Bloomfield Hills Schools’ radio station, which will become operational by Oct. 1.

“I can’t believe it,” Bowers said last week. “I’ve been punching myself all week. Not many students get a job in what they studied.”

Bowers, a 1971 graduate of Andover High School and a 1975 graduate of Central Michigan University, has a degree in broadcast and is vocationally certified to teach.

HE APPLIED for the station manager’s job last year, but plans to activate the station were halted because of school district finances

WBFH will broadcast from studios at both Andover and Lahser high schools, but the transmitter and tower are at Andover, almost in the center of the district. The station will broadcast with 10 watts of operating power.

Residents within a five-mile radius of Andover should be able to hear WBFH at 88.1 on their FM stereo dial.

Before broadcasts begin, Bowers will teach the 66 students who have signed up for the daily one-hour broadcast class Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations, how to run the control board with all its dials and meters and how to be a disc jockey.

“THEY WILL practice all the procedures,” he explained. Thirty-one students at Andover and 35 at Lahser have signed up for the class. Most are boys.

The students will be able to take an FCC test that is given each Tuesday and Thursday to earn their third-class radio telephone operator’s license and later another test for broadcast endorsement so they can operate the station themselves.

Bowers also hopes to have guest speakers at class sessions, including disc jockeys, talk show hosts, music show hosts and others. A supply of records is needed.

“Record companies usually supply stations with current hits,” Bowers explained. “The problem will be getting older records—two years to several years old.” Donations would be welcome, he added.

BOWERS PLANS that the station will operate initially for at least 12 hours daily Monday through Friday.

“Ultimately, it will go as long as possible,” he said. “It will depend on how many students can operate it.” He plans to survey students and others within the broadcast area to see what they like to listen to and will program accordingly.

“It will be mostly current hits, but eventually I hope we can tape school band concerts, have play-by-play of football and basketball games, live entertainment and news,” Bowers said. A national news wire also is being considered.

“Anything is possible," he said. "That’s what’s kind of great about this.”