WBFH Rocks the Hills

Think about the radio station you listen to for a minute. Where can you find 25% more, commercial-free music, guaranteed requests, and specialty shows of your own taste? Only WBFH, 88.1, the Bloomfield Hills station engineered and deejayed by Andover and Lahser. According to Station Manager Pete Bowers, “WBFH is one of the top high school stations in the state,” and soon will be even better. Currently the station is applying for stronger power with the FCC and is hoping to change its frequency to a less jammed area on the radio dial.

The proposed power increase from 10 watts to 57 watts will end the static plagued signal distant listeners suffer through. Even the frequency change from 88.1 MHz to 91.5 MHz would improve the signal by allowing more tuning space.

Broadcasting from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday, WBFH offers a wide variety of shows, ranging from Monday Mellow, Solid Rock and the top 30 countdown to the “Light n’ Lively” comedy evening with Jack Wheatley and Dave Christie. The BFH crew strives to stay in the closest tune with what Andover listeners want so student directors are assigned to each feature in the program. Senior Sunil Sinha is known as the “Big Cheese” and heads the executive staff as Operations Manager. Senior Program Director Ken Dickman figures out the who, what and when questions of the airtime for the shows. Pete Kassab, a senior from Lahser, controls the Promotional and Public Service blurbs that are recorded and aired throughout the day. Finally, Senior Dave Christie directs the Music Department, the format judges who decide whether “to axe a song or play it.”

(But, being on the staff involves more than just spinning tunes. Production assignments such as public service announcements, and promotional casts, newscasts, sports broadcasts, as well as a minimum of 40 objectives must be completed during the course of the semester.) These objectives include technical skills such as splicing, dubbing, and recording phone calls. To be a member of the staff, a student must take Fundamentals of Radio Broadcasting, a semester course. After completing this. course he or she can apply to be a member of the staff.

WBFH staff is a class like no other class in the school. It involved no textbooks, no homework, and no tests. Because of this, it has gained the reputation as a “scam” class. Quite the opposite, in fact, is true. Working on the staff requires a lot of time after school, and sometimes during the evening. Junior staff member Jenny Silverstein says about her first semester on staff, “Although participating on the WBFH staff is hard work, it is definitely satisfying.”

Pete Bowers originally helped to set up the station in a period from 1971 to the actual airing in 1976. In the interim, he worked with two student stations at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. Mr. Bowers recently was awarded the position of President of the Michigan Association of Educational Broadcasters; a committee consisting of all high school stations in the state. Bowers feels that WBFH represents an “ideal station with unique programs-the dream of any station manager.”

Because of the amount of time Bowers and the staff members spend at the stations during the week, he and the staff become very close, and the station serves as a link between Andover and Lahser. Ken Dickman says, “Working here has been a wonderful experience. You learn a lot about people and life.”

Bowers explains that “Whether they continue in broadcasting in college or not, skills learned here include public speaking, writing, working equipment, management skills, and working with a diverse group of people for one main purpose—the running of a good and successful radio station.”