Radio station makes waves with students

In August 1976 Pete Bowers was hired as station manager and given one month to get Bloomfield Hill’s Andover’s school radio station WBFH operating.

The school station was so new it didn’t even have its own records. But Bowers, using his personal record collection and a makeshift student crew, met his Oct. 1 deadline.

Affectionately known as The Biff, WBFH, at 88.1 on the FM dial, is a youth organization offering news, features, local sports, public service and music geared to students.

The radio station has its own news department and receives stories through The Associated Press newswire service. The wire service lets the station keep the listener informed of breaking news events. The news manager drafts or approves the story, and it is aired.

Talk shows and interviews are frequent events on the Biff. This may be a talk show, an interview with an accomplished student, or even radio theater.

Controversial topics are frequently discussed on the air. A recent student forum titled “What Do You Think?” covered AIDS and promiscuity.

Among school radio stations, WBFH has one of the largest music archives. If a song was popular within the last 20 years, there is a good chance that The Biff has it.

Many changes are sweeping The Biff: It now plays some music from crisp compact discs. New equipment for automation has been introduced, allowing the station to operate 24 hours continuously, unstaffed if necessary.

Bowers’ office is crowded with colorful posters, signs and various artifacts. It also is crowded by two computers.

Students usually can be seen huddled around the machines like campers around a fire, printing signs or entering a program log.

Technical skills taught start with proper equipment care and cueing up a record, then progress into making recordings and carts. A cart is a looped tape that can be played over and over without rewinding. Carts can be one second or several minutes. You hear them every day. A jingle or call sign of the radio station is usually done on a cart. Commercials are put on carts.

Carts also are good for sound effects in ratio theater. A person can record a door slam on a cart. For example, during a Halloween show, the press of a button on the cart machine will make that abrupt door slam. The creativity of the radio staffers is reinforced by the equipment.

Many students wish to enter a communications field with no concrete knowledge of it. When asked about this, WJR-AM radio personality Bob Hynes said, “There is a definite high note in high school radio and TV communications. Too many people act prematurely on choosing a communications career without getting hands-on experience. This experience can give the student a solid background so that he or she can decide if a communications career is appropriate.”

WBFH is an experimental platform where a student may spring forth into radio or decide that the jump is too high and retreat down the ladder.

Jennifer Purtan, a 1978 Andover graduate, did make the jump. She got her start in communications as news director for WBFH. She is now holding a lucrative sales position for WXON-TV, Channel 20.

She describes her job with The Biff as very profitable. “It (WBFH) runs just like a professional radio station. I really learned there.”

Skills such as making an effective telephone presentation, speaking or writing concisely and responding quickly and tactfully to unexpected questions or comments are vital skills that Jennifer Purtan says she began to develop at WBFH.

The event that Jennifer Purtan said she found most memorable, like most staffers, was the annual Marathon. This springtime charity event lasts 60 hours. The students bring their sleeping bags, soft drinks and chips into the station and stay there, broadcasting continuously for the entire marathon. The results are worth it. Last year the Marathon netted more than $1,000 for the March of Dimes.

This year’s Marathon is expected to be a success, too. This large crew has strong leadership.

Scott “The Gator” Anderson is the operations manager. He is the No. 1 student broadcaster at the station. He is responsible for the general well-being of the station and bimonthly progress reports. Andrea Mellon, his assistant, handles the ever-present overflow of Scott’s duties. Dan Lippitt, the program director, approves all material to be aired. Jessica Purtan, news director, and one of five sisters of Channel 20’s Jennifer Purtan, edits all news stories. She decides the newsworthiness of everything that comes over the Associated Press wire.

Besides being entertaining and informative, WBFH is considered a great educational tool for staffers. Students learn not only the skills of a disc jockey or cueing a record, but editing, sound recording, fund-raising and management.

Eleven years have passed since the radio station was born, and today WBFH is thriving.