WBFH rocks.

That’s what Alex Rusciano remembers from his days at Andover High School.

His former student radio station — “The Biff,” he says in his best radio voice — captured six awards in five categories at the third annual John Drury High School Radio Awards ceremony Dec. 4 at North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

The event, in its third year, recognizes outstanding high school radio stations across the U.S.

Rusciano, a 2004 Andover graduate and freshman majoring in journalism at Michigan State University, won first place for Best Newscast, while his former broadcasting teacher, Pete Bowers, won second place for Best Radio Station Adviser.

“I put a lot of work into it. It’s awesome,” said Rusciano of winning the award. The format was pretty much what he did at Andover every day — a one-man, five-minute meltdown of the news.

I’d start with a local, regional story, then national and international news, (followed) by sports and weather.”

One of the best parts was making the transitions from one category to the next. “I’d find stories that would interest me, like the Pistons, and say something like, ‘Well, the Pistons are really heating up. It’s not the same for our skies.’”

He credits Bowers and the news station for developing his talent. Bowers has high marks for his former student as well.

“Here’s a student who just loved to read the news. He has a great voice. He’s just one of those kids who has a tremendous future if it’s news he wants to go into,” Bowers said.

WBFH also won third place for Best High School Station, behind WLTL, LaGrange, Ill., and WGBK, Glenview, Ill.

Other awards went to former Andover or Lahser high school students who worked at WBFH.

John Madormo, general manager of WONC, the student radio station at North Central, said there are under 100 high school radio stations in the U.S.

About 22 schools participated, submitting 85 entries, he said. The fact that Andover won six awards means “They’ve got a lot to be proud about,” he said.

Bowers, 51, who founded the station 28 years ago and teaches broadcasting, has many memories.

“I know the scariest day was when I found some pipe bombs that had been put in our radio tower in 1992. We never found out who did it. They had gunpowder in them, but not any detonation device.

“It got everybody a free day off from school, but if they had exploded it would have caused some damage, no doubt about it. It was a big news story...our 15 minutes of fame,” said Bowers, who earned a degree in broadcasting and cinematic arts from Central Michigan University.

There are also musical memories.

“In the late ’70s, it was the disco era — John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, Disco Inferno...I brought in all my record albums, so our first format was called Pete Bowers’ Records.”

The old turntable is still there, “but we don’t use it much anymore.

“Students don’t know how to play records because they were born in the CD generation, you know. Once student took a record and wanted to know what side went down on the turntable because a CD has a shiny side that’s up. It was kind of funny.’

Bowers, ironically, a graduate of Andover, keeps in touch with former students — including those locally famous like Heather Catallo of Channel 7 and Jackie Purtan of radio station WOMC — via e-mail.

“It’s like Welcome Back Kotter,” he said.

WBFH is a noncommercial, educational radio station broadcasting at 88.1 on the FM dial or online at www.wbfh.fm.