DETROIT FREE PRESS | WWW.FREEP.COM BIRMINGHAM-BLOOMFIELD COMMUNITY FREE PRESS 10 SUNDAY, SEPT. 24, 2006 5
The Biff is boffo
Andover High’s student radio station celebrates its 30th anniversary
By ALEX P. KELLOGG
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Wade Fink, Evan Schuster, and Corey Berkowitz were cruising through a lunch hour playlist of popular tunes when Berkowitz decided to throw on “Unfaithful,” by teen pop singer Rihanna, to the amused discontent of this friends.
Berkowitz, a 16-year-old junior at Andover High School, and his buddies — Fink, a 17-year-old senior, and Schuster, a 16-year-old junior — are DJs at the school’s student-run radio station, WBFH-FM (88.1), also known as “The Biff.” All three are from West Bloomfield and are active at the station, which celebrates its 30-year anniversary next Sunday.
Fink and Schuster stared at Berkowitz as they sat listening to the lyrics in the station’s main studio:
“And I know that he knows I’m unfaithful / And it kills him inside / To know that I am happy with some other guy / I can see him dyin’.”
“I won’t lie, I like this song,” said Berkowitz, shrugging.
“Make sure you mention who was running the board,” said Fink, one of the station’s most promising young students, as he pointed to Schuster. The person manning the board picks the songs.
According to the trio, the station fades if you drive a few miles in any direction away from the school. Still, its impact on students can be felt across the country.
The Biff, also open to Lahser High School students, has helped launch the careers of many radio and TV journalists, disc jockeys, anchors, producers and personalities from South Bend, Indiana, to Los Angeles, California.
Jackie Purtan, who graduated from Andover in 1981, is an alum of the station. She hosts a morning show with her father, Dick Purtan, on WOMC-FM (104.3) from 5-10 a.m. weekdays. Her sister JoAnne, a consumer reporter on ABC’s Detroit affiliate, WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), is an alum too. She graduated from Andover in 1987. She and her sister grew up in Bloomfield Township.
“I adored it; it made my high school career,” JoAnne said. “I mean that. My experience at WBFH had a major impact on what I wanted to do in life.”
Heather Catallo, an investigative reporter and Sunday news anchor at WXYZ-TV, is a Biff alum as well. She graduated from Andover in 1994.
Despite its limited reach, the Andover station has the second-strongest signal of any high school station in the state. It has also won loads of awards. In March, for the fourth year in a row, it won the High School Station of the Year in March from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. In the John Drury High School Radio Awards, a national competition, it also won Best High School Station and numerous individual awards last fall for Fink and other students.
“Wade and many of the other students are really something,” said Pete Bowers, who has run the station since its inception and teaches the introductory class. Bowers, 53, who lives in Milford, graduated from Andover in 1971.
Thirty-one students are currently enrolled in the introductory class they must take to be eligible to work at the radio station. Students apply to take part at the Biff, and not everyone is chosen. Sixteen students are currently on staff and earn course credit for their participation. Biff normally broadcasts live from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on school days, sometimes later for Andover football games and other special events.
Students do everything from writing and producing their own news sgements to playing their favorite music at Biff. Though they somethimes have to play a variety, and must air a certain amount of Andover and Lahser news, among other things, they have a lot of freedom to say or play what they like.
Ryan Fishman, 18, a freshman at Syracuse who graduated from Andover in June, says he’s ahead of the curve since school started up a few weeks ago. Already, he’s writing and reporting local news for a local NPR affiliate, and even doing some freelance stores—somethng many students don’t do until they’re sophomores or juniors, he said.
“Because I had all this experience from Biff, I was put right to work,” said Fishman.
Fishman said he’s saved up the money to come back for the anniversary celebrations.
A history of the station, told in pictures, audio and student and alumni memories, will start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pontiac Country Club, 4335 Elizabeth Lake Road in Waterford. Alums, their friends, and family may come out and tour the station beginning at 1 p.m. that day.
Alumni may also take over the airwaves for two-hour blocks starting at 3 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m., Monday-Friday, Sept. 25-29, and for those interested, possibly thereafter.
Fishman said he can’t wait to share his thoughts on the station Saturday.
“I’m so excited about it,” he said.
