SCORE! Community Student and Athlete www.scorecsa.com October 6, 2006 4
‘The Biff’ celebrates 30 years on the air
A throng of enthusiastic supporters of WBFH-FM (88.1), also known as “The Biff”, attended the Biff Birthday Bash Sept. 30 to celebrate 30 years of broadcasting by the student-run community radio station, which is owned and operated by the Bloomfield Hills School District and housed at Andover High School.
Celebrants at the Sept. 30 party at the Pontiac Country Club in Waterford included the three WBFH managers, 12 of the current student staff members and their parents and a number of Biff alumni and friends of the station. Station manager Pete Bowers, who has operated the station since its inception, served as master of ceremonies for the program. Bowers took the group down memory lane with photos of radio station students and tales of the 30 Biff alumni who are working in communications careers in radio, television, advertising, sales, production, programming and law.
WBFH signed on the air Oct. 1, 1976 with only 10 watts of power and a few record albums in the music library. The idea for a local student station had been proposed in 1971 by then Lahser teacher Rick Spriska, but it took five years to come to fruition. Bowers showed several archived videos from when the Biff made TV newscasts, including the day in 1991 when the station increased its power to 360 watts, becoming Metro Detroit’s most powerful student radio station. Assistant station manager and chief engineer Randy Carr reflected on his lengthy career in broadcasting and his association with WBFH. Carr has been the assistant manager since 1999. Remote supervisor Ron Wittebols, who was the assistant manager from 1987 to 1995, talked about his coming on board and his dream of building the station to the successful status that it has today.
Several Biff alumni also stepped up to the microphone to reflect on their days at the Biff. Stuart Best (Andover ’80), an attorney for Weltman, Weinberg & Reis in Troy, talked about how his experiences at WBFH have helped him in his law career.
Aaron Spiwak (Andover ’81), Kelly Reagan (Lahser ’81 ), Ed Borus (Lahser ’83), Matt Friedman (Andover ’90), and Ryan Fishman (Andover ’06) also talked about how Biff has impacted their lives. Friedman, a partner in the advertising firm Marx Layne, talked about the celebrities he interviewed while at WBFH, and played a tape from his 1990 show featuring the voice of WCSX on-air personality and Pistons announcer Ken Calvert.
Two popular Detroit radio personalities were in the house to support the Biff. “Big Al” from Dick Purtan’s morning show on 104) WOMC-FM attended, as well as Drew Lane from Detroit’s top-rated morning show “Drew and Mike” on 101.1 WRIF-FM.
Since that first day in 1976 when Bowers turned on the transmitter, the radio station has had 556 WBFH Staff members, eight assistant managers, four remote supervisors and one station manager: Pete Bowers.
“It’s been very rewarding for me to see how successful my former students have become, and to know that their experiences at the Biff may have contributed something to their success,” Bowers observed. “I listen to former Biffer Jackie Purtan on 104.3 WOMC-FM in the morning on my way to work. I watch former Biffer Heather Catallo on WXYZ-TV’s six o’clock news. I listen to former Biffer Scott “the Gator” Anderson talk sports before the Tiger game broadcast on AM 1270. Then I watch Jackie’s sister and former Biffer JoAnne Purtan do a special report on the 11 o’clock news on Channel 7. How cool is that?”
You can listen to the station at 88.1 on the FM dial, or online by clicking on the radio icon located on the Biff web site's homepage at www. wbfh.fm.
