WGBK at Glenbrook South High School (photo by J. Waits)
Just about a year ago I visited a high school radio station for the first time and was impressed and excited by the prospect of teens running their own station at Glenbrook South High School near Chicago. As I mentioned at the time, their station, WGBK, is one of many high school radio stations that regularly gets recognized for their broadcasting prowess.
The John Drury High School Radio Awards winners (PDF) for 2010 were recently announced, giving me yet another opportunity to encourage you to investigate high school radio in your own town or online. These stations are doing a number of interesting things with music, news, sports, and public affairs programming. I was also excited to see that a few were recognized for their work producing radio drama, both adapted and original. You can hear one such production, Vacaville Christian School’s original radio drama X-7 (recorded for a live studio audience and featuring music by the school’s jazz band), from their website and also listen to WRHS’s original radio drama “The Never-Ending Genre” on their website.
Here are some of the winning stations for 2010:
WBFH 88.1 FM- Bloomfield Hills High School, Michigan (Won 1st Place for “Best High School Station” 2010)
WWPT 90.3 FM- Staples High School, Westport, Connecticut (Won 2nd Place for “Best High School Station” 2010)
WLTL 88.1 FM – Lyons Township High School, La Grange, Illinois (Won 3rd Place for “Best High School Station” 2010)
WGBK 88.1 FM- Glenbrook South High School, Glenview, Illinois (Won 3rd Place for “Best News Feature” in 2010, 3rd Place for “Best High School Station” 2009)
WKCS 91.1 FM – Fulton High School, Knoxville, Tennessee (has been on the air since 1952 and airs an “oldies” format)
WDGC 88.3 FM – Downer’s Grove North High School, Downer’s Grove, Illinois (has been on the air since 1968 and the signal is shared between two high schools)
WRHS – Reavis High School, Burbank, Illinois (won “Best Radio Station Advisor” in 2010 and also received 3rd place for “Best Radio Drama-Original”)
VCS AM 1670 – Vacaville Christian Schools, Vacaville, California (won “Best Radio Drama-Original” for its sci-fi radio drama Unit X-7)
KDPS 88.1 FM- Central Campus, Des Moines, Iowa (frequency is also shared with a college station)
On the John Drury High School Radio Awards website you can also peruse lists of winning stations for the past few years. You might be surprised at the number of high school radio stations in existence all over the country. What are some of your favorites?
