BHSD Radio Students Win Awards in National High School Radio Competition
Pete Bowers Wins Best Radio Station Advisor for the Second Time
Seven Bloomfield Hills School District radio broadcasting students were finalists in five categories at the Ninth Annual John Drury High School Radio Awards ceremony held November 19, 2011 on the campus of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Two students, Cameron Billes and Eric Bloom, won 1st Place in the Best PSA category.
The John Drury High School Radio Awards were created to recognize excellence in high school radio broadcasting. These awards were named in honor of award-winning ABC-Chicago news anchor, John Drury. The awards were presented by North Central College and their student radio station WONC-FM.
Seven WBFH students were in the final five for five awards in this national competition:
Best PSA, 1st Place: Cameron Billes (Andover senior) and Eric Bloom (Andover junior)
Best PSA, Finalist: Paul Stewart (Andover senior) and Zac Barnett (Andover senior)
Best Radio Drama- Original, Finalist: Bobby Brandon (Lahser Class of 2011) and Jeremy Fishman (Andover senior)
Best Sportstalk Program, Finalist: Cameron Billes (Andover senior) and Jeremy Fishman (Andover senior)
Best Sportscast, Finalist: Alexander Madias (Andover junior)
Attending the event with the students was WBFH Station Manager Pete Bowers and Assistant Manager/Technical Director Randy Carr. Bowers won the Best Radio Station Advisor, an award he won the first time in 2005. He is the only advisor in the nation to have won that award more than once.
“I congratulate all the winners and nominees,” said Bowers. “I also would like to thank the students who wrote letters of recommendation for the Best Advisor Award: Justin Lopas, Paul Stewart, Zac Barnett and Kenny Selander”.
BHSD Radio Students Cover GOP Debate at Oakland University
Three WBFH radio students were among the throng of state and national media covering the live GOP presidential debate held at Oakland University November 9, 2011. Andover seniors Paul Stewart, Justin Lopas and Josh Lumsden applied for and received media credentials to cover the event, rubbing elbows with Detroit and network radio and TV reporters.
Working out of the media center near the debate stage, the students kept Biff Twitter followers in touch with tweets and photos throughout the debate. After the debate, they did their best to join the “wolfpack” of reporters who swarmed the candidates as they entered the post-debate media filing center. With microphones and video cameras in tow, they were able to move in close enough to ask questions to former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum.
Stewart is the WBFH Operations Manager and host of The Mixing Board from 7-9 p.m. Mondays. Lopas is the Assistant Operations Manager/Assistant Technical Director and host of The Justin Lopas Show from 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays. Lumsden is the Public Affairs Director and host of The Den from 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays. Their shows can be heard at 88.1 on the FM dial or online at www.wbfh.fm.
“It was exciting to be there,” said Stewart. “When we heard the debate was going to be at Oakland University, we knew right away that we wanted to cover it”, he said. “We decided to apply for media credentials”, said Lopas. “Receiving those and covering the event was an extremely valuable experience for me”, he said. “We think we were the only high school students in the press corps”, said Lumsden.
WBFH Station Manager Pete Bowers was impressed with the perseverance of his students. “They didn’t care that they were high school students on a high school radio station. They got the credentials totally on their own. It was cool to see them hone their multimedia skills on a national stage,” Bowers said.
The debate will be remembered for Governor of Texas Rick Perry’s forgetfulness but it will be a memory these media students will never forget.
A video with interviews of Huntsman, Santorum and Perry can be seen athttp://www.youtube.com/user/FoursquareProduction?blend=22&ob=5
BHSD Radio Students Attend Broadcasting Career Builder Conference in Lansing
Heather Catallo, Former WBFH Student and Current Channel 7 Investigative Reporter, is Keynote Speaker
Twenty-six Bloomfield Hills School District broadcasting students attended the 6th Annual Broadcasting Career Builder Conference (BCBC) held at Lansing Community College West Campus, November 4, 2011. BCBC was presented by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation (MABF) and offered informational sessions for high school and college broadcasters who may be interested in pursuing a career in the broadcast industry.
The Keynote Address was given by Channel 7 Investigative Reporter Heather Catallo who talked about the life of a reporter at a Detroit television station. Catallo started her broadcasting career as a WBFH-FM Staff Member for three years at Andover High School. She served as The Biff Program Director her senior year.
WBFH Station Manager Pete Bowers introduced Catallo at the conference. “It was a thrill for me to see Heather”, Bowers said. “I had not seen her in person since she graduated from Andover in 1994. I see her on Channel 7 all the time. It is so rewarding to see one of my former students perform award winning news reports on Detroit television”.
Attending the conference along with Bowers was Assistant Manager Randy Carr and 26 students from the Exploring Electronic Media and WBFH Staff classes: Paul Stewart, Adam Kurtagh, Alexander Madias, Ayman Alam, Michael Blumenthal, Bryan Brown, Jacqueline Shandler, Zac Barnett, Josh Lumsden, Danny Harwood, Leo Goldman, Bryan Furlong, Kenny Selander, Winston Parker, Cameron Billes, Grace McIlhon, Jeremy Fishman, Tyler Kieft, Justin Lopas, Leanna Dixon, Tatyana Pearson, Jack Ferszt, Lizzy Sabol, Brock Appleby, D.L. Graham and Patrick Jabero.
Students attended three sessions before the Keynote Address: 40 Ways to Jump Start Your Career; Making the Most of Your College Broadcasting Experience; and The WRITE Path to Success in a Multimedia World. More information about the conference can be found at www.mybcbc.com.
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Tune in: Senior Marquez Hicks takes his former seat at the radio station controls during a Saturday School tour of Southfield High radio station WSHJ - 88.3-FM. Hicks planned to take radio during his senior year, but it was cut as an elective and moved to Saturday School, where he has rejoined the station. - Loren Coleman
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 By Seneca Peters
Advertising
Future radio personalities and music lovers, fear not. Radio is back.
Radio broadcasting is now a Saturday School class offered to interested air heads. The class will teach students how to operate the school radio station, WSHJ 88.3-FM, and review disk jockey techniques. Students will also perform technical duties regarding radio equipment and broadcast transmission. Radio class is free and is open to all high school students within Southfield Public Schools.
Radio was an elective offered during the regular school day up until last year. Then Radio teacher Julea Ward adopted a child and has discontinued teaching the course.
The new Saturday instructor is Donald Walker, a radio teacher in Detroit Public Schools. Walker is a Southfield High alumnus with more than 20 years in radio experience.
The Saturday school class is a continuation of the previous radio program, said senior Marquez Hicks, general manager of WSHJ. "It’s exactly the same but we just have new members, and I think they’re going to be surprised by how student-run it is," says Hicks. "The students teach (and) Mr. Walker is a great addition because he allows us to do that."
The loss of the class from weekly school hours, however, has upset radio hopefuls.
"What I know is that the school went through some budget cuts," says counselor Tom Holliday. "I hate to see the radio room unused, but you have to balance your books."
The Saturday School program at least lets the station operate for a few hours a week, Holliday said.
Senior Ronald Driskill took the class last year and said he intended to take it again this year, but not as a Saturday morning class. "It was cool while it lasted," Driskill says.
Another senior, Ceaira Dowdell, says, "I think it’s a shame because the people who were on radio actually liked it. It gave us an opportunity to show our creative side and show our talents."
Dowdell also took the class last year and intends to study broadcast journalism, but she says the Saturday option does not appeal to her.
Fellow senior Alfonzo Rushin says he might consider the new Saturday radio program. He took radio for three years in high school and says, "We were supposed to do something big this year." A once-a-week class wasn’t what he had in mind, but "It would be something to exercise my abilities," says Rushin."
Radio isn’t the only class offered on the weekends. Other classes available to high school students are Fundamentals of Animation, Video Game Development and Strategic Reading.
For more information on Saturday School classes, including when registration for the second semester will begin, refer to the Southfield Public Schools web site (www.southfield.k12.mi.us), or see your counselor.
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