WTBR gives high school students a chance to go on-air

PITTSFIELD – 89.7 WTBR is a radio lover’s dream.

“This is not your typical high school station,” said Larry Kratka, student advisor at WTBR.

Operating out of Pittsfield’s Taconic High School, WTBR features both student and adult DJs and an amount of live programming that’s nearly unheard of for a modern radio station. Indeed, WTBR broadcasts 81 hours of in-studio, locally-produced, live programming a week.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Mr. Kratka, a radio veteran.

Mr. Kratka makes a living as the news director of The Berkshire News network. For the past seven years, however, he has also served as WTBR’s student advisor and has used his industry expertise to help ensure its success, most notably by getting local radio stations to donate their used equipment.

WTBR first began broadcasting in 1973. Although WTBR has a polka program, “Polka Express,” which airs Friday’s from 6-8 p.m. and is The Berkshires’ longest running locally-produced radio show, it has billed itself as a rock station ever since Mr. Kratka took over as student advisor.

“We gave it an image and we branded it,” he said.

Under Mr. Kratka’s leadership, the station has also attracted a loyal listener base. Indeed, when Rep. Richard Neal (D-Springfield) was campaigning for re-election last year, he was a guest on “Good Morning Pittsfield,” the radio show Pittsfield City Councilman John Krol has hosted on WTBR since 2006.

“His campaign people took a look and said it’s a viable radio station in this county,” said Mr. Kratka.

“It’s a high school station, but look who it talks to,” said Mr. Kratka, paraphrasing the congressman.

Indeed, the station’s popularity stretches into neighboring New York.

“They’ve played us on Sunday afternoons at Lebanon Valley Speedway,” said Mr. Kratka.

WTBR’s mission is to educate the students of Taconic High School on radio and the radio industry, as well as to serve the community and assist non-profits with publicity and Pittsfield schools with promotions. Because of this, the only commercials on WTBR are public service announcements.

WTBR also does coverage and DJs for a number of community and charitable events, including the Relay for Life, Cop on Top and the Pittsfield Ethnic Fair. WTBR staff and students have also assisted local commercial stations with their election coverage.

Monetarily, the station is run on a shoestring budget and relies heavily on volunteers.

“We get $6,000 a year from the school system, that’s it,” said Mr. Kratka.

That said, WTBR is no shoddy operation, featuring modern, up to date equipment and a substantial music library. Indeed, in addition to a vast digital and CD library, WTBR also boasts an impressive collection of vinyl, which is regularly played on air.

“We estimate 10,000 records,” said Mr. Kratka. “We’ve never actually counted.”

WTBR also has a touch screen studio that allows handicapped broadcasters to do shows.

Student broadcasters are the heart of WTBR. Currently, 20-30 students are involved in Radio Club, which is responsible for the student side of the station.

Students broadcast on WTBR from 2:30-6 p.m. on weekdays. Students in radio club must be passing all of their classes in order to broadcast. They are also required to have a minimum of three hours of instruction before being able to go on air and must attend weekly meetings. Student shows aren’t limited to music, and students have had shows on themes ranging from sports to talk to video games.

“What happens, I think the most incredible thing, has been the self-esteem they get built up,” said Mr. Kratka, when describing the effect that doing radio has on the students.

Nilsa, Viola, Vanessa and Morgan are four Taconic High School sophomores with a show on WTBR every Thursday from 3-6 p.m. They all started doing radio last fall.

“We thought it’d be cool to be on radio I guess,” said Nilsa in comments to The Beacon.

“[We] had a bunch of friends that did it and they were like, this is really cool,” said Viola. “And this is cool.”

“It seemed like a very attractive club to be in,” said Morgan. “’Cause its pretty much being on air and you get to hang out with your friends and just talk about whatever you want.”

“Crazy,” said Nilsa, when asked to describe what their show, a music broadcast program, is like.

In addition to the show she does on Thursdays with her friends, Vanessa has a show on Friday from 4-6 p.m. where she plays rock music and gives trivia facts about the artists and songs she broadcasts.

“I would just look up facts, and the facts would go with certain songs,” said Vanessa in comments to The Beacon.

One of the adult DJs at WTBR is Mike Pezzo.

Mr. Pezzo has had a show on WTBR since January 2007. Currently he hosts “Mike’s Amazing Oldie”s from 6-9 PM on Wednesdays and “Mike’s Three-Hour Lunch Hour” from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thursdays.

“I’m able to share music with people that you wouldn’t hear on the other stations normally,” said Mr. Pezzo, when asked by The Beacon about his thoughts on being a WTBR DJ.

For example, Mr. Pezzo has broadcast all 17-plus minutes of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on air, something that would be unthinkable on most radio stations.

Mr. Pezzo also praised the educational role the station plays for Taconic High School students, noting that some have even gone on to do commercial radio: “There’s kids who would have dropped out of school except for the fact they came in and did this, and it gave them something to keep going to school for.”

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on April 4, 2013. Filed under Community News,Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry