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After-School Radio

The Three Stooges, Gilligan and WAPS

Last time, we visited a few websites and some more history about AFRTS and the training behind it. There’s so much history behind AFRTS that I suspect a third part about AFRTS in the future. However, we must move on so for this edition of “Off the Beaten Path,” we’ll go back to school.

Radio: Presented by The Three Stooges
If you grew up in the 1970s, you probably ran home from school to catch “The Three Stooges” on “after school TV.” Any older than this and you might have watched them on a matinee at the theater. And if you aren’t familiar with them and you work in radio, here’s a classic bit from them related to radio and doing their own brand of “engineering.” Yes, I’ll use the flimsiest of excuses to link to The Three Stooges. (By the way, a couple of awesome standalone sound bites exist in this segment if you use these things in your imaging.)

Gilligan’s Island & “Little Buddy Radio”
Since we’re on the topic of getting home from school to catch TV, here’s another reference to one of those shows. “Gilligan’s Island” was a Sherwood Schwartz TV classic (like “The Brady Bunch”). The star of that show was Bob Denver, who has since passed on (1935– 2005). What you might not know is that Mr. Denver had a similar interest as many of us with his passion for radio. In round one of the LPFM licenses over 10 years ago, Bob and his wife Dreama started an LPFM station in Princeton, W.Va. He loved West Virginia and his nonprofit station was founded to help families dealing with special needs and, in particular, autism. Here’s a link to his website his “Little Buddy Radio.” (As you remember, “the Skipper” referred to Gilligan as “Little Buddy” in the show, hence the name.)

The Summit.FM
I wanted to share a radio station link. The reason this is a little different is because it’s a nonprofit full-powered station in Akron, Ohio, which is owned by the Akron Public Schools. Where often a station being owned by a school can be limited and sometimes “appear” to be a noncom, WAPS, AKA “The Summit” (named for its county, Summit County, Ohio) presents itself as a high-class, professional operation. This station is very cutting edge, in my opinion, with full integration of social media, plus they incorporate a very high-quality audio streaming service and multicasting (in HD locally). Their broadcast service includes four distinct “flavors: “The Summit.FM,” “Summit Flashbacks 80s” (awesome ’80s channel), “Kidjam!” and “Rock+Recovery.” The latter is a very unique programming service established to help people in substance recovery programs.

I’m a big fan of this particular station and probably can’t do it justice by my own words. First, read about it at Wikipedia to get a better understanding.

And here’s the link to the WAPS website. I’d invite you to look at what they do and listen to their station. I think it’s quite the stand-out in noncom stations. 

In staying with “full disclosure.” I know this station because I was a former rock-jock at 97.5 WONE in Akron/Cleveland and two old WONE buddies are now part of WAPS. A shout-out to “Little Jimmy Chenot” and Bill Hall!

And finally …

Ending on a funny note … Engineers often have their own brand of humor. Here’s a link to “10 Jokes Only Engineers Will Understand.” (Don’t worry, you’ll get them!)

If you stumble across a good or unusual web site that might be of interest, please don’t hesitate to send me the link and any info you might have about it. My email address is [email protected].

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