Jake Resnikoff and Meahgan Gibson were playing a Rush tune during their drive-time radio show the other day when the phone rang.
Jake squelched the volume on the studio monitor as Meahgan pounced on the receiver, excited to connect with the listening public.
A moment later she hung up and rolled her eyes.
“It was Herbert’s mother, calling about his ride home,” said the freshman deejay at Morristown High School’s WJSV, 90.5 on your FM dial.
Okay, maybe high school radio isn’t quite as glamorous as a big New York station. Yet for 40 years, a steady parade of Morristown students has marched into the “dungeon” below the gym to spin records, and then CDs, and now, to blast iTunes recordings to anyone within earshot of the station’s 150-watt signal.
From an antenna perched atop the Mountain Way Elementary School in Morris Plains, the signal reaches about as far as the Great Swamp. That’s where station supervisor Mike Butler, the high school’s new broadcasting teacher, loses WJSV during his ride home to Berkeley Heights.
Most callers are people like Herbert’s mom, or students asking someone to let them inside the building. Jake doesn’t mind.
“It’s fun. You can play whatever you want,” said the high school junior, whose classic rock tastes (Beatles, Queen, AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult) might sound familiar to his grandparents.
Jake’s favorite event is the annual radio marathon, which extends the regular weekday broadcast schedule into the weekend.
“The whole club eats pizza and hangs out all night,” he said.
WJSV–once the call letters for Arthur Godfrey’s radio home, according to local lore–went live in Morristown on Feb. 22, 1971. It evolved from a 10-watt educational station to a joint enterprise with Hanover Park High School (until it tuned out in 1986) to a club that today boasts about 80 members.
Many of them take TV and radio broadcasting classes from Mike Butler, who directed coverage of the O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson and Jeffrey Dahmer trials during 18 years at Court TV. He joined the high school staff last year, taking over TV and radio duties from Norm Wallerstein, who was Mr. Broadcasting to a generation of students starting in 1986.
“I love the traditions of the place, and what Norm started,” said Mike, who works closely with veteran station engineer Steve Woodruff. “I really want to maintain that. But I also made a lot of changes.”
They include an emphasis on portable media, introduction of news segments to music broadcasts, and creation of an after-school “rap club” where students can record their lyrics—as long as they keep them clean.
To become deejays, students must adhere to decency standards set by the Federal Communications Commission. They take tests to obtain FCC licenses, which require them to keep accurate logs of public service announcements, news breaks and station identifications.
Radio staff also must announce storms and emergency information from the Emergency Alert System. On a recent afternoon, Program Director Alex Tholl, a junior, patiently waited for a machine to spit out a weather alert on a l-o-n-g paper strip resembling a supermarket checkout tape…with scarcely any ink.
Reading invisible ink, Alex joked, is one of the skills he has learned at WJSV.
Alumni of the radio and TV operations have landed in broadcasting, according to Norm Wallerstein, who learned the ropes by working in cable TV.
Some students are drawn to WJSV by the novelty of hearing themselves on the air, he said.
“It’s an atmosphere of being involved in show business. It’s also a good place to hang out. It’s safe. They’re not running around.”
Norm recalled one student who stuttered when he joined the station.
“By the time he left, you couldn’t shut him up,” he said, adding that the student went on to work as a producer for Nancy Grace at CNN Headline News and Suze Orman, the financial adviser.
Another success story is Derek Vintschger, class of ’99, who has done audio engineering for TV shows featuring Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, among others.
“Because of my experience at WJSV I had a leg up on practically everyone else in my major through all four years” of college, said Derek, whose work has been nominated for an Emmy.
He rubbed elbows with a broad range of students at the Morristown radio station.
“Everyone was attracted to WJSV,” he said. “We had smart kids, dumb kids, band geeks, jocks, theater kids, all kinds.”
In Derek’s day, students with bands could air their songs on WJSV. There are no live music or interview shows now, although the station broadcasts some home games of the football and basketball teams.
WJSV recently replaced its CD collection with a 25,000-song electronic library on iTunes, but the station has not yet started streaming online.
It’s among the many challenges facing Mike Butler as he strives to prepare students for a digital world that is vastly different from the broadcast environment of his youth.
“To tell them studio TV is the future would be criminal,” Mike said. He professed surprise that 21st century kids still flock to the radio station.
When pressed, students struggle to explain their fascination with the dungeon. The question almost sounds silly; who wouldn’t enjoy doing radio and video?
“It’s pretty fun. The projects we do are pretty cool,” said freshman Chris Gordon, who made a public service announcement about the dangers of drugs and alcohol for the radio portion of his Broadcasting 101 class.
Meahgan Gibson said she doesn’t really know why she is so enamored of WJSV. She just knows that her family is moving to Virginia, and one thing is imperative:
“I’m looking for schools that have radio stations.”
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I don’t know about him living in Morristown, but I do know that Arthur Godfrey hosted “Sundial with Arthur Godfrey” on WJSV. There is a surviving broadcast for the entire day of September 2, 1939 which WJSV transcribed. So, I cannot verify his living in Morristown, it can certainly be verified that Godfrey has ties to WJSV.