High school radio station KASB-FM in Bellevue, Washington was my second stop during a hectic day of radio station tours in the Seattle area in October, 2018. Bellevue High School’s Career and Technical Education Department Chair Brad Conger reached out to me awhile back, encouraging more coverage of high school radio on Radio Survivor. I was happy to oblige.
Dating back to 1974 (see some early photos), KASB is a class D non-commercial high school radio station on 89.9 FM near Seattle. Housed in modern digs (Conger helped with the station’s redesign in 2012), KASB’s welcoming on-air studio overlooks a busy hallway at Bellevue High School. Unlike its former, tucked-away location, KASB’s current on-air studio is immediately seen and heard (thanks to an overhead speaker) by students and staff walking by.
Part of a broader media program, it is both physically and philosophically linked with television, film and photography studios and work spaces, with many of the rooms purposely built to be shared across disciplines.
I arrived after the school day had ended on an early release day, so things were pretty quiet on campus after the stream of parents picking up students departed. A handful of students were quietly working on computers in the large classroom where radio, film, and TV classes take place.
Around 40 students are involved with KASB, with participation open to high school students from across the district. Station members are required to have taken the school’s radio class at some point. Conger is himself an alumnus of the program, starting at the station in 1983 when he was a high school student (take a look at these 1980s photos of the station staff). He graduated in 1985 and then returned in 2002 to lead the program.
As the semester was just getting underway at the time of my visit, the schedule of student radio shows was still developing, with participants getting assigned their first solo DJ show the following week. Student leaders (second year radio students and beyond) were in the midst of training, just getting settled into their station roles, including Music Director and Public Service Announcement Director.
When there isn’t a live show on KASB, programming plays from a “jukebox” of music and station IDs. Students can host shows whenever they’d like, with most taking place during and adjacent to the school day. A morning talk show starts one hour before school and other shows run during 1st period, lunch, after school, and in the evenings. KASB’s format is Top 40 music, although live student shows are mostly talk.
Interestingly, back in Conger’s high school days, KASB also ran a Top 40 format. He told me that in the 1980s the station either aired live shows or turned off the transmitter. He fondly recalled playing Monty Python sketches over the air, telling me that back then the station relied on cart machines and turntables.
These days students play material from online sources or from their phones and Conger speculated that the CD player in the studio hasn’t been used by students since it was installed in 2012. However, he added that every year one or two students ask for turntables. One bit of technology that wasn’t around in the early days of the station is live video streaming, which is now shared on Twitter and Facebook during KASB’s live talk shows and archived there as well. The station’s live audio stream can be heard on MIXLR.
While there is a music format for KASB overall, students are asked to select the music and format for their hour-long shows. Conger tells them to think about their chosen format and how it might fit into a big city’s overall radio landscape and ratings. With that, there’s freedom to stray from the official Top 40 format.
Walking around the KASB on-air studio, one quickly grasps the variety of student shows that have aired on the station. As part of a class assignment, everyone is required to create a promotional poster for one’s radio show. Those posters plaster the studio walls, offering glimpses of the teen personalities that grace the Bellevue High School station’s airwaves. A smattering of show titles include, “Three Sleep Deprived Teenagers Talking about Things,” “Morning Waffles,” “The Child Laborers,” “The Cool Kids Club,” and “Thrash Zone with DJ Severed Limbs.”
The Seattle area is full of high school radio stations and I visited three in one day. Conger told me that there are around six stations that keep in regular touch through an email list and an annual high school radio festival. They provide a support network for each other, sharing tips and advice.
Conger’s students also participate in larger student media organizations, taking part in regional and national competitions. An impressive collection of trophies and certificates represent recognition from the Washington State High School Radio Awards, Northwest High School Film Festival, and the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS).
KASB is also a member of the National High School Radio Network, a group of high school stations that share programming across the network every Wednesday. On the day of my visit, KASB was preparing to air the week’s live National High School Radio Network show from nearby Mercer Island High School station KMIH (my next tour!). As I wrapped up my visit, Conger summarized his passion for high school radio, explaining, “I love the creativity of the students…It makes my job exciting every single day.”
Thanks to Brad Conger for taking the time to show me around KASB-FM and for encouraging me to visit more high school radio stations. You can hear about my three Seattle-area high school radio station tours on Radio Survivor podcast/radio show episode #177. Peruse all of my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives. This is my 153rd radio station visit report and my tenth high school radio tour report.
