WWPT used to try to hide the fact that they were a high school station, in order to seem more professional.
However, Advisor Mike Zito realized that the opposite would have a better effect, which he realized in a “lightbulb moment” eight years ago, just after arriving to teach at Staples. He was at a baseball game in the spring.
“It was cool to see everyone celebrating spring and baseball,” he said. He noticed that WestportNow was there covering the event, and he felt the Westport spirit. “You’re an idiot Zito,” he said he had thought to himself. “Don’t negate that we’re part of Staples and Westport, celebrate that.” From then on the station began to celebrate the locality of WWPT.
Therefore the station focuses on local sports, a variety of student selected and local music, in addition to news and talk shows.
In 1972 WWPT became the first student-run FM radio station in the state. Since its birth, the station has expanded from a one-mile radius, to being listened to all over Fairfield County. The station has been awarded for their progress and many successes, being named the best high school radio station at the 2011 John Drury Awards. “Wrecker Radio” also collected seven out of nine awards for sports broadcasting.
However, the lack of awards in the news category shed light on WWPT’s lack of a strong news base.
News Director Hannah Foley ’14 has been working to improve the station’s function as a news outlet. She was asked to take this position after winning the only Drury Award Staples received in the news category for a piece she wrote for “Good Morning Staples.”
“We swept in every other category except news,” said Zito. “That was an indicator that something needed to be fixed.”
Foley and co News Director Erik Sommer ’13 just had their first meeting where they reconstructed the news portion of WWPT. They are looking to air a long news update every two weeks because they only have about nine people working to come up with story ideas and develop them. Foley notes that anyone who wants to join can, it’s just a matter of learning.
“That’s probably the main problem we’re facing right now, the number of people. Up to this point, news hasn’t been a huge part of WWPT, people join for sports and music so it’s definitely a challenge to get people excited about news,” said Foley.
Foley agrees with Zito about the importance of a focus on local news. “Our signal goes down to Greenwich and up to New Haven. People can hear national news on any station while we have the ability to focus on small, important things going on around town and Fairfield County,” she added.
She also explained one of the challenges of news on the radio. “You have to learn how to tell the story without graphics or pictures,” she said.
Foley’s ultimate goal is to get the same recognition for news as they do for sports.
“Our sports reporters and sports show is known across the country,” she said. “We want to get up to that level one day.”
Jake Chernok ’13 loves the recognition that WWPT receives. Whether the student broadcasters are reporting news, sports, or just speaking their mind on the air, they take pride in their station, 90.3 FM.
“Another one of my personal favorites is being recognized around Westport as one of the guys on the radio,” Chernok said. “So many people around town listen to the station and I love hearing the positive feedback.”
While WWPT is most widely known in Westport, the quality of the station makes itself known miles outside of the community.
In fact, Zito once had the secretary for the Mayor of Norwalk tell him that they play Wrecker Radio in the office all the time. Even a janitor from New Canaan told him that Wrecker Radio was constantly playing in his car.
While students and advisors involved in WWPT have been celebrating their successes recently, the hard work never stops.
Ben Greenberg ’12, who has been involved in WWPT since freshman year, continues striving to give listeners high quality sports broadcasts.
“Each game takes a ton of effort and preparation, but I enjoy every minute of it,” Greenberg said, “ It takes days to learn the corresponding names and numbers of each player, but thats just the beginning. Doing research on each team and knowing the stats of star players is crucial as well because when you’re on air, people look at you as the expert. It’s important to live up to that expectation.”
According to Chernok who often broadcasts a variety of Staples sports from soccer to hockey, to football, the hardest part of sports broadcasts is keeping up with the pace of the game.
“The plays happen in rapid succession and you can’t spend too much time talking about one play or you might miss the next one,” he said.
Foley notes that with the loss of Sixsmith and Gallanty, the staff has been working hard to keep momentum and quality up.
“People have really been stepping up. DJ and Eric were stars, and everyone is trying to strengthen the station to keep up the level that we had,” she said.
