First High School Radio Station

For the purposes of this post, High school radio staiton will be defined as a radio station, with its studios located at a high school. It's operation by highschool students is a plus, not mandatory.

Stations like these existed in the late 1920s. but there is very little recorded about these stations,much like other LP broadcasters of the era. It goes without saying that the schedules were erratic, the off air tie was greater than on air time and that it was all live. In 1934 that nifty communications act knocked nyone off air that wouldn't play by the rules. This included the hobies run stations at high schools.

By the late forties Highschool radio made a come back. WHHS 99.9 at at Haverford High. near Philadelphia was foundedin 1949 as the nation's first high school FM station. really they were the first one that was licensed but whos quibbling?
WHHS began as an experiment in radio electronics at Haverford High School. Oscar Granger, achool principal on that era decided file for a frequency. With the help of a physics teacher and a chemistry teacher, the experiment turned into a thriving success. But as a class D staiton they had little right to protect their contour. In 1992, from the FCC made them change frequencies from 89.3 FM to 107.9 FM. Only in 2005 more change ups in Philly forces them to make another move to 99.9. http://www.whhs.org/

88.1 WNAS, Nashville makes a similar claim and was founded in 1949, but actually is only the second. WHHS beats them by two months. what can I say? Highschool kids aren't so good at research.

The Assasination of the FM Class D license

I have seen many articles heaping praise and laurels upon the LP license. I find it strange that many of these LP radio proponents don't know the sad and sordid tale of our first love affair with the Low power license, the Class D.

The FCC stopped issuing the FM Class D license in 1978. This license allowed schools to own and operate low power FM stations. Between 1978 and 2002 Low power licenses were only issued in Alaska. And as we all know the FCC has no jurisdiction in Alaska anyway. The need for this broadcast license was abated temporarily with the first (and only) wave of LP licenses.
Nifty article here: http://www.hamradio-online.com/library/fm2.html

In 1978 the class Ds were given the official directive "Grow or die" They had to file papers to turn up the power to 100 watts and qualify as a C license or face the inevitably encroaching protected contours of other stations. Often it was not possible for a station to crank up the juice due to other station on the first or second adjacent.

The Class D license was low power license, allowing a maximum of 10 watts output from the transmitter it could even occupy vacant commercial frequencies. The FCC essentially took the position that high-power stations serve the public interest better than low-power stations. They defend this notion with a simple RF over-crowding argument.

It goes like this: Suppose a Class A station covers a an area 500% greater than a Class D station. If a low-power station was using the same or adjacent frequency then the Class A station could not be able to operate due to spacing. Fewer people are served by the available bandwidth.

The flaw in this notion is that the FM Class D license was designed to fit between the high-power stations where no other class of license could be allowed. In the very unlikely chance that the above occurred, a Class D station, having no protected contour, would be forced to cease operation. The reasoning was wrong.

The reason the reasoning was wrong is that it was just a cover story. The real reason that the FCC yanked that license was that NAB, CPB and NPR pressured the crap out of them. As is typical in Washington, the party with the most money won. The only exception the FCC left standing were drive-in movie theaters.

A handful of original Class D's are still out there. Just recently in Philly WHHS was forced off the air by the move in of WSNJ (now WRNB.)

WHHS rises from the grave

The self-proclaimed oldest high school station in the country, WHHS Havertown, PA is back on the air at its new home of 99.9. earlier this year the move-in of WSNJ (now WRNB) forced them off the air. [*note the WRDV repeater on 107.9 was also nixed] Radio One engineer, Steve Hemphill helped them win special temporary authority from the FCC to get back on the air at 99.9 immediately. They are currently waiting for license approval at that frequency to be granted.

This is not the first time they've changed frequencies. In 1992 they moved from 89.3 to 107.9, probably to decrease interference with WRDV in Levitttown. WHHS only has a class D license and can be forced off their frequency at any time. Their current frequency of 99.9 is also occupied by WODE in Allentown, PA. *Radio One is kindly accepting some 2nd adjacent interference to WPHI-FMon 100.1

WHHS is a fairly typical highschool radio station in many respects. Excepting that it produces a large number of radio professionals. Their current yield includes DJs at WMGK, WYSP, WXPN, and many other stations.