By Bill Arrowood (The Chesapeake Spy, March 26, 2014)
The community DJ’s donate their time and musical acumen to produce radio like nothing else in the region, and offer their audience something unique and fantastic.
Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie, Casey Kasem. Once upon a time American radio waves were filled with DJ’s that delivered personality as much as spinning records. Gone are the days of a jockey like Dewey Phillips plugging a new single that could take a Mississippi gas station attendant and make him the King of Rock and Roll. Today’s radio is dominated by a sheen of slick, homogenized auto-tuned music and the DJ’s that are interchangeable as the pop tunes they play.
But in a tiny corner of the Kent County High School, there is a voice still crying in the wilderness that is distinct and unique and finding its audience far beyond the reaches of pastoral Worton.
The community volunteer DJ’s on WKHS (90.5FM) represent a rare porthole into the past, with a medium that reaches out to share their evenings, personalities and songs with anyone fortunate enough to be in the broadcast radius. A range, that at 17,500 watts, reaches across the Bay into Baltimore, to Delaware and Annapolis, all told a population close to 750,000 is within shouting distance of the school’s FM transmitter located out in the cornfield behind the school.
Many local residents may not realize that the school’s broadcast is the only high school station in the state that emits off campus and is one of the most powerful scholastic stations east of the Mississippi. The community DJ’s donate their time and musical acumen to produce radio like nothing else in the region, and offer their audience something unique and fantastic.
Continue reading “WKHS DJs Harken Back to Radio’s Golden Era” at chesapeakespy.org
From Left: Bill Staples, Mike Martinez, Willie “MoonMan” Bacote and current station director Chris Singleton. Submitted Photo.
- Thrill of the Night – 1st Generation Rock and Roll (Al Millard & Dick Lillard) – Sundays 4-8 pm
- Thrill of the Night – 1st Generation Rock and Roll (Ron Lockwood) – Mondays 6-8 pm
- Voices from the Hallway – Doo Wop (Charlie Stinchcombe & Bucky Murphy), Tuesdays 6-8 pm
- Jazz & Other Stuff – Dixieland, Big Band & More (PJ Elborne), Wednesdays 6-8 pm
- Musicology – Modern Music Themes/Genre Explorations (Lain Hawkridge), Thursdays, 6-8 pm
- Moonman Radio – Southern Soul (Willie “Moonman” Bacote), Fridays 6-8 pm
- Southern Star Country Club – Country Music (Mike Martinez), Monday 8-10 pm
- One Particular Harbour – Island Party Music (Patrick Clancy), Tuesdays 8-10 pm
- Honky Tonk Jukebox – Classic Country, Bluegrass & More ’40s-’60s (Bill Staples), Wednesdays, 8-10 pm
- Road Trippin’ – Jam Bands, Deep Tracks & More (Bill Wright), Thursdays, 8-10 pm
- The Night Shift – Rock from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s & Beyond (Martin Q. Blank), Fridays, 8-10 pm
- Music Show with “The Coach” – Eclectic rock & roll (Andy Moloney), Saturdays, 10 am-12 pm, Sundays 8 am-12 pm
Related Links:
“Talk To Me” – Willie “Moonman” Bacote profile in Urbanite magazine (December 2008)
“I Belong to the Blank Generation” – Martin Q. Blank profile (Accelerated Decrepitude, November 7, 2016)
