40 years of WGBK: Glenbrook student radio station marks more than just a milestone

Before the high school district purchased licensing and equipment and the student radio station call letters were still WMWA, adults would broadcast basketball games.

"And someone said, 'Why not have the kids do it?'" recalled Dr. Dan Oswald, Glenbrook South fine arts and broadcasting teacher.

Excellent idea.

It's now the 40th year Glenbrook South and Glenbrook North students have been broadcasting on WGBK 88.5 FM. Those call letters changed in 1997, a year after Glenbrook High Schools District 225 bought the station from Midwestern Academy, 74 Park Drive, Glenview.

Oswald, Glenbrook South's faculty adviser for WGBK FM and a 1992 graduate of the school, studied under his predecessor with the station, Dell Kennedy. In 2003, as she was looking toward retirement, Kennedy asked Oswald if he'd run the radio program and curriculum.

A listener since 1986 when his parents came home with a Sony receiver-turntable, "Doc" Oswald took over as the school radio program's adviser in 2004.

"I thought, it meant so much to me as a kid, I'd like to keep it going," he said. "For me the station has been a lifetime love affair."

Oswald said WGBK, whose late 1970s origins as a club consisted of a disc jockey pumping music into the Glenbrook South cafeteria, is one of fewer than 200 high school-owned frequency radio stations in the country.

On Monday, Wednesday, every other Friday, and Saturday, the students of Glenbrook South control the airwaves and stream at gbsradio.com - "The Mouth of Glenbrook South." On Tuesday, Thursday, alternating Fridays, and Sunday, the transmitter for WGBK 88.5 FM gets switched to the Glenbrook North team manning gbkbroadcasting.com.

The station is on the air 24 hours daily, with student programming usually between 3:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, said Justin Weiner, Oswald's counterpart at Glenbrook South.

A 2005 Glenbrook North graduate, Weiner is a radio broadcasting and physical education teacher who returned to his alma mater after working in sports at WGN Radio as a producer who also had his own prep sports show.

"The best way to run a class is to let the students run it," Weiner said.

As part of each school's larger broadcasting curriculum - Todd Rubin heads the television and film side at Glenbrook North, Julie Benca at Glenbrook South - radio students do everything in front of and behind the microphone.

They write and produce program: opening and closing segments, features, public-service announcements, school promotions, news stories, sports shows, live event coverage and more whether for a hot mic or prerecorded playback.

The music is that expansive "alternative" genre, though it ranges from 1980s and 1990s standbys like The Cure, Peter Gabriel and Pixies to the latest by contemporary groups like El Ten Eleven.

Freshmen don't need to wait two years to get on-air experience. They can sign up for a regular, hourlong time slot.

"The intent of everything you do is that it will be delivered to our community, whether it's written or recorded," Oswald said.

A great community service will be Glenbrook North's 27th Radiothon on April 22. It will feature a broadcast of the Spartan Pride Assembly within its 10 hours of continuous live broadcasting and streaming.

Partnering with the Lou Malnati Cancer Research Foundation, the goal is to raise $10,000 for cancer research. Sales of raffle tickets, $1 apiece, begin April 1 and include a song request with a chance at prizes. Sponsorships of $100 per hour also are available.

Weiner said typically students and staff snatch up those raffle tickets, but his goal is to extend the reach beyond the school.

Weiner believes that, aside from the X's and O's of creating content, the radio program helps young people "develop their voice" literally and figuratively.

"I think the biggest thing the program does for students outside of the curriculum and outside of broadcasting is, I think it develops their confidence as adolescents," he said.

"It can be a little nerve-wracking, and I think overcoming their adversity helps them later on in life."

Oswald said that with the training WGBK provides, Glenbrook South radio students could go to a commercial station and, within weeks, be operating "like pros."

"It's professional quality there," said Tyler Aki, a 2015 Glenbrook South graduate who is a producer and sports show host at ESPN 1000.

"When you look at the equipment and stuff like that, it's stuff I've used at all different levels, whether it's audio editing software or soundboards," said Aki, a broadcast and digital journalism student at Syracuse. He started in October 2019 at ESPN, his first interview after graduating from college. He currently co-hosts a Sunday college basketball program with a show on golf coming up in April.

Camaraderie between students was one of his favorite parts of the WGBK experience.

"It's a great culture of everyone looking out for each other," Aki said. "It doesn't matter if I was friends of people outside of class. Once you're inside the walls of the radio station, you look out for these people."

Aki credited Oswald, who in 2011 earned the Glenbrook South Parents Association Distinguished Teacher Award.

"What he did to bring everyone together I don't think gets talked about enough," Aki said. "I've made and maintained lifelong relationships from that class, and to be honest, if I didn't take that class there are people there who never probably would speak to me or interact with me. It's a cool little family there, for sure."

Oswald doesn't see this program going anywhere. In fact, he's confident about the future of radio, and what the medium will mean in the future.

"Being a responsible content creator is going to be key to being a successful adult in the 21st century," he said.

"Having a station is one thing, using it as a club or an extracurricular. But having a station that is a tool for an actual full curriculum where kids can learn from the ground up about broadcasting, is very unique," Oswald said.

"I think it demonstrates support from our community, I think it demonstrates the face of our school board and I think it demonstrates the willingness and dedication of our students to try new things, to go outside of their comfort zone, and to have a unique learning experience where they're actually making a difference in their communities."