Radio daze: Students take over the radio waves

Teresa Hinds

Thursday, May 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Terry Criner adjusts his headset while Michael Jackson's "Beat It" pulses through the speakers.

As Criner pulls back on the volume, he announces, "We are rolling, stand by for sound."

The music fades and Mark Viedas and Kashif Joshua step to the microphone.

With the professionalism of veteran actors, the two breeze through a scripted schoolyard argument and conclude that the services of a peer mediator are needed.

Right on cue, Sarah Shurtz takes her place in front of the microphone and encourages students to seek out a fellow Cahlan Elementary School peer mediator, the students wearing the orange vests, to help solve campus squabbles.

Criner slowly increases the volume of "Beat It" and Greta Earnest adds a final tag to the commercial: "Cahlan Elementary students, academically competitive and socially responsible."

In the background, Principal Jean Jackson gives third-graders Mark, Kashif and Sarah a thumbs-up sign. A successful end to another afternoon of production work for the school's week-old FM radio station, 88.7.

What began as an idea thrown out by third-grade teacher Criner at a brainstorming session on how to keep student's parents more informed about school activities has turned into a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week broadcast.

"There's been a lot of trial and error, but it's been fun," Criner said.

Jackson explained that the school's Learning Improvement Team was struggling with the reality that campus announcements more often than not never left students' backpacks. What would be the most effective way of making sure parents had access to important school news?

Criner threw out the radio broadcast idea and Jackson ran with it.

"I've been telling the (Clark County School) District that you've got to stop using 9-5 methods of communication with 5-9 parents," Jackson said. "This is a 24-hour town. We need to find other ways of communicating with our parents."

A background in broadcast -- Jackson once was a DJ for KCEP -- helped the principal find alternatives to the time-consuming and expensive process of Federal Communications Commission licensing.

A local free-lance engineer, recommended by staff at public radio station KNPR, offered to allow the school to operate under his FCC license. Jackson explained that since the station has less than 10 watts of power, the school isn't required to obtain its own license.

With help from the free-lance engineer and KNPR, Jackson, Criner and fellow third-grade teacher Earnest had the station up and running in less than two months.

The Parent-Teacher Organization raised the money for technical equipment, such as the soundboard and microphones, and the rest of the operation is a conglomeration of staff-donated cassette decks and speakers.

The 24-hour format offers parenting tips, student-read stories and poetry, a professionally produced "Story Time" segment and "English Para Ti," English lessons aimed at the Hispanic population that surrounds the North Las Vegas neighborhood school, in the vicinity of Interstate 15 and Cheyenne Avenue.

One of the most popular segments is the student-picked top 10 music list. Students were asked to bring to school tapes of their favorite songs and a Top 10 list was compiled from their picks. The No. 1 song at Cahlan? "I Believe I Can Fly" from the "Space Jam" soundtrack by R. Kelly.

Jackson, Criner and Earnest make sure the tapes are set to play through the night before they leave the campus in the evenings and they all stop by the station on the weekends to make sure everything is running smoothly.

"We all come in at different times on the weekends and leave notes for each other," Jackson said. "Someone will leave a note that says 'I put in this tape or that tape, so don't you dare touch it!"

The venture has been a learning experience for staff and students, said Criner, who serves as the station's engineer.

"It's good because the students can see me make mistakes and we can all learn together," he said.

And students see firsthand that what they're learning in the classroom really is relevant to their lives.

"When they say 'I want to be a DJ, why do I need to know how to read?' we can show them. If they want to come in and record commercials or read their poetry or stories, they have to know how to read," Criner said.

Earnest also pointed out that students are being exposed to career options they may not have thought about.

"They won't be as intimidated (to explore careers in the broadcast industry) because they've been exposed to this environment," Earnest said, referring to the studio set up in a room just off the main office.

"There are lots of other jobs (in the radio business) they can do besides being a DJ," Earnest said. "When they see what an engineer or a production manager does, it makes it less intimidating for them."

Besides recording commercials for the station, students are responsible for writing the scripts.

Earnest, who sponsors the school's drama club, has her students working on several scripts for commercials to publicize the school's upcoming carnival, the voluntary uniform policy and the school's snack store.

"I make it a writing assignment in the classroom so they can put it all together," she said.

Jackson said the broadcast project has re-energized the students and staff.

"Everyone is so excited. Here it is May, and they're just as excited about school as they were in September," Jackson said. "You have to keep kids excited about school. You have to keep the teachers excited, too."

The students are so excited, Earnest said it's not unusual for some students to come to school up to two hours early just to listen to the broadcast.

And judging from Mark, Kashif and Sarah's enthusiasm on Tuesday, the broadcast experience they're getting is a real boost to their self-esteem.

"We're real good at this," Sarah said after the three nailed the reading on the second take.

Kashif said he thought he was good at recording because "my voice is nice and loud."

And Mark, who has recorded three commercials, smiled widely and said, "I'm real proud of myself."

The students said their parents got a real kick out of hearing them on the radio.

"My mom said I was wonderful," Kashif said. "She said, 'It was nice to hear my son on the radio.'"

Comments like that make it all worthwhile for Jackson.

"I know the parents are listening because the kids come in and tell us," Jackson said. "I had one parent come in last week and offer a suggestion for a program. She said, 'How about doing the family tree? The kids can interview their grandparents.' I think that's a wonderful idea."

Plans are in the works to add a communications lab next year and Criner has hopes of the lab evolving into a full-time television production.

"I wouldn't like to limit the possibilities of growth. As the students grow, we should be able to grow with them."

Criner added, "This is just the beginning of bigger and better things."