Over the last four decades, the number of students and other people who have helped made Burlington High School radio station WBSD a success is huge.
Ted Ehlen, who is working to organize the group’s reunion event in Burlington April 11, says 135 members are on the group’s Facebook page but knows there are more.
“That number is a mere fraction of the actual number of Burlington High School students who have served WBSD over its four decades, as well as WBSD’s closed-circuit predecessor on the BHS campus, WBHS,” Ehlen said.
Ehlen is reaching out to former radio station staff for the reunion, to be held at the Brickyard BBQ April 11.
WBSD alumni who want to attend the April 11 event must be 21 years of age, and are asked to RSVP. More information on the reunion is available on Facebook, as WBSD alumni are encouraged to join the WBSD Radio Alumni Network page, which provides updated information on the reunion and the opportunity to RSVP.
Any questions about the event can be sent to the e-mail to [email protected].
On April 7, 1975, WBSD-FM, a radio station owned by the Burlington Area School District and housed on the campus of Burlington High School, aired its first broadcast.
The origin of WBSD was a closed-circuit service known as WBHS that piped music into the school cafeteria. The system was configured by Burlington High School English and speech teacher and Southeast Wisconsin radio personality Terry Havel.
As WBHS provided its music service during a split-shift day of classes at Burlington High, both Havel and the students realized that they had the equipment and the ambition to turn WBHS into a bona fide over-the-air radio station.
After many months of work and research, and permission from the Burlington Area School District, the Federal Communications Commission granted the district a license to operate a 10-watt station at 89.1 FM.
Since then, WBSD has earned a national following, priding itself on debuting music that has gone on to national success. WBSD General Manager Tom Gilding and his staff were recently honored for helping the album “All the Little Lights” go platinum.
Gilding and staff at WBSD made a call in August of 2012 to play a group called Passenger, with its debut single – “Let Her Go.”
Gilding said Sawyer, his grandson, really liked the song when he heard it.
To date, the album has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.
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