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WTBR is being revived and students and adults are learning from professionals.

Pittsfield's Rock 'n' Roll High School Is Back

Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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WTBR's station was rebuilt and the estimated 10,000 records from the station's early years have been sorted and catalogued.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Taconic High School's radio station WTBR flourished after its inception in 1973 but then the signal faded.

Through the years, budgeting cut the station down and down and until it was a small radio club run by people who had very little radio experience. The equipment starting breaking, the line from the radio tower to the school started to soak up water making the signal scratchy, and students and staff just forgot there was a station on the campus.

In 2006, that changed.

Longtime radio host Larry Kratka has revived and rebuilt the station. It now thrives with 35 to 40 involved students and more than a dozen adult hosts providing more than 80 hours of programming a week.

"When I started there was nobody here. Now, I can't keep them out," Kratka said on Wednesday. "The students and some of the staff didn't even know it was here."

Four years ago, Kratka, a morning host for local Vox Communications stations WUPE, WNAW and WBEC, was asked by his friend Carl Flossic, who hosts a polka show at the station, to fix a microphone. When he went, it irked him that the station was in disarray and he agreed to take over as adviser despite being advised by his friends to avoid the aggravation.

"I just hate to see this place go down the toilet," Kratka said.

Right away, he got his company to donate used equipment and got his friends to help rebuild the studio, tucked behind a classroom. But it was a slow start. He sent out a notice to students and got a staff of six.

"It is amazing what has gone on here," Kratka said. "This station has everything WUPE has. It's the same system to what they have on Jason Street. These students can fit right in with commercial radio."

The station now fills more than 80 hours of programming a week. Hosts can do live remote broadcasting or even host shows from home. Students and adults did 26 consecutive hours of coverage of the local Relay for Life this past spring. And the most influential county residents have all been interviewed on-air. The station is now getting fan mail, too.

"We got a letter from a man at the Berkshire County House of Corrections saying he loved our show and listened to us all the time," Kratka said.

The station has drawn attention from both students and former students. Many of the hosts from the station's early years have returned, he said. Students will come in on days off, start early on half days or even put in full eight-hour shifts. Even some weekends and holidays.

One who noticed the new station was Billy Madewell, now the student programming director.

Madewell said he did not have any career ambitions nor did he know anything about radio last year. He was focused on playing football. But then he repeatedly sprained his ankle and had difficulty walking. After an MRI and an X-ray, he found out that his ankle problems were caused by a benign tumor and needed surgery.

He was going to miss a season of football and surgery could have caused long-term nerve damage, he said. A friend of his, Shane Reed, was working with the station at the time and encouraged him to join.

"There was nothing else I could do for the team other than support so I tried this," Madewell said. "This is my passion now."


Billy Madewell found the radio station after he was injured and could not play football. His career ambitions are now in broadcasting.
Madewell started spending more and more time in the radio station and in just six months took over as program director. His first project was the 26 hours of Relay for Life coverage.

He's also helped with election coverage on WBEC and he might do a summer internship with the locally owned WBRK station. Next year, he plans on going to  Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams to pursue a degree in broadcasting.

"My goal for going to MCLA is to make that station better," Madewell said. "After I graduate, I will have experience in four different radio stations."

Unlike other schools and colleges, Taconic's station is run just like a commercial radio station, Kratka said, so students can seamlessly transfer to other stations.

The students are not just learning how to be hosts. For example, Kratka said, Reed is more interested in learning the engineering side of radio. Kratka has been teaching him how the equipment works and how to build a station.

A rock format was developed to guide the station so students could get used to having a criteria of the things they can play. WTBR coined itself the county's "only rock station." However, being a school station instead of commercial, that format is loose and allows the group to do very different and creative things, he said.

"This is not cookie-cutter radio. It's a whole different animal. We can be cutting edge," Kratka said. "But I want to teach these kids what it's like to be at a real radio station."

Local radio professionals hold workshops with the students and the station is trying to raise money to buy equipment suitable for sports coverage. The students would be able to learn how to do play-by-play sports reporting for football and basketball. Kratka has even launched a new website that streams the station's programs.

On Wednesday, some students were live on the air while others recorded shows to play over the Christmas vacation. Typically the students host shows after the final bell until as late as 8 p.m.; during the day, adults have shows but the schedule is often shifting, Kratka said.

"I come in here every day and I love it. It's like a family here," said student Emilee Kiernan, who is in her second year on the staff.

Madewell characterized the close-knit group as the "most dysfunctional family" because it spans all barriers from class to race to popularity. The group is very welcoming and freshman students can walk in and go on the air, Kratka said.

As for the adults, Kratka lets people from the community become involved. They have to pass a criminal background check to be in the school but adults seldom interact with the students, he said.

Among the more well-known adult programs is John Krol's "Good Morning, Pittsfield." The city councilor has been simulcasting the show weekday mornings from 7:30 to 8:30 for four years from the school.

The station operates on a $6,000 allotment from the school budget but immediately $1,000 goes to music licenses, Kratka said. Its broadcast license does not allow advertisements but as the station continues to grow, the group will soon have to expand its fund raising. Maintaining and replacing the equipment is very expensive, he said; for example, replacing the wiring from the transmission tower to the station cost $2,500.

The station has received some donations and the station provides underwriting support credits to those donors, he said. That underwriting support has not been for monetary donations yet but may be in the future.

More information and streaming content can be found at www.WTBR.com.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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