By RJ Townsend
Not too many people remember it now, but starting back in the late 1970s, students at Delta High School had their very own radio station.
Known as WWDS, the little news and sports station broadcasted at 90.5 FM. The Delaware Community School Corporation held the license, but it was the students and teacher Mr. Jerry Jones who made the station run.
Mr. Jones started the program and acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment through grants. He ran it for more than two decades before retiring in 2002 after 34 years teaching and running the telecommunications classes.
In those classes he inspired and left seeds inside the minds of students to continue their careers in broadcasting. Like 1989 graduate Pam Thrash.
“It’s my jam! I fell in love with the radio!” Thrash said.
Thrash worked on the WWDS staff her junior and senior years at Delta. With this, her interest sparked into a blaze for deejaying. Since her years at Delta, Pam continues to be a professional deejay.
From signing in in the mornings to spinning records at lunchtime, students had a chance to learn radio the old-fashioned way, behind a microphone and a control board.
The station officially went on the air in 1979. However, recordings show there were test broadcasts in 1978. With only about 100 watts of power, WWDS didn’t reach far, just enough to cover the school and a slice of the northern Muncie area, but that was plenty for a high school station.
Transmitting straight from Delta High itself, the station became a sort of hidden gem for those who tuned in. One old sign-off even listed the school’s rural route address, a reminder of just how small and personal the operation was:
“And so we conclude another period of program test broadcasts, pursuant to provisional authorization of the Federal Communication Commission. This is radio station WWDS, stereo FM, Muncie, Indiana. WWDS operates on an assigned frequency of 90.5 megahertz, with effective radiated power of .024 kilowatts. Studios and transmitter are located at Delta High School, Rural Route 7, Box 382, Muncie, Indiana. WWDS is owned and operated as an educational broadcast service of the Delaware Community School Corporation. For continued tests of Indiana’s newest educational station, WWDS, Muncie, Indiana.”
Sadly, WWDS didn’t last forever. By 2010, its license had been cancelled and the call letters deleted from the FCC’s records.
Today, the station exists only in scraps, an abandoned radio tower outside in the parking lot near the dumpsters, a few memories, and maybe some old tapes in someone’s attic.
The outdated equipment that had been stored in the back rooms of Mr. Tim Cleland’s classroom and studio recently was put into surplus and carried away. With it being taken away, Mr. Cleland’s rooms have more space and storage than they’ve ever had.
Though the radio station left, Delta preserved some of its telecommunications program, renewing the broadcasting television show called “Delta Daily” to the new “Eagle Zone News.” The daily broadcast even performed live for the first time ever during the annual Homecoming Picnic last month.
The show is now a necessary element of students’ everyday lives. Teachers play the broadcast during their fourth hour, both to entertain and to be informed. For junior Jensen Boyd it’s how he stays on track throughout the school year.
“I love hearing announcements from sporting events and future important dates,” Jensen said. “I look forward to my fourth period every day.”
Though the two types of broadcasting have their differences, they have been a way for students to show their creativity and love for journalism.
Still, for the students who sat in front of the mic or cued up a record, it was more than just a school project. It was their chance to put a voice on the airwaves, even if only for a short while.
