NeWS
THE PAW PRINT
Wrecker Radio Cameron fuller ’10 Staff Writer
BMHS Radio Station Eric scatamacchia ’11 Executive Editor
In Fairfield County only a few high schools give students the chance to work with radio by actually having their own station. Brien McMahon High School is not one of these schools, despite the fact that it has the majority of the necessary equipment to run a station simply sitting in a room unused. Dr. Robert Polselli, the Director of Technology for Norwalk Public Schools, said, “Several obstacles have kept the radio station [at Brien McMahon] from becoming a reality. From my perspective, lack of an academic program, a teacher leader, and student interest are among the most significant”. Mrs. Koroshetz, the principal at Brien McMahon, continued on this subject, “There is much more than equipment needed to have a radio station. There are many more resources needed the least of which is time and other priorities”. In order to overcome these
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of the station was that he thinks “it’s really cool to be able to connect with other people through music…I might play an older song and someone who grew up during the sixties or seventies or another older generation will call in and we’ll have a great conversation about music and bands in the past.” Photo Credit: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wwpt-radio
If there is one thing that can inspire the youth of a nation it is music. What better way to communicate and inspire the youth of your school than through music. One school that has taken this sentiment to heart is Staples High School with their daily radio program, Wrecker Radio. Wrecker Radio first became student run in the 1970’s where it was first broadcast at its current 90.3 F.M. station. Early on the station was only able to be heard in the Staples lunchroom but soon the station grew to cover most of Fairfield County. Wrecker Radio broadcasts sports coverage, news, and talk shows, but the eclectic mix of many different types of music is what brings listeners back for more everyday. The station is actually a class which is taught in the school by Mike Zito who is the guiding force behind the station. Mike Friedson, one of the station managers had this to say of him, “Zito is a great guy, the station really would not be the same at all without him.” He went on to say, “He pushes us to put as much effort as we can into the station and doesn’t allow us to get lazy. He always has the station’s best interest at heart. He’s been doing radio for so long and has so much experience; he really can help us in any situation. I’ve seen every student at WWPT grow under his wing.” Of course not all of the stations success can be given to the teacher. In fact most of the creative drive and influence comes from the students themselves as they are usually let
alone to decide what is put into each broadcast. The creativity of the shows is really what distinguishes Wrecker Radio from other programs. The amount of freedom that the students are given is what really allows the students to excel, Friedson had this to say about the restrictions they are given, “Obviously there are FCC regulations which need to be followed, but other than that, we give all of the DJs the freedom to do what they want with their show time.” Friedson also described how the broadcast connects with each listener, “The originality of each show contributes a lot to the image of the station. It creates a more intimate atmosphere with the listeners.” Wrecker Radio also has a lot of fans at Norwalk High School. One avid listener, Andrew Krasnavage(’10), a self described “audiophile”, had this to say about his WWPT experience, “I think wrecker radio is cool, I feel like I’m listening to somebody who could be my friend.” Marisa Shields(’10), another everyday listener said that she most enjoys “ the unique music selections” that Wrecker Radio brings to the table. One of the main questions that is asked when radio stations are brought up is if the shows are all planned out. Friedson explained, “It depends. For anything that involves reporting, generally news/sports casts or sports play-by-play/commentary, there is some stuff that needs to be planned ahead of time. But when I do my weekly radio show pretty much everything is ad-lib.” He went on to say that in his own experience he likes to write a few conversation points down, but not much of his show is planned out because, “No one likes being read to for an hour.” According to Friedson his favorite part of being apart
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Wrecker Radio is broadcast live every weekday from the studio inside the school. Their rotating schedule is streamed on their websitehttp://shswestport.k12.ct.us/ medialab/WWPT/live/live.html. It is one of the best student run radio stations in Connecticut as evidenced by their Drury award nomination, so don’t miss out on all the fresh music and ideas that come free and live everyday from our neighbor Staples High school.
Illegal Downloading At NHS
Kevin Tobias ’11 Staff Writer
obstacles two technicians, Bill DeFelice, an expert in radio broadcast, and Robert Kane, a teacher at Brien McMahon, have been put in charge of running the station. They have been assisted by Juan Barragan, a senior at Brien McMahon who has made the radio station part of his Entrepreneurship studies. As a result of their hard work as well as an increased interest in a radio station Brien McMahon is optimistic about having a station in the near future. Dr. Polselli said, “My hope is to get the station operational by the middle of June. At the very least, we plan on having a fully functional (on campus and possibly Internet) radio station for the start of the new year”. With the Brien McMahon radio station coming to fruition perhaps the focus can be moved to getting a radio station for Norwalk High.
A song downloaded from the Internet can cost you anywhere from nothing to eighty thousand dollars. How much you pay for it depends not only on how and where you get it, but also if you get caught or not. On Thursday, June 18th 2009, a woman in Minnesota was fined 1.9 million dollars for twenty-four songs she had pirated illegally from the Internet. When divided, that comes out to eighty thousand dollars per song. That is eighty thousand times more expensive than what the woman could have purchased the songs for from a legal music program such as iTunes, where songs can be purchased for ninety-nine cents. Some students at NHS are seriously underestimating the severity in the fines. AnaMaria Vongumpel (’11) guessed, “Maybe five hundred,” for twenty-four songs. It was one hundred-sixty times more than that per song. “Wow, that’s bonkers,” she continued. On two occasions a student at Norwalk High has been caught with items on his computers that were acquired illegally. Ryan Tolmich (’10) was caught on two occasions
gina larochelle ’10 Staff Writer
Due to the storm that hit Norwalk, Connecticut in March, 2010, NHS students and faculty received an unexpected week long vacation. However, consequences were of result to this storm. Not only was the entire school schedule pushed back five days, but color war was moved into fourth quarter. The object of Color War is for students and faculty to express their school spirit by dressing up to assigned themes. Sophomores and seniors compete against the freshmen and juniors by winning the most points for their team. Whichever team dresses up the most and does the best in the end-of-color war-assembly, wins the title. However, this year the assembly on the last day of the week did not happen. Due to the storm which caused Color War to be moved into fourth quarter, many school days were lost. As a result, the Color War assembly was removed completely this year, causing students to become outraged at the fact no Color War assembly occurred. “I’m really upset,” says Sailija Shri (’10), “It’s my senior year. The assembly is what everyone looks forward
Photo Credit: Ashley Cortes
Color War Remains A Success
with movies. The first time, Ryan was caught downloading “The Dark Knight.” A week later he received an email from Warner Bros. saying that he had forty-eight hours to delete the downloaded items or he would be fined one hundred thousand dollars for each. Ryan said, “I deleted everything super quick.” The next time, Ryan was caught illegally downloading “Scarface.” Ryan said, “It was a one in a million chance of getting caught,” and the next day he did. He deleted the movie from his computer right away. On the topic of the consequences, Ryan went on to say, “I knew, I just didn’t care.” Dan Munoz (’12) said, “I think it is unnecessary to sue someone for downloading a couple of songs. There are bigger crimes going about in America like counterfeiting or stealing people’s identities.” Downloading something off of the Internet is something that should be taken extremely seriously. Although it is not common for someone to get caught, if you are caught serious action can be taken against you.
to.” Many others, part of the class of 2010, completely agreed and expressed how enraged they were there would be no assembly this year. “It means a lot to us. That’s like the whole point of color war,” says Rachel Dubay (’10), “Why my last year of high school?” When Principal Leonard Mecca was asked about the Color War assembly being cancelled, he responded, “We lost five days of school. Missing any more class time would not be good.” He also expressed his concern of how color war affects the students. “Students get so excited they can’t even Students dress up for Color War control themselves for the rest of the day,” Mecca were unaware the assembly was taken away. said, “We just have to go with out it this year.” “It’s actually not boring,” says Alejandro Rivera (’13) “The reason why we don’t have Color War this year who is experiencing his first year of Color War, “But to makes sense,” says Marissa Shields (’10) who is student hear there’s usually an assembly, is kind of upsetting. It’s government secretary, “We tried doing alternative activities like we all dressed up for nothing I guess.” during lunch to get students involved. But even when we Whether the students looked forward to the Color War tried that, it kind of failed.” assembly every year at the high school or whether they “I think that’s why so many people just didn’t dress up did not even know the assembly ever happened, everyone this year,” says Joey Dellaripa (’11), “They didn’t see any seems to be let down. Hopefully next year the students point to it.” Without the assembly students were resistant opinions of color war will change back to excitement, but to dress up for color war this year. However, many students only if the assembly is allowed to come back.