by Collin Nash
Staff Writer

WKWZ in Syosset combines sports talk with eclectic music mixes. WXBA in Brentwood sprinkles Siskel-and-Ebert-style movie reviews between pop singles.

The big band sounds of the 1940s float over the airwaves of WSHR, while WPOB offers up "The Two Stupid Dorks Show" featuring a live napkin-eating contest.

The four Long Island radio stations have one thing in common: When the bell rings, the DJs have to go to their next class - whether it's 10th-grade biology or 12th-grade English lit.

Occupying locations at the low end of the FM radio dial, the stations broadcast from school basements or converted classrooms for credit or purely for fun. Radio may have had its day in the first half of the 20th Century - but to the millennial generation, these are still very much radio days.

"As a kid, I used to practice announcing baseball games," said Jason Rutcofsky, a junior at Plainview-Old Bethpage High Schooland the music director of its station, WPOB. "I like being the center of attention and knowing people are listening to me." Which people are listening is no small point. Often, it isn't the high school students - who in some schools aren't even aware there's a station.

Sachem High School's WSHR, for instance, has built a local following in Suffolk by playing big band jazz by artists whose names its young DJs sometimes can't pronounce.

But the stations also have devoted fans - and not only among grandparents, boyfriends and girlfriends. For instance, Dominic Palumbo, the owner of Sal's Pizzeria in Old Bethpage, has listened to WPOB longer than he cared to say.

"They provide a service that helps the community bond with the school district," he said. "All schools should have one." Long Island's four school-based stations all nabbed parts of the radio spectrum devoted to educational institutions in the late '60s and early '70s; they all began with tiny 10-watt transmitters but over time have added enough power to reach out to their communities - and beyond. They now range from 125 watts in Syosset to 6,000 watts in Sachem, which is comparable to the power of some commercial stations.

Sachem, with five studios and about 50 students involved, is the most elaborate of the group and the only one broadcasting 24 hours a day (overnights and weekends, music and recorded weather reports are played automatically by computer program, a technique often used at commercial stations). The others broadcast seven to 12 hours each on weekdays. Syosset and Plainview-Old Bethpage actually share the same frequency - Plainview gets the mornings and Syosset the evening hours.

College campuses have long been the turf of non-commercial radio, with more than a thousand stations across the country piping out a mix of news, campus-related affairs, sports and music aimed at learning the ropes of the industry while shaping broadcasts with more individual personality than commercial stations.

High school radio echoes some of the same aspirations in about 250 stations nationally. In much of the music played by high school disc jockeys, traces of the '60s counterculture, hippie-era spirit live on. Punk-ska, for example, combines the music of miscreant, mid-1960s garage bands and a music born of post-colonial optimism in the tenements of Kingston, Jamaica - and in its bid to become the next great wave of pop music, may be more likely to be heard on high school stations than anywhere else.

The number of high school stations is not likely to rise. A proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to create more low-power FM stations has run into opposition from commercial radio, and the area of the FM spectrum set aside for educational stations - between 88.1 and 91.9 - is crowded.

But for students whose school happens to have one of the few stations, the experience can have long-term implications. Students have to earn the privilege to work a studio console; Brentwood, for example, has a 10-week orientation course on the equipment to get the students broadcast-ready; other schools make the station fodder for credit courses.

Long Island's high school stations have a number of well-known alumni who look back on his high school radio days as the catalyst for his career. "When I'm in front of the mike looking out over the Manhattan skyline, I still can't believe it," said "Z-100" DJ Scott Boudin, now known as "Scotty B," who graduated from Plainview-Old Bethpage in 1993, and was a DJ on the school station. "The kids need to remember that somebody is always listening." Here's a sample of what's on the air and behind the scenes at the stations.

WSHRatSachem High School North in Lake Ronkonkoma All made up and dressed to the nines at 6 a.m., the three hosts of "Wake Up Sachem" cut up as they settle beside each other around the control board inside the small studio - one of five studios along a hallway of Sachem High School North.

"This is 91.9 WSHR," the one on the left says, tugging the microphone closer. "You've got Ariella Monti [one-by-one the others join in], Kelly McHugh and Kim Lopez, and we're here to wake you up," the three chorus, sounding as though they live by the words of a sign on the studio wall that read: "Smile With Your Voice." A few songs into the show, Ariella, 17, and Kelly and Kim, both 16, take turns reading public service announcements. "You've got to be somewhat insane to be up at this hour in the morning," Ariella said off-air, bursting with energy as if she'd been up several hours before the hour-long show kicked off.

Leafing through their personal stash of CDs in matching black totes the size of clutch bags, the three argue before deciding on the next song. They sing along as a popular R&B hit "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child fades out.

The songs Kim and company and the other hosts of WSHR's morning show usually play range from classic soul, R&B and pop to hip hop, funk, reggae and ska. But that's generations removed from the station's playlist the rest of the day. WSHR's repertoire primarily consists of American classics and big bands and some traditional and mainstream jazz.

The station is not really programed for the students and their peers outside the district. The over-55 population WSHR caters to have been all ears since the station changed to this format eight years ago, said Stuart Harris, who oversees the station and teaches broadcasting and 12th-grade English. It happened that soon after they changed, the commercial station WGSM ended its oldies format - and WSHR got some of its listeners.

"We ended up getting more positive response in one week than we got in all the previous 17 years," Harris said. "It's a real radio station ... We are not here to play music to entertain ourselves." WGSM ended up donating its library of American classics to WSHR - to add to more than 160 hours of big band music donated to the station some 20 years ago by a resident who was a former radio engineer.

But many students didn't want to hear it, and often were reluctant to join the station. Now, Harris said, particularly since the station is upgrading equipment from analog to digital and computerizing its music library - more students want in.

And he noted the students working at WSHR can't help but broaden their musical knowledge, if gradually. Harris recalled one student who played a selection by Eydie Gorme, repeatedly referring to her as "Eydie Gorm," without the accent on the final E. Harris, cringing at the faux pas, corrected the student. The next selection was by Lena Horne - or as the student announced it, "Hor-NAY." For the audience, WSHR is a golden-oldies jukebox. Richard and Melissa Kurtz of Mount Sinai applauded the station in a letter taped to the plate-glass window of the studio in Sachem High North. "We have always found your choice of music different and delightful to listen to," they wrote.

Delightful isn't exactly the adjective Cassie Sneider, 17, used to describe WSHR's play list. "It's still not my favorite kind of music but you grow to like some of it," Cassie said recently as she treated listeners to a decades-old big band rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," by Les and Larry Elgart.

WKWZat Syosset High School Normally, Michael Henrich would be someplace else, someplace more relaxed, where his palms would be dry instead of clammy, the way they are now. But this evening he is in the basement of Syosset High School, inside the control booth of the school's radio station.

If somehow his brother, Jon, who usually co-hosts the sports talk show, could show up, he'd be off the hook. But Michael promised to fill in for him and he has no choice now but to face the music, even though he's never even sat in on a show before nor attended a single training session - normally a prerequisite for working at the station.

Yes, he's into sports. But he's no Howie Waldman, a quarterback on the varsity team as well as this evening's co-host and a regular on the three-times-a-week sports talk program with Jon. "I'm kinda nervous," Michael said, flipping the newspaper to the sports pages where he had used a yellow highlighter to mark helpful paragraphs.

Showtime. Howie kicks off with an opening remark about Yankees coach Mel Stottlemyre being treated for cancer. Michael picks up where Howie's opening remark leaves off. "As Howie just said, it's definitely a distraction, ahem, ahem, and it's affected their play already." As if a cracker with nothing on it got stuck in his throat, Michael clutches his neck as he struggles to get the words out - but continues on despite his nervousness. "The Yankees, ahhemm, ahhemm, 'scuse me, have lost two out of the three games to the Mariners this weekend. Yesterday they suffered a crushing 9-3 loss. Ahemmm, this is just the beginning." A few of the 50 students who run the station do so for academic credit, but for the majority, it's an extracurricular activity, said Jack DeMasi, English teacher and faculty adviser for the station. The station broadcasts everything from talk to school-related events and music ranging from punk rock and punk-ska to mainstream jazz and new music.

Lisa Poggiali's show one recent evening featured a patch-work quilt of musical styles. All the music during the 2 1/2-hour show featured female musicians and bands fronted by female singers. "I'm Lisa and I'm still hanging out with you on WKWZ," she cooed. "A good example of an excellent female musician is Patti Smith, who you just heard from with a song called 'Gloria.'" She wove a set of renditions together featuring, among others, The Sneaker Pimps with Post-Modern Fleas, Billie Holiday, Throwing Muses with Summer Street, and Ella Fitzgerald with "All The Things You Are." WXBAat Brentwood High School Less than a year ago, when she came to the station, she went by DJ Cleo.

Not long after, she was DJ Crisp. Recently when Stephanie Torres took to the microphone, she was someone else.

"You're listening to WXBA 88.1 and this is Lady Tza. Judging by this song that's getting lots of play right now, thongs are gonna be hot this summer." As Sisqó's "Thong Song" played, Stephanie inquired of her co-host, Nicole Rivera, if she'd caught the video of the red-hot R&B tune. "Yeah," Nicole answered, settling into a fold-up steel chair across the desk from Stephanie. "It's crazy." Stephanie flipped through her collection of CDs in a tote. Cueing the next selection into the CD player, she urged listeners to call with requests. "Y'all gonna let me lose my mind now if y'all don't call ...If you don't call, we're just gonna keep havin' fun, 'cause that's how we do up in here, a'ight. Here's DMX with 'Party Up in Here'..." Sure, they get involved mostly to have a good time, but in the process the station's 80-plus student operators also learn a few things. "It's not something you have to do, like a class," Nicole said. "It's just pure fun." To join the station, which occupies two studios inside the DiPietro Center of Brentwood High, students have to participate in a 10-week course during which they learn the equipment and FCC regulations. They have to audition to demonstrate a grasp of technical skills and the ability to communicate on air, said Bob Ottone, station manager and on-call engineer at WXBA since 1979. He said most of the students want to be DJs. All of them learn production, how to create commercials and write copy for news events, among other things.

If the FCC signs off on a proposal now in the works, students who work at the station can earn scholarships to Five Towns College in Dix Hills. Five Towns would share Brentwood's frequency when WXBA is off the air. Five Towns would also pay tens of thousands of dollars in fees and fund a new transmitter to be located at the Brentwood school. In return, the arrangement would allow Five Towns to have a radio communications curriculum.

WXBA's programing includes talk shows and live, play-by-play varsity games, and reviews of books and movies. WXBA's Siskel and Ebert of the airwaves come in the form of Rob Soze and Christian Magalhaes. The animated duo hosts a weekly, hour-long show of movie reviews and small talk, sprinkled with punk-rock and ska.

Christian begins a rant about the injustice of the Academy Awards.

Christian: "Where was Jim Carrey? He definitely should have been nominated for 'Man on the Moon.' Dissed again. He should have been nominated last year for "The Truman Show.' Not only can he do comedy, he can do drama, too. Why can't the academy see things like normal people do?" Rob: "I feel sick of the whole thing. Here's The Hippos with 'Always Something There to Remind Me.'" Jarred Elerbe, who's also in the studio, was set on a career in computers but something told him to join the radio station last year. "This has totally taken over," he said. "You hear DJs on the radio, they're so cool, you want to be like them." Jarred, who plays punk rock and ska on his show, certainly looks the part. Asked if he felt he was outgoing enough for radio, he removed his cap to reveal a shock of spiky hair, bleached henna red. He said his aunt did it.

Jarred's relatives, including his 60-something grandma, make up his fan club.

"She doesn't care for the music much, but she listens." WPOBat JFK High School inPlainview WPOB is not your grandparents' radio station.

Unless grandpa listened to the "Two Stupid Dorks Show." Once a week, Jason Rutcofsky and Steven Iannuccilli share one of the station's two broadcast booths located in the basement of JFK High School, a space barely big enough to squeeze in a third person alongside the transmitter, a table-top control board and a floor-to-ceiling rack that houses CD players, cassette decks, and a reel-to-reel player. The pair, who belong to a punk-ska band called Project 76, air the kind of music their band happens to play.

But they also feature the kind of humor that may mark the station as a high school enterprise. "We always want to be funny, that's what we try to do," Jason said.

That mission led the pair once to do a play-by-play of a napkin-eating contest. The idea came when Steven was eating lunch in the school cafeteria and a couple of students started stuffing their faces with napkins. Jason and Steven then spent more than two hours writing a script for the on-air event.

Two volunteer contestants sat in separate booths with pitchers of water close by, stuffing napkins into their mouths as the program hosts peppered them with questions. The first round of the contest ended in a tie: Each contestant managed to stuff 43 cocktail-sized napkins into his mouth.

WPOB's most listened-to show probably is the daily news segment, said Adam Weinstock, who oversees the station and teaches English and drama at the high school. The half-hour program consists of a total of about a dozen national, local and community news stories as well as sports and entertainment updates.

But the weather comes in for less than reverential treatment; a recent report exemplified the make-it-up-as- you-go environment of high school radio.

As weatherman David (Frozen) Rosen did his best impersonation of Storm Field, a call came in from a listener to say the rain showers forecasters called for had actually turned to snow. Weinstock sprinted upstairs from the windowless basement to confirm the report. Back in the basement, Scott Eisberg, the program's 17-year-old features director, frantically scribbled the copy as Weinstock dictated: "WPOB exclusive Window Weather Report. Snow is coming down in Plainview. Be careful on the roads." The days of the station's basement hideaway are numbered, however. There's a proposal to move the station to make way for a weight room.

Wherever the station ends up, WPOB groupies like Steve Rabinowitz say they hope to be within earshot. Rabinowitz said he tunes in to WPOB every minute he gets. "I can listen to everything from Backstreet Boys to Blink 182," Steve said.

In Tune With Long Island High School Radio A look at Long Island's high school radio stations: WPOB/ Plainview- Old Bethpage On the Dial: 88.5 FM When: 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., weekdays.

Transmitter power: 125 watts Range: 10-15 miles, west to Hicksville and Jericho and east to Melville Programing includes: Classic rock, jazz, show tunes, talk, sports talk.

WKWZ/Syosset On the Dial: 88.5 FM When: 2:30-11 p.m., weekdays Transmitter Power: 125 watts Range: Reaches to Plainview, Woodbury, parts of Hicksville and South Huntington.

Programing includes: Reggae, Broadway classics, new music, thrash metal.

WSHR/Sachem On the Dial: 91.9 FM When: 24 hours, daily Transmitter Power: 6,000 watts Range: Queens and eastern Brooklyn, Montauk, southern Connecticut.

Programing includes: Alternative rock, big band jazz, '30s and '40s music, contemporary jazz - and during finals time, Regents review courses.

WXBA/Brentwood On the Dial: 88.1 FM When: 10 a.m.-10 p.m., weekdays Transmitter Power: 180 watts.

Range: East to Yaphank, west to the Nassau-Suffolk border, north to Route 25 and south to Robert Moses State Park.

Programing includes: Soft rock, oldies, talk, entertainment reviews and comedy. -Nash Question of the Week This week's cover story is about high school radio stations. Do commercial radio stations adequately serve the local community? Send your answer - or comments about anything else in this section - by mail or e-mail. Address letters to Feedback, LI Life, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, N.Y. 11747-4250. Or e-mail lilife@newsday.com with "radio" in the subject field. Include your name, community and telephone number.