WWPT-FM is the best high school radio station in the country.
That’s not just my opinion. Staples’ “PT” earned that John Drury Award honor last year — to go with similar “Best High School Radio Station in the Nation” trophies in 2011, ’17 and ’18.
WWPT 90.3 picks up plenty of other Drury trophies each year too, for everything from news features and public affairs, to sports and radio dramas.
The station draws a wide audience. Live sports are particularly popular. They’ve launched the professional careers of sportscasters like D.J. Sixsmith, Eric Gallanty and Cam Manna.
Celebrating at the 2010 John Drury Awards ceremony (from left): advisor Mike Zito, and students Eric Gallanty, DJ Sixsmith, Brendan Rand and Jake Chernok.
But listeners may not realize that WWPT is more than 50 years old.
Or that a radio station featuring Westport teenagers stretches back to the Eisenhower administration.
Pam Docters knows.
And now anyone who pays $9.03 0n Amazon (yes, the price is deliberate — get it?!) can read all about that storied history.
Docters — a 1978 Staples graduate, and proud ‘PT alum — has just published “Radio Whoopie at Compo.” The slim, 49-page paperback tells the story of the station, in the words of those who were there. And with an impressive number of archival photos.
It focuses on the late 1950’s through ’80s. The pioneers who Docters spoke with were the most fervent WWPT alums, she says.
The story begins with Stuart Soroka. He hung a speaker outside his bedroom window on Wake Robin Road, and hosted a “radio show.”
That evolved into a 100-megawatt AM station — called WWPT, for “Westport” — at 1160: “The Sound on the Sound.”
Soroka, Gordon Joseloff and others broadcast from the YMCA and Compo Beach, with a transmitter the size of a cereal box.
Teenagers at Compo Beach, listening to “The Sound on the Sound.”
They attracted the attention of the New York Times, World Book Encyclopedia, Scholastic Magazine — and the Federal Communications Commission, which reluctantly shut them down.
Soroka — a 1961 Staples graduate — went on to became a noted Boston weatherman. Joseloff had a career as a CBS News correspondent, then served 2 terms as Westport’s first selectman.
This July 1961 New York Times story alerted the FCC to the existence of the unlicensed radio station.
In 1968, Keith Satter and others built an AM transmitter that broadcast throughout Staples, from what had once been a storage room. WSRB — for “Staples Radio Broadcasting” — is believed to be the first high school radio station in Connecticut.
In the early 1970s it evolved into WWPT-FM. At 110 to 330 watts, it was the 12th high school radio station in the country.
The designer of the original 1970s logo is unknown. It’s still used today.
Docters uses interviews with former staff members like Dennis Jackson, Mark Potts and Larry Perlstein to describe the growth of the station: its antenna at the old Nike missile site on Bayberry Lane; live broadcasts from the Yankee Doodle Fair, and of Candlelight Concerts; coverage of Board of Finance, Board of Education meetings; an interview with former Stapleite Charlie Karp, who had played with Jimi Hendrix but was excited that his new band’s music was being played on “this little station.”
In 1975, WWPT sponsored a fundraising concert in the Staples auditorium with the James Gang, and an up-and-coming English musician named Peter Frampton.
On Election Day 1977, ‘PT scooped all the other local media with the local results. Station members headed to polling places across town, and called in the results via pay phone.
Marta Flanigan waits for election results, in the WWPT studio.
Chuck Davis and Neil Hartman built a robust sports department. WWPT aired football, soccer, basketball and baseball games. They scored press passes from the Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Whalers (and Bridgeport Jai-Alai), and interviewed top athletes.
Davis went on to work at Sports Illustrated; Hartman headed to Comcast SportsNet. Another member, Jon Stashower, became a noted ESPN radio anchor.
Photos in Pam Docters’ book show (top to bottom) Chuck Davis and Neil Hartman interviewing Cosmos soccer stars Giorgio Chinaglia and Pele, respectively.
Thanksgiving fundraising marathons became legendary. With pitches from famous New York DJs like Don Imus, Cousin Brucie and Murray the K, plus celebrities like Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Jim McKay, Dave Winfield, Jack Lemmon and Ben Vereen, students raised thousands of dollars each year.
1977 fundraising marathon poster.
WWPT was a formative experience for Docters, and her love for it is clear in her book.
She tells “06880” about her long days at the station. “We were in the lower 9 building, away from everything. We never, ever saw an adult. We were independent, and responsible. We MacGyvered everything. Fixing the tower at 11 p.m., whatever — we made it work.”
Docters remains “in awe” of her predecessors. “They were there before anyone, in radio. It’s phenomenal what they did. You couldn’t recreate that today. There are so many rules and regulations now.”
40 years after graduating, 1978 WWPT members (from left) Malcolm Doak, David Schaffer, Laurel Rech, Chuck Davis, Doug Meny and author Pam Docters enjoyed a tour of the 2018 studios.
She knows “Radio Whoopie at Compo” will not be a big seller. That’s fine.
Docters just wanted to preserve WWPT’s remarkable history. She donated copies to the Staples and Westport libraries, and current station advisor and radio production teacher Geno Heiter.
That’s right: Radio is now a legit Staples class.
It’s come a long way from the outlaw transmitters at the beach and the Y; closed-circuit broadcasts that could only be heard in the cafeteria; then gangs of teenagers hanging out all day and night, playing records and planning shows and fixing transmitters.
Pam Docters is proud of the role she played. Dennis Jackson, Larry Perlstein and all the others she interview for her book are too.
And in that great radio station in the sky, Stuart Soroka and Gordon Joseloff are listening and smiling too.
(“o6880” regularly covers Staples High School, Westport teenagers, our town’s history — and much more. If you enjoy stories like these, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
2025 John Drury Awards.
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