Fulton HigH ScHool’S Falcon Radio (FM 91.1) is a lot of things for Knox County. It’s the only pure oldies station in the area, the only student-run radio station in East Tennessee that broadcasts 24-hours a day, and now they’ve brought us national recognition as the best high school sports talk program in the country.

Falcon Radio, or WKCS — an acronym for Knox County Schools — has been serious about student programming since its inclusion in Fulton’s opening charter in 1951. When Aaron Miller and Andy Sellers, two FHS students, began a weekly sports talk show in August of last year, they were merely longing to straight-talk local sports. Two

31www.knoxville.com OCTOBER 2010

Thrillin’

months after the two-hour segment they titled “Thrillin’ Thursdays” started, the boys decided to broaden their discussion from local sports to col-lege and professional sports nationwide.

“We thought it would be in the best interest of the listeners if they didn’t just hear about Tennes-see, the Titans and Fulton, but heard reports from all over the nation,” says Miller, a senior.

Yet, it was a local clip from last October that Miller and Sellers decided to enter in the Columbia College-Chicago High School Radio Awards. That clip outshined the rest of the nation’s high school stations to win best sports talk program.

“It was the biggest topic of the moment. People everywhere were talking about the [black] uni-forms UT wore on Halloween against South Caro-lina, so we thought it would be a great topic,” Miller says. The clip was required to be between three and

IS not only the talk of the town, It’S the talk of the country. Thursdaysfulton hIgh School’S falcon radIo

B y B e t h a n n w a l k e r

Photographs by FHS PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

Brandon Taylor

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32 OCTOBER 2010 www.knoxville.com

five minutes long and had to feature at least two people talking. Per usual for their on-air inter-views, the boys traversed their stomping grounds with hand-held recorders, asking students and faculty about sports-related issues. The stu-dents’ interest in the uniforms proved to them it was the right clip to submit. “For this one, when we were walking the hall we had about 10 or 12 people rush us, and usually we have to go and beg people to ‘please let us interview you.’”

Although Sellers has graduated and is cur-rently enrolled at Pellissippi State Community College, Miller is on a mission to squeeze ev-ery last drop of talent into Falcon Radio before moving on to college, where he hopes to even-tually pursue a master’s degree in communica-

tion. As a football player himself, Miller wants to put his Falcon Pride aside to begin a segment of extended interviews with Knox County football coaches. “I would title it ‘Hey Coach’ and talk a little bit about their opinion of stu-dent athletes’ GPAs and ask whether character is more important than winning,” says Miller,

speaking of an issue also hitting colleges hard around the country. So how will he remain neutral, especially when interviewing some of Fulton’s big-gest rivals? “In all types of media, you have to give them their place and let other people give their opinion. I will make sure these are fair questions, and the same questions will be asked of our coach.”

Miller is also one of six stu-dents waiting on the November decision from the prestigious John Drury High School Radio Awards, in which their Fulton Football Pregame Show is a final-ist for best sports talk program. Russell Mayes, who teaches the introductory Radio 1 course and the hands-on Radio 2 course at Fulton, says students like these, who see Falcon Radio as an outlet for creativity and a platform for fresh ideas, create the proudest moments of his work.

“If a student comes in and says, ‘hey, I’ve got an idea for a program,’ we give them a time frame, and it’s up to them to get it done,” says Mayes. “You en-courage them to find their niche. That is one thing unique about

high school radio; it’s okay to experiment and play around, which fuels creativity.”

Being the only high school radio station in East Tennesseedoesn’t come without obstacles, but they are ones Mayes feels the students have welcomed as challenges. “There is really nobody close by we can compare ourselves to,” says Mayes. “So instead we compare it to commercial radio stations. We look at program ideas, what to expect out of our DJs and quality of performance, and I am pretty much convinced our students produce professional quality

work each and every day.”Although Falcon Radio’s talent is receiving the accolades to prove it, the

Drury Awards, as well as other smaller high school radio competitions, heavily factor in the amount of entries from any school as a major factor to be voted the all-around best high school radio station. Fulton has been unable to accrue enough entries to yet be considered in that category. But Mayes and his band of animated on-air talent are fueling the radio station onward, hoping to become

“If a student comes In and says, ‘hey, I’ve got an Idea for a program,’ we gIve them a tIme frame and It’s up to them to get It done. you encourage them to fInd theIr nIche. that Is one thIng unIque about hIgh school radIo; It’s okay to experIment and play around, whIch fuels creatIvIty.”

Aaron Miller

Matt Queener

William Mathis and Matt Queener

TeQuan Ellis, Russell Mayes,

Matthew Patterson

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33www.knoxville.com OCTOBER 2010

hilE ThE mERiTs Of fulTOn high sChOOl’s RadiO pROgRam

can be heard daily on WKCs, the school touts several other concentrations

for students on the creative course. One such student, 2010 graduate Trey

Townsend, is on a roll to take the film industry by storm.

in the teen world, trying to fit into a mold, be accepted and find something

you’re good at is the norm. But Trey has managed to be ahead of the game,

finding his niche early on with the help of fulton’s television and film oppor-

tunities and carving out his own personal mold as an aspiring filmmaker.

Trey, now a freshman at pellissippi state, says once he got into television

classes, he was instantly hooked. he’s already produced many short films

and skits but is particularly proud of one entitled “This is how We Roll.” The

3-part saga of Trey and three of his classmates boasts jaunty, self-deprecat-

ing humor in a style that might remind some of the popular TV show “The Of-

fice.” One hilarious clip shows Trey in a school hallway, dressed in six sweat-

bands and a hand-stenciled miami T-shirt that boasts his “all-pro” basketball

skills. The scene transitions to a comical series of air-balls, botched attempts

at harlem globetrotter moves and Trey being schooled up and down the

court. The scene cuts back to him then telling viewers, as he waves “Bye, bye

Kobe Bryant,” that the l.a. lakers are looking at him.

“it probably wasn’t my best work,” Trey says, “but it was my first 20-minute

film, and i had so much fun doing it.” although he usually plays a central fig-

ure in many of the films he’s created, Trey finds the actual directing process

and concept development to be the most intriguing parts.

Trey, who by nature is an introvert, got his limelight introduction his junior

year when a teacher asked him to “help” with the school’s lip sync concert.

“We were kind of a big hit,” he says, laughing. “We emceed, put on dances,

and did a Thanksgiving rap.” from then on, it was pretty much a guarantee

that if fulton organized an event, Trey would be somewhere close to a micro-

phone, front and center.

now a true film-making fanatic, Trey counts his emcee days as one more

way to get experience for future projects. “The thrill of entertaining people

like that, i just knew i wanted to do that in some way, whether it be television

or live performances.”

he’s been dubbed “a young steve martin,” yet comedy isn’t Trey’s only

forté. in 2009 an underage drinking psa he created took 2nd place in the

metropolitan drug Commission’s contest and aired on local television. a

drinking and driving psa he shot also took 3rd place in the Tennessee de-

partment of Transportation’s regional psa contest, and currently he is in the

middle of writing a script for a historical drama set before the outbreak of

the Revolutionary War.

Trey was offered a partial scholarship to study film at prestigious new York

university. While he was unable to attend, he has become all the more fo-

cused on taking advantage of every opportunity East Tennessee has to offer,

including looking to perfect his film techniques, work with local production

companies and collaborate with like-minded people with an equal passion for

film and television. Trey has not ruled out the possibility of transferring to a

more art-centralized school and has already set a goal to move to new York

City after college, where he hopes to find more resources and outlets for his

talent, in addition to experiencing life in a big city. ideally, Trey says he would

love to be the writer and director of an edgy, yet comical major motion pic-

ture. he references the television show “little miss sunshine” and the clever

script of the Oscar-nominated, dark comedy In Bruges as two projects that

reflect the style and comedic feel he ultimately wants to be a part of.

While Trey may teeter between on-camera funny man and everyday quiet

kid, the East Tennessee native and Big apple dreamer is proud to have

already found the central story line in his life: film. “When you find something

like this, you just know not to give it up. You fall in love with it immediately,

and it’s just kind of a passion that never goes away.” — Beth Ann Walker

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large enough to reach that goal. An enormous mobile sound sys-tem — hauled on a 28-foot trailer — was provided by the school, and graphic design and auto body classes are knuckling down to convert a donated ambulance into WKCS’s mobile unit. Show-ing Knoxville that the station is part of the community and here to stay is a top priority. Likewise, the young broadcasters have

concocted their own brand of satirical parodies, on-air imper-sonations and a new comedy show to stretch their arm span from viewers’ ears to their funny bones.

And while WKCS is a lot more than Knoxville’s home for old-ies, for many young FHS broadcasters, it is a resume builder and first step to a lifelong career.

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