Bloomfield Hills School District radio broadcasting students won a total of seven awards in five categories at the Seventh Annual John Drury High School Radio Awards ceremony held November 7, 2009 on the campus of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Based on the number of award winners, WBFH won 2nd Place, Best High School Station in this national competition.
The John Drury High School Radio Awards were created to recognize excellence in high school radio broadcasting. These awards were named in honor of award-winning ABC-Chicago news anchor, John Drury.
The entries were submitted last May. The awards were presented by North Central College and their student radio station WONC-FM (www.wonc.org). Five WBFH students were nominated for eight awards.
WBFH students won two 1st Place awards, four 2nd Place awards and one 3rd Place award:
- Best Promo, 1st Place: Patrick Garretson, Lahser senior
- Best News Feature Story, 1st Place: Ridwan Alam, 2009Andover graduate
- Best Sportscast, 2nd Place: Ryan Bloom, Andover senior
- Best Newscast, 2nd Place: Ridwan Alam, 2009Andover graduate
- Best News Feature Story, 2nd Place: Josh Loney, Andover senior
- Best Sports Play-By-Play, 2nd Place: Josh Loney, Andover senior
- Best Promo, 3rd Place: Patrick Garretson, Lahser senior
Also nominated for a Drury Award in the PSA category was Chad Shepard, Lahser senior. Patrick Garretson, Ridwan Alam and Josh Loney each won two awards.
The Best High School Radio Station 2nd Place Award was presented to the WBFH management team consisting of Station Manager Pete Bowers and Assistant Manager/Technical Director Randy Carr. WLTL of LaGrange, Illinois won 1st Place and WGBK of Glenview, Illinois took 3rd Place in the station competition. “I congratulate all the winners and nominees,” said Bowers. “I’m very proud of our students who won and for WBFH winning second place in this national competition”. First place award winners were also given a $1,000 scholarship to attend North Central College. WBFH, also known as The Biff, is a non-commercial, educational radio station broadcasting at 88.1 on the FM dial and online at www.wbfh.fm.