Alone in the radio production studio, Jassiel enjoys the quiet.
He can think here — green egg-crate foam on the walls, a Mac desktop computer in front of him — he studies the screen. Mouse in his right hand, he clicks song after song, crafting a fall playlist on the first day of autumn.
Outside the tiny space and beyond the closed door, about 30 students gather at round tables in small groups.
“It’s hot,” one says as she fans herself with a notebook.
“Let’s go,” says another.
The Pueblo High advanced broadcast journalism and production class is in session. The temperature creeps toward 90 degrees outside and the air conditioning is clearly not working in Room 100 where it’s well over 80. The radio show goes on anyway.
At 98.7 The Block, KWXL runs throughout the school day. As Southern Arizona’s only high school radio station — it’s also student-run and commercial free — one of the few in the state.
Writing, producing and broadcasting each show comprises the six classes — which include over 100 students in three levels of broadcast journalism and production. Writing scripts, hosting, guesting, crafting playlists and production brings it all together.
The creativity involved and confidence it builds shows in the students — including many who say they attend school because of their radio class.
The class is a snapshot — one of hundreds taught each day in the Tucson Unified School District, the state’s third-largest with about 40,000 students at 88 schools — and one that could benefit from a proposed TUSD override going before voters in November.
The 4% raise for district employees in the override, plus additional counselors and career coaches could help classes like this one, which teachers and administrators say helps students.
If voters agree to give TUSD more money, the district’s plan would use it to boost career and technical programs like automotive technology, culinary arts and HVAC, hire career coaches and counselors, add full-day preschool classrooms and give teachers and other employees raises.
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Overrides pay for people — teachers, staff, new programs — not capital expenses. So it wouldn’t pay for a new AC system to replace the one clearly straining that day, for example. But passing it means the district can keep capital funds typically used to fix or upgrade the AC and lets TUSD hire more instructors and career coaches to boost students in the district’s HVAC technical education program.
Helping students make connections between their education and what’s next — and finding something in school they personally connect with — can be key, educators say.
“I feel like when I was little I was really shy. Always kept it in. Now I’m more talkative,” Jassiel said. “This class to me is very social and it helped me a lot. I feel like my sophomore year if you were to interview me then, I was more quiet. I was just in my mind a lot. I didn’t feel like people liked me. But now I’m just looking past that.”
Arizona Luminaria is not using students’ last names in this story to protect anonymity during this time of increased immigration enforcement.
Radio has been Jassiel’s favorite class for the last three years, he said. Expressing himself — verbally and in putting together a radio show — speaks to the creative 17-year-old senior. He wants to use that innovative side for graphic or clothing design, he said.
Crafting the parts of a radio show and broadcasting it to the school and anyone listening online was not on the mind of Leah, a senior, who joined the program three years ago on a counselor’s recommendation.
“Just doing the shows and being able to DJ is like the best,” Leah said. “Just sounding professional, like we know what we’re doing is so fun.”
That gratification is key in the studio — a walk-in-closet-sized room where about 10 of us cram in for a show taping.
“Mics on!” broadcast journalism teacher Sarah Wilson announces.
Headphones over their ears, Leah and her co-host, Alyssa, each quiz other students on air about audio movie clips and read promos.
“The Block don’t stop,” they remind listeners using the station’s catchphrase.
With that, they leave the air and discuss an upcoming show: Alyssa, who plays flag football and softball, says they should interview some other flag players, maybe later in the week.
All smiles, the students swap seats with two others, who are ready to talk sports and the Warriors’ recent 40-0 football win. The class sees its mission as informing the school about what’s going on around them.
“I feel like a lot more people are listening. Everybody listens to it during class,” Alyssa said. “I really want to get into business and engineering and I like making stuff for other people. I really like building stuff. So whenever I make the productions, it’s creative.”
Teaching the craft and how to make shows their own is what Wilson does when she gets the underclassmen, many as sophomores. And, like hiding vegetables in a smoothie, Wilson’s classes include organization, research, and curiosity disguised as assembling a radio broadcast.
“You’re still doing reading and writing, so you’re still hitting those things, and they want to do it,” said Wilson, who took over the program in 2011. “And there’s the performance aspect … so this makes it a lot more real.”
The investment from the Tucson Unified School District is yearly, Wilson said of the station which began its FM iteration in 2006. TUSD pays the station licensing fees and some equipment was updated just before the pandemic. But Wilson applies for “all kinds of grants” she says, aiming to boost the program. Fingers crossed, she says maybe a grant will come through this school year. With a background in journalism, Wilson began her career teaching English. Wilson programs an automated system that broadcasts station content on the weekends and during the summer.
Back in the production studio, Jassiel works on the fall playlist. “Poison Tree” by Grouper will make the cut, he says softly.
“I came into this class very quiet, you know, struggling a lot on the show,” he said. “But now I feel like I’ve done a lot better, have a faster pace on my talking. I used to stutter a lot, I used to pause a lot. I would say this class helped a lot with that. Like I’m more talkative out in the real world because I had to be talkative in here.”
With that, a voice comes over the school PA system, “Teachers, please check your email.”
Then, like a reverse snow-day, students learn school will dismiss early because the air conditioning is out.
“WHOOOOO,” shouts someone from a corner desk. Whistles and claps echo in the Pueblo High hallway.
The Block, 98.7 plays on.
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