Giving WINGS to airwaves
OSU radio station partners with transition students at Corvallis School District
Andres De Los Santos wants to get as many people on KBVR-FM as he can. Hayley Lemke-Davis, Life Skills educational assistant, wants opportunities for students to share their voices.
Thanks to a 2022-23 partnership between Orange Media Network and the Corvallis School District, both sides have their wish.
Lemke-Davis works with students in the school district’s WINGS transition program. The organization, whose acronym stands for Work experience, Instruction, Networking, Goal setting and Self-determination, is for students ages 18-21 who received a modified diploma or certificate of attendance.
The mission of WINGS is to help young adults with diverse abilities work toward their own self-identified goals in terms of employment, leisure activities and independent living, said Angela Faulk, a special education teacher with the WINGS program. It’s based at Crescent Valley High School.
WINGS participants visit OSU often but had never been to the radio station, Faulk said. That changed after Lemke-Davis and her partner, Alex McIntire - a fourth-year marine biology major and KBVR disc jockey who goes by DJ Eddie Mac - ran into De Los Santos one evening.
Lemke-Davis had already been talking to McIntire about a possible visit to the station, which can be heard at 88.7 FM. De Los Santos, McIntire said, “was immediately on board, and wanted to make it happen for us.”
With agreement from CSD, FM adviser Steven Sandberg and the rest of the FM cohort, about a dozen WINGS students made five visits in all to the DJ booth in February during the 2022-23 winter term.
“The experience was, ‘Come on the radio! Say hi to your parents, request a song, talk about what you love,’” De Los Santos said. “Our hearts were just melting, seeing them be so happy.”
Some visitors were a little shy, while some took to the experience right away, talking over the airwaves about their favorite songs, sports or animals. One gave her father a “happy birthday” shoutout. Another requested a Jonas Brothers song, “Sucker.”
WINGS participant Maycee MacKimmie said she requested “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson during her visit to the station. Her favorite part of the experience? “The microphones,” she said. Yes, she said, she’d love to visit again.
MacKimmie’s visit, along with those of her classmates, can be heard on KBVR’s website at https://kbvrfm.orangemedianetwork.com/wings-program-visits-kbvr-fm/.
Lemke-Davis was a tremendous help, Faulk said, going with every session so there would be a staff member familiar with the procedure.
“We have some students who don’t use words to speak - they have a speech generating device,” Faul noted. “She helped those students be prepared ahead of time so they could use the device on the radio.”
McIntire was on hand during each visit, and Lemke-Davis prepped the program participants by having them practice questions ahead of time.
“I kept some of them really basic, just not to overwhelm some students: What’s your name? What music did you choose? And do you have any questions for Alex?’ Some of them had a lot to ask him about turntables and things like that.”
Lemke-Davis said she’d love to continue the WINGS-FM visits during spring term if scheduling can be arranged. McIntire is a graduating senior and WINGS participants already have a schedule that includes swimming, bowling, work experience and other transition activities. Finding matching time slots was the main sticking point.
She said it is important, however, to keep interaction going for WINGS students, who are the same age as their OSU counterparts and should be among them as often as they can.
“It’s important for us to look around and see people with diverse abilities on a college campus,” she said. It isn’t always the case that students like MacKimmie can “present themselves as equals and as their peers.”
Faulk said the opportunity for WINGS visitors to literally send their voices into the community was a gift to each of them as well as to their families.
“When our students exit (WINGS), their participation in the community at large and their interactions with neurotypical people plummet,” she said. “Metaphorically, it’s like they disappear from community awareness. Inclusion at large tends to diminish dramatically. So for our students to be included in this manner is just a fabulous step toward visibility and inclusion in the large community.”
Plus, she said, it was just plain fun.
“Frequently, we were driving from lunch back to the high school campus when our students were on, so we put it on the bus, and when one of our students would come on and speak or introduce their song, the whole bus would erupt: ‘Aahh, that’s Maycee!’” Faulk remembered. “And we’d all sing and dance to the song they chose.”
For De Los Santos, a senior majoring in English and creative writing, the best part of bringing people into the station is seeing it through their eyes. “This is like a spaceship! You know how to operate everything?” he hears them say.
“I love seeing their faces light up when they walk in,” he said. “The face they make when they were on the radio for the first time, and I was a part of it? It was a memory and a bond I will always have.”