A Woodbridge Catholic high school is starting their own radio station.
Saint John Paul the Great High School, located on 17700 Dominican Drive in Woodbridge, will be launching their FM radio channel – 106.3 JPN – November 1, according to the school’s spokeswoman Jennifer Cole.
“A few years after we opened, we started to talk about ‘How can we take what we’re doing, and the mission of our school’…and give our students a chance to put that into action,” said Cole.
The idea to start the radio channel came in 2012 from a resident named Tom Vetter, who received a post card about a new program.
“This post card from the Catholic radio station caught his eye. It was basically saying that they needed help to help people start these low FM stations,” said Cole.
Vetter reached out to Saint John Paul the Great High School, and donated the money to get the project, said Cole.
“This was a good fit for us, because it got the conversation going on how our students can put into practice, some of the things that they’re learning. And how do we teach a mode of communication, and how would that be ethical and meaningful,” said Cole.
The project came to halt, when the school had difficulties securing a location for the radio antenna, until another local family stepped in and donated the funding to building lights on the school’s athletic field. The school was then able to add the antenna to the lights and continue the project, according to Cole.
When the station is initially launched, the school will be using free Catholic radio content, until the students begin creating content, as part of their curriculum.
“It will be anything, from a talk show format, or broadcasting our sports games live, or maybe broadcasting a class – like our bioethics class…the idea is that the content would speak to our mission as a Catholic school,” Cole said.
The channel will have a seven to ten mile reach, according to Cole.
“We’re excited that we’re going to be able to bring Catholic radio to the commuters on [Interstate] 95 and people in Dumfries, Montclair and Woodbridge…we want to help fill the airwaves with things that we think are good, that could be helpful to people,” said Cole.
