History of WGBK
In 1981 radio at Glenbrook South High School was born in a closet located in the Student Activities Office. In the winter of 1982, two teachers--Mike Lyons (History) and Dan Sonnenberg (PE)--announced the first GBS basketball game on WMWA radio, with Mike doing play-by-play and Dan doing color commentary. Why not let students do this? Student interest in radio was growing; rather than merely offer radio broadcasting as a "club," Assistant Principal David Smith and Mike Lyons developed a curriculum so that students could receive course credit. In the fall of 1982 the students of Glenbrook South were enrolled in "radio classes" and the students were on the air at WMWA in Glenview in the evenings.
By 1986, the broadcasting program had grown. In order to ensure that GBS radio developed into a strong, competitive program, GBS Principal, Dr. William Schreiner, hired former Homewood-Flossmoor (HF) English teacher and assistant HF Radio supervisor, Dell Kennedy. Soon thereafter (1990), Glenbrook South installed a studio to transmitter link (STL) on the roof of the auditorium so that the students of Glenbrook South could broadcast from the high school rather than traveling to the studio of WMWA. In the summer of 1991, Glenbrook South Radio added the television production rooms as new radio studios while the television program moved into new studios built from the old study hall. The new, expanded Glenbrook South Radio continued to grow until the mid 1990’s. On February 14,1997, Glenbrook High School District 225 purchased WMWA, 88.5 FM, Glenview, Illinois, from the Midwestern Academy of the New Church. Subsequent to FCC approval, the call letters "WMWA" were changed to "WGBK" to reflect ownership by the High School District 225 School Board (W GlenBrooK)
In 2004, after a distinguished career of teaching and managing high school radio, Dell Kennedy decided to retire and handed over the reigns of Glenbrook South Radio to her former student, Dan Oswald, who took over in the early summer of 2004. In the late summer of 2004, WGBK went on air 24/7/365 becoming one of the only high school stations in Illinois to operate full time. Also during this time, Glenbrook South Radio began streaming its broadcasts “online” through its new web page, www.GBSRADIO.com. Glenbrook South Radio also expanded its program offerings to include greater sports coverage and live daytime programming.
In the summer of 2007 Glenbrook South added two new production studios to the Radio Broadcasting facilities to meet the ever growing demand from students. The new facilities now consist of five studios: production studios A-D and the main broadcast studio “K,” named in honor of the person who built Glenbrook South Radio, Ms. Dell Kennedy.
Currently, Dan Oswald and his band of “Radio Heads” can be found in suite 556 of Glenbrook South High School. Glenbrook South Radio can be heard live on WGBK 88.5 FM or on the web at GbsRadio.com.