America's Best High School Radio Station Is In Mesa

The East Valley Institute of Technology's KVIT 88.7 FM The Pulse won best high school radio station at the 2022-23 John Drury award ceremony in November, hosted by North Central College in Illinois. 

Winning that honor felt "amazing," said Nick Shultz, 17. "Like all the hard work we were putting in the last year paid off."

Shultz hosts an hour-long live show every weekday with his friend Eden Selman. On a Thursday in November, during breaks between songs, they talked on air about Taylor Swift being the most streamed artist of 2023, Travis Scott's most recent album and how they want more grunge on the station.

AZCentral.com reports the station is part of EVIT's two-year-long radio and audio production program for high school juniors and seniors. About 77 students from across the East Valley attend the career and technical education program every day for half the school day.

The radio station has been part of the program since 2011 and became 88.7 FM in 2015. It's a licensed, noncommercial, 15,000-watt station that can be heard over the airwaves in the metro Phoenix area or streamed online at 887thepulse.com.

In addition to winning best high school radio station, EVIT brought home three more John Drury awards for the 2022-23 school year: best newscast, best sportscast and best news feature story, the most awards out of the 18 high schools in the competition, according to a news release from North Central College.

Dave Juday, who teaches radio production, said he tells students to soak up everything they learn about radio, music and audio production in the program.

"It does make you more versatile, and you never know which one of those skills you've acquired is going to lead to your first job," Juday said, describing what he tells his students.

The instructors have an industry background — Juday formerly worked as an anchor for ESPN 1000 Chicago, and Mallace has worked for commercial radio stations in the Valley. They treat 88.7 like a commercial radio station, Mallace said, with the same standards for the students they had at professional stations.

For Adam Beadle, the program has "never really ever felt like school," he said. Adam, who is planning to attend Arizona State University to study sports journalism, co-hosts a sports talk show. The station also broadcasts high school sports games in the East Valley.

"I get to come in here and do my dream job every single day, and I'm only 17 years old," Adam said.