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KISS FM Radio Helps Amarillo, Texas Schools Take Prevention to the Airwaves
Amarillo radio station 96.9 KISS FM teamed up with the Amarillo Independent School District, prevention specialists, and community organizations to bring help and hope to youth struggling with issues related to alcohol and other drug use, bullying, depression, and suicide.
As popular radio personalities, DJs Tommy the Hacker and Angel Dee of 96.9 KISS FM in Amarillo, Texas, are tuned in to the area's youth. "What we say has a big influence on kids at school and at home," says DJ Tommy the Hacker. "We build a relationship with our listeners."
In 2011, the DJs' young fans had more on their minds than their favorite bands and pop songs. Tommy and Angel were becoming increasing concerned about on-air calls from youth struggling with issues related to bullying, depression, and suicide. Some were engaging in self-harm and turning to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. The DJs weren't sure how to handle their listeners' calls. "We are mentors to kids, but not counselors," Tommy says. "We knew we needed some professional help."
The DJs brought their concerns to KISS FM Account Executive Tammy Whipple—the station’s community liaison—who reached out to the Amarillo Independent School District (AISD). They connected her with then school mental health professional Amy Hord and Project Director Melynn Huntley of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) substance use education/prevention initiative. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education and SAMHSA, SS/HS had been working with AISD since 2008. The school district welcomed the opportunity to engage youth through the DJs' on-air platform.
Whipple, Hord, and Huntley began tapping their networks to bring prevention specialists and community partners on board. Their first collaborative project was Tommy the Hacker's Bootcamp—a pilot program for students who'd been bullied and were at risk of self-harm and turning to alcohol or other drugs. The seven-week support group offered students mentors along with team-, leadership-, and self-esteem building activities.
The partners also took prevention to the airwaves, leveraging the popularity of the DJs to help build awareness and change norms related to substance use. "The radio station helped us find a creative way to get through to kids," says Carissa Wingate, then an AISD school mental health specialist. "The schools could preach [prevention] from dawn to dusk but if it didn't seem relevant to youth, it wouldn't work." When the DJs talked, the young people listened.
AISD made mental health counselors available during the DJs' programs to refer youth for off-air consultations and services. "We're now able to recognize needs and make referrals to agencies who can help our listeners," Whipple says. "The schools should not be burdened with doing this alone. We don't want anyone to fall through the cracks."
The community’s prevention efforts eventually focused on a campaign to address the dangers of synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or spice. "We'd lost a few listeners to K2 overdoses, so we took it very personally," Tommy says. The radio station invited a former K2 user on air to speak about the health scares he experienced while using the drug. Within one year of the collaboration with KISS FM, reported K2 use among AISD students had dropped by half.1
DJs Tommy the Hacker and Angel Dee had the passion to do what it takes to help young listeners in need. They built a relationship with and earned the trust of the schools' target audience—youth in need of counseling or other services. They were natural program champions.
"When teaming with a local celebrity, it has to be the right celebrity," says former SS/HS Project Director Melynn Huntley. "One mistake to avoid is selecting a spokesperson that speaks to the wrong audience. We may think someone is safe or popular in a community, but unless they are popular with the target audience, you will miss the mark. Thankfully, our school district administrators trusted us and trusted Tommy when we joined with KISS FM on this effort."
But pulling off a collaboration between DJs who work nights, school staff who work days, and community services organizations would also take a champion coordinator; that’s where KISS FM’s Tammy Whipple came in. She pulled together a core group of school and community partners who met monthly on the collaboration's efforts. Not every person needed to be at every meeting. But Whipple made sure she gathered input from anyone who played a part in moving the group's work forward.
As a member of the station’s sales department, Whipple also worked her business connections to get advertising sponsorships and donations for these activities. "When you tell people it's for the kids—whether it's a corporation or a mom-and-pop shop—everyone wants to help," she says. "Even people who didn't traditionally advertise said, 'How much do you need?' We tried to be the catalyst that brought everybody together."
Whipple notes that schools and prevention practitioners who'd like to explore collaborating with their local media stations shouldn't be shy about reaching out to them via their sales departments. "Whether it's a TV or radio station, make some phone calls or send an email, and don't stop with the first place that doesn't understand your passion or your initiative," she says. "Make another phone call until you find the right one."
Huntley, Hord, and Whipple pooled their energy and resources to identify and connect with organizations and businesses that would be interested in supporting their prevention efforts, help them extend their reach, and provide the counseling expertise and resources they lacked.
"Bullying was driving kids to drinking and drugs and suicide," Whipple says, commenting on the calls the station was receiving. "We needed more counselors and mentors to help these kids who called into our shows." So AISD enlisted the help of the community’s behavioral health agency, Family Support Services—an existing partner and a SAMHSA Block Grant sub-recipient. They also reached out to civic organization Los Barrios de Amarillo and the Impact Futures Drug-Free Coalition to help refer youth in need of services.
They also got the Amarillo Parks and Recreation Department signed on to host a Party in the Park in summer 2013, where Tommy spoke about the dangers of K2 and other drugs. Over 300 young people attended. "It’s all in the marketing,” he says. “We invited [our listeners] to come to a fun event. Then we hit them with the information on drugs. If we said, 'We're going to talk about how bad drugs are,' no one would come."
Keeping contacts alive is a vital part of sustaining the work of any collaboration. Funding for Safe Schools/Healthy Students ended in 2013, and many of the original collaborating parties have since moved on to other jobs and districts. But that hasn't stopped school personnel and KISS FM from continuing to beat the drum in the name of prevention.
"We're still out there, trying to see who needs our help," DJ Angel Dee says. "We go to career days. We'll talk to teachers and phys ed coaches. We make sure that we’re available to not one school, but to every school. We're always networking. I think that’s a huge part of why the schools continue to reach out to us and us to them."
KISS FM’s collaboration with the Amarillo Independent School District was one component of Amarillo’s comprehensive prevention approach, playing an important role in helping to build awareness of the community’s substance use problems—particularly related to the use of synthetic marijuana—and link at-risk teens to support and counseling.
From 2012 to 2013, during the period of the collaboration, Safe Schools/Healthy Students documented a decrease in the percentage of students using all substances, including alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs: past 30-day drug use of synthetic drugs decreased from 10.5 percent to 6.2 percent, and past 30-day use of alcohol decreased from 30.5 percent to 26.6 percent.2
The DJs look forward to engaging other youth in need of prevention services, both in Amarillo and other school districts. "We have a new morning show," DJ Tommy the Hacker says. "We're reaching out to a bigger audience because kids are listening to us while they get ready and go to school. We’re looking to have a bigger influence than we did in the last few years."
1. PromotePrevent.org. (2013.) Substance Abuse Prevention: Snapshots from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. Amarillo, Texas. Video interview with SS/HS Project Director Melynn Huntley. Available at
http://www.promoteprevent.org/snapshots/substance-abuse-amarillo-tx
2. Anderson, K., Towvim, L., Repetti, J., Carney, N., and Blaber, C. (2013.) Substance Abuse Prevention: Snapshots from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. Amarillo Independent School District—Amarillo, Texas (FY 2008). Waltham, Mass.: EDC, Inc. Available at
http://www.promoteprevent.org/sites/www.promoteprevent.org/files/resourc...