If you were to do a barebones history of KCEQ, then this is where you would begin.
Wendell began teaching at Del Valle during the 1969-1970 school year. Unlike when he started at Campolindo, there doesn’t appear to have been either the emergence of an electronics/radio club or the continuance of a pre-existing club upon his arrival.
In the 1970 Del Valle yearbook…
we only find Wendell.
In the 1971 Del Valle yearbook…
we only find Wendell.
In the 1972 Del Valle yearbook…
we only find Wendell.
In the 1973 Del Valle yearbook…
we still only find Wendell.
It’s not till the 1974 Del Valle yearbook that we find a club. We have a theory as to why it took so long.
If you look through the early-to-mid 1970s yearbooks at Acalanes and Del Valle, then you’ll find that one of their favorite words to describe the students is “apathy”, or some variation on it.
Here is an example from the 1970 Del Valle yearbook on the “Students For Apathetic Action”:
It seems obvious, but it’s still worth rembering that this period saw the Vietnam War coming to a close and Nixon resigning in disgrace–among other things. This seems to have affected the students participation in extracurricular activities. The yearbooks say they weren’t all that interested in things like clubs and school spirit during this period.
In another sign of change in the student body, by the 1969-1970 school year, Del Valle appears to have dropped the “Troiana” nickname for their yearbooks. You can still find their newspaper listed as the “Voice of Troy”, but that’s it.
By about the mid-1970s, at least one of the Aklans makes special note of how the apathy among the students seemed to be lifting.
This is when the FM Club enters the story.
In the 1974 Del Valle yearbook…
we find the FM Club.
The F.M. Club was formed to maintain an educational radio station at Del Valle. The station has been built completely from scratch. The money was raised from auctions and candy sales. The club’s main purpose is teaching people station production: creating programming for the students of Del Valle to listen to.
The officers are listed as follows:
President: Scott Burnside
Engineer: John Crane
V.P.: Jim Peterson
Treasurer: Scott Nelson
The FM Club will basically run unbroken through the closure of Del Valle to become the Acalanes Radio Club, and continue to run until the closure of KCEQ.
Though the “FM” in the FM Club is the most important part for us, this was also the school year that Del Valle got its own amateur radio station (Winter 1973-1974). Their call letters were WA6VGG.
The entry states the following:
B Del Valle ARC, 1963 Tice Val Blvd, Walnut Creek 94595
They are listed in the amateur radio call book as the Del Valle Amateur Radio Club (ARC). Later yearbooks list two different clubs that worked together, but not this one.
The “B” indicates a club license.
At this point, all of the schools in the Acalanes Union High School District have, or once had an amateur radio station.
That’s all the information on this part that we have at the moment. As with all these posts, please feel free to share any information you might have.
For more on the Acalanes Radio Station KCEQ rabbit hole and other Lafayette History Rabbit Holes.
[…] that was running through the student body in the early-to-mid 1970s when we spoke of the 1973-1974 FM Club. However, while we did bring up Acalanes, our example was only from Del Valle. The 1975 Aklan has a […]