Schools
Mercer Island High School B-Ball Coming Back to the Radio Waves
Boy's and girl's basketball games will be broadcast on KMIH 88.9 FM.
basketball games are coming back to KMIH 88.9 FM thanks to an ambitious student and an encouraging teacher.
Starting with the boy’s basketball game on Wednesday, Nov. 30 and the girl’s basketball game on Friday, Dec. 2, high school hoops will be back on KMIH’s air following an 8-year absence.
Bringing basketball games back to the airwaves is Mercer Island High School senior Ryan Rouillard’s project for the year.
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Rouillard, Editor-in-Chief of the high school’s newspaper, first got a start with the basketball program as a freshman when he was asked to video tape games for scouting purposes. A bit later on he was asked to provide some commentary during the videos. That got Rouillard thinking back to an old ambition of his, sports broadcasting.
“The videos are kind of what brought it all back,” Rouillard said.
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A student in the high school’s radio class, Rouillard started to play around with the idea of broadcasting basketball games and posting the play-by-play on the Internet.
The radio class’s brand new teacher, Charlie Hilen, heard Rouillard’s idea and excitedly said, “Hey, why don’t you do it live on the air?”
Rouillard was immediately game and appreciated that his new teacher was so enthusiastic about the idea.
“I’m a big supporter of letting students get hands-on experience,” Hilen said.
KMIH, which operates right out of Mercer Island High School, mostly plays American Top-40 music, so basketball games will be a real departure from its normal programming. Hilen is fine with that.
“I think it’s great for the students,” Hilen said. “I think it’s great for the school.”
Rouillard will be broadcasting 14 home games and 11 road games. Three of those road games will be coming from Suwanee, Georgia, where the boys will be playing in a holiday tournament.
Rouillard is looking forward to the whole adventure.
“I’m definitely excited to see what comes of it,” Rouillard said.
Rouillard also hopes that Mercer Island High School’s students share in his excitement.
“Hopefully the community and the student body will embrace what we have here,”