COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — When people turn their radio to 97.7 in the Colorado Springs area, they're listening to a cadet-run radio station.
Known as the "Voice of the Academy," the station broadcasts over FM radio as KAFA and around the world online here. The station typically plays Alternative Rock and provides exclusive coverage of Falcon sporting events, academic events and graduation. Sixteen DJs made up the Broadcast Club this past semester, including three seniors. Two of those seniors had been part of the club all four years they were at the Academy.
CADET JOHN HALUS
One of the seniors who took on DJ responsibilities was Cadet John Halus, who is from south Carolina and set to become a developmental engineer as he heads to the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio where he plans to obtain his master's degree.
Halus says he wasn't sure he would stick with the Broadcast Club all four years.
"I think it's really great to be able to reach out and just spread a little bit about what the Academy is doing," Halus explained while sitting behind a mic. "Sometimes, like people refer to it as a city on a hill... that place up there that people sometimes you can't even get on base... where you don't really know what's going on, and you don't really understand what's going on. So it's great to try and spread a little understanding and spread a little goodwill into the community where we're just all people here trying to make it through these four years, and just bring a little bit of joy in people's days with some good music."
Cadet Halus added his favorite part of being with the Broadcast Club was getting invited to emcee events. He even provided the pre and post-graduation ceremony announcements the last couple of years. On Thursday, he'll be on the field experiencing it firsthand for the first time.
Halus also had a message to any younger or future cadets about jumping into the world of the Broadcast Club.
"At the end of the day this place... [referring to the Academy] you have so many different opportunities," Halus said. "I just say, just go after each and every one of them. I didn't know that this would be something I stuck with for all four years, but I just showed up and I kept showing up and I enjoyed it. And so that's, that's my message. If you see something... you go for it. You're never gonna have someone knock on your door and say, 'hey, I have this great opportunity I want you to have.' You gotta go out and seek things out yourself."
CADET OLIVIA ZAYAS
Sitting next to Cadet Halus in the small room they broadcast from was Cadet Olivia Zayas from Florida. She too spent all four years of her time at the Academy as a member of the Broadcast Club.
"We are military members, but at the end of the day, we're people," Cadet Zayas stated. "We like music, just like everybody else. And that's kind of what I like to share on the radio is that I'm just here to listen to good music and put a good representation of USAFA cadets out there."
Cadet Zayas explained being part of the club didn't come with a celebrity-level status, but it did come with the opportunity to share part of the Academy world with the general public.
"It gives a good face to the community and shows that we're more than just a military academy," Cadet Zayas explained. "While military training is our utmost focus, it shows that we can balance a lot of different things, and shows the rest of the civilian world that we're more than military members just doing military things all the time."
Cadet Zayas is getting ready to go back to her home state as a Combat Systems Officer stationed in Pensacola.
HISTORY OF KAFA FROM THE ACADEMY
Although there were several unsanctioned attempts by resourceful cadets in the 1950’s and 60’s to launch a radio station at the U.S. Air Force Academy, it wasn’t until 1970 when the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force approved the startup of a radio station with the call sign KAFA. The station’s first public broadcast was on January 17, 1971.
The station was assigned three small adjoining rooms in Vandenberg Hall dormitory. With a cost over $10,000, a great deal of the studio construction was built from raw lumber with much of the equipment coming from radio stations that were being closed in Vietnam.
Over the years, the station has had to move its frequency from 89.7 to 104.3, then 104.5, and now to 97.7 FM. The station went off the air for a time in the 1980s, but has broadcast continuously since restarting on February 13, 1989. In 2018, the station moved to the main academic building, Fairchild Hall, marking its first relocation in 47 years. The station is now co-located with a state-of-the-art sound stage, allowing cadets to expand their skills beyond radio to video production.
STATION MANAGER TECH SGT. ZACH VAUGHN
Overseeing the Broadcast Club currently is Tech Sgt. Zach Vaughn, KAFA's station manager. He's fairly new to the role, but knows what kind of impact the radio station has on these cadets and the community as a whole.
"We put a lot on their plates," Tech Sgt. Vaughn said of the Broadcast Club. "The cadet journey is unique to service academies, and specifically here at the Air Force Academy, being our nation's sole Air Force and Space Force Academy, as I mentioned before, we develop leaders of character, critical thinkers and, more specifically, war fighters to win as well, because it's huge to the capability that we present to the American public and the taxpayer, and we take that very seriously. And so here at the radio station, developing like I said, those communication skills are huge."
The club is also an outlet for these cadets.
"It's great for them too, so that they get to go and share a little bit about themselves," Tech Sgt. Vaughn added. "It's a little bit of a form of expression for themselves, to be able to share their personal stories and a little bit about the cadet journey."
CLUBS AT THE ACADEMY
There are over 90 active clubs at the Air Force Academy. For a full list of what is available to the cadets, click here. From beekeeping to scuba diving, 75 percent of cadets are involved in at least one of the Academy’s clubs. Clubs are run by cadets, for cadets, with oversight from an Air Force officer, senior enlisted member, or civilian on staff at the Academy.
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