Fall Friday nights, once the featured time for live high school football, are without their counterpart no longer. WLTL has begun rebroadcasting football and soccer games since early September on the show, “Friday Night Lights Classics,” 16-year advisor Christopher Thomas said.

“Digitizing past football games and airing them again has been a great way to celebrate some of LT’s sports moments,” Thomas said. “It’s always funny listening to them and hearing names of current teachers like Mr. [John] Grundke or Mr. [Bernard] Casella.”

The idea was generated over the summer when Thomas met via Zoom with another high school radio advisor from Tennessee who sought to unify his school through reliving past sport highlights, Thomas said. Since then, Friday Night Lights has aired classics ranging from the 2010 Boys Soccer State Championship game to current Cincinnati Bearcats quarterback Ben Bryant’s ‘18 first LT win.

In order to air the games, Thomas digitizes past games in WLTL’s archives. The challenge is that WLTL, an almost 55-year-old school radio station, has recordings going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s, some of which required set tapes or even reel-to-reel machines, he said. After processing them, they are able to be transmitted to the LT community.

“I’ve enjoyed listening to some of the Friday Night Light Classics just because it gives a sense of normalcy in a time where a lot of sports are suspended,” Head Sports Manager Danny Roemer ‘21 said. 

Roemer, along with Madison Radtke ‘21 and Danny Cieko ‘2,  have led an effort to resume sport shows for WLTL this semester. Beginning early October, these students began recording shows using the Anchor App, a free platform that allows users who aren’t together to record and edit audio, Roemer said. 

“WLTL has had its managers and staff record from home in order to prevent the spread of COVID,” Roemer said. “The transition to the Anchor App has felt pretty weird, but you definitely get used to it.”

“Friday Night Lights Classics” will air its next game, a rerun of LT vs. Downers Grove North from Oct. 1, 2016, tonight, on Nov 6 at 7:30 p.m.