TEENAGERS FORTHRIGHT ON RADIO; TOPIC OF SHOW SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Peer pressure brings a lot of teenagers to try drugs and alcohol. So it should follow that peer pressure should also be able to steer teenagers clear of the substances.

So was the reasoning behind "Straight Talk from the Mall," a first-time special radio show aired here Friday and Saturday by adult contemporary radio station Y-105.

Students from five area high schools took to the airwaves in separate appearances at the West Park Mall radio station in an anti-drug and alcohol campaign. The show, starting Friday evening and ending Saturday night, featured messages about staying away from drugs and alcohol and the airing of facts and personal experiences on the topic.

Advance High School students, who participated in the show both days, interviewed an ex-convict who travels the country telling his story. The station's promotion director, Jim Dalaviras, said the man had illegally sold prescription drugs.

"That was great," he said. "The kids did a good job interviewing him and we had quite a few phone calls for the guy that were really good."

Show host and station owner Mark Huffman said most of the time adults talk to teenagers about drugs and alcohol. The station, he said, thought instead that it would be effective to have teenagers do the talking.

"Peer pressure is one of the reasons kids get into it in the first place," he said, "and they can hear the opposite message from their contemporaries.

"I think there's a need out there. We tried to address it in a small way."

Oran High School senior Tom Frederick, his high school's lone participant, sees the matter in much the same way.

"I see it as a problem that definitely needs some dealing with, Frederick, 18, said Saturday during a break from his on-air appearances between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. "You're not going to be able to overlook it and have it go away."

The high schools that participated, in addition to Oran and Advance, were Chaffee, Jackson, and Notre Dame in Cape Girardeau. Students from Cape Central High School, one of the planned participants, did not show up for unknown reasons, station officials said.

Some students who didn't use their names related personal experiences and some were very moving, said Huffman. One girl from Notre Dame told listeners to not drink and drive before somberly relating the story of her former boyfriend, who died after getting drunk at a party and wrecking his vehicle. In closing she dedicated the song "Can't Cry Hard Enough" by the Williams Brothers to him and other victims of drunk drivers.

Early Saturday afternoon Frederick sat next to Huffman in the station's control booth, informing listeners about factual information on drug use he had researched and various hotline numbers they could call, such as for help with thoughts about suicide.

Frederick said at one point that the average age in the United States of people who use crack is 17. Another time he told listeners that one out of every five teenagers has some type of drinking problem.

"I stated on the air that that was a pretty scary fact, considering teenagers aren't supposed to have alcohol," he said later.

Frederick knows about alcohol abuse. He said he has friends who have gotten two or three tickets for underage possession of alcohol.

"I also know a couple who have had DWIs," he said, "and they're not even 21 yet."

As for himself, he said he has drank alcohol. But, he said, "I'm not a chronic user, but if I chose to, I could easily get alcohol."

Huffman estimated Notre Dame High School may have provided as many as 20 people for the program. About 10 of those, Dalaviras said, were students.

"They had a lot of guests. We had to drag the microphone out here because they had seven or eight people on at one time," said Dalaviras, referring to the station's lobby area.

Included in Notre Dame's guests were a certified substance abuse counselor from Haiti in the Bootheel and Hugh Stone and his wife, Mattie. Hugh Stone is executive director of the Gibson Recovery Center in Cape Girardeau. Mattie Stone is clinical director at the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau. The couple's 16-year-old daughter, Luisa, a junior at Notre Dame, took part in the show.

Dalaviras said station officials were happy with the outcome of the show. Sometimes, he said, the show came off as sounding "raw." The students also suffered from a little bit of stage fright at first, he said.

Traffic by the station's window inside the mall was heavy Friday night, Huffman said. He said the station would probably air the show again.