Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker presents “Friend of Education” Award to Dennis Webster (October 8, 2024)
The Jamestown School Board and Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker recognized longtime local media member Dennis Webster with a “Friend of Education” Award during Tuesday’s board meeting.
Webster, a 1972 JHS graduate, spent roughly a half-century as a radio host for WJTN and the Media One Radio Group prior to his retirement in August of 2024. A household name across Chautauqua County, Webster has been a longtime supporter of the Jamestown Public Schools.
Among his extensive coverage of the district, Webster has spent decades documenting the events and stories associated with the JHS music department. Over the years, he has announced band competitions, narrated band concerts, dedicated extensive radio and audio programs to the JHS Marching Band, A Cappella Choir, orchestra, and musical, and has been an ardent supporter of the student musicians of Jamestown High School. As a public service to the community, he also hosted Whitaker and prior JPS superintendents on his radio show every Thursday morning.
Webster will continue to support the district as a special assistant to the JPS Public Relations Office in anticipation of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the JHS A Cappella Choir and Band programs. A documentary on the programs, narrated by Webster and produced by Salty Doubloon Digital Studio and 2015 JHS graduate Ray Lydell, will premiere in early 2025.
Webster said at school board meeting that he was fortunate the district provided a “place to land” after he “launched” himself out of the radio business in August.
He said the project has given him an opportunity to really study the lives of Arthur and Ebba Goranson, “And we have learned that it was not that no one ever sang a tune in the Jamestown Public Schools before 100 years ago or ever picked up an instrument before 100 years ago, but there was something about this brother and sister – their zeal, their commitment, their devotion to music in the Jamestown Public Schools that started something that others picked up after they were gone and has been perpetuated for 100 years.”
Webster said that energy still exists today through the high school and middle schools.
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