When I was in the eighth grade at Marymount Catholic School in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in the 1960s, I wanted to be a ham radio operator. Ham radio is Skype with vacuum tubes and a license.

Of course my mother didn’t spend the several hundred dollars that was needed to get me geared up. She did shell out the money for a book, testing and a license. But a license without a radio is — well you know. I built a crystal radio instead.

Ham radio was high-tech back then. Cutting edge Catholic school technology was the intercom system in all our classrooms. Sister Aloisine, our principal, didn’t have to personally come to escort me to her office, she could announce her invitation school-wide on the intercom.

School media has changed dramatically. I visited St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax for a story about their TV station WLEO.Every morning for 10 minutes, students broadcast news to every classroom on equipment that makes a ham radio look like — well — a crystal radio.

For the full story, go here.