Voice of Ouray

A small Colorado town is tuning into a student-run radio station.

Ouray, Colo.

At 7 a.m. on a recent Friday, citizens of Ouray who keep their alarm clocks set to 98.9 FM, as many here do, are awakened by the news that school authorities have granted 12th graders an extra hour of sleep.

But listeners who remember that May 27 is senior prank day at the 290-student, K-12 Ouray School probably guess pretty quickly that the announcement is a hoax. Some early risers even drive over to eyeball the school, which seniors have draped in graffiti-painted sheets, with classroom desks and chairs set up in the street, while music blasts from the open windows.

The tolerant reaction by adults and school officials demonstrates the small, mountain town’s affection for its teenagers, whom virtually everyone has watched grow up, and perhaps the knowledge that some will soon leave for jobs and colleges...