He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and graduated in 1969 from what was then the Department of Radio and Television. A self-described average student, Letterman later endowed a scholarship for what he called 'C students' at Ball State. Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from college, he was not drafted for service in Vietnam because he received a draft lottery number of 346 (out of 366). Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station- WBST-a 10-watt campus station that is now part of Indiana Public Radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence. He credits Paul Dixon, host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while he was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career: He then became involved with the founding of another campus station-WAGO-AM 570 (now WCRD, 91.3). I was just out of college, and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And I thought: That's really what I want to do! Weatherman And then all of a sudden I saw him doing it.
