Presenting the 2010 Inductees for the WJPZ Hall of Fame:
Congratulations to Chris Bungo ('86) and Hal Rood ('91), who will be honored at Banquet 25 on Saturday, March 6.
Now in its second year, the WJPZ Alumni Association deliberated over 12 very worthy nominees. The WJPZ Hall of Fame was created to honor those who shaped the history of the station, and then went on to become consummate professionals in their respective fields.
Read the bios of all of this year's nominees below:
Larry Barron ('87)
WJPZ Background:
Vice-President/Station Manager 1984-1985
President/General Manager,1985-1986
Chairman of the Board of Directors, 1986-1987
On-air personality 1984-1987, including co-host of the Crazy Morning Crew, 1986-1987
Represented WJPZ on the national executive committee of Broadcasters Against Drugs in 1986-1987, which involved meeting with government and industry leaders, and producing and hosting drug awareness public service programming on WJPZ.
President WJPZ Alumni Association, 1988 and 1989
Career Accomplishments:
Senior Vice President of Programming at FremantleMedia since 1986.
Worked at CBS Corp. as Vice President of Alternative Programming for UPN from 2003-2006.
Producer, consultant, director, writer and on-air talent - credits include: co-Executive Producer of FOX's "Paradise Hotel", Network Consultant on the first season of UPN's "America's Next Top Model", Show Producer of CBS' "The Amazing Race", Producer of USA's "Combat Missions", Coordinating Producer of Warner Bros.' "Extra" and Producer at CNN.
WJPZ/Alumni Association Memories:
Barron: “My most proud, memorable moments at WJPZ were the days leading up to us going on the air for the first time. I will always be appreciative of the station's leadership from prior years, who laid the groundwork for the station to go on air, and applied for our FM transmitter. When I became station manager, my first initiative was to push for a deadline for us to complete their vision and get on the air. I was proud of how our entire team focused and collaborated to get it all done in time. In the final weeks, the transmitter was shipped to us from France, and then had to clear customs, and when it finally arrived in Syracuse, our dream finally felt tangible. Then came the task of getting the transmitter installed on the top of MountOlympus and wired to our studios. Eric Fitch led our technical efforts, and was exceptional in his dedication and creative problem solving. Our team all worked together well on formulating the station's operational plan, branding, and sound. Everyone's hard work paid off when we finally activated the transmitter, and our General Manager Chris Mossman introduced our station to the world. It was a very proud moment for all of us. Later that night, I became the second broadcaster on WJPZ-FM . It was an evening I'll never forget, and the beginning of many memories to follow.
My favorite or most profound career accomplishment:
"What makes me the most proud is whenever I see people whom I've mentored having success. Mentoring is of course at the core of WJPZ, and a core of my success. I'm grateful for the many people I met through WJPZ who took time to encourage and mentor me, such as Rick Wright, Mark Humble, Phil Locascio, Steve Simpson, Chris Mossman, and the many other colleagues who gave me guidance that I carry with me to this day. It's always been important to me to mentor others in turn, because of how much my mentors mean to me.”
Chris Bungo ('86)
WJPZ Background:
Bungo: “At the time we went on FM, our on-air product had a definite "student station sound" which is in no way a complaint against our amazing Chief Engineer, Eric Fitch, who put every single wire in place to get us on the air. He and I just had a difference of opinion on this issue. I preferred a highly compressed, high energy sound which would enable the station to compare "sound wise" to all the 100,000 watt "real" stations in the market. In addition, I thought it was absolutely crucial for all of our on air staff to be able to record airchecks that sounded like they were broadcast on a real, "major market" station. I persuaded our General Manager, Larry Barron and our PD, Dave Dwyer of the importance of this, they agreed and JPZ has never sounded like a typical college station since.”
Career Accomplishments/Alumni Assoc. Memories:
Bungo: “I consider my greatest contribution to be the company I created with Rocco Macri, PromoSuite, which has allowed us to not only provide employment to several JPZ alumni, but also has provided us with the financial means to make significant contributions to the Association over the years and to provide our email, website and database services to the Association as well as several alumni start-up companies.”
Howard Deneroff ('89)
WJPZ Background:
Sports Director
Production Director
On-Air DJ
Career Accomplishments:
1989 - present: CBS Radio Sports, now Westwood One Radio
Was hired as a production assistant for the Operations department, but majority of production work was for MLB and NFL broadcasts in English and Spanish. Moved over to sports department as full-time producer in 1992. Promoted to coordinating producer in 1998, then VP/Executive Producer in 2006.
Has produced, in some capacity, national radio broadcasts of 20 consecutive Super Bowls (English or Spanish, pregame/halftime, or game portions, or entire broadcast).
Ten seasons as producer for MLB games, including All Star Games and World Series
Ten seasons as lead producer for radio broadcasts of NHL and Stanley Cup Finals
18 years as producer for NCAA Tournament coverage (studio, remote, coordinating, executive)
Other events produced or coordinated: several Olympics, Masters Golf, Wimbledon Tennis, British Open, College World Series, and College Football games...
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Deneroff: “I can definitely pinpoint one memory from WJPZ but there were so many good ones over the years I worked there. Pulling all-nighters on Friday night with the sports staff to get the high school football show Press Box on the air each Saturday morning...the West Virginia football game in 1987 where we went undefeated and people stormed the field (and I cracked my ribs trying to avoid the players running off the field)...covering the final four run the same year...mixing the musical montage that played when we finally got back on the air in the summer of 88 after a long hiatus because the transmitter melted (yes it actually got hot in Syracuse once)....mixing for the Saturday Night Dance Jam...dj'ing a 24 hour continuous shift on Christmas and somehow surviving hearing Tiffany 11 times in that stretch...
All those aside, most profound memory was the first time I was asked to help produce a show as opposed to being on-air...I had been doing sportscasts and hosting shows, and while I wasn't nearly as good as others, I wasn't terrible either. But from the moment I tried my hand as "producer", I knew I had found what I wanted to do the rest of my life...Never did another on-air shift, and was consumed with becoming the best producer I could be ever since....still am consumed by it too...but the proverbial light bulb went off in my head in that studio in Watson theatre and I've been hooked from then on.”
Marc Ellenbogen ('85)
WJPZ Background:
SGA Comptroller and a member of the Board of Directors of WJPZ from 1982-1984.
Career Accomplishments:
Entrepreneur and philanthropist, (globalpanel.org) (praguesociety.org) and Senior International Columnist for United Press International (ATLANTIC EYE appears in 50 newspapers worldwide, and on blogs etc). See the actual positions below.
- Member of the National Advisory Board of the US Democratic Policy - senior policy advisor to General Wesley Clark's campaign for president and just nominated to be US Ambassador to Bulgaria.
- Ellenbogen’s foundation helped to fight Communism in Central and Eastern Europe.
Born in Heidelberg, Germany in a US military family. Ellenbogen’s father came from a German noble family who left Nazi Germany and went to Canada.
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
- WJPZ had huge funding problems. One of Ellenbogen’s campaign promises was to fund JPZ and make it a self-sufficient not-for-profit corporation. Colleagues in this effort were Mark Humble and Robert Flint
Matt Friedman ('94)
WJPZ Background:
Newscaster - All four years
Sportscaster - Freshman year
Weekend Magazine Show Producer - Freshman year (that was a 15 minute news magazine show)
Assistant News Director - 1st Semester, Sophomore Year
News Director - Second Semester, Sophomore Year through Junior Year
Board Chair - Senior Year
Career Accomplishments:
WWJ Radio (CBS O&O) Detroit - on-the-air and behind-the-scenes at the all-news radio station. Highlights included serving as the live floor reporter at the 1993 NBA Draft and producing the station's primary election coverage in 1992
WSB-TV Atlanta (Cox)- Lead news writer on the nation's highest-rated 11 p.m. Newscast and produced weekend news shows
WCPX-TV (now WKMG-TV) Orlando - Produced a 10pm newscast for six months, increased the ratings four-fold then was moved to the Noon newscast to do the same
WDIV-TV Detroit (Post-Newsweek) - Produced the Noon newscast for less than a year then was promoted to produce the 6 p.m. Newscast for the rest of tenure there, which was the highest-rated newscast in Michigan at that time
"A Major Michigan Public Relations Firm" - Worked as an Account Executive, Senior Account Executive, Account Supervisor, Vice President and then was an equity partner in the firm for two years. Highlights included beginning a Media Training program, serving as the regional spokesperson for an international airline for three years and leading the communications effort for the introduction of Division I athletics to a major research university.
Tanner Friedman - Strategic Communication - Farmington Hills (Detroit), Michigan - Co-founded the firm in 2007 with no clients, no employees and a 5 year lease. Now represents Fortune 500 companies, professional service firms, non-profits, associations and entrepreneurs in a wide range of communications services including traditional PR, media buying, communications planning, Social Media and crisis management.
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Friedman: “There is one moment from my WJPZ experience that I have thought about every day during my professional career.
When I was Assistant News Director and interviewing for the News Director position, I scolded a News staffer, after she copied a story word-for-word out of the paper, in front of others in the middle of the station. Several Exec Staffers saw it happen. My lack of judgment in that situation nearly cost me a chance at News Director. Long story short, I got a "no confidence" vote as the only candidate and they re-opened the position.
I ended up getting the job, in a squeaker, I'm told, which was an emotional ordeal for me.
Afterward, Dave Gorab took me aside in the hallway of Watson Theatre and gave me advice that has guided me through my career. He put it simply "Praise is for public, but criticism is for private." Wow. How right he was.
I think of that hallway moment in January of 1992 literally every day in dealing with staff, wishing every manager I worked for in my earlier days had worked at Z89 with Dave Gorab and could have heard it and followed it too.
That sort of mentorship and teaching IS the magic of WJPZ.”
Dave Gorab ('93)
WJPZ Background:
As a freshman, started as an overnight zeejay.
Asst. Program Director sophomore year.
Spent the next two summers in Syracuse, going into junior year as VP/Programming
Senior year as General Manager.
Career Accomplishments:
Currently Vice President, Original Talk Programming at SIRIUS XM Radio. Before coming to SIRIUS XM in January of 2004, held numerous positions in network radio since 1995 including Vice President of Programming for Launch Radio Networks, Executive Producer/Jim Cramer's Real Money for Premiere Radio Networks and WOR Radio Network, and Director of Programming Operations for Sony Worldwide Networks.
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Gorab: “Over four years, watching Z89 progressively grow to success in every area of station operations. Our era progressively saw a station being saved, solidified, and then reaching new levels of achievement across the board. As GM in my final year at the station, I recall noting in my resignation letter that we'd achieved new heights, all while being a high-morale team that stuck together at work and at play. In short, the model of students teaching students had worked. “
Ed Lacomb ('85)
WJPZ Background:
While at WJPZ as a freshman, On-Air personality, including overnights.
As a sophomore, served as the Business Manager for two years.
Career Accomplishments:
WHEN-AM, Syracuse, 1983-1985
WTNY, Watertown, NY - Afternoon Drive, 1985-1987
WNFI, Daytona Beach, FL - Production Director, 1987-1988
WKFM, Syracuse - Production Director, 1988-1993
WFKS, Daytona Beach, FL - Production and Program Director, 1993-1994
WTKS, Orlando, FL - Production Director, 1994
WYYY, Syracuse - Marketing and Production Director, 1994-1996
WWHT, Syracuse - Program Director, 1996-1998
President, Digital Sound & Video, Inc., 1998-present
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories:
Lacomb: “Favorite or most profound JPZ memory....LATE nights of working on the application to the FCC for the license....at Dennys on Erie Blvd."
Favorite Career Accomplishment:
President of DSV, Inc. Where our production reaches a weekly cume of over 30 million listeners.
Phil Locascio ('84)
WJPZ Background:
On-Air personality
Imaging; production
Career Accomplishments:
For the past five years, Phil was employed by Millennium Radio as Operations Manager, for the Monmouth/Ocean County, NJ, unit at WCHR-FM, as the PM Drive Host and Director of Rock Programming. He built "The Hawk" from the ground up into a legendary JerseyShore Rock station. The station consistently ranked in the Top 3 of its adult target audience, with a limited signal and resources. He also hosted the number 2 ranked Afternoon Drive Show as "Dr Phil" and created and supervised marketing events such as "Princess the Football Picking Camel" and the "Jethro Tull Ban" with exposure world-wide. As a high profile station personality, he raised over $500,000 for a local children’s cancer organization with the "Billboard Radiothon".
Prior to that, Phil was Program Director for CBS Radio in Washington, DC where he generated a 50% ratings increase within his first year of hire at "Classic Rock 94.7". He also led the station through a major programming crisis, when the morning man “The Greaseman” was fired by Mel Karmazin after making racist comments on the air. This crisis was national news and Mr. LoCascio guided the station through the situation by overhauling the programming and re-branding it to the listeners. As a result, this Classic Rock station became one of the Top 5 most listened to stations in Washington, DC.
Phil also built one of America's leading, Marconi award winning, Adult Contemporary stations from the ground up in Atlanta for Cox Radio. As programming leader of WSB-FM, it was consistently ranked in the Top 3 for ten years and made this station the #1 revenue biller in the Atlanta market.
Before that, he rehabilitated heritage Top 40 station "G98" in Cleveland, while serving as a founding member of the “Museum Committee” that brought the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” to Cleveland.
Phil signed on "Y94FM" and eventually became its Program Director and Afternoon Personality while still attending SyracuseUniversity."
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories:
Locascio: “WJPZ is an amazing place to experience what the radio business is all about. I spent most of my waking hours there! JPZ was all about the learning--even more important because we had a hard time staying on the air. One of my earliest memories was coming in for a shift, and finding out we had been kicked off the air (990 AM) and the cable system carrying our audio. We knew we had literally no one listening. But we all came in and did our shifts anyway--we wanted to make airchecks and get the experience. We also went ahead and ordered silver satin jackets with the new logo on the back. Why not? We were Top 40 jocks! Even though I also worked at WAER as a sports anchor, we knew JPZ was the real world and AER was the NPR world. About the only thing missing from the JPZ environment was the interaction with the sales staff, because everything else mirrored commercial radio. Including its emphasis on personalities and promos and "imaging". A philosophy Rick Wright instilled in us. JPZ was ahead of its time: because the only way for radio to survive is to not sound like an iPod, and that means the stuff in between the songs."
Mike Roberts ('75)
Career Accomplishments:
Georgia Informer: “Before television, radio owned the air waves. Since the introduction of the tube however, this instant and reliable medium has lost some of its significance in the minds of Americans. Roberts Communications Incorporated is making radio relevant again. Mike Roberts started RCI in 1996 with relevancy in his mind and has since parleyed his thinking about radio and its importance into a multi-station company with coverage throughout Macon and middle Georgia.
Roberts Communications Incorporated includes WQMJ and WXKO-AM in Fort Valley, Georgia. RCI is one of the nation’s largest African-American owned radio-broadcasting companyand is poised to further impact Central Georgia. “Roberts-Communications Incorporated is not just a form of entertainment, but a source of positive change as well,” says Roberts.
The spunky businessman's confidence comes from his proven ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Born in Buffalo, New Yokr, Roberts came from what, by today's standards, would be considered a "broken home." His meager beginnings motivated him to obtain a high school technical degree in electronics and to eventually become the first to attend college in his family where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Syracuse University.
While Roberts proved talented in electronics, his interest ultimately turned to television broadcasting and, in due time, his first professional broadcasting position with the ABC (WKBW-TV) affiliate in Buffalo in 1975. Since then, Roberts has experience an extensive career in radio. He has worked in Syracuse, New York as an announcer and Program Director for four different stations and as Program Director for two stations in Cincinnati, Ohio. The year 1982 brought him to Atlanta as the Program Director of WIGO until 1985.
Roberts made an everlasting name for himself in the state capital and Middle Georgia however, as the Program Director and morning jock for WVEE-FM (V103) until retiring from the station in 1998 to run his new company. “I’m always amazed how many people still remember me as the host to that show,” laughed Roberts. “It verified my belief in radio as an extremely effective communications tool.
The three-time major market Personality of the Year nominee has committed his company to affecting positive change whenever the opportunity arises. History is kind to Roberts as both an on-air personality and business owner. While serving as Program Director at V-103, the station held the highest listening audience in Atlanta during the Rodney King uprising in Los Angeles. Since arriving here, his Foxie-107 has helped the Department of Family and Children Services raise money for needy families through the provision of free air time and encouraged voter participation prior to the historic mandated re-election of Mayor C. Jack Ellis last November.
Roberts' stations can also boast the fact they they remain the only local radio group that completely generates its own news targeting the African-American community. His company's work with youth is well respected and known. This is the way of RCI, according to Roberts.
"We consider ourselves a community partner that's making a positive impact on middle Georgia," he said. "RCI is taksed with providing information and entertainment that has relevance in the lives of those listening to us, and that is what we try to do on a daily basis."
Hal Rood ('91)
WJPZ Background:
VP/Business in sophomore year and helped GM turn the station around from being mired in a $10,000 debt to solvency.
VP/Programming in junior year - Rood: "Z89's share grew to a 6.7 and then an 8.9 in the Birch; the station had never been above a 4.5 in its first 5 years on FM. Z89 was #5 in Syracuse and also had the second largest audience share of any U.S. non-commercial radio station."
President of the Association in the early 90s and worked as a member of an SU receivership board in the 90s that helped get the station back on its feet.
Career Accomplishments:
Worked for Voice of America, helping launch and coach new private radio stations in Central and Eastern Europe. Supplied 24 hour programming, coaching and other help to launch fully local programming to those communities.
Recruited by Broadcast Architecture, a strategy and market research firm, to start its international division. After 10 years and a client base spanning 20 countries, departed to launch Strategic Radio Solutions (SRS) in 2006.
Helped SRS build programming and marketing strategies for radio stations in more than two dozen countries.
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Rood: "Those years at WJPZ were a major factor in shaping the next 20 years of my life... from the work experience I gained, the friends I made, and the wife I fell in love with and have had four children with. Let's be honest... the only way I was going to meet a woman was in the radio station!
I had initially gone to Syracuse to become a sports journalist, so I visited WAER and WJPZ. While I have tremendous respect for what 'AER does and the talent it graduates, I fell in love with Z89. What I loved was the entrepreneurial spirit and meritocracy that existed. You would move up the ladder and gain more responsibility when you earned it based on great ideas and hard work.
I became VP/Business in my sophomore year and helped Scott Meach turn the station around from being mired in a $10,000 debt to solvency. I became VP/Programming in my junior year, with two very good friends, Henry Ferry and Ken Scott, in the GM and VP/Business positions. I had recruited both of them two years prior; they never had thought working in ‘radio’, but quickly fell in love with the business aspect of it.
That taught me the lesson of spotting talent and surrounding yourself with smart people in order to do great things.
One of my favorite memories: We were forced to 'more' with 'less' (or 'none'). We were broadcasting at the NY State Fair in 1990, and we felt out-gunned by 93Q, our only CHR competitor. They were handing out bumper stickers to everybody, yet we had no marketing money for bumper stickers or other giveaways. But we DID trade for a few cases of soda and thought of a way to turn 93Q's sticker promotion against them: we gave each listener a free Pepsi for each 93Q bumper sticker they gave us... so the stickers started pouring in. Kids brought literally stacks of those 93Q stickers! We started mashing the stickers together, not really knowing what to do with all of them. The ball of stickers grew to the size of a soccer ball, and we would carry it to events to let listeners kick it for prizes. Can you imagine what 93Q staffers were thinking as they watched listeners KICK their logo around? In fact, we were at a concert at Weedsport, letting listeners have their way with the "Q-Ball" as we called it, when the 93Q Promotions Director tried running in to steal the ball! Thanks to our GM Henry Ferry, the ball was safely back in our hands, and we had a good laugh in the process.
I guess what I take away from those days are the vibrancy and 'can-do' spirit of a bunch of kids who don't have the marketing resources or transmitter strength of the other stations, but WERE able to attract a sizeable audience simply because the PRODUCT WAS REMARKABLE AND UNIQUE. It is a lesson we need to remember today, as the media choices are plentiful!"
Harry Wareing ('99)
WJPZ Background:
Served multitude of positions including: Traffic Director, Promotions Director, Program Director and General Manager (overseeing format change and major re-branding)
Career Accomplishments:
After graduation - two years at 1010 WINS in New York City. Worked in the traffic department, while also working weekend on-air for Rhythmic Top 40 on Long Island, Party 105.
In 2001, moved to WBEA, an adult top 40 station in the Hamptons, on Long Island. While there from 2001-2004, served as afternoon drive jock, music director, and eventually Program Director. During time as Program Director, Wareing was responsible for turning WBEA into a mainstream top 40 station.
In 2004, due to a format change on WBEA, Wareing began working at Barnstable Broadcasting-B103 & WMJC - Was the Promotions Director, and swing jock for both stations.
In 2007, Wareing returned to Long Island Radio Broadcasting in the Hamptons, and worked for WBAZ (sister station of WBEA) -- named Program Director, and Morning Show host.
In late 2007, Wareing moved to the Triple A station in the cluster, WEHM, to host mornings, and help program.
Currently - Operations Manager of WEHM/WBAZ/WBEA, and responsible for programming all three stations.
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Wareing: “My favorite WJPZ Memory took place in my Senior Year at Syracuse. It had been a few rough years at WJPZ, with many staffing changes. My number one goal that year was to build a staff that would continue growing WJPZ after I graduated. I always believed that ultimately my legacy at WJPZ would not be the music we played, or the promotions we created, it would be the people that we trained to take over the station. My best memories are of weekly music meetings that served as a chance to get people involved at the station. It was a great feeling having a crowd of people crammed into the back room of the old WJPZ studios, talking music and radio. From those meetings came the future leaders of the station, and future active alumni association members. It was amazing to see them all graduate a few years later. I still consider myself t, o be fairly young in my career, but it was , the lessons I learned at WJPZ that have helped shape my outlook on radio, leadership, and station ma, nagement. My favorite career achievement so far was back in 2003-2, 004 when I was able to completely revamp a radio station with the help of a great team. I was able to pull together a group that wrote a, nd produced all the imaging, programmed the music, and created exciting promotions. It was a situation that reminded me of my time at WJPZ. We were working with an incredibly limited budget, and were, able to create a compelling station, that had an impact in the market. &, nbsp; When I look back at that situation, it was the , fact that a group of people got together and poured all of their energy into creating great radio that makes it my favorite career achievement so far.&nb, sp;It wasn’t about ratings or billing, it was about people. I learned the value of that while working at WJPZ, and continue to strive to achieve that in all of my endeavors.”
Carl Weinstein ('88)
WJPZ Background:
Weinstein: “I started at WJPZ as a newscaster in the fall of my freshman year and began doing overnight shifts at some point shortly after that. By the Spring I was doing evening shifts (and any other shifts I could get). I started my Sophomore year as Assistant PD and then served as PD for most of the second half of my Sophomore year through all of my Junior year. In my senior year I was the broadcast consultant.”
Career Accomplishments:
Weinstein: “After graduating, I beginning my career with Emmis Communications in New York at Hot 97 working with the legendary Rocco Macri. I was morning show producer and an occasional overnight talent (I use the word ”talent” very lightly). I moved to Seattle to join the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club as Director of Marketing in the early '90s, the youngest director in Major League Baseball at the time.
Another WJPZ alum, Kevin “Tippy” Martinez joined me in Seattle to help turn the Mariners into one of the most innovative and respected marketing organizations in sports. I returned to my media roots in 1995 as Director of Programming, Operations and Marketing for New Century Media (now part of Clear Channel Communications), working with another WJPZ legend, Mike “T-Bone” Tierney, where we helped the Seattle-based radio group achieved its highest consolidated ratings and revenue in group history. In 1999, I got the tech bug and combined my media, sports, and entertainment background with new media to launch Onecast Media, Inc. featuring a groundbreaking online service, Seasonticket.com, offering the world’s first personalized, on-demand sports highlight service for the broadband era. A tech bug turned into an entrepreneurial bug and I have since been involved with several other technology and entertainment start-ups. As Chief Marketing Officer for Screenlife Games, an interactive game company, I helped to build the Scene It? DVD Game franchise into the #1-selling board game brand worldwide with distribution in nine languages, over 20 countries, and in more than 40,000 retail stores. I am currently Chief Marketing Officer for Cozi, an online and mobile organizer for families to manage and coordinate their busy lives with a shared family calendar, shopping lists, to do lists, communications tolls and more.
I have had the privilege of working with JPZ’ers since my freshman year at SU in 1984 both while at WJPZ and throughout my professional career. And, I am proud to know so many others as close friends. It was, and remains, the incubator of some of the most creative and innovative talent in the media and entertainment business.”
WJPZ/Alumni Assoc. Memories
Weinstein: “I was at WJPZ when we went from a dorm only carrier signal to being live on FM dial for the first time. It happened in the spring of my freshman year. It was an amazing experience to witness and be part of, but I personally had very little to do with it. The hard work was all done by my predecessors, some truly amazing people that had the vision for WJPZ long before and perseverance to stay with it until we were on the FM dial. I owe my opportunity at WJPZ and the amazing “real life” classroom experience I received to all of them.
Moving to the FM dial brought all kinds of new attention to the radio station.
Very few people cared much about our programming before we were on FM, but many cared after. About a year after going live on FM, there was pressure from a variety of student groups and even the SGA to have more control over our programming and to turn WJPZ into block programming. The very core of WJPZ as a live classroom experience was at risk. We ultimately made the decision to forgo any further SGA funding to keep control of WJPZ’s programming in the hands of the students running the station, to remain committed to programming a commercially viable format and to preserve the real life educational opportunity. It was a very challenging but ultimately rewarding and bonding experience for everyone. And, in many ways it furthered the educational experience. Giving rise to a real need for corporate development to fund our operations and a more critical evaluation of our programming for viability.”
