WJPZ at 50

Today's guest is the always passsionate Ben Green, aka Ben G, aka Mr. R&B, from the Class of 1985.  He takes us from humble beginnings at Syracuse (including changing majors when he couldn't afford to rent equipment and buy film), to his tour through New York radio, through creating radio stations as a middle school educator today. At Syracuse, Ben G first went to WAER, but when the University too...

(Disclaimer: this was recorded Tuesday after Banquet, before Jag's voice was back to full capacity.) The Super Bowl, The NFL Draft, The Combine, even The Pro Bowl.  If it's an NFL "tentpole" event, today's guest is directly involved in its planning and execution.  Mike Konner, from the illustrious Class of 1995 joins us today. A Connecticut native and baseball lover first, Mike realized in Com 107...

Tommy Giarrosso, was one of the innovators behind the Crazy Morning Crew when WJPZ moved to the FM Dial. We start with this Syracuse native's journey to the Hill, and his involvement with UUTV and WAER.  He was there when the latter was taken over by the University and its new administrator, David Anderson.  He talks about the conflict between the students, led by Sean McDonough, and the new brass...

Today we are joined by our first elected official - Ryan McNaughton from the Class of 1996 has been both President of the Syracuse University Alumni Association, as well as a councilman at large in his current home of Niles, Ohio.  You'll hear his passion to serve many constiuencies throughout this podcast. Ryan knew he wanted to go to Syracuse since first hearing about the school as a 15 year old...

Today's guest is Kat Brady, one of many in a long line of great station leaders in the 2010's.   This Long Island native wanted no part of going to school in her home state - she wanted to go elsewhere.  But at every turn, she kept hearing about Newhouse and SU.  And when she saw the school, her parents saw "the look" in her eyes that many of us had.   It might have helped that she was on campus o...

Today's podcast is in two parts.  In the first half hour, you'll hear Brent Axe's journey from 89.1 The Pulse summer staffer to the premiere voice in Syracuse sports coverage.   After we recorded that chat, Brent was fired from his position at Galaxy Media, which is part-owned by Jim Boeheim, ostensibly for being "too negative" in his coverage of Syracuse University sports.  Galaxy Media's owner,...

Ralphie Aversa has done a little bit of everything in this business.  His voice has been on radio stations in Syracuse, Scranton, Providence, and New York.  He's warmed up the crowd at the Billboard Music Awards, and you'll now see him hosting USA Today's Entertain This. An avid Yankees fan from Niagara Falls, Ralphie was first advised by broadcaster Michael Kay to look at Syracuse.  Fun fact: he...

Beth (Russell) Gorab from the Class of 1993 was a key part of the leadership team that helped Z89 make huge waves in the Syracuse market during the "flamethrower era."   She joins us today to talk about her time at WJPZ and her career since. Believe it or not, she almost didn't go to SU, she had her heart set on another school, as she explains.  And it wasn't until sophomore year at Syracuse that...

The Friday Night Party was a long time staple of WJPZ, allowing mixers to come in and strut their stuff.  Today we revisit the 1999-2001 version of the show with three guests who've gone on to very successful careers in the music world.  From the Class of 2001, we have Mike Kruz, aka DJ Komar, as well as Adrian Arenas, DJ Double A.  They're joined by Michael Eisner, aka DJ Splyce, from the Class o...

We've had podcast guests in the radio, news, and sports arenas, but today's episode features an alumnus who has spent most of his career working with artists in the record label world.     Adam Eisenberg always knew he had a passion for music.  And when he came to WJPZ his junior year, he quickly became friends with Dion Summers, Kafele Khalfani, Marvin Nugent, and so many  of the great class of 1...

Today's episode reunites three members of the WJPZ Class of 2002, as Jag is joined by Jana Fiorello and Beth (Berlin) Cohen. You'll hear themes of lifelong friendship here that are likely reflected in your own class. Beth originally showed up at Syracuse to audition for their musical theater program, but on her high school tour, she found herself talking to then-dean David Rubin at Newhouse about...

Jennifer Ludden, Class of 1988, has had an incredible radio reporting career.  And it all started at WJPZ.  This Tennessee native was recruited by "dorm mom" Sue Mandel (now Weingarten) to come "get a tour" of the radio station.  Next thing you know, Jennifer was doing news, as well as music and morning show shifts.     After a summer working back home, she returned as a sophomore and quickly rele...

In our large group of friendly, outgoing people, Jeffy K is truly a standout.  This 2006 alum sits down with us  today to talk about his journey from Western Massachusetts to Syracuse, then his roles at The Travel Channel, PBS, and AARP. And you'll love how he and classmate T.J. Basalla still manage to endlessly needle each other, 17 years after graduating.   Jeff actually planned on going to Bost...

Melody Emm and James "Baymes" Grundy are the most recent WJPZ couple in our history, and today we learn about their significant contributions to the radio station.   Baymes, a New Jersey native, toured SU on the recommendation of his high school English teacher, and fell in love with the campus the moment he arrived.   Melody has a unique origin story in the radio station's history.  Her Mom, whil...

Hall of Famer Rob, aka Rusty the Bailiff, Berrell hopped in his truck to spend a few minutes with us today.     Doing his research on the best communications schools in the country, this Fargo kid soon found himself at Syracuse, and then WJPZ just in time for the move to FM.  During his time at the station, Rusty did a little bit of everything, as Chief Announcer and eventually station and general...

Being successful in "The Business," or any business for that matter, requires a combination of passion, hard work, a little bit of luck, and treating others well.  Today's guest personifies all of that.   Rich Davis from the Class of 2001 has been at SiriusXM almost since the beginning of satellite radio.  He's also hosted talk shows, podcasts, and now has a daily show on Fox Sports Radio with his...

Today's guest needs no introduction for the sports fans in our group.  Matthew Berry, Class of 1992, is now a central part of NBC Sports NFL coverage, following a 15 year run at ESPN where he found a niche as the fantasy sports expert.   But we start with Matthew's time in Syracuse.  He was multi-platform before it was cool - writing a humor column for the Daily Orange, and working on a sitcom at...

If you've got a backlog of several episodes of this podcast to listen to, we highly recommend you bump today's to the top of your list.   If you were in Syracuse for this year's Banquet, you heard from two of the all-female leadership team of WJPZ: General Manager Grace Denton and VP of Programming (and Lock Award winner!) Maddie Doolittle.  Both women are Class of 2024 and were excited to sit dow...

Hey, it's Jag.  Thanks as always for listening to the WJPZ at 50 podcast.  Couple quick notes for you.  As I mentioned, we are releasing new episodes every Monday.  Hopefully by now you've subscribed in Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice.  But if you'd like a quick email when we release new episodes, we can do that for you (and no, we won't spam you).  Just sign up at JAGinDetr...

Note: Thanks to Newhouse Professor Tina Perkins, WJPZ Class of 1993, for editing this episode of the pod.   Sue Mandel and Rob Weingarten may be the first marriage to come out of WJPZ.  Members of the Class of 1985, they met on campus when they realized they went to rival high schools.  In fact, in Sue's pictures of her high school boyfriends playing sports - Rob's often in the picture as the oppo...

Andrew Scaglione, Class of 2016, knew about WJPZ long before he was a student.  That's because his father is a longtime friend of Hall of Famer Danno Wolkoff.  In fact, Andrew's parents actually met at the Wolkoff wedding!   Today's guest dove headfirst into student media when he got to campus, working at WJPZ, WAER, and Citrus TV.   He did exclusively sports at Z89, slowly rising through the rank...

Jason Palladino, aka Jay Sweet, from the Class of 1997, always approaches a new gig with a sense of fearlessness.  So it's no surprise that he would be our first alumnus to land a new job because of the WJPZ at 50 podcast.  More on that later in the episode.   As a Solvay native, SU was always on Jay's radar.  As the first of his immediate family to go to college, he was actually in pre-med, befor...

Today's guest is an all-star in the worlds of business, digital, and all things WJPZ.   Christy Vincent (nee Ogonis), from the Class of 2005 arrived on campus with a passion for music, but it was at an activity fair that Brett Bosse recruited her to come to the news department he was rebuilding at WJPZ.   Christy started doing news updates, but after working with Josh Wolff on the Z Morning Zoo, b...

Today's episode is a great listen if you've ever been interested in sales or the ad rep side of things.  Scott Taylor, Class of 1993, has been at Katz Media for his entire 30 year career, since graduation.   We start with him following Larry Barron, Scott Meach, and Guy Cacciarelli, on the Michigan-to-Syracuse pipeline.  So, he already knew about WJPZ when he got to campus.   And while he started...

For our first post-Banquet podcast, we get a fresh perspective today.  Dr. David Crider, now a professor at SUNY-Oswego, was a high-school summer staffer at WJPZ during The Pulse years.   It was the foundational knowledge he learned under the staff there that led him to a career in radio, then higher education.  He now advises the student-run station at Oswego, WNYO.   As a student at West Genny,...