WJPZ at 50

"Hollywood" Hal Rood is a WJPZ Hall of Famer who programmed the station at an incredible moment in its history.  From there, he went on to several radio jobs, before founding his own company, Strategic Solutions Research, 15 years ago. Despite his impressive resume, Hal credits his classmates at Z89 for shepherding the station out of some dark times and into the "flamethrower" days.  Folks like Sc...

Mina Llona is a radio and social media rockstar.  In the 15 years since graduation, she's worked on the air in New York, in Philadelphia, and two stints at SiriusXM. We start today's show with her unusual trajectory toward radio, and the very surprising reaction she got from her Mom when she told her she wanted to switch from pursuing a law career to one in radio. One key constant throughout her c...

In a very impressive alumni association, Scott MacFarlane is a rockstar among rockstars, although he'd probably be the last person to say so.   A Hall of Famer and currently Congressional Correspondent for CBS News, he joins us today to reflect back on his time at WJPZ, and how it's prepared him for a career on the national stage. Some of the biggest lessons Scott learned at WJPZ were personal one...

For our first episode, we wanted to give you a choice between our full 98 minute interview with Dr. Rick Wright or this one, the 39 minute "radio edit." In this shortened version, we stick to (mostly) the 50 year history of the radio station, beginning with that famous "knock at the door" of Dr. Wright's office in 1975.   From there, we wind through the 80's and the story behind the move to the FM...

For our first episode, we went back to Professor Rick Wright to tell the story of WJPZ.  And we put out the 38 minute "radio edit."  But we felt many of you would want to hear the entire conversation with Rick - all 98 minutes of it.   So we are releasing it here as a bonus episode. Rick tells us about his first stint in Syracuse, and how he left and came back prior to that famous "knock on the do...

For 50 years, WJPZ Syracuse has been the world’s greatest media classroom, preparing Syracuse University Students for whatever was to come after graduation.   In the WJPZ at 50 Podcast, we’ll hear about some of the lessons learned, You'll hear how alumni from six different decades each had their own set of challenges to tackle. And perhaps just as importantly, you’ll hear about the relationships t...