WJPZ at 50

We're talking today with Matthew Reschke, also known as R Source, from the class of 2012. Matt's connection to WJPZ started in his childhood, growing up near Syracuse and engaging with the station's DJs through AOL - before even AIM.

Matthew's academic path took him from Onondaga Community College to LeMoyne College, where he first dabbled in college radio. His journey to WJPZ was not straightforward; it involved exploring different...

Every year, the WJPZ Alumni Association, via the Berrell Award, sends two students to an industry event.  In 2023, GM Grace Denton and former sports director Joe Puccio went to Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show.  We sat down with them to hear about the experience.

We've met Grace in her previous episode with PD Maddie Doolittle.  So first we meet Joe and get his background.  And we hear about their summer...

If you don't know Adam and Kelly (Foster) Shapiro's backstory, you might assume it's yet another romance started in the halls of WJPZ.   Their story, as you'll hear here, is a much different road than than other Z89 couples.

Both members of the Class of 1992, they were certainly friendly in school, and had mutual friends, but didn't spend a ton of time together outside the station.   Kelly joined the promotions department, eventuall...

While many of us flipped burgers or bagged groceries in high school, Dave Roberts was reading the news on an AM station and (literally) herding cats as a 15 year old.   When he toured Syracuse and saw the WJPZ prize van, and he met Hal Rood, Jim Remeny and more. He knew it was where he had to be.

After starting on overnights, Dave quickly climbed the ranks to news director and eventually VP of Business.  That may sound like a strang...

Kevin Tippy Martinez, '88, is the Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications for the Seattle Mariners. It's no surprise that this New Jersey native, with passions for baseball and broadcasting, found himself transferring in to Syracuse.

Once he got to SU, Martinez was actively involved with both Z89 and WAER, where he honed his skills in sports broadcasting and DJing. Not many students worked for both stations at that time, b...

Mike Roberts, Class of 1979, is one of the people who helped kept WJPZ alive in the early days.  With the station's founders having graduated, Mike empowerd a team to run radio station, passing its educational lessons forward to the next generation of broadcasters.

Arriving on campus in 1975, he quickly found WJPZ 1200 AM in the Spectrum Records building and told Bill Bleyle that he wanted to be involved. In addition to his airshift...

Today we interview Marc Bokoff,  from the class of 1987. A management major, Marc came to the station as business manager under then-GM Larry Barron, before becoming general manager himself.  He took over the station in the midst of the station changing from a block format to the much more tighly programmed CHR format it still has today.

As GM, Marc and the staff faced backlash for this change, leading accusations of racial bias and...

Scott Greene, '93, grew up just outside Boston wanting to be a newspaper reporter.  He did it in high school and came to Syracuse wanting to pursue that career.   But WJPZ quickly drew him in, and he says the only columns he wrote for the Daily Orange ended up being Wrestlemania previews.

Scott came to the station as the classes of 90 and 91 were taking the reigns.  His group quickly got their footing, and passed the torch to '94 an...

Links!

All of Marty's current work, including podcasts: https://weeklyhumorist.com/

Marty's archive of Z Morning Zoo bits, including the full Rick Wright tour of the Ostrom House: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ascjv18c57ajw/Z_Morning_Zoo_audio

Marty D was best known at WJPZ for hosting the Z Morning Zoo, alongside Peterman and Emily Zizza (now Almas).  But you'll learn much more about him in today's episode.  You'll hear how he was...

John sent some great 1990's pics from the station. You can view them here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/zxxnn6pconq7p45fvidd1/h?rlkey=ny9i0u512pve0tf915i58xtl3&dl=0

John Beck, Class of 1995, has gone on to a prolific writing career in Hollywood, having worked on everything from The Hughleys to Fuller House, to Liv and Maddie, and more.   A TV guy through and through, it was actually Dave Gorab who approached him, over at then-UUTV...

As the son of a radio station owner, Tony Renda grew up in broadcasting.  His dad, Tony Renda Sr, started with an AM station in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania, before growing the company to many station in several markets.

Growing up near Pitt, Tony Jr. new about the Big East, and of course Syracuse. His dad was an alum.  But he didn't go straight from high school to Central New York; he didn't have the grades.   So he spent a year a...

Today's guests are three ladies, three years apart, who have formed an enduring frienship via WJPZ that has lasted over 20 years.

Tracey (Chilandese) Turner got to the station when Harry and Dena were running a skeleton crew, having just shepherded the station through it's second format change (back to Z89) in just a few years.   Trace joined the station as a sophomore, just as Matt DelSignore was taking over for Harry as GM and PD....

"Kid" Michael Rock grew up taping Casey Kasem and trying to talk up the songs himself.  So it's not surprising that he applied to Syracuse, and only Syracuse.  And he set out to find WJPZ before his parents had finished unpacking him into Flint Hall.  Who was the first person he met at the station? BB Good.

Kid got his FCC license and was soon doing every airshift, including mornings with Steve Donovan (then "Abe Froman").   Ironica...

Today's guest is play-by-play man David Resnick, a 2010 WJPZ alum.  He reached out to us because he wanted to make sure we recognized the All Star sports department he worked with at Z89 - many who have gone on to great success in the sports industry, as you'll hear.

As David says, the "Cold War" between WJPZ and WAER had thawed by the time he got on campus, and he got involved in everything he could - working simultaneously at both...

Hey, it’s Jag.  Again, thank you so much for your support of the WJPZ at 50 podcast, which as of today, January 23, 2024, now has almost 13,000 downloads!

We’re starting to wind down the series, but wanted to make sure you had a chance to hear from all of the incredible people we’ve talked to, BEFORE we all get together in Syracuse.  So from now until we run out of episodes, probably the middle of February, we’ll go back to our orig...

We can't think of a better guest for our 100th episode than Mr. Jim Gallagher.  He is believed to have spent more hours "in the chair" doing morning drive than anyone in WJPZ history. Today you'll learn how lessons learned in Syracuse served him well in a truly remarkable career.  And we open the episode with a classic station story - a live broadcast from the Denny's on Erie Boulevard when he tried to eat 89 pancakes.

Following his...

Jen Nycz-Conner felt like she applied to every college in the Big East (RIP) before falling in love with the communications program at Syracuse.  Once on campus, she found a fellow freshman with a map.  She and Steve Donovan went to the radio station, met B.B. Good, and the rest is history.

Living above the station in Watson as a sophomore, Jen got more involved with the station, and soon became VP of Operations as she and her 1995 ...

Mike "T-Bone" Tierney may have known more classes in JPZ's history than anyone - having worked at Z89 as a high schooler, undergrad, and grad student.  So it's no surprise many of his contemporaries consider him one of WJPZ's greatest program directors.

T-Bone went to Nottingham High School, and saw a recruitment flyer for summer staffers while visiting Bird Library.  He walked in that day, was immediately training, and worked his w...

It's no surprise that Ethan Charlip ended up at Syracuse University.   His New Jersey high school classmates Jacob Belotti and Shruti Marathe were already there when he arrived on campus.   In fact, Shruti told Ethan he'd be at the WJPZ spring recruitment meeting and tasked Jacob with making sure of it.

Like so many of us, Ethan immediately found his tribe at the station, quickly earning a reputation for hanging out there more than ...