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2014 LIU Post & WCWP Homecoming, 2015 Hall of Fame Announcement October 21, 2014

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Interviews, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Sports, Technology, Video, Weather.
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Other recaps: 2008, 2009, WCWP 50th Anniversary (2011), 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

Later in this recap, I share the aircheck from my Homecoming Weekend show and behind-the-scenes pictures from the pre-record. 2/26/18 UPDATE: I also combined the videos for this post into one YouTube video.

I was at LIU Post on Saturday for their annual Homecoming Day. Most of my time was spent at WCWP’s barbecue and the announcement of 2015 inductees to their Hall of Fame.

I arrived at WCWP at about 2:30 PM. After setting my equipment down in Studio 3, I walked to Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium to watch part of the 3rd quarter of the LIU Post Pioneers’ Homecoming game against the Saint Anselm Hawks.

Before taking pics by Bronko Pearsall Field, I grabbed a few shots of the carnival:
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The press box:
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WCWP alumni Jeff Kroll and Neil Marks called the game from the lower booth. Included to their right (screen left) were, from left to right, Joel Feltman, Zach Parker (facing away), and Phil Lebowitz.

Last year was going to be the press box’s last year, but it turned out not to be.

Unlike last year, I didn’t capture a Pioneers touchdown, but I did capture a kickoff return for Saint Anselm
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..

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…and a run by Pioneers quarterback Steven Laurino:
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The Pioneers went on to beat the Hawks by the score of 49-21.

I took the scenic route back to WCWP, which began at Post Hall:
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It is home to ARP, or the Academic Resource Program, located on the lower level. It was the Academic Resource Center (ARC) while I was a student, from Fall 1999 to Fall 2003, and was one level higher.

My 35mm photo rescanning project recently included pictures from ARC events. And as I work my way through pics between the rest of 2000 and 2003, there will be many more. Without ARC/ARP, I would have had a tougher road to graduation.

The opposite side of Post Hall:
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Riggs Hall:
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Humanities Hall:
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Humanities was home to many of my Media Arts classes. I also took English Composition, Philosophy, Political Science, Spanish, and Math for Elementary Education there.

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The Winnick House:
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The combined building of Life Science and Pell Hall:
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I took Study Strategies on the Life Science side, and Human Geography and Earth Science on the Pell side.

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Eventually, I made my way back to WCWP.

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With the Homecoming game ending early, Maura “Bernie” Bernard had to start her show a half hour earlier than expected:
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The same thing happened to me in 2008.

Let the show begin:
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Steven Acevedo was one of many guests to drop in on Bernie’s show:
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David Kaplan was another:
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Moments before the 2015 WCWP Hall of Fame announcement, I video recorded the following aircheck from Bernie’s show, synced to my recording of the Internet stream:

As Ted David noted above, at 5PM, he announced the 2015 inductees to the WCWP Hall of Fame. Ted is himself an inductee, part of the 2014 HOF class.

The 2015 inductees are Jeff Kroll, Bruce Leonard, Bobby Guthenberg, and Mike Riccio. Yesterday was not only the 53rd anniversary of WCWP, but Bobby’s “53rd” birthday, as well. What better birthday present than induction into the WCWP Hall of Fame?

Here is the announcement:

After that, it was time to pose for pictures.

Here are Pete Bellotti, Dan Cox, Jeff Kroll, Bruce Leonard, Bobby Guthenberg, Mike Riccio, and Ted David:
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Next is all the Hall of Famers that were present at Homecoming:
Frank D’Elia (2014), Ted (2014), Bobby G. (2015), Mike (2015), Bernie Bernard (2013), Jeff (2015), Bruce (2015):
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One of two pictures of Ted and me:
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Joel Feltman and Ted David:
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The barbecue outside WCWP wouldn’t have been possible without Ryan Attard, Director of Alumni Relations and the LIU Post Alumni Association. After the HOF announcement, Ryan spoke with Bernie:
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Here is how that looked and sounded:

Phil Lebowitz (center) with two current students: Deandre Wilson and Mike Nicosia:
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After the above picture, I was Bernie’s next guest:

Two comments:
1) I probably shouldn’t have bitten the smooth jazz hand that could potentially feed me in the future.
2) I was nervously playing with one of the WCWP bracelets that Bernie’s sister Melissa made.

Steven Acevedo and Jett Lightning took turns reading the WCWP Rock Show concert calendar:
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Here’s how that sounded:

Hearing Bernie play “Fire” by Arthur Brown in previous years made that song one of my favorites. When she played it this year, as heard above, after “I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you…!,” I jumped up and down excitedly for the first few bars before composing myself.

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6PM marked the middle of WCWP’s Homecoming Weekend:
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It began Friday at noon and ended Sunday night (yesterday morning) at midnight.

Thanks to Pat Kroll for bringing over this personalized Waldbaum’s sheet cake:
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Pat cut the first slice:
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The WCWP 53rd anniversary/birthday cake was acknowledged on the air:

John Zoni, Pat Kroll, Jeff Kroll, Zach Parker:
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Bernie’s last aircheck of the night:
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…looked and sounded like this:

Next up was Rev. John Commins:
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It was his first Homecoming show in a decade.

Bruce and Jeff ran the board:
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Steven Acevedo stuck around for John’s show:
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Here are select talk breaks from John’s show:

Mike Phillips, Frank D’Elia, and Phil Lebowitz:
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After becoming friends with Joe Honerkamp on Facebook, we finally met in person Saturday night:
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Ted David took this picture of me:
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Then, we posed for our second pic of the day:
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I took one last shot before I left:
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I had to take it from Studio 2 because it was too crowded in Studio 1 and at the door to Studio 1.

I had such a blast at Homecoming. It was great to catch up with alumni I’ve met before and with those I met in person for the first time.

2/26/18 UPDATE: I combined all the above videos into one YouTube video:

Hours later, at 2AM, it was time for my Homecoming show, CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri. As I noted two weeks ago, I pre-recorded the show. Here are pictures from that session in Studio 2:
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Direct from the Studio 2 console is the aircheck from that show:

And here is the playlist with a retroactive correction I added in Photoshop on Sunday night:
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Some of the notes I wrote on the playlist didn’t make it to the final cut.

I loved Ted David’s liners so much that I made a compilation of how those liners sounded between songs:

The first transition was from the console while the rest were from the Internet stream.

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My experience at Day 1 of 2014 New York Comic Con October 10, 2014

Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Art, Books, Comedy, Internet, Interviews, Media, Personal, Photography, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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Other New York Comic Con recap: 2012 Day 2, 2017 Day 12018 Day 1, 2019 Day 1, 2021 Day 1

Yesterday marked my second trip to New York Comic Con, held annually at the Javits Center in the Midtown West portion of Manhattan. This time, I went with my girlfriend. We met each other at Penn Station, going our own ways to get there. I came from Wantagh, she came from Wallingford, Connecticut.

My way to her began at around 12:15 when I walked two blocks to a bus stop for the southbound NICE (Nassau Inter-County Express) n73. The bus arrived at 12:28, two minutes ahead of schedule. That ensured I would arrive at the Wantagh LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) station in time to board a 12:32 train, an earlier train than I had planned for. If I hadn’t bought my round trip ticket the day before, I’d have to wait for the 12:57. 50 minutes later, I was at Penn Station. I met up with my girlfriend and we began the half-hour walk to the Javits Center.

We entered at West 38th Street, tapping our badges before going inside. Conventioneers were greeted by giant inflated Teen Titans – and, by extension, Teen Titans Go! – characters.

Beast Boy and Starfire:
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Cyborg and Robin:
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And, of course, Raven:

Time to head inside…

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My first plan was to meet voice actor Billy West, whom I interviewed back in 2005 at WCWP. Since autographing was involved, and not knowing offhand where Booth 1280 was, despite going to NYCC two years ago, I headed downstairs.

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A fellow conventioneer informed me that Booth 1280 was on the show floor. So, my girlfriend and I headed there.

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On the floor…
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We searched the aisle numbers and headed for the 1200s. It was there that we found Billy West.

Billy and I had a brief conversation, he signed my copy of Futurama, Volume 7 – which has Zoidberg on the cover – and my girlfriend took our picture:

He signed the cover this way:

To Mike!

…Zoidberg could eat…

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It was the highlight of my afternoon. But there was more to do. My girlfriend and I walked the floor back to a downward escalator.

Along the way, this is what we saw:
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We finally reached a downward escalator:
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There were a few panels I was interested in attending, but the one we settled on was here in Room 1A21:
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It was for the latest (and upcoming) Transformers TV series, Transformers: Robots in Disguise. The panel began at 4:00, but we got in line at 3:00.

The line was small when we arrived and we ended up near the front. It pays to show up early. After 50 minutes in line, the door was opened. We ended up sitting front row center. It was fantastic.

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The panel was moderated by Mike Vogel, the Vice President of Development for Hasbro Studios:
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From right to left on the dais, there was Jeff Kline, executive producer:

Jose Lopez, director:

Adam Beecher, producer and writer:

And the voice talent:
Will Friedle (Bumblebee):

Khary Payton (Grimlock):

Constance Zimmer (Strongarm):

…and Mitchell Whitfield (Fixit):

Now that you know the stars, here are random panel wide shots:
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Khary set up the clip about to be shown:
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Q&A:
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After 45 minutes, the panel came to an end:
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Constance and Khary stuck around to sign autographs:
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Transformers: Robots in Disguise premieres in early 2015 on Cartoon Network. I can’t wait. I’m so glad I chose this panel.

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After a few fun hours at New York Comic Con, my girlfriend and I called it a day:
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We didn’t go right home, though. We walked down 11th Avenue to West 35th Street, taking that to 8th. We stopped in Trattoria Bianca for an early dinner. An hour later, we boarded an express LIRR train back to Wantagh, which also took an hour.

As I did for my 2012 Day 2 recap, I’ll leave you with a picture of the ticket holder I wore and the badge it carried:
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10/11 UPDATE: There is an in-depth recap of the Transformers: Robots in Disguise panel at Newsarama.

And unbeknownst to me, because I didn’t look at the NYCC schedule beyond Thursday, there was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles panel yesterday. Bam! Smack! Pow! has a recap of that, while IGN’s Scott Collura interviewed Rob Paulsen (Donatello), Greg Cipes (Michelangelo), and executive producers Ciro Nieli and Brandon Auman.

If tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday hadn’t sold out so fast, I would have gone either of those days. But I’m glad I went when I did. As I noted in the original recap, I got to meet Billy West in person and to whet my appetite for Transformers: Robots in Disguise, sitting front row center for their panel in the process.

WCWP Homecoming Weekend show to air October 19 October 6, 2014

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Phone, Radio.
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I was on the campus of LIU Post on Friday to record my annual Homecoming Weekend radio show for WCWP, the campus radio station which I was originally part of from October 2001 to May 2004. CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri will air very early on Sunday, October 19, at 2AM Eastern (Saturday, October 18, at 11PM Pacific) on 88.1 FM and WCWP.org. If you are outside of the signal range, choose the latter (WCWP.org) or browse for WCWP on the TuneIn mobile app.

In the two hours of CJazzPlus, I’ll be playing The Jeff Lorber Fusion, Mindi Abair, Gerald Albright, Brian Culbertson, and many more, including one of my favorites by the recently departed Joe Sample. The show took just over two hours to record and an extra hour to edit, plus additional time editing at home on Saturday.

The name CJazzPlus comes from a short-lived Live365 station of mine from late 2010. It’s short for “contemporary jazz plus.” The “plus” refers to various sub-genres of jazz and instrumentals from other genres. I try to go beyond what you’d hear on a typical smooth jazz station, such as SiriusXM’s Watercolors.

Hours before the show airs, on Saturday, October 18, I’ll be at for Post for their Homecoming festivities, as well as for WCWP’s. The latter of those includes the announcement of 2015 inductees to the WCWP Hall of Fame. I look forward to that announcement as much as I look forward to the annual announcements of National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees and Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees. My guess is as good as yours. You’ll have to listen that afternoon to find out who got in this time.