2023 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony, tour of renovated Abrams Communications Center June 6, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Baseball, Basketball, Comedy, Education, History, Internet, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Politics, Radio, Rock, Sports, Technology, TV, Video.
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Other Hall of Fame ceremony recaps: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020-21, 2022

7/17 UPDATE: A formatting error with this blog post unbeknownst to me until this morning has been resolved.

On Saturday, June 1, 2024, the WCWP Hall of Fame’s 2023 class was inducted in a ceremony at LIU Post‘s Alumni Hall.

This time, there were three inductees (listed in order of introduction):

• Joel Feltman, 1974
• Phil Lebowitz, 1974
• Mike Maimone, 1981

(In full disclosure, I once again served on the Hall of Fame Committee.)

I was under no stress coming into Saturday’s ceremony. I owe that to a lack of weekly radio shows to record in advance and my hiatus from Twitch streaming (I return this Sunday).

WCWP station manager Pete Bellotti contacted me three weeks beforehand to confirm if I would be shooting photos and video. For the first time since 2019, I would handle all of that, not supplementing the station’s video as for the 2020-21 and ’22 ceremonies. The only video I needed was of Phil Lebowitz’s prerecorded acceptance speech. (Joel Feltman and Mike Maimone would be present.)

I have three cameras capable of shooting 4K video at 60 FPS (frames per second): a Panasonic HC-X1500 camcorder, a GoPro HERO7 (with YOLOtek Juicebank for extra battery life), and a Canon EOS R7. The R7 replaced my Nikon D5500 as my exclusive photo camera. Needing the R7 for video meant going back to the D5500 for the first time since after Homecoming Weekend in 2022. (Click here to read about my early days with the R7.) For audio to sync with the video, I would use a TASCAM DR-05X audio recorder connected to the podium mixer via 3.5mm cable.

On the afternoon of Friday, May 31, students and alumni, myself included, were shocked by the news that Long Island University had dismissed Pete Bellotti as WCWP station manager. Fears were allayed by evening when Dan Cox, who otherwise would M.C. Saturday’s ceremony, came out of retirement to return as station manager.

Dan briefly addressed the situation in his opening remarks:

For those of you who may not know me, my name is Dan Cox, and I am the Director of Broadcasting at WCWP Radio. Unfortunately, that appointment came less than 24 hours ago. (applause) Unfortunately, the university parted ways with Pete [Bellotti]. Pete was one of my students. He is a good friend, and I wish him well. I think he did an outstanding job during a very difficult time over the last two years, with the renovation and everything that was happening. So, I won’t belabor that point. But I will say, for those of you in the room who probably stretch back as far as the 1960s through the 2000s, there’s never a dull moment at WCWP, is there? So, let’s not make this a dull moment by me talking too much. What I’d like to do right now is to bring up my good friend Jeff Kroll, who’s gonna induct our first inductee [Joel Feltman].

I’m choosing to save the journal portion (i.e. when I arrived, further technical details) for the end of this post before video of the ceremony and renovated station tour.

As Dan said, 2015 inductee Jeff Kroll presented Joel Feltman for induction:

Joel’s acceptance speech, with Jeff present to his right (out of view), dovetailed somewhat into discussion of the next inductee.

But first, Joel and Jeff posed for a photo:

The second inductee, also presented by Jeff Kroll, was Phil Lebowitz, Joel Feltman’s fellow 1974 alumnus.

Phil could not make the ceremony, but he did record an acceptance speech from his home in Surprise, Arizona.

After the video was shown, Jeff Kroll showed off his WCWP press card and shared how Phil’s “gift of gab” allowed the two of them access to a Philadelphia 76ers home game against the Milwaukee Bucks. (They were in Philly to cover a C.W. Post Pioneers football road game against Drexel University.)

Jeff then posed with Phil’s plaque:

Before the third inductee, Dan Cox acknowledged the informal ribbon cutting earlier in the week for the renovated Abrams Communications Center, attended by Marjorie Abrams Hyman and fellow descendants of Benjamin Abrams.

Then, Dan introduced Tim Ernandes to present Mike Maimone.

Tim was a laugh riot, chock full of impressions and stories of from his and Mike’s days working on WCWP comedy series Post Serial, a pun on the university’s Post Cereal roots.

Tim stayed at the podium for repartee during Mike’s acceptance speech.

A photo with the plaque:

After closing remarks from Dan Cox, the 2023 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony was complete. There was a bit of business to tend to before we all made the trek to the Abrams Communications Center.

First, a photo of inductees Joel Feltman and Mike Maimone with presenters Jeff Kroll and Tim Ernandes:

It was Dan who said in his 2022 induction speech (in ’23) that Mike deserved a spot in the Hall of Fame, and he rightfully earned that spot this year.

A candid shot before departing:

Joel Feltman and his wife Michelle offered to drive me down to the Abrams Communications Center. Cars were the only feasible option since Hillwood Commons was itself closed for renovations. If I were to walk from Alumni Hall, I’d have to go around Hillwood.

We parked in the lot, I took out my equipment, and put it all down in the lobby. I shot continuous video (except for a part I couldn’t record) and a dozen photos inside and out. You’ll see the video later, but here are the photos:

The highlight of the tour was an impromptu speech from (and discussion with) station manager Dan Cox in studio 3:

Before I left for home, Dan took a photo of me with Mike Maimone.

Now, the journal portion:

My dad Bill dropped me off at Alumni Hall at around 12:30, if not 12:40. (Surprisingly, I don’t remember the exact time.) Last Sunday, I bought an Amazon Basics 60″ tripod for use with the R7 in addition to the tripods I already had for the GoPro and HC-X1500. As you’ll see in the video at the end of this post, I had to tweak the R7’s color balance, along with brightness and contrast. The HC-X1500 video quality is untouched. The GoPro footage didn’t make the final video as the best shots came from the other two sources. Working from my knowledge of Twitch overlays, I made special overlays for the video:

The R7 video experiment yielded mixed results. I got a lot to work with, but I had to stop recording 55 minutes in to change batteries. After eight minutes on the new battery, the camera stopped recording due to overheating. Once it cooled down, I resumed, only for the SD card in slot 1 to reach capacity. I had to manually change to slot 2 for the last six minutes. Clearly, another camcorder is the only way to go in the future. From Saturday afternoon through Tuesday night, I considered my options: another Panasonic HC-X1500 without VW-HU1 and Rode VideoMic GO II attached or, staying in the Canon family, the Canon VIXIA HF G70. It’s cheaper than the HC-X1500, but goes no higher than 30 FPS in 4K. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make, springing for an open box eBay listing on Tuesday night. So, if secondary camera cutaways look cinematic at future events (i.e. Homecoming Weekend), you’ll know why. (6/14 UPDATE: I was dissatisfied with the G70 and am selling it. I’ll just get another HC-X1500 after it sells.)

One last thing: the podium audio was blown out, and I did my best to fix that in Adobe Audition, along with using the click/pop eliminator where necessary.

So, then, here is the finished ceremony/station tour video. Enjoy.

Congratulations to Joel Feltman, Phil Lebowitz, and Mike Maimone. We reconvene in 2025 to induct the 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame class.

Special thanks to 2014 inductee Ted David for curating the photos and for advice on further edits.