2024 LIU Post & WCWP Homecoming Weekend October 4, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, Books, Football, Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Pop, Radio, Rock, smooth jazz, Sports, Travel, Video.
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Last year, due to ongoing renovation of the Abrams Communications Center on the campus of LIU Post, WCWP‘s Homecoming Weekend programming block was cancelled. This year, it was back, running from September 20 at noon through September 22 at midnight. Coinciding with the LIU Sharks football team‘s Homecoming game against the University of Rhode Island Rams, this was the first Homecoming Weekend block overseen by returning station manager Dan Cox since 2021 and first coordinated by alumni Jeff and Pat Kroll since 2019.

Those who attended the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony on June 1 were given a tour of the Abrams renovation afterward. More alumni would have a chance to see the changes this time.

As the unofficial station historian, a title bestowed upon me by Bill Mozer, I would document this weekend from start to finish, through videos, photos, and airchecks. The airchecks were mostly recorded off the FM internet stream at my Wantagh home via desktop PCs in my bedroom and the guest room. Exceptions are the first four hours of programming Friday and Bernie Bernard’s show after the football game Saturday. For those, I recorded at WCWP using Adobe Audition on my laptop, which was connected to USB phono preamp connected via a Y-adapter to a Sangean radio’s aux out port. The home recordings were done through Audacity and edited in Adobe Audition.

I always seem to develop anxiety ahead of an impending workload, and that was again the case on Thursday, September 19. I had temporarily limited my Twitch streaming schedule to one stream a week to focus on covering Homecoming Weekend and all the post-production to follow. I also, muted all the Discord chat servers I was in and turned off notifications on the many channels I followed and/or subscribed to. I needed to be calm going into the weekend and focus on the task at hand.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20

With all my batteries charged and equipment packed, my mother Lisa drove me up to LIU Post just after 11AM. Once I arrived and entered WCWP, I unpacked and began setting up in studio 3 for the first show of Homecoming Weekend. Project Independence and You! was wrapping up its regularly-scheduled show in studio 2.

Homecoming Weekend led off at noon with Art Beltrone’s interview show.

Art was the first student voice heard on WCWP after its carrier-current station sign-on at noon on October 18, 1961.

Jeff Kroll was the engineer and co-host.

Bill Rozea speaking with Art’s next guest, Vinnie Salamone:

Art’s interview with Vinnie Salamone:

Bernie Bernard was next:

The next four photos are courtesy of Ted David while he dropped by studio 3:

Art Beltrone’s other guests included Stewart Ain, via Zoom (a fifth photo by Ted David)…

Jeannie Moon…

John LiBretto and Hank Neimark…

…and Steve Radoff, via Zoom:

After Hank, John, and Steve were interviewed, I gathered my equipment and headed for studio 2 to set up for my live edition of Instrumental Invasion at 2PM.

Here is Art’s full show, minus most of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”:

Aside from the guests listed above, Art spoke to Jon Benson (via Zoom) and Greg Tarone.

Portions of the above aircheck were synced to video I shot on a pair of Panasonic HC-X1500 camcorders, with occasional photo cutaways.

Click here for a recap of my live Instrumental Invasion, with corresponding photos, scoped aircheck, and video. (The link to the midnight prerecorded show comes later in this post.)

Hank Neimark and John LiBretto returned to the airwaves at 4PM to host Strictly Jazz. Jon Korkes served as the third host, appearing via Zoom, and Jeff Kroll was once again engineer.

Here are Jeff, John, and Hank after the show:

Now for the scoped aircheck of Strictly Jazz:

As you’ll see in the composite aircheck video, Hank and John interviewed me at one point:

After becoming obsessed with “My Attorney Bernie” by Dave Frishberg during the drafting of this post, I realized I left the end of the song from the scoped aircheck in the video before jumping to my interview.

As Strictly Jazz proceeded in studio 2, I took two other photos in the lobby:

John Zoni had the next show at 7PM Friday:

Jay Mirabile followed at 9PM with a special edition of The DFK Show. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of him while I was on campus and he didn’t take one during his show. So, here’s a photo from 2013:

The scoped aircheck is from this year.

There are more alumni hosts below who were not individually photographed (Chris MacIntosh is in a two-shot) by me or anyone else this weekend, and I will include a photo if I have one to go along with their scopes.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

As the clock struck midnight, my prerecorded three-hour edition of Instrumental Invasion commenced. Click here for that show’s recap, but I’ll say here it was the first time I’d hosted a three-hour show since filling in for Martin Phillips on Thursday Night Jazz in October 2009.

At 3AM, there was Magick Mike Hendryx, seen here live in 2016 following my live Instrumental Invasion:

John Commins was the last of the prerecorded shows early Saturday, airing at 5AM. This was John in 2017:

Jeff Jensen had Saturday’s first live show at 7AM back in studio 2. He’s seen here in 2019:

We now jump ahead to later in the morning atop the Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium prior to the LIU Sharks-Rhode Island Rams game.

This set of photos were taken by Pat Kroll:

The Homecoming game kicked off at noon, and I arrived on campus about half an hour later, setting down my equipment at the Abrams Communications Center.

Then, I took out my Canon EOS R7 and swapped the RF-S 18-150mm lens (a replacement after the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo mishap) with an RF 100-400mm lens. That plan worked for photos of the football field, but for everything else, I’d have to back up a long way for anything close to me.

First, a photo in the parking lot:

And one by the entrance:

When I arrived, it was halftime, and Vinnie Salamone got his second interview of Homecoming Weekend.

Listen to the interview here:

As halftime wound down, Jeff Kroll, Neil Marks, and Travis Demers recapped the first half, told stories, and remarked on the state of WCWP.

My photos atop the press box alternated between my EOS R7 and iPhone 13 Pro.

The Sharks led the Rams 21-14, but went on to lose 28-21. The key moment came late in the fourth quarter. One play after the Sharks recovered a Rams fumble at the 1-yard line, the Sharks fumbled the ball back to Rhode Island at the 5. The Rams tied, and went ahead on their next possession. At least it was an exciting game for Jeff, Neil, and Travis to call.

“Highlights” were run during the postgame show, emanating from studio 3 and atop the stadium press box.

John Zoni handled the out-of-town scoreboard…

…and Andrew Scarpaci narrated the highlights:

Programming returned to studio 2 at 3PM with Bernie Bernard. Here are photos taken while setting up:

The photos were taken after Bernie’s show began.

I neglected to shoot video, but WCWP station manager Dan Cox addressed the gathered alumni outside at the barbecue.

Back inside studio 2…

John Zoni told me a story about he came to be involved in coverage of the C.W. Post Pioneers/LIU Sharks Homecoming game, as well as encountering Bill Mozer immediately before and after the university fired Bill as station manager in 1990.

As John and I continued to talk, I could hear Bernie wrapping up her show. So, I rushed back into studio 2 to record camcorder videos.

Here is a scope of the entire show:

And a composite aircheck video:

Outside the studio, a photo of Dan Cox (right) with Winnie and Tony Traguardo:

A candid shot of Bobby G. and Jeff Kroll:

Bobby took a photo of me and Jeff:

I should note I bought that blue and gold LIU polo on my way out of the stadium. I chose to wear a green and gold LIU Post shirt that predated the “One LIU” athletics merger and move to NCAA Division I, but it felt wrong wearing that shirt. I changed into the new one when I got back to WCWP.

Pat Kroll took this photo of me and John Zoni:

She also found a CD in my name in one of the station mail slots, per this photo taken over a week later:

The artist said there was one instrumental track for me to play on Instrumental Invasion, unaware that my weekly run ended last November.

Anyway, it was on to Mike Riccio and Bobby G. at 6:02 PM. The theme this year was songs from 1961 to 1989 albums that have been streamed the most on Spotify. Bobby, Jett Lightning, and Bernie Bernard had to guess what the most-streamed song was before Mike began each set.

Before I packed up my equipment and left for home, I got a photo of Mike Riccio and Bobby G.:

Here is a scope of most of their show. I edited out a talk break I intruded on and would like to forget.

And a composite aircheck video of all but that one talk break during their first 82 minutes:

Vince Randazzo came on at 9:03 PM with Alternative Jukebox. Yet again, I dip into the archives for a photo of him, taken at the 2022 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony:

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

Photos from Sunday are courtesy of Pat Kroll and Ted David.

I airchecked the last 18 hours of the weekend, beginning at 6AM with a pre-record of The Aural Fix Transmission with Mike Ferrari:

From here on out, everything was live, beginning at 8AM with Jay LaPrise:

The Ladies of Prison Break Radio, Jamie Mazzo and Sara Dorchak were next at 10:02 AM.

At 12:01 PM, it was Joe “Joseph P.” Honerkamp:

It was Ted David’s turn at 1:59 PM:

Thank you, Ted, for complimenting me and Travis Demers.

Ted, in turn, was followed by Lew Scharfberg at 4PM (photos by Pat Kroll):

Alana (seen below in 2022) hosted a special edition of The Rockin’ Sunday Show at 6:01 PM:

Grandfather Rock Chris MacIntosh was here with Rock ‘N’ Soul Gospel at 7:59 PM:

And Billy the Kid closed out Homecoming Weekend at 10:02 PM with Masters of Metal.

Post-production, no pun intended, began on the morning of September 23 and concluded on the morning of October 4 with publication of this post and the Instrumental Invasion posts.

Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end. In spite of any anxiety and stress, documenting events like this is a labor of love. I’m already looking forward to next Homecoming Weekend, but before then, WCWP celebrates its 60th anniversary as an FM station this March. I’ll surely have a recap of that.

Cheers to WCWP, the Abrams Communications Center, LIU Post, my fellow alumni, and the faculty I’ve gotten to know. I’ll see you soon.

10/5 UPDATE: I have a public Google Drive folder with airchecks and scopes of the Homecoming Weekend programs I recorded, while station manager Dan Cox has a folder with unscoped airchecks of all programming.