2025 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony May 5, 2026

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Country, Education, Internet, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Radio, Rock, Travel, TV, Video, Weather.
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Picking up on the format from the WCWP-FM 60th anniversary weekend, the 2025 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony was part of a three-day celebration, from April 24 to 26, 2026. This was the format for Hall of Fame Induction Weekend:

• Friday, April 24, 7-9PM: Welcome reception at the Abrams Communications Center
• Saturday, April 25, 6-9PM: Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at the Roosevelt School
• Sunday, April 26, 10AM-1PM: Farewell coffee and bagels at the Abrams Communications Center

Once again, the Roosevelt School‘s East Room dining hall was the site of the ceremony. The 2025 inductees were:

• Chris Maffei (2013)
• Tony Traguardo (1986)
• Ellyn Solis (1981)
• Cande Roth (1980)

Midway through the ceremony, 2026 graduate Avery Cochikas of The Wave, WCWP’s student-run internet station, received the Arthur Beltrone Founders Award. Art helped found WCWP, which signed on as a carrier current station at noon on October 18, 1961. In the role of program director, Art was the first student voice heard at sign-on.

This recap will include photos during and after the ceremony, along with an aircheck of April 24’s The Rock Show, hosted by Dan Reagan, 2022 WCWP Hall of Fame inductee and chairman of the Hall of Fame Committee. (I have served on the committee since 2022, two years before Dan’s chairmanship began.)

Before all that, I present the 2025 ceremony video, with a running time of 2:09:10.

After an adventurous Lyft ride, I arrived at the Roosevelt School well before 6PM; at around 4:45. Let’s just say it involved a northbound detour up and thin, private road. A few minutes later, we turned west and found ourselves on campus by the intramural baseball fields. Gold Coast Road soon followed and we turned south (left) for our destination.

It would be another hour before attendees and inductees began filing in.

I took these photos during the wait after unpacking my equipment:

Two photos featuring Ellyn Solis and her posse before the ceremony:

Dinner was served at 6PM, and the ceremony began shortly after 7PM.

Jeff ran the board during Dan’s edition of The Rock Show the night before the ceremony: Friday, April 24. It was so good that it went beyond the usual two hours (2 hours and 17 minutes). Here is my scope of Dan Cox’s aircheck (thanks to Jeff for forwarding me the unscoped original):

In one of the talk breaks, Dan Reagan noted rain was in the forecast for the day of the ceremony. It did rain, and it poured. That’s why my mom Lisa suggested a pack my tripods and bag of camcorders in a tall suitcase to shield them. Thank you, Mom, for the idea. She and my dad Bill were attending the annual Freeport Fire Department installation dinner, in the vein of WCWP’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which is why took Lyft rides to and from my home.

Quick tangent: Before I packed up and left the East Room, Cosmo Leone, another 2022 inductee, congratulated my dad. I told him he was just attending the dinner as all FFD members do each year. Little did I know Coz had reason to congratulate. Bill Chimeri – ex-captain of Freeport Truck Company One – was honored for 25 years of active service, as shown in this photo:

End of tangent.

Dan and his wife Gina were kind enough to drive me from the Roosevelt School up to the Abrams Communications Center where our fellow alumni and this year’s inductees looked around WCWP’s renovated home. It also allowed for a more convenient Lyft pickup spot. (The ride home was conversational rather than adventurous.)

That’s a wrap on the 2025 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony recap. Congratulations again to Chris Maffei, Tony Traguardo, Ellyn Solis, Cande Roth, and Art Beltrone Founders Award recipient Avery Cochikas.

Thank you to Ellyn and to Julian Wilson for identifying who was who in a few of the photos (last names withheld).