jump to navigation

2025 LIU Post & WCWP Homecoming Weekend September 21, 2025

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Education, Football, History, Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Pop, Radio, Rock, Sports, Technology, Travel, Video, Weather.
add a comment

NOTE: Two of the alumni hosts, Alana and Tom, do not use their last names on the air. So, I have omitted their last names from this post.

This year, Homecoming Weekend on WCWP (simulcast on WXBA) and at LIU Post was the earliest it’s ever been: September 12 to 14. The date was made public during the WCWP-FM 60th anniversary broadcast on March 16. (Read about that celebratory weekend here.) Homecoming Weekend coordinator Ted David assembled quite the lineup, which began with me at noon (well, noon-ish) on Friday, September 12, and ended at midnight on the 14th/15th as Grandfather Rock Chris MacIntosh closed Rock ‘N’ Soul Gospel with “Red Hot and Cooking” by Garth Hewitt.

The centerpiece of the weekend was the LIU Sharks football team‘s Homecoming game (and home opener) against the Sacred Heart Pioneers. (That was the LIU Post team name before the Post and Brooklyn athletic programs merged and moved from NCAA Division II to Division I.)

Once again, as unofficial station historian, I documented as much as I could of the entire weekend – on campus Friday and Saturday, and from home on Sunday.

I airchecked off the FM web stream on PCs in my bedroom and guest room via Audacity, where I would export as individual files, and then edit in Adobe Audition. Unfortunately, my internet betrayed me on Saturday. I recorded nearly nine hours of silence. I’m grateful to WCWP station manager Dan Cox for filling the gaps with his official airchecks and to Bernie Bernard via her show files.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

I arrived at the Abrams Communications Center at 11:30 AM. While Project Independence and You (one week shy of its 14th anniversary) finished up in studio 3, I prepped for my live Instrumental Invasion. It was the first time I led off Homecoming Weekend since 2017.

I made a separate recap of that show here, but I’ll at least share Pat Kroll’s photo of me during one of my sets…

…and the aircheck video (with an edited open):

Pat and Jeff Kroll had the next show at 2PM. Since their show and Strictly Jazz at 4PM would be rerun from 2AM to 7AM, Jeff had to be prompt, fading out my last song with 1:40 remaining.

Herb Alpert fans that we are, we both began our shows with Tijuana Brass tracks. My lead was “Spanish Flea” while Jeff used “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (covered on S.R.O.) as the intro bed.

  • Jeff ran the board during his show and Strictly Jazz.
  • Neil Marks joined in the second hour to preview the LIU Sharks’ Homecoming football game against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.
  • Neil Marks
  • Neil Marks and Pat Kroll

Out in the lobby, Neil Marks talked to Strictly Jazz hosts John LiBretto and Hank Neimark about his long trip to LIU Post earlier Friday.

Hank had the honor of signing on WCWP-FM on March 16, 1965.

The Krolls with fellow alumni (and fiancés) Sami Jo Negron and Pete Sacoulas:

A partial video of Jeff and Pat’s show:

…and a full scoped aircheck:

John LiBretto and Hank Neimark hosted Strictly Jazz, the third show of the weekend, Friday at 4PM.

  • John LiBretto
  • Hank Neimark
  • Despite the title, Strictly Jazz deviated to pop in hour 2 by playing “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Pat Kroll returned to read the song’s quirky lyrics.
  • Jeff Kroll had additional “Wooly Bully” tidbits.

A partial video of Strictly Jazz:

…and the full scoped aircheck:

From jazz to rock, John Zoni was next at 7PM:

We went from rock to dance just after 9PM with Jay Mirabile and a special edition of The DFK Show.

If you’re wondering, I took a rideshare home around 6:30 PM.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

We jump ahead to 7AM and a prerecorded show hosted by John Commins:

David Friedland was live in studio 2 at 9AM, leading into the Sharks’ Homecoming game:

Aircheck courtesy of Dan Cox

After editing what I’d airchecked so far, my mom drove me up to LIU Post half an hour later than Friday. We had to clear a security checkpoint before reaching the parking lot by WCWP. I unpacked and walked toward Shark Stadium (no naming rights this year) for photos around and above the field.

The bulk of my Shark Stadium photos were taken on the roof where Travis Demers, Neil Marks, and Jeff Kroll called the LIU Sharks Homecoming football game. Pat Kroll was the coordinating producer.

  • It was the 2nd quarter when I reached the roof. Travis Demers handled play-by-play for the middle quarters with Jeff Kroll leading the first and last.
  • Travis Demers’s field view
  • Remote equipment
  • Pat Kroll’s notes
  • You can’t call a sporting event without spotter charts.

Just for fun, I took a short video on my iPhone that I later synced to the relevant portion of Dan Cox’s game aircheck:

Travis and my fellow alumni were impressed when I posted that video to the WCWP Alumni Association Facebook group.

Before we return to WCWP, let’s look at photos on the field, sidelines, and bleachers.

I made it back to WCWP just before halftime where co-hosts John Zoni and Jeannie Moon narrated highlights and analyzed the first half. At the board was Andrew Scarpaci.

  • John Zoni
  • Jeannie Moon
  • Highlights, lowlights, and other elements were run in Zetta by Andrew, as seen at halftime.

The studio portion of the halftime report:

Aircheck courtesy of Dan Cox

You saw how Zetta looked at halftime. This image after the game tells a different, but predictable story:

For the second year in a row, the Sharks squandered a lead. They gave up 17 unanswered points to the SHU Pioneers, losing 24-21 on a field goal as time expired.

In spite of another down ending, it was another exciting game for Jeff Kroll, Neil Marks, and Travis Demers to call on Long Island’s 88.1 FM.

I kept my camcorders and tripods in studio 3 to cover John Zoni and Jeannie Moon’s portion of the postgame show.

Aircheck courtesy of Dan Cox

This YouTube video compiles the studio 3 halftime and postgame reports:

I’ll spare you the details of what happened in the Sharks’ next game.

On a happier note, programming moved back to studio 2 after the Sharks postgame show. At 3:30 PM, Homecoming Weekend coordinator Ted David hosted the 2025 WCWP Hall of Fame inductee announcement special.

  • Ted getting in touch with Bernie Bernard to call in and announce the 2025 WCWP Hall of Fame inductees

The lucky quartet of 2025 inductees was Cande Roth, Ellyn Solis-Maurer, Tony Traguardo, and Chris Maffei.

(Full disclosure: This was my fourth year on the Hall of Fame Committee.)

Below is the announcement, featuring a cameo from me, here:

…and listen here (without the video’s cutaways):

Bernie Bernard’s prerecorded show ran at 4PM:

Thanks to Bernie for the show files, which I tweaked in Adobe Audition to sound like I airchecked off the FM stream.

As Bernie’s show ran in automation, I joined my fellow alumni outside for the Homecoming barbecue. We’ll use this time for a photographic interlude.

First, Ted’s selfie with me:

  • Bobby Guthenberg (Bobby G.), Neil Marks, Lew Scharfberg
  • Neil Marks, Laurie White, Jeannie Moon, Lew Scharfberg
  • Ted David, Rich Lacourciere, new HOF inductee Tony Traguardo, John Zoni, John Mullen, Frank Iemitti, WCWP station manager Dan Cox
  • Mike Chimeri, Rich Lacourciere, Tony Traguardo, John Zoni, John Mullen, Frank Iemitti, Dan Cox
  • Mike Chimeri and Travis Demers
  • Mike Chimeri and Alana
  • Mike Chimeri and John Zoni
  • Alana next to the WCWP-FM 60th anniversary banner

Live programming returned to studio 2 at 6PM with Bobby G. and Mike Riccio. The dynamic duo counted down most of the 50 songs in the “First Annual WCWP Beatle Spectacular Hit-List.” Published in December 1969, the list represented the most popular Beatles songs as voted by WCWP listeners.

  • Bobby G.
  • Mike Riccio
  • With candid photos of Bobby G. and Mike Riccio out of the way, I had them pose for this photo.
  • I took this selfie early in the second of two talk breaks.

You can watch those first three talk breaks here:

…and here is the full scoped aircheck:

Aircheck courtesy of Dan Cox

Incidentally, this is my scan of a copy of the First Annual WCWP Beatle Spectacular Hit-List:

Vincent Randazzo and a host of others were on hand for a special edition of The Alternative Jukebox at 9PM:

Vince’s show was three hours, but half the time was spent chatting with current and recently-graduated staff. It was quite informative. (Shoutout to Post-Party Depression.)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

The prerecorded Instrumental Invasion ran at midnight. Click here for a full recap, then come back for the rest of this recap.

I will again share the aircheck scope, though:

9/23 UPDATE: And why not include a 65x speed montage of the two Twitch streams that served as recording sessions?

The montage is set to “Sweat It Out” by Casiopea, one of the songs I played.

All other info is in the show recap. If you’re returning from that post, welcome back.

Tom was up bright and early at 6AM for the Homecoming Weekend edition of The Dad Rock Show:

Jay LaPrise followed at 8AM with a playlist featuring songs by artists he saw live in concert:

Of course, it was bookended by “God Shuffled His Feet” by Crash Test Dummies and AC/DC’s “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.”

Alana’s The Rockin’ Sunday Show normally airs at noon, but aired in its original 10AM slot on Homecoming Weekend.

Photo courtesy of Alana

Jumping ahead to 1PM, Ted David and Jeff Kroll co-hosted The Joe Show, a remembrance of the late Joseph P. “Joe” Honerkamp.

Joe Honerkamp in the early 1980s with Bill Epperhart, Ted David, John Commins, Lew Scharfberg, and Neil Marks; photo courtesy of Jeff Kroll

Joe was a fixture at WCWP for over 50 years, and had a long professional career which included radio stints at WYNY and WHN, and TV production on the weekend Today show.

Among those to reflect on the life and times of Joseph P. were his widow Kathy Honerkamp and their daughters Melanie and Diana. Kathy and Melanie are seen here in studio 2. Diana spoke by phone.

Photo courtesy of Ted David

Bruce Leonard and Joel Feltman were also among those to call in.

The scoped aircheck (there were a few songs played) can be heard here:

Ted David shifted to the board at 2PM, playing a wide variety of music over the next hours:

Billy the Kid (Billy Houst) and Joey C. (Joe Conte) had the last two-hour show at 4PM: Masters of Metal.

The penultimate show of Homecoming Weekend began at 6PM: The Ladies of Prison Break Radio, Jamie Mazzo and Sara Dorchak.

And putting a bow on the weekend, my children, was Grandfather Rock Chris MacIntosh and Rock ‘N’ Soul Gospel. Check it out.

Post-production, no pun intended, began as Homecoming Weekend was in progress on September 13 and concluded on the evening of the 21st with publication of this post and the Instrumental Invasion posts.

Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end. It bears repeating: documenting events like this is a labor of love. The next time I step on the campus of LIU Post will be March 25, 2026, for a twice-in-a-lifetime experience thanks to Bobby Guthenberg. My mom and I will get to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and Other Delights again for their Tilles Center set. (Read about their April 1 Jazz at the Lincoln Center show here.)

This post is not only dedicated to the memory of Joe Honerkamp, but also Jett Lightning. Jett (Julio) fell ill in the days leading up to Homecoming Weekend and passed away on the morning of September 13. He will be sorely missed at WCWP. I’ll leave you with a photo of Jett taken last year…

…and a scope of his 2022 Homecoming Weekend show featuring Jay Elzweig, who is also no longer with us.

For the record, the Bronx theme park was Freedomland U.S.A., which is now the site of Co-op City.

Instrumental Invasion, 9/14/25, 12AM (Homecoming Weekend) September 21, 2025

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Computer, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Pop, Radio, smooth jazz, Technology, Video Games.
add a comment

Other posts: 9/12 12PM live show recap, comprehensive Homecoming Weekend recap

The prerecorded edition of Instrumental Invasion for WCWP‘s alumni-run Homecoming Weekend programming block aired at midnight on Sunday, September 14. Unlike last year, this show was only two hours.

Let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way before I detail how the show came to be.

I said in the live show recap that I knew well in advance I’d have that and the prerecord.

The playlist was created July 29 and 30 with two hours in mind. That duration was confirmed to me on August 5. There wasn’t much poaching from older playlists, meaning less copying and pasting of annotations. The annotations were drafted July 30 and August 1 and 4. The first draft of the script was written August 5 and 6. I wanted to get as much pre-production out of the way before Long Island Retro Gaming Expo.

Little did I know the consequences of referencing Casiopea‘s fifth era with a new keyboardist, Jun Abe, and tying Brian Simpson‘s “Wonderland” to Taylor Swift‘s namesake from 1989 D.L.X. On August 12, Taylor announced a new album, The Life of a Showgirl, in an episode of New Heights, a podcast hosted by the Kelce brothers, Travis (her boyfriend) and Jason. Then, a few days later, I found out T-Square released an album called Turn the Page! and that Casiopea was about to release True Blue. That led to script revisions on August 15 and 17. Then, August 20, the playlist, annotations, and script were all tweaked to accommodate song replacements.

I planned on recording one hour per day – August 28 and 29 – during livestreams on my Twitch channel, just as I had done for last year’s prerecord and the final regular Instrumental Invasion. To save time during the streams, I prepared the Adobe Audition multitrack sessions for each hour on August 25. That’s when I realized I’d made a timing error for both hours! I was four minutes over in hour 1 and two minutes under in hour 2. So, I had to make further tweaks to the playlist, annotations, and script with different songs to make up for the oversights.

But I still wasn’t finished! I mistakenly thought one minute and 55 seconds was enough time to assign talk breaks. Unfortunately, most talk breaks were overly wordy. When I reached hour 1’s last talk break, I noticed I was well over. Drastic cuts had to be made to the talk breaks. The plan worked.

To avoid the same problem with hour 2, I cut back on that hour’s talk breaks before the August 29 Twitch stream, and worked in a congratulations to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on their engagement (earlier that week). It still wasn’t enough! Not only did I have to make further cuts; I also had to fade songs out early or have them start underneath a liner and the end of the last talk break. I recorded that last talk break first, knowing it would be the longest of the hour. Somehow, my cutbacks worked again, and each hour – or 59:59 – flowed smoothly. Unless you’ve read this post or watched my Twitch streams, you’d never know all the work that went into this show.

Here are screenshots of each hour’s multitrack session:

Only one pickup was necessary, recorded on the morning of August 30. For any talk break preceded by a liner that only acknowledged WCWP, I started with “and WXBA,” to reflect the merger and subsequent rebranding. I neglected to do that coming out of David Benoit‘s liner. David hosts a jazz show on another 88.1 FM, K-Jazz (KKJZ) at Cal State Long Beach. So, the pickup was for one more “and WXBA,” and to rerecord the first few sentences of the talk break to maintain its total run time.

On the Twitch side, I broadcast my streams with a program called OBS Studio. Once per day, there was a brief server disconnection. Friday’s outage happened while recording the fourth talk break of hour 2 (the last recorded that day). Rather than stop until OBS reconnected, I soldiered on. It made for this funny outtake:

And I did.

Read about my elaborate Twitch setup here.

Below is what the two recording session streams looked like at 65x speed, set to “Sweat It Off” by Casiopea:

Now that you know the story of this show, get back to the main recap, picking up with The Dad Rock Show hosted live at 6AM by Tom.

Instrumental Invasion, 9/12/25, 12PM (Homecoming Weekend) (Live!) September 21, 2025

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Football, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, smooth jazz, Sports, Travel, Video.
add a comment

Other posts: 9/14 12AM prerecorded show recap, comprehensive Homecoming Weekend recap

The live edition of Instrumental Invasion kicked off the 2025 edition of WCWP‘s alumni-run Homecoming Weekend programming block aired at 12PM Friday. (More like 12:03, but I dwell on that enough in the aircheck below.) Whereas last year’s live show was immediately followed by Strictly Jazz, Jeff and Pat Kroll bridged the gap to 4PM with their 2PM show. This was my introduction to new station branding, thanks to a merger with WXBA in Brentwood: “Long Island’s 88.1 FM, WCWP Brookville and WXBA Brentwood, LIU Public Radio.”

Before I get into how this Instrumental Invasion show was made and share photos taken during the show, let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way…

…along with video synced to the scope.

You’ll notice I edited the opening talk break and that it lacks video. I was so ashamed of what happened behind the scenes before playing “InsInvShowOpen” in Zetta that I deleted the raw video file six days after exporting it from the SD card. The important thing is I passed the figurative trial by fire and will know what to do next time. I’ll also try my hardest to follow the advice I forgot in the moment: don’t acknowledge (or dwell on) a mistake. Carry on like nothing happened and handle any issues off-mic.

The playlist for the live Instrumental Invasion was created July 28. This year, I knew would have a second prerecorded show and started working on that playlist the next day. The live playlist was tweaked on August 1 and 17. Annotations were drafted on July 30; August 1, 2, 4, 5, and 17; and once more on September 10. For the sake of spontaneity, I do not make scripts for live shows. I read the annotations cold after each set and otherwise ad-libbed.

Again, the live theme was a 60-year musical journey, coincidentally tying in with WCWP-FM’s 60th anniversary. The August 17 playlist tweak was for the 2025 portion. I found about T-Square‘s new Turn the Page! album (post-announcement Reddit thread), and replaced a different 2025 song (I won’t name the artist) with “Front Runner.”

All programming not involving the LIU Sharks’ Homecoming football game against the Sacred Heart Pioneers emanated from studio 2 at the Abrams Communications Center. Sharks football pre- and postgame shows, and the halftime report, were based in studio 3.

Here are photos I took in studio 2 during hour 2:

  • My playlist and annotation pages
  • Zetta, which I quickly acclimated to

Thanks to Pat Kroll for this photo of me at the board:

Read about this year’s prerecorded two-hour Instrumental Invasion here.

2025 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo: introduction, guests, staff, fellow attendees, panels August 21, 2025

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Aviation, Books, Computer, Education, History, Internet, Magazine, Media, Personal, Photography, Podcast, Radio, Sports, Technology, Travel, Video, Video Games.
add a comment

Feel free to skip ahead to part two (touring the expo) or part three (conclusion and pickups).

INTRODUCTION
2025 marked the 10th anniversary Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, held annually (except during COVID) in the Cradle of Aviation Museum, on the right end of Museum Row in Uniondale*. For the 10th anniversary, LI Retro celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System‘s New York area launch, introduced to the world in places such as Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream.

*I had no idea that LI Retro’s first year was the same year that East Garden City (a.k.a. Nassau Hub) was absorbed into Uniondale and is no longer a census-designated place. Keep that in mind when you read my earlier recaps.

I have attended seven of LI Retro’s nine years. I started small in 2017, only spending two hours there on Sunday afternoon. I was there the entire weekend in 2018 and ’19, and have used my weekend pass on two of the three days since 2022. By 2023, I had to spread my recaps out into three parts because I took so many pictures, mostly of the exhibits (as seen in 2024). That’s what I’m doing again this year.

Tickets went on sale in February and guests were announced in July. Some of those guests will be chronicled below.

You’ll be happy to know there weren’t any mishaps this year. None of my equipment was wrecked and no cups of coffee were spilled.

ARRIVING AT THE MUSEUM
My mom pulled into the Cradle of Aviation Museum parking lot at 9:38 AM on Saturday.

I exited the car with badge QR code printout in hand. I had the lanyard for my badge wrapped around my neck, along with my Canon EOS R7 with RF-S 18-150mm lens and Speedlite 430EX II attached. (I only used the latter on for flash photos, and never during panels.)

This photo was taken Sunday morning, but pretend it was Saturday.
LI Retro photographer Gene interviewed Glen of Glen’s Retro Show while he and fellow attendees waited for the doors to open at 10AM.
Glen then turned the tables and interviewed Gene.
10AM came, the doors opened, and attendees were let inside. Those already with badges entered on the right. I was on the left line.

Inside, I was ushered to the box office where my QR code was scanned and I was handed my weekend badge. I attached to my lanyard and made my way to the first of four panels I had in mind. We’ll see photos from those later in this post.

The LI Retro staff is great and I’m honored to know them. Sunday morning, I met up with staff member Ryan Shapiro and he took this selfie of us:

Thank you, as always, Ryan.

PHOTOS WITH GUESTS AND CANDID PHOTOS OF THEIR TABLES

John Lester (Gamester81)
John is among the first on YouTube with a channel devoted to video games and collecting. Beyond that, he started Game On Expo in Phoenix, Arizona, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in April. He is the co-owner of CollectorVision Games and developed their Sydney Hunter series. Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is the first in that series available on modern consoles.

I got a photo with John after his The Evolution of Retro Collecting panel.

Check out his LI Retro vlog:

Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson
Pat and Ian have been a fixture at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo since 2019, and I never miss their panel, recorded live for their Completely Unnecessary Podcast (a.k.a. CU Podcast). Like John Lester, Pat Contri’s YouTube journey began in 2008 with his Pat the NES Punk series, a fictionalized take on his life as a video game fan and collector. Pat’s YouTube channel also includes Flea Market Madness (sometimes featuring Frank, a fellow New Jersey transplant in San Diego), The Video Game Years retrospective, the aforementioned CU Podcast in video form, and the Not So Common Podcast with Alex Faciane.

Alongside the many Charlie Brown/Peanuts Christmas TV specials, it’s an annual tradition of mine to watch Pat the NES Punk Christmas episodes every December. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but the first two are the most sentimental. Incidentally, I can’t look at R.O.B., the original face of the NES, without hearing the Punch-Out!! opponent “voice.”

A big component of this year’s LI Retro was print media’s role in video game preservation. Pat’s Ultimate Nintendo series does its part. I have been a loyal reader since the Guide to the NES Library, which I bought from Pat (along with Pat the NES Punk DVD sets) in 2019. I helped fund Guide to the SNES Library later that year and last year, the latest book (as seen behind Ian, me, and Pat): Guide to the N64 Library. Pat, Ian, and an all-star lineup of reviewers break down every release for Nintendo’s first three home consoles. I used the Ultimate Nintendo app after each day of LI Retro to add any NES pickups to my collection. (Buy Ultimate Nintendo books here.)

Thank you to Kristen for taking this photo:

I returned the favor by having Kristen pose with Pat and Ian:

Adam Koralik
Sunday afternoon, “Mike Camera” and Adam Koralik met a third time. (That’s my server name on his Discord.) Adam’s trusty Sega Pluto prototype was part of the Retro Gaming Museum exhibit and he was more than happy to discuss it with attendees and have them try out its few playable games.

And of course, I had to get a selfie:

More exhibit photos can be found in part two of this year’s recap.

Matthew Sussman
While I did not meet actor Matthew Sussman, the original English language voice of Meowth in the Pokémon anime, he was a big draw, as seen in this Saturday photo.

I learned from an attendee in line outside the museum Sunday morning that Matthew is a fellow photographer, also in the Canon ecosystem. His camera of choice is the EOS R6 Mark II.

Ryan Burger
Ryan is the publisher of Old School Gamer Magazine, a literal mom-and-pop operation, at least at conventions. On staff at LI Retro were his wife Becky (who took the photo below), and their daughters Paige (the manager) and Rachel.

Ryan graciously gifted me with Old School Gamer Magazine Issue 46, which I held in our Sunday morning photo. You’ll see it again among the pickups in part three. Ryan was part of the third Saturday panel I attended: The Role Print Media Plays in Video Game Preservation. One of Ryan’s fellow panelists was…

Leonard Herman
I remain grateful to The Immortal John Hancock for introducing me to Leonard Herman at their joint 2018 panel. It inspired me to buy Phoenix IV and many other books. I have become good friends with Lenny and his table manager Patrick Wong, and a fixture at any panel Lenny is part of. (If I got the title wrong, either of you can let me know and I’ll edit post haste.)

Lenny is putting the finishing touches on Phoenix 5, to be released in two volumes in 2026 via Jeremy Parish’s Press Run, a division of Limited Run Games. (Jeremy and two rotating Retronauts co-hosts rounded out Saturday’s print media panel.)

Leonard Herman speaking with Joe Santulli of Digital Press (NOTE: Pat and Ian’s table was on the second floor Saturday, but moved downstairs Sunday.)
Phoenix 5 galleys

Lenny with Patrick Wong on Saturday:

Patrick took our photo on Sunday:

One of the books I bought two years ago was ABC to the VCS, and I think Lenny would be proud that I bought five Atari VCS/2600 games this year. I was inspired to do so because I sought out any games programmed by the quartet of…

Dan and Garry Kitchen, David Crane, John Van Ryzin
Regrettably, I was too shy to approach Dan, Garry, David, or John, but I bought Ghostbusters (designed by David, programmed for 2600 by Dan), Donkey Kong (programmed for 2600 by Garry), and Pitfall! (by David). I couldn’t find H.E.R.O., designed by John. And because of my shyness, I didn’t buy any of their new games made for the 2600.

The new games, by Audacity Games, included:

  • Dan and Garry Kitchen, and David Crane are seated from left to right. John Van Ryzin is standing in the right corner of the photo.
  • I forget if Dan Kitchen or Ryan Burger was playing Casey’s Gold in this candid photo Sunday morning.

That takes care of the guest photos. Photos with fellow attendees are coming up after a look at the quartet of panels I saw.

PANELS

Saturday Panel 1, 10:30-11:30 AM
Panel Room 2 (now upstairs in The Sperry Classroom)
John Lester (Gamester81)
The Evolution of Retro Collecting: From Hobby to Industry

Saturday Panel 2, 12-1PM
Main Theatre
Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson
CU Podcast Live!

The main topic for this edition of The CU Podcast was this video by Phil1Up Collects:

Next on the agenda, NES trivia:

I got the first question right: Which game was released for the NES licensed, unlicensed, and licensed again? I raised my hand and answered “Pac-Man.” I was right, and earned a sticker. As a supporter of The Gaming Historian (and yes, I read a quote in a video), I chose a GH Patreon supporter sticker to go with the one I have from my days as a supporter.

Alex and Daniel Greenberg in the audience:

Q&A:

“King K. Rool” asked if Pat and Ian knew of a suggestive glitch in Donkey Kong Country.

As usual, I had a question: playing off the Gaming Historian sticker, I asked if Pat or Ian had been in touch with Norman Caruso since he announced last April that he was giving up pursuing the YouTube channel full time. Great news: Norm is still creating. He co-hosts An Old Timey Podcast with his wife Kristin.

Pat was surprised that we went the entire Q&A session without invoking the ill-fated vaporware known as the Intellivision Amico.

As of publication on August 21, the full episode is up, with the Phil1Up Collects video discussion heard starting at 1:15:30. NES trivia and the Q&A are not included. I will update with video clips when posted.

9/29 UPDATE: Sorry for the delay. There is one video and here it is:

Saturday Panel 3, 2:30-3:30 PM
Panel Room 2
The Role Print Media Plays in Video Game Preservation, moderated by Luis Aguasvivas (NPR, Debug Magazine, member of New York Videogame Critics Circle)
Panelists: Leonard Herman, Ryan Burger (Old School Gamer Magazine); Retronauts podcast host Jeremy Parish (Limited Run Games’ Press Run division, Video Works YouTube series and corresponding books [NES Works, SNES Works, Virtual Boy Works, SG-1000 Works]), rotating co-hosts Kevin Bunch (independent researcher, Atari Archive website and YouTube channel, author of Atari Archive Volume 1: 1977-78) and Brian Clark (translator, author of Gameplay Harmonies)

Moderator Luis Aguasvivas introduced himself, then had the panelists introduce themselves.
Ryan Burger
Leonard Herman
Jeremy Parish
Brian Clark
Kevin Bunch
Lenny talked about Phoenix 5 and collaborating with Jeremy Parish
Jeremy weighed in, as well
Ryan on Old School Gamer Magazine
Laughing at a quip from Lenny
Ryan noted that if Back to the Future came out today, Marty McFly and Doc Brown would be in 1995. That also got a laugh. Paraphrasing Marty in the first film, I jokingly said “Guess you guys aren’t ready for Gracie Abrams yet.”
During Q&A, Ryan gave each questioner a copy of Old School Gamer Magazine Issue 46.
After the panel, we see attendees talking to Brian Clark, Jeremy Parish…
…and Ryan Burger.

One other tidbit from this panel is Jeremy Parish lamenting that his early 2000s articles for now-defunct websites cannot be accessed because they weren’t archived.

I devoted most of my Sunday to photographing the exhibits and freeplay areas, buying any games I didn’t buy on Saturday, mingling further with guests, and actually playing freeplay games for the first time in years. (Oh, and I bought fried ravioli from a food truck; another first for me.)

So, the one panel I saw that day had to be Lenny’s.

Sunday Panel, 3-4PM
Panel Room 2
Leonard Herman
The History of the History of Videogames

What was that game shown in an episode of The Streets of San_Francisco?
Answer: Clean Sweep
After initially buying a Magnavox Odyssey 2, Leonard bought an Atari VCS.
Lenny’s first article
ABC to the VCS was going to be released in 1983, but the infamous crash put that on hold.
ABC to the NES was only considered, not written.
The evolution of Phoenix…
How did Rolenta Press get its name?
Magazines that reviewed Phoenix
For the second edition, Leonard used a video capture device called GrabIt to make in-game freeze frames.
For the third edition, photos were taken with a Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 digital camera. I used a Mavica in one of my high school classes.
I bought these books at Lenny’s table in 2023.
The road to Phoenix IV…
Many famous names signed the preview edition.
Phoenix 5!
In two volumes!
One of the galleys
Q&A time
Stuart Feldhamer asked a question.
Afterward, Stuart retrieved his early editions of Phoenix loaned for LI Retro.
And bringing things full circle, Luis Aguavivas shook Lenny’s hand and complimented him on his works. John Lester was also at the panel.

9/29 UPDATE: Leonard posted video of his panel. (Of course, you see me front and center snapping away.)

PHOTOS WITH/OF FELLOW ATTENDEES

My friend Timothy (a.k.a. Sho):

Timothy and C.J. (I forget which vendor she was with):

Daniel Greenberg (Winterion Game Studios):

Daniel and his wife Alex:

Anthony and two of his friends:

I can’t say no to a photo op if someone asks, and I was more than happy to honor Anthony’s requests.

That is the end of post one. Head to part two for a tour of the marketplace and exhibits. Part three features a conclusion, and pickups photos.

I’ll leave you with photos taken before I left for home on Saturday and before I walked back into the museum on Sunday.

WCWP-FM 60th anniversary celebration weekend, 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony March 25, 2025

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Education, Football, History, Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Philanthropy, Photography, Pop, Radio, Rock, smooth jazz, Sports, Technology, TV, Video.
add a comment

NOTE: Whenever possible throughout this post (no pun intended), I will list an alum’s graduation year in parentheses.

Sunday, March 16, at 4PM Eastern marked 60 years since WCWP-FM signed on. Located at 88.1 on the FM band, the public radio station emanates from the Benjamin and Elizabeth Abrams Communications Center at LIU Post. The school was known as C.W. Post College in 1965, but it has always been part of the Long Island University system. (Wikipedia entry)

WCWP was initially a carrier current radio station, signing on at noon on October 18, 1961. (That 60th anniversary was celebrated during Homecoming Weekend in 2021.) Art Beltrone (1963) was the first student voice heard at sign-on. Here is that sign-on:

Quoting Art from the aircheck:

Two years ago, a group of students and your announcer felt that a school such as Post would benefit a great deal from a radio station. We organized a small club at first, and at the meetings that followed, we talked radio, making hopeful plans for the establishment of a carrier current station, leading eventually into an FM station.

In just over three years, the FM station dream was realized.

WCWP-FM’s 60th anniversary celebration also spanned an entire weekend, from 6PM on March 14 to 6PM on March 16.

Promotional banner

The celebration included a dinner on the night of March 15, held in the East Room of the Roosevelt School on the south end of campus. The dinner included the induction of the 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame class: 1984 alumnae Jeannie Moon and Laurie White, and fittingly, Benjamin Abrams. Ben Abrams, a founder of Emerson Radio, whose philanthropic efforts allowed for construction of the building that would house the FM station. In later years, the student-run web station would also emanate from the Abrams Communications Center, but I digress.

I considered splitting the celebration recap into three posts. Instead, everything is here, separated by dates and events in bold font.

This isn’t a personal diary of my experience, meaning I won’t mention things like when I arrived on campus, what equipment I used, and how I spent my downtime. This is a multimedia celebration of WCWP-FM’s 60 years on the air; the students, alumni, faculty, and volunteers who are part of its history; and the latest inductees to the WCWP Hall of Fame. (Full disclosure: I have served on the Hall of Fame Committee since the 2022 class.)

FRIDAY, MARCH 14
Meet-and-Greet, The Rock Show

I only have two photos of the meet-and-greet in the lobby of the Abrams Communications Center.

First is my fellow 2004 alumnus Joe Sacco with WCWP station manager Dan Cox (1985).

Then, Dan took a photo of Joe and me.

All other photos were in Studio 2 for The Rock Show with Jeff and Pat Kroll, and guest host Neil Marks.

Before air, Dan Cox dropped in to speak with the Krolls (Jeff graduated in 1975, Pat in ’79), Neil (’77), and Bobby Guthenberg, a.k.a. Bobby G. (’70).

Jeff Kroll kicked off The Rock Show just after 7PM.

The theme was many songs that topped the music charts on March 16. That date in 1965 was when WCWP-FM signed on. Not every year was represented in the playlist, and only a snippet was played of the number 1 song in 2025, but the songs Jeff did play lived up to their chart-topping status.

Jeff’s wife Pat Kroll (née Champion) served as co-host…

…with the addition of Neil Marks.

About half an hour into the show, Jeff interviewed 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame inductees Laurie White and Jeannie Moon (both 1984 alumnae).

  • Jeannie Moon
  • Laurie White

One hour in, Jeff and Pat spoke to Mike Chimeri (me), WCWP station historian and photographer, and 2021 WCWP Hall of Famer.

Neil Marks took photos on my behalf.

My lead-in was “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley – number 1 on March 16, 1988. So, I began my interview with a nod to my Twitch channel, and gave a shoutout to music streamer GnatChat. Nat does a jazzy rendition of “Never Gonna Give You Up” as her raid song. (She, too, is an event photographer, albeit professionally.) I posted an excerpt of the video below to her Discord chat server and she thanked me for the shoutout.

After that, I discussed my history with WCWP, dating back to my first show on October 5, 2001, on WebRadio WCWP, now known as The Wave. (Select scoped airchecks of The Mike Chimeri Show can be heard here. As for Instrumental Invasion, here’s the recap aggregation page.)

After my interview, Neil Marks returned to his seat. Music and banter between Jeff, Pat, and Neil took up the rest of the show, concluding with “Believe” by Cher, number 1 on March 16, 1999, during my senior year at Wantagh High School. (Neil is a fellow Wantagh High School alumnus.)

Watch a scoped aircheck of The Rock Show below:

More of the beginnings and ends of songs can be heard in the audio version of the scoped aircheck:

SATURDAY, MARCH 15
60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner and 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony
(with a pictorial tour of Roosevelt School presidential exhibits)

There was an open house at the Abrams Communications Center on Saturday afternoon. In this first photo, WCWP station manager Dan Cox showed the current makeup of Studio 3 to Neil Marks (1977), Fred Gaudelli (1982), and Suzanne Langwell (1983).

Neil, Fred, and Suzanne are all members of the WCWP Hall of Fame. Neil was part of the 2017 class, Fred was inducted in ’19, and Suzanne in ’22 (ceremony in ’23).

Suzanne Langwell and Neil and Lita Marks converse in Studio 3:

Jeff Kroll prerecorded an interview with Fred Gaudelli to air during Sunday’s FM 60th anniversary broadcast. (Scroll down to that portion of this post to see and hear it.)

Fred is not only in the WCWP Hall of Fame, but also the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame (2020-21), and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, receiving the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2023.

Cynthia Hochman, daughter of Benjamin Abrams, spoke to Jeff Kroll and Neil Marks. Listening along are Cynthia’s granddaughters and Joan Yonke, LIU Director of Development and Annual Fund. (Development webpage)

Suzanne Langwell also spoke to Cynthia Hochman.

Pete Sacoulas (2017) drove me and Neil Marks to the south end of LIU Post’s campus for the 60th anniversary celebration and 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony in the Roosevelt School‘s East Room.

Photos of the presidential exhibits will be shown at the end of this album. For now, I’ll note this was my first time inside the now-Roosevelt School since my first semester in Fall 1999. It was a building for music courses, such as Introduction to Music Theory. My professor was John Meschi, now the Director of Music Technology.

The entrance to the East Room:

The Hall of Fame banner and plaques, and programs:

As guests filed in, a photo array looped on a monitor to the left of the podium.

A straight-on podium view:

It makes you feel like you’re in the White House briefing room.

LIU President Dr. Kimberly Cline speaking with Marjorie Hyman, daughter of Benjamin Abrams, who was among the 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame inductees:

Dr. Cline speaking with Cynthia Hochman, another daughter of Benjamin Abrams; and one of Cynthia’s granddaughters:

Jeff Kroll and WCWP station manager Dan Cox speaking with Dr. Kimberly Cline and Vice President for University Advancement Kerry Kruckel:

Fred Gaudelli joined the conversation with Dr. Cline and Ms. Kruckel:

Courtesy of Suzanne Langwell, here’s a photo of Suzanne with 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame inductees Laurie White and Jeannie Moon:

The 60th anniversary celebration began with opening remarks from Dan Cox:

Kerry Kruckel, LIU Vice President for University Advancement, was next to speak:

Cindy Rogers, District Director for Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), delivered a citation on the Congressman’s behalf:

The citation:

Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition
Presented to
WCWP
Long Island University Public Radio
In celebration of its
60th Anniversary

On behalf of the constituents of the Third Congressional District of New York, congratulations on celebrating your 60th Anniversary. This achievement is a testament to your hard work and dedication to providing informative and entertaining content to the community as a student-run radio station. Best wishes for many more years of successful broadcasting.

Thomas R. Suozzi
Member of Congress
Third District of New York
March 15, 2025

Dan Cox read a statement from WCWP founding member Art Beltrone, commemorating the FM station’s 60th anniversary:

That was followed by prerecorded speeches from Hank Neimark (1964) and Ted David (1972):

Hank signed on WCWP-FM at 4PM on March 16, 1965, with the words “WCWP-FM is on the air.” (You’ll see him recite those words again during the 60th anniversary broadcast later in this post.)

Dan Reagan (1981) presented 2024 WCWP Hall of Fame inductee Jeannie Moon.

Dan was a 2022 inductee with Suzanne Langwell and six others, and served as chairman of the 2024 Hall of Fame Committee.

Jeannie Moon posed with presenter Dan and her Hall of Fame plaque:

Jeannie’s acceptance speech:

Fred Gaudelli was one of two presenters for inductee Laurie White:

Dan Reagan (right) returned as the second presenter:

Laurie White holding her Hall of Fame plaque with presenters Dan Reagan and Fred Gaudelli:

Laurie’s acceptance speech:

That brought us to the most emotional part of the Hall of Fame Ceremony: the induction of Benjamin Abrams.

Two of Abrams’ surviving daughters, Marjorie Hyman and Cynthia Hochman, spoke on his behalf.

97-year-old Marjorie Hyman’s speech outlined the life and times of her father.

  • Marjorie’s son Peter and sister Cynthia watching her speech
  • A standing ovation!

It was an awe-inspiring speech, one that I complimented Marjorie for after the ceremony. I also thanked her for the generous donation that led to the renovation of the Benjamin and Elizabeth Abrams Communications Center. I initially shook her hand, and continued to hold her hand for the length of our conversation. I nearly cried.

Cynthia Hochman, another of Ben Abrams’ daughters, was next to speak.

Cynthia Hochman and Marjorie Hyman proudly posed with their father Benjamin Abrams’ Hall of Fame plaque:

The ceremony concluded with impassioned remarks from WCWP station manager Dan Cox:

You’ve seen the photos, now watch the video:

If you’re wondering, Marjorie Hyman’s speech is at the 1:07:59 mark.

Ted David left a highly complimentary YouTube comment:

Superior videography to chronicle a major milestone in the history of WCWP, its 60th anniversary. The speeches by the Abrams daughters were the capstones of an amazing evening. Congratulations to the HOF inductees and to all who took part. Special kudos to Mike Chimeri for capturing this history in audio, video and still photography for our posterity!

Thank you very much, Ted.

Now, as promised, we conclude the Saturday portion of this post with photos of the Roosevelt School presidential exhibits.

Laurie White and friends hung out in the Roosevelt Library shortly after arriving.
I didn’t go upstairs, but I did take a photo of the portraits on the stairway wall.

SUNDAY, MARCH 16
WCWP-FM 60th Anniversary Broadcast

Jeff Kroll commenced the FM 60th anniversary broadcast at 3PM:

Jeff hosted and Pat produced:

Jeff’s view of Zoom on the Studio 3 monitor:

Hank Neimark is seen in the upper left. Art Beltrone is upper-right center, Bernie Bernard (1972) upper right, Junie Thomas (1969) middle left, Jon Korkes (1967) middle-left center, and Joel Feltman (1974) middle-right center. Art and Hank were the founding members of WCWP as a carrier current station at noon on October 18, 1961. Hank, Junie, and Jon were among the staff as WCWP-FM signed on March 16, 1965.

Larry Brodsky (1968) was the first studio guest:

As 4PM approached, producer Pat Kroll made a cameo for the Zoom participants:

Jeff ran a legal ID from Chris Maffei (2013) at 3:58 to clear the way for Hank Neimark at 4PM.

Hank repeated his sign-on: “WCWP-FM is on the air.”

That was followed by applause from Zoom participants Art Beltrone, Bernie Bernard, Junie Thomas, Jon Korkes, Alan Seltzer (1978), Joel Feltman, John LiBretto (1968) (also on staff for the FM sign-on), and John Commins (1973).

Bobby Guthenberg, a.k.a. Bobby G., was the second guest off Zoom and in Studio 3 with Jeff Kroll.

In honor of the late Joe Honerkamp, a.k.a Joseph P. (1974), Jeff Kroll went through a list of high temperatures on March 16 in 1965 and beyond:

Joe was, and Jeff and I (Mike) are, big weather enthusiasts. Jeff said in a comment to this photo in the WCWP Alumni Association album, “[Joe’s] presence was missed throughout the weekend celebrations.”

I showed the following photo featuring Joe Honerkamp (seated at the mic) in the 60th anniversary broadcast before Jeff read the high temperatures:

This was among a batch of photo prints Jeff had me scan back in 2017.

In the 5PM hour, the studio guest list picked up, starting with Lew Scharfberg (1978) (atop the above photo) and Jeff Jensen (1984):

  • Lew Scharfberg
  • Jeff Jensen

Dan Reagan was next. (His wife Gina looked on outside the studio.)

Dan Reagan was followed by WCWP station manager Dan Cox.

While Jeff Kroll’s prerecorded interview with Fred Gaudelli ran (as seen in the Saturday portion of this recap), I stepped out of Studio 3 to take this photo:

From left to right: Dan Reagan, Jeannie Moon, Bobby Guthenberg, Jett Lightning, Gina Reagan, Lew Scharfberg, Pete Sacoulas

Back live in Studio 3, Jeff Kroll spoke to “Grandfather Rock” Chris MacIntosh, host of Rock N’ Soul Gospel.

Then, it was my turn:

Rather than rehash my WCWP biography from the Friday night interview, I chose to compliment Marjorie Hyman’s speech on behalf of her father Benjamin Abrams.

Vincent Randazzo (2024) and Andrew Scarpaci (2023) were next, the most recent WCWP alumni to be interviewed:

  • Vincent Randazzo
  • Andrew Scarpaci

The last guest of the broadcast was Jeannie Moon:

After noting 26 guests were interviewed, on Zoom and in Studio 3 combined, Jeff and Pat Kroll signed off:

Then, it was back to regular programming: Rock N’ Soul Gospel with “Grandfather Rock” Chris MacIntosh.

That brings us to the comprehensive video of the 60th anniversary broadcast, combining upscaled Zoom video, A- and B-roll from my two camcorders (as in the other two videos), supplemental photos, and the full aircheck. Enjoy.

For good measure, the audio from that video:

Thank you for taking this multimedia journey through WCWP-FM’s 60th anniversary celebration. It is the culmination of 11 days of production and post-production. I sacrificed tens of hours of my time, but I assure you it was a labor of love.

My next blog post should be a recap of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights: In Concert at Lincoln Center on April 1. (Jeff and Pat Kroll will be at the March 31 concert.) That will be followed by recaps of this year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars, to be held May 2 and 3.

Otherwise, as far as WCWP goes, see you on Homecoming Weekend, starting September 12. (Yes, it’s a week earlier than last year.)

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.
add a comment
Ted David’s photo of the LIU Post west entrance
My photo of the Abrams Communications Center, as seen Saturday afternoon before an open house and barbecue

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.

  • Art’s first alumni guests were Bill Rozea…
  • …and Bill’s wife April, members of C.W. Post first graduating class in 1959.
  • Art Beltrone presented April Rozea with a bouquet of roses. (Art’s wife Lee is seated in the background.)
  • Between interviews, Jeff played “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley, to the delight of the Bill and April Rozea.

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

Art’s interview with Vinnie Salamone:

Bernie Bernard was next:

  • She also received a bouquet of flowers.
  • Jeff led the interview with Bernie.

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

  • Jeff’s wife Pat Kroll produced and coordinated Art’s show.

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

Jeannie Moon…

John LiBretto and Hank Neimark…

  • Hank was the first voice on WCWP-FM when it signed on at 4PM on March 16, 1965.

…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.

  • Jon Korkes’s Zoom window (the text below him is burned in to the monitor)

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:

I changed “Composite aircheck” to “Portions” due to title character limits

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:

  • WCWP station manager Dan Cox (center) with LIU senior philanthropic advisor Charles Rasberry (left) and Neil Marks (right)
  • Neil Marks, John Zoni, Andrew Scarpaci, and Travis Demers prepping for the Homecoming game broadcast

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:

  • Jeff and Pat Kroll
  • Jeff Kroll and Neil Marks
  • Travis Demers handled play-by-play in the 2nd and 3rd quarters while Jeff
    Kroll took the 1st and 4th quarters. Neil Marks analyzed.

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.

Thank you, Travis, for the shoutout to me and Jay Mirabile.

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

  • The LIU marching band’s halftime performance
  • The opposite end of the stadium
  • Until ten nights earlier at Freeport’s 9/11 memorial ceremony, I was unaware that Bronko Pearsall was one of the 343 FDNY firefighters lost that September morning in 2001. Pearsall was among the names read by Amanda Muldowney, sister-in-law of Richie Muldowney.
  • Practice kicks…
  • The LIU marching band gets back in position in the stands.
  • The LIU Sharks returned to the field…
  • …followed by the Rams of URI.
  • Jeff Kroll always managed to spot me taking a candid shot, leading to a posed photo.
  • Travis Demers, Neil Marks, and Jeff Kroll prepare for the second half, as heard in the earlier clip.
  • The second half kickoff
  • Travis Demers calling the action with Jeff Kroll analyzing and Pat Kroll producing
  • Neil Marks watched on during the third quarter, and would rejoin Jeff and Travis in the fourth.
  • Travis’s view of the field
  • A final photo at the stadium before returning to WCWP

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:

  • To the left of Bernie is Jett Lightning. Bobby Guthenberg (a.k.a. Bobby G.) and Larry Brodsky are to the right of her.
  • Bobby G. helped Bernie set up (Photo by Hugh Hammill)
  • Photo by Hugh Hammill

The photos were taken after Bernie’s show began.

  • Hugh Hammill is pictured talking to WCWP station manager Dan Cox with Bernie Bernard prepping the next CD to play. Jeff Kroll is standing on the right and Bernie’s sister Melissa is seating facing away in the foreground.
  • Ward Henry and Bernie Bernard (Photo by Hugh Hammill)
  • Bernie’s view of Wavecart (Photo by Hugh Hammill)
  • Larry Brodsky and Jeff Kroll (after Jeff spotted me taking a candid)
  • Travis Demers, Frank Iemitti (capital I; with his back to the camera), John Zoni, John Mullen, Dave Fleischer

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

  • Dan was joined by Kerry Kruckel, LIU vice president for university advancement.
  • This photo includes Joan Yonke (center), LIU director of development and
    annual fund, and Art and Lee Beltrone to the right of Joan.
  • Grandfather Rock Chris MacIntosh and Dan Cox listen to Ms. Kruckel’s complimentary remarks.
  • Dan was equally complimentary.

Back inside studio 2…

  • Bernie Bernard at the board
  • Chris MacIntosh joined Jett, Ward, Bernie, Melissa, and Hugh.
  • Me with my Panasonic HC-X1500 camcorders. One had a handle unit attachment, and a great shotgun mic and tripod. The other had an okay tripod and no external mic or handle unit.
  • Unfortunately, I forgot to hit record on those camcorders before Bernie interviewed me. Thankfully, Melissa Bernard took the next three photos that I used in the video you’ll see in a little while.
  • “I was born in the ’80s!”
  • Tony and Winnie Traguardo also dropped by.
  • Before Mike Riccio and Bobby G.’s radio show, Bernie tried to stump Mike on who sang covers of two songs.
  • Mike went 1 for 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.

  • Mike Riccio
  • Bobby G.
  • Jett Lightning
  • A posed photo of Jett Lightning
  • Bernie Bernard returned to studio 2 by the 1970s portion of the show.

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:

He even played “Hot to Go!” by Chappell Roan.

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.

Photo by Pat Kroll

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

  • Photo by Ted David
  • Jeff Kroll, Ted David, Joe Honerkamp (photo by Pat Kroll)
I appreciated “Take Five,” Joe. Thank you.

It was Ted David’s turn at 1:59 PM:

Selfie by Ted

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

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

  • Lew’s show was one of many on Homecoming Weekend engineered by Jeff 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.

Instrumental Invasion, 9/21/24, 12AM (Homecoming Weekend) October 4, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, smooth jazz, Video Games.
add a comment

Other posts: 9/20 2PM live show recap, comprehensive Homecoming Weekend recap

The prerecorded edition of Instrumental Invasion for WCWP‘s alumni-run Homecoming Weekend programming block aired at midnight on Saturday, September 21, eight hours after the live show concluded.

Again, let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way before the behind-the-scenes details.

Just before my unscheduled Twitch stream on Tuesday, September 3, Homecoming Weekend co-coordinator Jeff Kroll called to ask if I could do record a second show to air in the early mornings on September 21 or 22. It was to be a three-hour show, the first time hosting a three-hour since I filled in for Martin Phillips on Thursday Night Jazz on October 29, 2009.

Since I had used up my 60-year musical journey format on the live show, this prerecord would adhere to the segment formats I used when Instrumental Invasion aired weekly. As a refresher, the final version of those segment formats was:

  • 1984 and earlier
  • 1985-97
  • 1998-2009
  • 2010-20
  • 2021-present

To make things easier, I recycled songs (and one whole set!) from various weekly shows when creating the playlist on September 4. Annotations and the script draft were adapted from original annotations and scripts, except for songs I’d never played before. I wrote new material for those. Annotations continued into the 5th while the script was drafted from the 4th to the morning of the 6th.

Inspired four of my early Twitch streams before the push to video gaming, I streamed recording sessions on Twitch from September 6 to 8. All the while I had no idea when the show would air, though I assumed it would air Sunday morning. I don’t regret the “Friday” references despite the show airing mere hours after I was live. One pickup was seen on stream on the 8th, a slower reading of hour 2’s first talk break. Another pickup was done on the morning of the 9th prior to submission lest anyone think the Casiopea-P4 song I played was stylized as “Dreamers’ Dream” rather than “Dreamer’s Dream.” The show featured three songs by Casiopea from their 1st, 2nd, and P4 eras; along with two by T-Square (one as The Square). (I also played one song each by Casiopea and T-Square in the live show; back-to-back, at that.)

Upon completion, the Adobe Audition multitrack session looked like this:

For good measure, I present the three recording session Twitch streams at 75x speed set to “Mid-Manhattan,” the second song of the show.

And that’s the story of this show. Now, get back to the main recap, picking up with Magick Mike Hendryx at 3AM.

Instrumental Invasion, 9/20/24, 2PM (Homecoming Weekend) (Live!) October 4, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, smooth jazz, Travel, Video.
add a comment

Other posts: 9/21 12AM prerecorded show recap, comprehensive Homecoming Weekend recap

The live edition of Instrumental Invasion for WCWP‘s alumni-run Homecoming Weekend programming block aired at 2PM Friday, between Art Beltrone’s interview show and Strictly Jazz, WCWP’s longest-running program, dating back to the pre-FM carrier-current days when it was hosted by John March. The hosts of Strictly Jazz that followed me were Hank Neimark (“NEE-mark”), John LiBretto, and Jon Korkes (“CORE-kiss”) (via Zoom). You’ll see Hank and engineer Jeff Kroll at the end of the video below.

Before I get into how this Instrumental Invasion show was made and share photos taken during the show, let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way…

…along with the aforementioned video.

The playlist for the live Instrumental Invasion was created July 24, long before a rough schedule was announced by Jeff and Pat Kroll, the Homecoming Weekend coordinators. I assumed I would be hosting one live show – intended for music from new releases – and one prerecord – the 60-year musical journey. So, I figured I’d get the presumed prerecord playlist out of the way and would work on the presumed live show playlist as the weekend approached.

The initial schedule was announced on August 12. I’d be live at 2PM, but didn’t see my name in an overnight slot. In a first for Homecoming Weekend, I made the 60-year musical journey the playlist for the live show, tweaking it slightly. I tweaked further on August 23. There would still be one song each between 1964 and ’89, and two songs for 1994 to 2004, but I scrapped the old plan of three songs each from 2009, ’14, and ’19. The 2024 song to close the remained, preceded by a set of three more songs from this year. 2009, ’14, and ’19 were winnowed down to pairs.

Annotations began August 23 after printing out the playlist, continuing on the 25th, 28th, and September 16. As in 2022, I didn’t make a script. I read the annotations, adding a Dancing with the Stars reference during the set with “Tropical Rain” by Jessy J (in that show’s Ray Chew Live house band). Otherwise, I spoke off the cuff. (It’s a shame that 1982 Weather Report video was pulled from YouTube after I watched it.)

I was the first show of the weekend to air from studio 2 at the renovated Abrams Communications Center. Here are photos I took during the first set of hour 2:

As “Beat Street” by David Benoit and Spice Fusion Big Band played, I had Jeff Kroll take a photo of me at the controls, just as he would be moments later.

A 16:9 crop of this served as the YouTube video thumbnail.

Hank Neimark is seen phoning Jon Korkes to set him up on Zoom.

My only regret about the show is that my remix of the WCWP Oldtimers Weekend liner was not in Wavecart. The original was in there and played “Machine Gun” by The Commodores at a slower speed. This is “Machine Gun” (excerpted portion at 1:32):

And this is my remixed liner:

(The Homecoming Weekend moniker was adopted once the programming block coincided with then-C.W. Post‘s Homecoming.)

That aside, dragging and dropping liners in was easy, and I enjoyed using the “WCWP Remembers [year]” liners.

Just when I thought this would be the only show I’d have on Homecoming Weekend, Jeff Kroll called me September 3 to say he needed a three-hour prerecord to fill time early Saturday or Sunday morning. You can read about that show here.

2024 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo: introduction, guests, mishaps, panels August 21, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Aviation, Books, Computer, Education, Game Shows, History, Internet, Media, Personal, Photography, Podcast, Radio, Technology, Travel, Video, Video Games.
add a comment

Feel free to skip ahead to the second post (touring the expo) or third post (conclusion and pickups).

INTRODUCTION
2024 was my sixth year at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, held in the Cradle of Aviation Museum, on the right end of Museum Row in East Garden City. This was also the first year that Flagstar bank had naming rights. That’s evident in the first photo below, taken as my mom pulled off Charles Lindbergh Boulevard at 9:45 AM on Saturday, August 10.

LI Retro, the expo’s shorthand, launched Friday, August 9, at 4PM, but since the expansion to three days (or 2 1/2) in 2022, I’ve forgone the Friday leg.

Tickets went on sale all the way back at the end of December and I was quick to secure my weekend badge, even though it would be months before attendees even knew who the guests would be.

Once announced, Long Island Retro Gaming Expo’s 2024 guest list was a mix of mainstays, newcomers, and returnees. Naturally, author/publisher Leonard Herman, Mark Baer (middle child of videogame pioneer Ralph Baer), Frank Cifaldi (Video Game History Foundation) and Jeremy Parish (Retronauts, Limited Run Games) would be there. G Gracin (G to the Next Level) returned for the second year in a row, this time with Greg Sewart (Generation 16). Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson were back for their fourth consecutive LI Retro. (There was a gap between their first and second years due to COVID postponements in 2020 and ’21.) The Immortal John Hancock was back for the first time since 2018. (I met Lenny Herman through the panel he and John co-hosted that year.) And it was the second appearance of Coury Carlson and Marc “Try4ce (‘triforce‘)” Duddleson of My Life in Gaming, having first appeared in 2019.

If you remember my disappointment last year when spotting Clint Basinger (LGR) walking through the vendor marketplace after the expo while editing photos, I was pleased to see he was a guest this year!

Two other notable guests were Warren Davis, the creator of Q*Bert “and other classic video arcade games” (as his book title notes), and legendary Nintendo marketer Gail Tilden. I was not able to attend Warren’s Saturday evening panel, though I met him at his table in the morning as you’ll see in that portion of this post. Gail had a free-form panel on Saturday evening and an interview panel on Sunday, the latter of which I attended.

Ahead of Saturday morning, I packed a printout of my badge retrieval code, my Canon EOS R7 with RF-S 18-150mm lens and Speedlite 430EX II, TASCAM DR-05X, and stenographer pad with pen. (I never used those last two.) I was anxious that my compulsive nature would lead to as many photos as last year. The bad news is I was right. The good news is the total over three cameras (you’ll read the why of that quantity later in the post) was 697 photos. This time, however, 617 were chosen to spread out over three blog posts, not counting scans or photos taken after Sunday.

Since last year’s Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, I have begun streaming on Twitch at least four days a week. Gaming is the channel’s main focus with occasional “media production” streams where I work on radio shows or edit photos from events like this. I spent a whole week editing photos in April after returning from Smooth Jazz for Scholars. While the initial plan was to do the expo photo editing off stream and go on hiatus until I was finished, I opted instead for occasional streams to report on my editing progress and show all games and merchandise I picked up. Thanks to a quicker editing process, only two of those streams were required before returning to gaming. The first stream – Wednesday, August 14 – dovetailed into saving smaller versions of watermarked photos (“© Mike Chimeri” on the lower left) edited that day. And with only 96 photos left to edit going into Saturday, August 17, that became the sole photo editing stream.

ARRIVING AT THE MUSEUM
Several paragraphs ago, I said I arrived at the Flagstar Cradle of Aviation Museum at 9:45 AM Saturday. After my mom dropped me off in the parking lot to the left of the roundabout, I took an establishing shot of the museum, unaware that my folded badge code printout was visible in the bottom left. So, I took another shot Sunday morning:

The photos in this gallery are from Saturday.

Badge retrieval area
A staff member instructs attendees waiting in line.
He got a kick out of this Link cosplayer’s sign.
Seconds before 10AM
Entering the museum
A hearty welcome after my bag check
(NOTE: Lucas Thomas, Nintendo Force magazine founder, is seen entering on the right in the penultimate photo. Little did I know I’d see him again Sunday afternoon.)

On the way to the guest table area, I ran into Timothy (a.k.a. Sho), a fellow My Life in Gaming fan. We met in person in 2019 and I had to get a selfie this time:

GUEST TABLE PHOTOS

Entering the guest area, with additional vendors on the opposite side, whom you’ll see in the second post; Panel Room 2 is out of view to the right

Photos in this section were taken Saturday and Sunday. You can tell which day by what we’re wearing.

Warren Davis
Warren and I didn’t talk much – so, no magic tricks – but I introduced myself and gladly bought a copy of Creating Q*bert for him to sign. I told him on Sunday that I bought a copy of Q*bert’s NES port in his honor. He thanked me for that. (More on pickups in the third post.)

Clint Basinger (LGR)
It was honor to meet Clint in person. As I told him, I’ve been a fan of LGR for years, and that we both have the distinction of reading quotes in Gaming Historian videos. (I was in The Story of Link’s Awakening, per a blog post.) We commiserated over Norman Caruso’s April announcement that he was stepping back from pursuing his YouTube channel full time (but not retiring). (Norm went out in style with his magnum opus, The Story of The Oregon Trail, a video years in the making.) I told Clint that I unknowingly photographed him last year and thought about printing a copy for him to sign, but opted not to.

Clint with his Panasonic SuperDisk PalmCam PV-SD4090, the subject of a future LGR video. Maybe you’ll see the selfie we took with it. (8/23 UPDATE: Yes. Video added below.)
Prior to that selfie, I took one with my EOS R7. Dissatisfied with my appearance, I made tweaks in Photoshop.

8/23 UPDATE: Today, that future video became a present video.

The LI Retro portion begins around the 10:20 mark and the selfie compilation includes me, Coury Carlson, Adam Koralik (more on him in the John Hancock segment), and Frank Cifaldi.
A screenshot of our selfie

Thinking Clint would be at the expo on Sunday, as well, I brought my PlayStation 3 copy of Duke Nukem Forever to sign. Alas, he had left after Saturday.

A recent LGR video made me think of my psychologist of 27 years, known to patients like me as Brad. In the mid ’90s, Brad had an Acer Aspire. If I remember correctly, it was the same color as Clint’s. (Brad retired in 2018 and I’ve had another therapist since 2019.)

9/6 UPDATE: Clint went into greater detail about LI Retro in the vlog below.

The Immortal John Hancock
I reacquainted myself with John on Saturday – fresh from Retrocon in São Paulo, Brazil! (John’s Retrocon vlog) – and proudly bought the Genesis port of his original game, Block ‘Em Sock ‘Em, seen in the second photo.

John included a pin and sticker, which I put inside the Block ‘Em Sock ‘Em case.
Adam Koralik returned this year as a paid attendee. I go by Mike Camera on his Discord and introduced myself as such on Sunday. He recognized me immediately. I had to get a photo with him and his good friend John.

Check out John’s LI Retro vlog. He saw exhibits that I missed, and thus won’t be seen in my second post.

Give Adam Koralik a look, too.

Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson
I was not a fan of either Pat or Ian prior to their LI Retro debut in 2019, but I got to know Ian and his wife Vani at their Luna Video Games table, placed between the My Life in Gaming table and Pat’s table. I worked up the courage to meet Pat, buy Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library and all DVD volumes of early episodes of Pat the NES Punk. That led to an interest in Flea Market Madness and The Video Game Years, and The CU (Completely Unnecessary Podcast). I was even hyped for Pat’s next Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the SNES Library. I wrote reviews for both guides after reading them later in 2019 (NES, SNES).

So, of course, I was thrilled to see them again this year, and ask a question for the third year in a row at their panel/podcast recording.

G Gracin bumping fists with Pat and Ian on Sunday
G brought their Sonic the Hedgehog Interactive Camera for selfies in digital file and thermal print form.
G handing the thermal print to Pat
They got a selfie with Ian, too.
Pat and Ian
Find out why my smile is subdued in the “Mishaps” portion of this post.
Before they departed on Sunday, I snapped a photo of Pat, Daniel Greenberg, Ian, Frank Cifaldi, and Daniel’s wife Alex.

9/2 UPDATE: The latest Flea Market Madness video is embedded below photos of the CU Podcast panel.

G Gracin and Greg Sewart didn’t have a table, but did have a Saturday panel. (Check the “Panels” section of this post for photos.) I posed with them in this photo on Sunday.

I also got the Sonic selfie treatment, in digital form…

…and in thermal print form. I scanned that (left) and used Photoshop’s photo restoration filter to limit the vertical banding (right).

G posted a few YouTube Shorts at LI Retro:

[The first short was removed in 2025.]

There really is so much to see at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. John Hancock and G saw things that I missed.

I really liked Greg Sewart’s Ridge Racer series retrospective:

I’ve had Ridge Racer 7 since I bought a slim PS3 back in 2018. The video made me seek out Ridge Racer 6 for Xbox 360 when scouring the marketplace at the end of each day.

Since you saw Daniel and Alex Greenberg (Winterion Game Studios) in Pat and Ian’s photo gallery, here is a photo Alex took of Daniel and me after Pat’s CU Podcast Live panel.

Let’s skip ahead one table to the My Life in Gaming duo of Coury Carlson and Mark “Try4ce” Duddleson:

This was last photo of the weekend taken on my EOS R7. Again, the explanation is in the “Mishaps” segment.
I brought my copy of the M2: Complete Works Blu-ray for Coury and Try to sign. Try signed the cover first…
…then Coury.
A photo with the signed cover
Sunday, since shirts were selling well at the MLiG table (myself included), Try decided to splurge on a rare PlayStation game: Koudelka, the first in the Shadow Hearts series.

I spent a lot of down time at the MLiG and Leonard Herman tables (see below). Coury and I talked about photography, while Try and I talked about Backloggery‘s recent 17th anniversary celebration, my multiple raids to the Backloggery Twitch channel, and how I rightly kept dejitter off on my Analogue Nt Mini Noir. Try neglected to do that in the MLiG review of the console back in 2020. (Source: Comment to Analogue Reddit post.) Having dejitter off allowed me to connect my Monoprice VGA-to-composite/S-Video adapter, run a composite cable to my sister’s old Durabrand DWT1304 CRT TV (a Funai-manufactured TV sold by Walmart), and play NES Zapper games in my last two Twitch streams before LI Retro.

9/2 UPDATE: Coury and Try ended August with a new My Life in Gaming video: the second in their Multi-Games Compilations series. It’s worth watching for Try’s LI Retro t-shirt alone.

Leonard Herman

We round out this segment with the Father of Videogame History, Leonard Herman, joined by Patrick Wong and Mark Baer (middle child of videogame pioneer Ralph Baer).

A replica of Ralph Baer’s Brown Box prototype
Mark played tennis on the replica with an attendee.
And after Lenny’s Sunday panel, Patrick took our photo.

I spelled video game as one word because that’s how Ralph Baer spelled it and how Lenny spells it.

Leaving the guest tables behind, it’s panel time!

PANELS

Saturday Panel 1, 11AM-12PM
Panel Room 2
Mark Baer and Leonard Herman
Ralph Baer: His Creative Life in Electronic, Videogames and More

This strayed close to the 2023 presentation, which was the last panel I attended. So, I changed my photographic approach. Before the photos, here are the videos shown during the panel:

Despite the German title, the video is in English.
The panel concluded with the What’s My Line? segment that Mark referenced.
Host Larry Blyden and Bob Fritchie were “Playing ‘Tennis'” on the Magnavox Odyssey
Mark and Lenny shook hands after a panel well done

Before the other panels, a diversion.

Mishaps

It was in between the Ralph Baer panel and the CU Podcast panel that I accidentally knocked my camera off a food court table, breaking my Canon EOS R7’s RF-S 18-150mm lens. The ring attachment stayed on, but the rest of the lens broke off.

It was irrecoverable. The only solution was to buy a replacement lens once I got home, and with a 5-year lens accident warranty. I’m covered if history repeats itself, God forbid.

The lens and UV filter arrived Wednesday morning and a test photo was successful.

I took the rest of Saturday’s photos on my iPhone 13 Pro. Then, Sunday, I shot in RAW for the first time on my Nikon D5500 with a Nikkor 18-300mm lens.

Unfortunately, Sunday had another problem. Patrick Wong from Leonard Herman’s table prepped to take a photo of me with Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson. Ian sprained his ankle and was only at LI Retro that day. After I took the photo of Pat and Ian together, I foolishly chose to take a photo with them to the right of Pat’s table. Ian’s cup of coffee was perched on the right end of that table. As I turned to get into position for the photo, Ian warned “watch the backpack!” The warning was in vein. My bulky backpack knocked the cup over and it spilled on the upper right end of the table. The photo op was aborted, paper towels were summoned, and adjacent merchandise was checked for damage. As all that happened, I felt tremendous guilt and shame. I thought I’d become persona non grata to both of them, and God forbid, would be sued. Thankfully, none of that was true. No merch was damaged, the spill was quickly disposed of, and Pat used hand sanitizer to further clean the affected area. Then, we retreated to a safe spot away from the table for our photo op. Pat and Ian were all smiles in the photo while I was too drained to fully smile. They both assured me everything was fine and not to worry. That’s when I headed to the main theatre for the Gail Force panel.

After that panel, LI Retro staff member Ryan Shapiro gifted me with an expo backpack that contained a pin, sticker, 2024 program, and Asteroids-themed t-shirt. I’ll save the contents photo for the third post, but I’ll show the backpack here, too.

Thank you very much, Ryan.

Now, back to Saturday’s panels.

Saturday, 12:30-1:30 PM
Main Theatre
Pat Contri with Frank Cifaldi (filling in for Ian Ferguson)
CU Podcast Live!

The topic was the sudden end to GameStop’s Game Informer magazine, and the bizarre public relations statement accompanying its demise. (Reactions were compiled in this Resetera thread.)

When the theatre was opened to Q&A, only one person had an Amico-related question. Mine focused on Pat’s Wednesday Twitch streams:

Aside from the podcasts, you’re also on Twitch every Wednesday, watching retro commercials. How did you- What made you decide to go that route instead of streaming games?

Pat responded that it spun off from his NES Charity Marathon (origin of the “Buh-lack Box!” catchphrase), and that he felt relaxed and nostalgic watching things from the past. The TV commercials or promos allow him to recall moments from his past. That led to a discussion about the significance of preserving these moments in the same way video game media is preserved. I chimed in with radio airchecks as an example, but I might not have been heard.

Pat welcomes the assembled crowd.
Frank Cifaldi arrives to fill in for Ian Ferguson
The Kotaku article linked above the gallery
In this photo, the topic is how Game Informer‘s archives were all thrown away.
Q&A time
A shoutout to Daniel and Alex Greenberg. Daniel wrote game reviews in Pat’s Ultimate Nintendo guides.
Panel/podcast complete
A round of applause

As of publication, the podcast is not up in audio or segmented video form. There is, however, Flea Market Madness Volume 49, recorded on Father’s Day (June 16). It features the other Frank, as seen in the thumbnail.

3:51 PM UPDATE: There is audio of the Game Informer discussion, but not the Q&A, starting at the 1:17:25 mark of the latest podcast.

10/28 UPDATE: Video of Pat and Frank’s discussion went up six days after this post was published (August 27).

Saturday, 2PM-3PM
Panel Room 2
G Gracin and Greg Sewart
Growing Up Sega: A Trip Down Sega’s Console Timeline

G’s introduction
Greg’s introduction
A question from the audience
What followed was a chronological journey through Sega’s console history. First, the SG-1000.
The Master System
The game changer: The Sega Genesis, released 35 years ago last week (August 14).
Game Gear and Nomad (portable Genesis)
Sega CD
The 32X
G bought a custom-made Neptune at LI Retro. It’s based on the never-released Genesis/32X hybrid prototype.
Sega Saturn
The Dreamcast
After the Dreamcast, the panel (and Sega’s console history) was complete.
Another round of applause
G and Greg spoke to fans afterward

After browsing and buying from the vendor marketplace, I went home.

I returned a little closer to 10AM on Sunday morning. I still had to wait in line for a bag check; I didn’t mind that.

In lieu of a panel I had in mind at 11AM, I re-photographed areas that were blurry on Saturday, took photos of vendors I missed on Saturday, then toured the exhibits on all three floors. Look for those in the second post.

Sunday, 12:30-1:30 PM
Main Theatre
Gail Tilden, interviewed by Jeremy Parish (Retronauts, Limited Run Games) and Lucas Thomas (Nintendo Force magazine founder)
Gail Force: An Intimate Interview with a Nintendo Legend

The interview initially covered Gail’s involvement in the Nintendo Entertaintment System’s North American launch, beginning in the New York Metro Area in October 1985. Among the locations chosen to carry the NES were Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream. At some events, attendees could play Baseball against either New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling or center fielder Mookie Wilson.

Then, the topic switched to her tenure with Nintendo Power magazine. Lucas asked the audience to give a “whoo!” when their first issue was displayed on the projection screen above them.

Watch the video to see if I misremembered anything. Then, see the photos that I kept bending over to take.

Listen for me at the 7:03 mark.
Jeremy Parish
Gail Tilden
Lucas Thomas
Discussing the first issue of Nintendo Power
LJ, whom I met at a panel in 2019, asked Gail who did the claymation for the first issue’s cover.
He also gave a “woo-hoo!” for the DuckTales cover, a nod to the cartoon series theme song (played at a faster tempo on the title screen).
The Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy guide was technically my first issue, bought by one of my parents at Te’amo convenience store on West Merrick Road in Freeport.
This was the sixth issue I had after first subscribing to Nintendo Power at Volume 70.
Gail’s Nintendo Power journey ended with Volume 100.
And it’s where the panel ended.
Afterward, many people had questions and recollections for Gail…
…and items for her to sign.
I just wanted a photo, which LI Retro staff member Joe Vincent took for me.

Then, it was quickly off to Panel Room 2 for my last panel of the weekend.

Sunday, 2PM-3PM
Panel Room 2
Leonard Herman
The History of the History of Videogames

This was the place to be: a celebration of a man who blazed the trail for videogame history. 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the original Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames.

Ahra wanted a photo with Lenny beforehand:

Then came a prologue from John Hancock:

“I just want to say this is the reason why I started seriously collecting. … I remember going up to a classic gaming expo, and this gentleman here gave me the 2000 edition, correct? Third edition [of Phoenix]. And this is what started me on my serious collecting journey. And I’m honored that I consider him a friend, a close friend, a good guy. And I want to say, like, this book changed my collecting trajectory. And you know, this gentleman is really a big contributor to getting some serious facts of videogame history in a serious book. And I’m just honored. So, I want to just thank you for all you’ve done. He needs to be remembered. And I will continue that, like how you promoted and honored Ralph Baer. That’s me to you. So, I just want to say thanks. And this is your time. Thank you so much.”

Well said, John.

The stage is yours, Leonard.

How Leonard’s Rolenta Press got its name
A letter from Ralph Baer!
No Starch Press was the villain in this story.
How Lenny took photos for Phoenix IV
Unflattering background?
Just mask it away.
The paperback edition of Phoenix IV (and a bookmark)
Lenny holds up the hardcover color edition
Will there be a Phoenix 5 in 2025?
If so, here’s the outline so far. With the help of Jeremy Parish, it will published by Press Run, the publishing arm of Limited Run Games.
A shoutout to Frank Cifaldi’s Video Game History Foundation.
Frank recalled he was working for GamesTM magazine when he contacted Lenny for a copy of Phoenix III.
My favorite shots of Lenny were when he smiled or laughed. You could tell he enjoyed sharing his story.
The many video game history books that followed Phoenix
Lenny promoted his Game Scholar website.

Upon closing, Lenny opened the floor to Q&A:

Ahra was among those to ask a question.
Frank Cifaldi had a few questions.
So did John Hancock.

The funniest question and answer came via Mark Baer:

LENNY: Yes, sir.
MARK: Do you have a favorite historical figure in videogame history, by any chance?
LENNY: Yeah. Nolan Bushnell.
[audience laughs]
If anyone doesn’t know, that’s Ralph Baer’s son. That’s his son, Mark. He’s a troublemaker.
MARK: You could answer honestly.

After a few more questions, the panel ended with a round of applause.

I had to get a photo of Leonard Herman, Frank Cifaldi, and John Hancock:

Ian Ferguson dropped by after the panel to say hello:

That is the end of post one. Head to post two for a tour of the marketplace and exhibits. Post three features a conclusion, pickups photos, and a postscript with post-expo pickups.

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.
add a comment

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:

Joel alone with his plaque
Mike alone with his plaque
2023 inductee Joel Feltman flanked by the Krolls, Jeff (2015 inductee) and Pat (2018 inductee)
Tim Ernandes, Dan Reagan, Mike Maimone

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:

Andrew Scarpaci and Tim Ernandes
Mics in studio 3
Studio 3 console and phone

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

I took a selfie when not video recording so I could extract the GPS coordinates for use in the D5500 photos. The R7 geotags photos automatically if paired with the CameraConnect app. I got the GPS for Alumni Hall from last year’s photos, but needed coordinates for the station.

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

Two Hall of Fame Mikes

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 main work was done in Photoshop. Then, I copied and pasted into blank transparent background files in Photoshop Elements and cropped out most of the black. What looks white here is really transparent. Watch the video to see what I did.

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.