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2022 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony June 12, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Baseball, Basketball, Education, Football, Health, History, Hockey, Internet, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Radio, Rock, Sports, Technology, Travel, TV, Video.
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Other Hall of Fame ceremony recaps: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020-21, 2023

On Saturday, June 3, 2023, the WCWP Hall of Fame 2022 class was inducted in a ceremony at LIU Post‘s Alumni Hall.

As noted during the announcement in October, there were eight inductees (listed by name and graduation year):

  • Jon Cole, 1980
  • Kim Dillon, 1980
  • Cosmo Leone, 1980
  • Dan Reagan (“reegan”), 1981
  • Suzanne Langwell, 1983
  • Roger Luce (Lussier), 1984
  • John Mullen, 1988
  • Travis Demers, 2003

(In full disclosure, I was on the 2022 Hall of Fame Committee.)

WCWP station manager (and 2019 inductee) Pete Bellotti tapped me as the ceremony’s official photographer, in addition to the supplemental video I shot with my camcorder and GoPro to later combine with what his students recorded.

(NOTE: In prior recaps, I used the title “director of broadcasting” in place of “station manager.”)

Despite my best efforts, the performance anxiety issue I had with Smooth Jazz for Scholars affected me again ahead of the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony. My essential tremor got progressively worse, reaching its peak when my dad dropped me off outside Alumni Hall at around 12:30. I’m feeling stressed again merely writing about it.

I put my equipment down on a table in the back and began snapping away while also talking to inductees and attendees.

  • 2022 inductee John Mullen speaking to ’19 inductee/WCWP station manager Pete Bellotti and Maureen Tuthill, interim dean of Long Island University’s College of Arts and Design (Brooklyn and Post campuses)
  • Cosmo Leone, Dan Reagan, and family
  • 2022 inductee Travis Demers with ’17 inductee Neil Marks
  • 2015 inductee Jeff Kroll speaks with ’22 inductee Kim Dillon and her first presenter, Ellyn Solis.
  • 2022 inductee Roger Luce with ’13 inductee Bill Mozer, Suzanne Langwell’s presenter

The ceremony was hosted by Dan Cox, WCWP’s station manager from 2002 to ’22:

Current station manager Pete Bellotti had opening remarks:

John Mullen was the first inductee, presented by Dan Cox:

Pardon the AI filtering. My tremor was really bad early in the ceremony and I couldn’t get a clear photo here. I applied shake reduction and JPEG restoration in Photoshop, then edited out some shake reduction ghosting.

John’s acceptance speech:

Rich Kahn presented the second 2022 inductee, Jon Cole:

Jon’s acceptance speech:

Inductee 3 was Cosmo Leone, presented by Larry Lamendola:

Cosmo’s acceptance speech:

Kim Dillon had three presenters, led by Ellyn Solis:

Next, 2019 inductee Lew Scharfberg:

Third, Cande Roth:

Kim was moved by Cande’s presentation.

Kim and her three presenters:

Kim’s acceptance speech:

At the halfway point, the Art Beltrone Founders Award was presented to graduating senior DeAnna Aguinaldo. After Pete Bellotti’s introduction…

…there were presentations by DeAnna’s WCWP colleagues: senior director Michael Moffa…:

…and Vincent Randazzo, student program director and vice president of The Wave (formerly WebRadio WCWP and MyWCWP):

DeAnna’s acceptance speech:

DeAnna with Pete, Michael and Vincent:

Before introducing Dan Reagan’s presenter, Dan Cox had kind words for his former student:

Like last year, the ceremony was streamed live on Zoom:

2019 inductee Fred Gaudelli presented Dan Reagan (“reegan”), the fifth ’22 inductee:

Dan began his acceptance speech by acknowledging Fred’s upcoming honor in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: the 2023 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.

With eight inductees, WCWP’s 2022 Hall of Fame class matched the amount of players, coaches, and executives enshrined annually in Canton, Ohio.

This shot my camcorder viewinder became the new cover photo for my YouTube channel and LinkedIn page:

Dan thanked me at one point, which explains why he emailed me before the ceremony asking how to pronounce my last name.

He also talked about Post professor Chris Dodrill, who I remember fondly from my time as a student. I asked Dan for Professor Dodrill’s email address the following Monday. Chris replied to me the next day, noting that he watched the ceremony on Zoom, and congratulating me on my induction last year (2021 class). He gave his regards to my aunt Robin Rose, who was an academic counselor at then-C.W. Post, and the reason I went there in the first place. Dodrill is now a music researcher for the Library of Congress, to whom he generously donated his vast John Philip Sousa collection, answering questions from fellow Sousa enthusiasts.

It was 20 years ago in April when Fred Gaudelli and Dan Reagan spoke to a class taught by Prof. Dodrill, after which I posted for a photo with them:

2013 inductee Bill Mozer presented Suzanne Langwell, and tied up loose ends from his brief acceptance speech when the ceremony format was different.

Suzanne receiving her plaque from Bill:

Once I took the photo, Bill introduced me to the ceremony attendees as the station historian, a moniker he first bestowed upon me at the 2014 ceremony. Perfectionist that I am, I don’t know if the title fits since I don’t know everything about WCWP’s history, though I’m flattered to be called that.

Suzanne’s acceptance speech:

John “J.P.” Parise presented his radio co-host, inductee Roger Luce (Lussier):

Roger and J.P.:

Roger’s acceptance speech:

Roger spoke to broadcasting students at Humanities Hall in March 2002, and again, a photo was taken with me afterward:

The inductee presentations were bookended by Dan Cox, presenting the last of the afternoon, Travis Demers:

Travis’s acceptance speech:

The ceremony concluded with Dan’s closing remarks:

After the ceremony, we see seven of the eight inductees and the Art Beltrone Founders Award recipient:

(John Mullen had to leave early.)

DeAnna Aguinaldo and her parents:

Dan Reagan and Cosmo Leone:

Fred Gaudelli, Dan Reagan, Brian Miles, Mike Maimone:

A group photo with inductees, presenters, friends:

  • I was taking shots without asking them to look at me, but Bill Mozer directed them to me.

Travis Demers with 2021 inductee Mike Chimeri (me):

Travis and his wife Hannah:

A selfie with Joan Yonke, LIU Post Director of Development, formerly Director of Employer and Alumni Engagement:

To paraphrase Bob Barker, Joan is a loyal friend and true of WCWP.

Mozer and me:

Bill was praised by several inductees and their presenters, and rightly so.

Me with Roger Luce (21 years after the first time) and Dan Cox:

Roger and his sister Christine:

Roger, Christine, and her husband Neil Sass, editor for ABC News’s Nightline:

Finally, candid shots:

  • Joan Yonke grew up in Atlanta and was pleased to meet Dan Reagan, longtime director of Braves telecasts. (Hannah Demers [right] is also a Georgia native.)

Preliminary stress aside, it was a pleasure to capture the day, catch up with those I knew, and meet those I hadn’t.

Congratulations to Art Beltrone Founders Award recipient DeAnna Aguinaldo, and to the eight Hall of Fame inductees: John Mullen, Jon Cole, Cosmo Leone, Kim Dillon, Dan Reagan, Suzanne Langwell, Roger Lussier (the one time I didn’t use his on-air name), and Travis Demers.

As of publication, I am working on the ceremony video and will update with the video once it’s ready. Thank you for reading this recap.

7/9/23 UPDATE: The video has been ready for a few weeks, but an unofficial announcement made at the end has yet to go official. So, I uploaded a version without the announcement yesterday, and after hours of processing, it’s ready for publication.

Instrumental Invasion, 6/7/23 June 7, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, City Pop, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Video Games.
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The June 7 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days: hour 1 on April 13, the first segment of hour 2 on the 14th, and the last two (plus a pickup) on the 15th. An additional pickup was recorded on May 24.

The playlist was created on March 26, tweaked on April 1 to swap in a Keiko Matsui song. Annotations came between April 3 and 6 with talk break script drafted on April 9 and 10. I was 18 seconds short, so I padded out my outro with the “Blue Birdland” reprise from the end of “The Maynard Ferguson Hit Medley” that I referred to at the top of hour 2.

I got the idea to play “Sister Marian” by The Square (not yet T-Square) after Game Dave reminded me to remind his Twitch stream viewers (in the chat) what it inspired: Koji Kondo‘s Super Mario Bros. [overworld] theme.

For comparison, here is “Sister Marian”…

…and the overworld theme:

I referred to Steve Somers for the second week in a row when I came out of Dave’s liner with “Game Dave knows and I know…”

“7 and 7” by Paul Brown was the only retread this week, first heard last October 19.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 5/31/23 June 1, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Baseball, City Pop, Comedy, Dogs, Film, Health, Horse Racing, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Religion, Sports, Thoroughbred, TV, Video, Western, World Music.
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The May 31 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fifth in a row with talk breaks recorded in one day, and third in a row/fourth out of five recorded in one day. That day was April 10, 19 days after last week’s show was recorded. I got a cold a few days after that recording (March 25) and used the time to work on playlists for this show and the next two. Pickups were recorded on April 13, April 16, and May 5.

The playlist was created March 19, 22, and 26, then tweaked on April 1 to add a track from Keiko Matsui‘s Euphoria album released the day before. Annotations were written from April 3 to 5, and the talk break script was drafted April 8.

I played the lead single from Keiko’s album, “Steps on the Globe,” which prompted me to play a clip from “Moosylvania Saved,” the final Rocky and Bullwinkle story arc where the punchline was “spots on the globe.” This exchange between Fearless Leader (Bill Scott) and Boris Badenov (Paul Frees) occurred in episode one of four:

“That’s what my uncle came down with: spots on the globe.”

That talk break also had references to a pair of Mel Brooks films, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The second segment’s second talk break referred to Ghostbusters and Steve Somers. The Schmoozer homage came when I said “The Square were schmoozing S-P-O-R-T-S,” Steve’s catchphrase at the start of some shows or hours of those shows.

There were three retreads this week:

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

See you at the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony this Saturday.

Instrumental Invasion, 5/17/23: More Three-of-a-Kind Showcases! May 18, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, City Pop, Comedy, Game Shows, Internet, Jazz, Media, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.
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The May 17 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the sequel to February 8’s theme week, containing six more Three-of-a-Kind Showcases and more Bob Barker era Price is Right references (Fremantle’s Barker era YouTube channel). The show was recorded and mixed entirely on March 15, but I had to do pickups on the 16th.

The playlist was created on March 9 with annotations on the 11th. The talk break script was drafted up to the top of hour 2 on March 14 and completed between recording sessions on the 15th.

Let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way before all the background info:

The line “I wouldn’t think of it” while back-selling “Unthinkable” by Casiopea referred to a scene in Futurama episode 2ACV03, “A Head in the Polls.” Here is the relevant portion from the transcript:

Morbo: Morbo demands an answer to the following question: If you saw delicious candy in the hands of a small child, would you seize and consume it?

Johnson: Unthinkable.

Jackson: I wouldn’t think of it.

Morbo: What about you, Mr. Nixon? I remind you, you are under a truth-o-scope.

[The truth-o-scope hovers over Nixon’s head and he starts to sweat.]

Nixon: Uh, well, I, uh … the question is-is vague. You don’t say what kind of candy, whether anyone is watching or, uh…

[He clears his throat.]

At any rate, I certainly wouldn’t harm the child.

[The truth-o-scope beeps.]

Maurice LaMarche as Morbo, John DiMaggio as Jack Johnson and John Jackson (same voice for each), Billy West as Richard Nixon’s Head

Aside from that, there were many Bob Barkerisms in my talk breaks, such as the way I teased the next segment, and the “Sir John, who cometh from the flock…?” shtick with announcer Johnny Olson. Examples can be found at the start of these two videos:

I channeled Johnny and Rod Roddy with the “something for every room in the house!” bit leading into the Fourplay and Ken Navarro showcases. I was going to end the show with a Marc Antoine Three-of-a-Kind Showcase, but my signed copy of Ken’s Love is Everywhere CD arrived on March 9. Thus, an opportunity arose to end on a new recording.

This time, four songs were retreads (again, listed in order of appearance):

And The Price is Right music cues I used were (italics are not in the video title):

For the first time in the show’s Wednesday night history, I went more than a week – two weeks – without a David Benoit song. That’s still only seven weeks out of 163. He will definitely be back next week.

Instrumental Invasion, 5/10/23: Songs Recorded Live May 11, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, City Pop, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The May 10 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was a two-day production. Talk breaks were recorded on March 13 with show mixing and a pickup on the 14th.

The playlist was created on March 7 and annotated on the 10th before going out to dinner for my mom’s birthday. The talk break script was drafted on the 11th and 12th.

This week and next week’s shows were conceived to make up for a lack of newly released music to play, but they were also fun to work on. This week, I expanded on the “almost live” theme from last May 25. There, only five songs were live recordings. Here, every song was a live recording, including Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Band all the way back in 1943!

“Get Up!” by the Bob Mintzer Big Band was first played back on April 15, 2020, another theme show (music from 1985 and 2015).

This was the sixth show without a David Benoit song, but he did appear in “Weekend in Monaco” by The Rippingtons.

Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Next week, six more Three-of-a-Kind Showcases!

Instrumental Invasion, 5/3/23 May 4, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Age, News, Personal, Radio, Travel.
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The May 3 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on March 8, the first one-day recording since February 1 for the third anniversary show (airing March 29). Pickups were recorded on the 8th (after principal recording) and 9th, with an additional pickup on April 17 after learning Ahmad Jamal had died.

The playlist was created on March 1, except for the last segment on the 4th. Annotations followed on the 6th and the talk break script was drafted on the 7th.

My “May the Third be with you” at the top of the show was a nod to Star Wars Day the next day (today). Playing off the franchise catchphrase “may the force be with you,” the greeting on May 4 is “May the Fourth be with you.” One May 5, I joked “Cinco de Mayo be with you” on social media.

I played two Casiopea songs, one from their second album and one from their latest. To that end, language and travel came up a lot.

The language part allowed me to recite words and names in their native dialect. Whole sentences were another matter, which is why I leaned on Google Translate for my Spanish description of “Del Corazón.” (I wrote this paragraph on March 9, a month before I started learning Japanese, as noted in last week’s post.)

The travel part was highlighted by “I Love New York” (from Casiopea’s Super Flight [transliterated Sūpāfuraito, per my talk break]), “Tappan Zee” (from Bob James‘s BJ4), and “Chattahoochee Field Day” (from Patrick O’Hearn‘s Eldorado).

Speaking of John Patitucci and his Brooklyn project evoked memories of visiting my great-grandparents in Midwood. Here is a photo from one such trip:

I forget if the allowance I’m proudly holding was from Grandma BeBe or Aunt Tessy.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

8:35 AM UPDATE: Oh, I forgot I made a Don Sebesky reference. He died on Saturday.

Instrumental Invasion, 4/26/23 April 27, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Anime, Audio, City Pop, Education, History, Idol, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Language, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, VTuber.
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The April 26 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP went on the air at the end of the station dinner for students and alumni. The dinner was held at The View Grill, located off Long Island Sound in Glen Cove. I listened to much of the first hour during a ride home from my parents. Mom took a photo of Dad’s infotainment system while tuned to 88.1 FM:

3:47 PM UPDATE: Here’s a photo I took with my camera:

I caught the rest at home.

I have a lot to say, so I’ll get the scoped aircheck out of the way here:

The show’s playlist was created on February 24, annotated on the 27th and 28th, scripted on the 28th and March 1.

For the first time since December 7, I recorded out of sequence. Segments 6, 1, and 3 were recorded on March 2, followed by segments 2, 4, and 5 on March 3. I wanted to get the last segment out of the way because of the mammoth talk break that expounded on my city pop discovery, including excerpts of “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki and of the Caitlin Myers English version. My hunch was right, but I only managed to go 69 seconds over, plus another three seconds in the first segment where I first discussed city pop vis-à-vis Casiopea. I had little trouble compensating, completely making up for the overage over the last four segments without remixing.

After recording a quick pickup for the second segment on March 4, I redid the entire last talk break on the 5th. Taeko noted in a 2017 interview that Stuff drummer Chris Parker played on Sunshower, her precursor to Mignonne. Eric Gale was in Stuff. Maybe it was him. I bought a 2008 CD reissue of Mignonne on Amazon, planning on scanning the presumably Japanese liner notes once it arrived on March 6 and translating the text in the scan. Hedging my bets, the full talk break record said the soloist was Eric. Then, I did an alternate tack-on where I said it wasn’t. I played part of the solo in each.

Served me right for not noticing Discogs’ entry for Mignonne‘s 1989 CD reissue with its English credits. Nope, not Eric. It was Tsunehide Matsuki. I canceled the Amazon CD order, cited the Discogs ’89 CD credit, tacked that onto the earlier redos, and called it a night. I did one more pickup for this redo on March 7 because I was unsure of whether or not Caitlin Myers had more city pop adaptations in the pipeline. I did a separate pickup for the first segment on the 7th, with the precise Japanese transliteration of Casiopea, and a pickup for the top of hour 2.

For posterity, here was the original last talk break with all my nervous energy:

The redo where it was Eric Gale (and the Caitlin YouTube channel plug):

Not routinely, Mike.

The redo tack-on where it wasn’t Eric:

Read about my early city pop journey in this blog post.

I’ll still include the relevant city pop videos, starting with the original “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki):

Referred by this video

As Lou Monte would say (in “Lazy Mary”), the “British” version by Caitlin Myers (from the U.S.):

And T2norway‘s video about Casiopea:

Again, I’ll excuse the mispronunciations of Harvey Mason and Lee Ritenour.

[Removed on 5/3]

April 15 portion joined in progress:
Caitlin’s anime dubbing background inspired me to sign up with CrunchyRoll and watch select anime series. I started with the second season of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, featuring Caitlin as the introverted Shioriko Mifune, who slowly comes out of her shell as the season progresses. At first, I wondered “why the hell am I watching this?,” but by the third episode, I was hooked. So, now I can add idol/virtual idol to my diverse musical interests. (What I play on Instrumental Invasion remains my primary interest.) Incidentally, the English dub does not account for songs, meaning episodic numbers and the opening and closing themes are sung by the original seiyuu (Japanese voice actors).

On March 28, YouTube recommended a Ruri Ohama video, which led to a recommendation of a compilation video by JapanesePod101.com. After watching several of those compilations, I took the plunge by subscribing to the site itself and taking various courses. JapanesePod101.com is a division of the Franklin Square-based Innovative Language Learning. I always feel a sense of pride when I come across a Long Island-based company, past or present. Concurrently, I subscribed to Mochi real Japanese (Mochi Sensei) to learn Japanese from her videos. The teaching styles differ, but that’s okay.

[Removed on 5/3]

Back to what I wrote on March 3:

Ever since I watched Cronkite Remembers on DVD in the 2000s, I’ve had the introductory narration to Walter Cronkite‘s You Are There in my head. “We Were There” by Jazz Funk Soul always jogs my memory, but I never thought to play it on Instrumental Invasion until this show. The way I did the talk-up is how I’ve said the title to myself.

“Knee Deep in Rio” by Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau was the song I moved from last week after realizing I wrongly placed it in the 1985-97 segment.

Robben Ford‘s “Magic Sam” was originally played on October 19 before I knew of the eponymous blues musician. Back then, I assumed it was about a magician, and I said that he “disappeared” as Jay Mirabile’s liner played on the fade out.

Tomorrow, I travel to Milford, Connecticut, to attend and photograph Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Wish me luck.

6:11 PM UPDATE: [Removed on 5/3]

Instrumental Invasion, 4/19/23 April 20, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sports.
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The April 19 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was another 4-2 recording with four segments recorded on February 25 and two (plus pickups) the next day, on the 26th.

The playlist was created on February 11, but tweaked on the 13th when I inadvertently put a 1998 song in the first 1985-97 segment. That song will be part of next week’s show. Annotations started on February 14, but weren’t completed until the 22nd. The talk break script was drafted on the 21st and 24th.

There were three retreads, all from 2020:

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

And why not post the Unified jingle?

Instrumental Invasion, 4/12/23 April 13, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Astronomy, Audio, City Pop, Computer, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sci-Fi, Technology, Video, Video Games.
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The April 12 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on February 22, the day after my city pop journey began.

The playlist was created February 8, except for the last segment on the 10th. Annotations started on February 14 and finished on the 15th. The talk break script was drafted on the 21st.

This is the third week in a row with two Chick Corea songs, and second where the first song was followed by an Earl Klugh song.

I expanded my Maynard Ferguson collection with three of his latest albums, debuting this week. Maynard and Will Donato covered different songs with the same title: “I’ll Be Around.” One was the Alec Wilder standard, the other by The Spinners. Of course, last week, I played two versions of the same song: “Sunrise” by Chet Atkins.

Fourplay‘s “Aniversario” was originally played on December 30, 2020, and Najee‘s “Bounce” was first heard on August 10, 2022.

I had the opposite problem of last week, ending up two minutes and 30 seconds under after five segments! Thus, I filled the void with an extra song and reworked the final talk break. That song was David Murray’s 8-Bit Keys arrangement of “The Unknown Planet” by John Keating (or Johnny Keating), as adapted by Rob Hubbard for the video game Warhawk. In my haste, I forgot I played a Cedar Walton song (“The Early Generation”) in the first segment that featured Freddie Hubbard, so I didn’t emphasize Rob’s first name. Here is the accompanying 8-Bit Keys video:

The plan worked too well and I had to give back five seconds in the fourth segment. Either way, the last segment was the longest I’ve ever produced: 20 minutes and 45 seconds, breaking the old record set on January 4.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 4/5/23 April 6, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The April 5 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on February 19 (four segments) and 20 (two segments). Pickups were recorded on the 20th and 22nd.

The playlist was created hour by hour on February 3 and 4. Annotations didn’t come until February 14 and the talk break script was drafted on the 18th. I made two one-minute timing errors that escaped my eye until recording, a combined two minutes over. As the playlist PDF shows, I was able to break even after much maneuvering.

“Sign of the Times” by Bob James was first played on June 2, 2021, and “Drive Time” by David Benoit was recycled from the second Wednesday night show – April 8, 2020, 156 weeks ago.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below: