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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dan briefly addressed the situation in his opening remarks:

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

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

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

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

But first, Joel and Jeff posed for a photo:

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

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

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

Jeff then posed with Phil’s plaque:

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

Then, Dan introduced Tim Ernandes to present Mike Maimone.

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

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

A photo with the plaque:

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

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

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.


The Heidi Game story from an NBC log clerk November 17, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Film, Football, History, Hockey, Media, News, Sports, Technology, TV, Video.
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Today is not just my 42nd birthday, but the 55th anniversary of the infamous Heidi Game, an AFL game between the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders. My fellow WCWP Hall of Famer John LiBretto, inducted in 2017, was a log clerk for NBC at the time, and permitted me to share what he remembered from that night via our e-mail conversation on Tuesday.

This is John’s story:

A little background: I was a Log Clerk, which was my entry job at NBC (I had started in June of 1968). Basically logged all programming and commercials etc. for the local station (WNBC) and for the network.

I worked in a room with two TV monitors just next to BOC (Broadcast Operations Control), the area that was responsible for all programming output to the network and WNBC. Next door was Master Control, and just in front was the Control Room that switched between all the control studios, rolled the station breaks etc. etc. Busy place.

On any given weekend that had live sports, the Operations Dept issued Conditions that outlined what was to happen during various points in the broadcast day (i.e. handoffs between games and regionalization of games during the football season, and the end of sports into the prime-time schedule at 7PM on a Sunday night). Remember, while the NFL and AFL had announced their merger to take effect in 1970, they were still separate leagues in 1968. The AFL did not have the high ratings of the NFL, nor the clout over the network (in fact, it was said that NBC saved the AFL, and helped facilitate the merger).

There were times that the network would allow a game to run slightly past 7PM, and either slide the network accordingly (rare), or do a Join-in-Progress (also rare). The show on this particular Sunday, Heidi, was a very expensive adaptation of the story (music by John Williams, by the way), and the conditions specifically stated that, no matter what, the show would air to east and central time zones at 7PM. The big 4PM game was, of course, Jets at Oakland Raiders. The commercial control was in Burbank (NBC’s west coast headquarters), so the game was coming back to the east via the video/audio lines from NBC Burbank to Paducah, KY, where it was switched, by AT&T, into the main network via something called the Round Robin (the network signal left NY and traveled in a big circle, city to city, and eventually came back to NY…a big circle that allowed news feeds and regional commercials to be switched into the network as needed (not to mention regional football games).

A lot of set-up information for what transpired next.

As we got closer to 7PM, it was pretty clear the game was not going to end on time. Curt Gowdy had already promoted that Heidi would be coming up in the east and central time zones at 7PM; the game would continue out west. The powers that be (Julian Goodman, President of NBC) realized that this was probably not a great idea after all, and tried to call BOC to order a change (i.e. let the game finish, and slide the east and central feed of Heidi). By this time, the calls were coming into NBC New York from viewers and overwhelming the switchboard, so Goodman couldn’t get through in time.

Here’s the sequence as it aired on the East Coast:

6:58:40 Network Identification (NI) a :06 seconded, either a promo, or just “This is the NBC Television Network.”

6:58:46  Network goes to black for local station break

Somewhere in here, BOC got word from Goodman to delay Heidi and go back to the game…mind you, only 1:14 to accomplish this. That NI I mentioned was also a set cue for the AT&T facility in Paducah to reverse the eastbound feed from Burbank to the normal feed of the network outbound to the west coast. So, that already meant the game was never coming back to the East Coast.

7:00:00 NBC Color Peacock (The Following is a Special Color Presentation on NBC)

7:00:12 A little bit of the Heidi opening, followed by hash (yes, they switched to the incoming feed from California, which unfortunately had nothing on it). Hash is what happens when there is no usable signal on the incoming line (looks like grey fuzz on the screen).

Looked worse than it seems in the writing of it!

Finally, realizing there was nowhere left to go, BOC switched back to the studio airing Heidi and just let it play. The screaming in BOC was quite something, but they actually did everything correctly; had they NOT aired Heidi according to the conditions without Goodman’s authorization, they probably would have all been fired. As it turned out, two of us became quite busy Sports directors!

It’s a miracle Goodman got through at all; the switchboard completely melted down from the volume of calls. The surprise was so did the switchboards in Chicago, Cleveland and Washington. That’s how NBC discovered that the AFL had become a pretty hot property.

I remember all this because I had to log every single second of what went on the air that evening. Eventually, a flash caster was aired over Heidi giving the final score (Oakland scored twice in a matter of a few seconds and won the game [43-32], which further pissed off the New York market).

John LiBretto, via 11/14/23 e-mail

As a postscript to John’s story, here is David Brinkley‘s report and Curt Gowdy’s re-creation of the end of the game on the following night’s Huntley-Brinkley Report:

Modified from original video source

The Jets would get their revenge on Oakland six weeks later in the AFL Championship Game, beating the Raiders 27-23 at Shea Stadium. Of course, two weeks after that, the Jets upset the NFL Champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Instrumental Invasion, 11/16/23: 60-year musical journey, 1963-2023 November 17, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Computer, Football, Game Shows, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, smooth jazz, Sports, Technology, TV, Video.
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This edition of Instrumental Invasion started out as a regular Wednesday night show that I assumed would air after a short programming hiatus (one or two weeks) for WCWP. I guessed wrong. Thus, this was reworked as a Thursday night show. References to “this week” were removed and the intro and outro were redone to acknowledge the impending demise.

Rather than have my last six shows run on The Wave, station manager Pete Bellotti arranged for this show and the next one to air on consecutive nights, hours before the renovation programming hiatus was to begin. This meant I was on three nights in a row: November 15 to 17, all in the regular 9PM slot.

The playlist was created on October 4 and annotated from October 13 to 15. The script was drafted on the 15th, 17th, and 18th.

Recording began on November 4, during my second-ever Twitch livestream. It was an opportunity let viewers in on the process, though few cared to watch live. I worked on the first hour over the course of a two-hour stream. Then, I raided out to music streamer Cerian (kerry-anne). (Twitch doesn’t have a radio category, so I chose music and felt I should raid a fellow music streamer.) I was giddy (as in Biddy) to raid her because I’d been meaning to give her streams a try. I promised I would play the instrumental version of her song “Wrong Side” in my last show, which I assumed would be 186. More on that in the finale recap.

Livestream clips:

The first segment of hour 2 was recorded on November 5 and the rest on the morning of the 6th. I was over a minute beyond my desired 1:49:00 threshold, but with legal IDs and spot breaks, I’d still end before 11PM.

As noted earlier, pickups were recorded on the evening of the 6th, but only after reinstating backups of segment session files. Thinking I was moving to The Wave, I recorded a tag to play in place of all FM references in liners, then I saved and exported those files accordingly.

This proved unnecessary.

David Benoit‘s cover of “Song for My Father” was first played on July 1, 2020, but not with the lengthy origin story. I ended up hooked on a video YouTube recommended of the Horace Silver Quintet playing “Song for My Father” on Danish TV in April 1968:

That, in turn, sent me down a Billy Cobham rabbit hole, culminating in this August 2016 Drumeo presentation:

Click here to download the penultimate scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 10/25/23 October 26, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, History, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Pop, Radio, smooth jazz, Sports, Travel, Video.
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The October 25 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP marked the return of original shows after a nine-week hiatus. It was to be seven weeks, but reruns were delayed while the WCWP transmitter was moved. The move was part of ongoing renovations to the Abrams Communications Center.

Before I tell you “how I spent my summer vacation,” let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way:

There were crossfades in automation between elements, which meant the beginnings and ends of each segment were inaudible. To remedy this, I added one second of silence at the beginnings and ends of next week’s segments before submitting the files to station manager Pete Bellotti. We’ll see if that solves the issue.

I was unable to resume radio show production until after finishing work on the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo photos and blog posts (part one, part two, part three).

I filled out my Casiopea and T-Square collections in July, I expanded my McCoy Tyner collection in September, and new smooth jazz CD preorders (plus one big band release) periodically arrived at my doorstep. Not having an outlet for those new releases required me to make up for lost time in this show’s playlist and the three that followed. I worked on all of them together, one at a time.

The show 177 playlist was created September 5 and 6, and annotated with the next three playlists between the 13th and 16th. The talk break script was drafted on September 19. The first four segments were recorded on the 22nd and the last two on the 23rd. No pickups were necessary during a quality control session on the 30th.

In all, it took me eight days to principally record shows 177 to 180, plus one day of checking for mistakes and mixing down segments. I continued my rerun-proof practice of leaving out dated references and will do so for as long as I’m on the air.

“The Bones” was one song I neglected to play from David Benoit‘s A Midnight Rendezvous last year, but I was inspired to end this show with his cover after he used it in a story post to his Instagram account. I made two “Dem Bones” references while talking it up and made sure to end with “‘The Bones.’ The bye!” The “ya see” ad-libs were icing on the cake.

I recycled the “I’ll Take Romance” tidbits from when I played Beegie Adair‘s by-the-books version nearly one year ago (November 2, 2022). An obsession with McCoy Tyner’s solos on his Blue Bossa arrangement led me to include it here. “Point of Departure” by Nelson Rangell was originally played on September 16, 2020.

“The Washington Post,” a John Philip Sousa march performed by the Band of the Grenadier Guards, was the middle song of the first segment due to a timing error I initially missed. While that error was caught before recording, the fourth segment error wasn’t. Like in show 176, however, it worked out for the best because I was building up a surplus.

Himiko Kikuchi‘s Flying Beagle was an additional music acquisition this summer, so expect to hear more from that eventually. “Fluffy” was a nice start, and good opportunity to share some of my Japanese learning. I originally learned of “fuwa fuwa” and other onomatopoeia from this Mochi sensei video. On the subject of Japanese teachers/Twitch streamers, I consider Misa an intermediate gamer, but not a pro. That doesn’t ruin her fun, nor the fun of subscribers like me. I began treating her ever-growing Dark Souls: Remastered death count (“YOU DIED”) like career home runs, syncing them to milestone home run calls when milestones arose. Her 400th is one example:

Sourced from Harry Kalas‘s call of Jim Thome‘s 400th career home run

Misa racked up over 200 more deaths since that video, but 80 minutes before air, she finally defeated Ornstein and Smough! I set that triumphant moment to Russ Hodges‘ call of the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, via a retrospective on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. This time, I left in Misa’s audio. Enjoy!

Back at it next week. I’ll leave you with Anders Enger Jensen‘s “Borderline” video:

2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo recap: conclusion and pickups September 1, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Baseball, Books, Education, Football, Game Shows, Golf, History, Hockey, Internet, Japanese, Language, Media, Personal, Photography, Sports, Technology, Travel, Video, Video Games.
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If you haven’t seen them yet, read the first post here and second post here.

Sunday, August 13

After my last Long Island Retro Gaming Expo panel of the weekend, I made my way to the vendor marketplace and searched for games I didn’t have that were $20 or less. I bargained with each vendor, only spending close to $200. That’s the least I’ve spent since my first year (2017). The bulk of my purchases were for the Nintendo Entertainment System, my first video game console.

Satisfied, I exited the Cradle of Aviation Museum and waited for my mom to pick me up.

  • Exiting
  • The opposite view from the establishing shot in post 1
  • Cumulus clouds against the clear blue, sunny sky
  • The American flag (I captioned the other two, so why not this?)
  • My bag of combined pickups, led by the infamous Deadly Towers; I finally got it

Monday, August 14 and beyond

My attempt to make up for Saturday night’s severe storm-shortened sleep was unsuccessful. I woke up early Monday morning after five or six hours of sleep. Then, I went outside to look at the stars.

Back inside, as the sun rose, I unpacked the pickups from my paper bag and photographed them.

We’ll start with merchandise (and my badges):

The front of the badges:

12 games for Nintendo Entertainment System:

Now, I have an NES Yoshi to go with the Game Boy version I’ve had since childhood. The Power Pad games and Star Voyager were the subjects of early Pat the NES Punk episodes (including one with Alison).

“Power Pad Fun!”, Part 1:

Part 2:

Deadly Towers got the Angry Video Game Nerd treatment (via fans’ script submissions):

Two for Super Nintendo:

The TV ads at launch tempted me into getting SimCity, but I never did. I haven’t even seen Judge Dredd the film.

Two Nintendo 64 games:

Another game show game for my collection – Jeopardy! for Nintendo DS:

One self-explanatory 3DS title – Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS:

Wrongly assuming the 3DS and Wii U Super Smash Bros. games were the same, I only bought for Wii U when I started collecting for the two consoles in 2017 (there’s that year again). Prior to LI Retro, I saw a Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Video Games video that set me straight (Japanese with English subtitles):

Good thing I found a copy from a vendor, eliminating the need to buy from Amazon.

And lastly, my first Sega CD game – Joe Montana’s NFL Football:

To quote the infamous TV ad (parodied here), I “still don’t have a Sega CD,” but after buying my first game Sunday afternoon, I bought 12 more games on eBay between Monday morning and Wednesday night. This included eight from four-game lots, and two Sonic CD variants. The complete list (in order of appearance):

  • All the games on the shelf

Thank you for taking this photographic journey through the 2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. Until next year.

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, 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, 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?

Audiobooking 8 March 24, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Audiobooks, Basketball, Comedy, Film, Game Shows, Golf, History, Media, Music, News, Personal, Podcast, Politics, Radio, Rock, Sports, Technology, Theatre, TV, Video Games.
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It’s time for the annual “audiobooking” post. Most are visible in the thumbnail, but here are all the audiobooks (with links) that I’ve listened to on Audible since post #7 last year:

That’s a total of 27 audiobooks (two co-written by O’Reilly, one wholly by Reilly), plus two returns. Everything from I’m a Still a 10-Year-Old Boy through Face the Music was purchased in October while Audible steeply discounted their catalog. Since then, I only use Audible credits on audiobooks over $14.95, the monthly membership fee. Of course, if I buy three credits for $35.88, then I’ll buy anything over $11.96.

Next year’s “audiobooking” post will be the ninth overall, but the tenth anniversary. Until then, happy listening.

5/26/24 UPDATE: I can no longer commit time to these “Audiobooking” blog posts. So, last year’s eighth post is the final post. Thank you for following my journey through audiobooks over the past decade.

Instrumental Invasion, 3/22/23 March 23, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Football, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sports, TV.
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The March 22 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on January 30 (after completing last week’s show) and 31. Pickups were recorded on the 31st and February 1.

The playlist was created alongside last week’s on January 20, annotations followed on the 25th, and the talk break script was drafted on the 27th.

Key January 31 pickups were for the Gregg Karukas song I played. I didn’t realize my mistake until putting “Soul Secrets” into Adobe Audition and seeing its shorter duration. “Secret Smile” was the song I wanted, and it had radically different credits. So, I fixed the annotations and script. I also recycled Jeff Kroll’s “smile, Mike!” from the earlier liner. That liner led into “Behind the Rain” by Herb Alpert. This time, I didn’t even bother guessing who played what, but I challenge you to listen and not think of slow-motion NFL highlights narrated by John Facenda.

Another notable pickup padded out hour 2’s second segment, ad-libbing January 20 tidbits that I left in the annotations, but didn’t put back in the script.

This was only the fifth show in 155 without a song by David Benoit. Like the other four times, he will be back next week.

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