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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.


My Twitch setup December 7, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Computer, Internet, Livestream, Personal, Technology, Video.
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RELATED: “Back after this” music cue mixes

Updated 10/15 and 12/31/24, 1/10, 5/8, 7/16, 7/20, 7/23, and 11/30/25 with setup changes

My setup as of 5/7/25

In case you’re wondering, this is the gear that goes into my Twitch streams (UPDATED 10/15 and 12/31/24, 1/10, 5/8, 7/16, 7/20, and 8/20/25):

The webcam, mixer, and Stream Deck are connected to an Anker 4-port USB 3.0 hub.

I gave up on my PC build in December 2024 and switched to a Dell Alienware Aurora R16. Here are the relevant specs for that:

  • CPU: Intel Core i9 14900F (2 4-Core, 68MB Total Cache, 2.0GHz to 5.8 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0)
  • Motherboard: Alienware 0RF96M
  • Memory: 64GB (2x32GB), DDR5, 5200MT/s
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16GB GDDR6X
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro

Overlay backgrounds were made in Adobe Photoshop. Below are six examples (updated 7/16/25; I dropped “…on Twitch” branding in March 2025):

The webcam video is accordingly cropped in OBS for just chatting (background 2) and gameplay/media production (backgrounds 3 and 4; plus a Firefox background I didn’t include here). Game capture (and prerecorded gameplay videos), Adobe Audition, Word, display capture, and other programs are scaled down to fit their box and Firefox is cropped. StreamElements and Twitch overlays, widgets, and alerts are placed in different spots depending on the background. Additional text is added in OBS where necessary (i.e. prerecorded gameplay disclaimer, notable commands [in place of followers goal widget], milestone stream banners). Chat emote animation is full screen and lasts for ten seconds. Sound commands also require an overlay to be heard. Alerts were initially handled entirely by SE, but moved to Twitch in March 2024. The SE donation alert was reinstated during my 300th stream on 2/26/25.

I used Elgato 4K Capture Utility (available for download here) to play in real time on the right monitor until relying solely on OBS. I create a windowed projector and enlarge it on my right monitor where it’s placed in front of Google Chrome where I use the Twitch Stream Manager webpage. (I only have the window fill the screen if game text is unreadable.) To avoid sync issues, a separate element was made for 4K X audio (more on that two paragraphs below). Desktop audio is advanced by around 400ms (-400ms), also to avoid sync issues, although that is not utilized as often thanks to OBS’s “capture audio” option for window capture elements.

The Elgato 4K X only allows access to one app at a time. So, I initially used the NDI 6 Runtime plugin for OBS and click “Enable Stream Pair” in 4K Capture Utility. It was seen and heard as an “NDI Source” – that I named “Elgato 4K X” – in all gameplay-related scenes. I’m forced to use external devices on my Alienware Aurora R16 because the RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card blocks the remaining PCIE slots. As noted in the previous paragraph, I eventually abandoned this practice and relied solely on OBS, only using 4K Capture Utility to play games off stream if I don’t intend on recording. (11/21/25 NOTE: I now use the plugin for Dancing with the Stars watchalong streams, such as the one for season 34‘s fifth week on October 14 and the finale on November 25.)

While using the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 from 12/31/24 to 1/6/25, I noticed a gradual audio desync problem with certain consoles – something not present in VODs or off-stream recordings. That required me to make a separate audio channel for the capture card, a solution I learned via this message board post. I bought the Live Gamer 2.1 for capturing to my laptop. With a working desktop, laptop captures and streaming will likely occur in the basement or away from home. (7/23/25 NOTE: One such “away from home” stream was from my hotel room in Connecticut on May 3 between Smooth Jazz for Scholars shows.)

I hope that answers all your questions. Thank you for watching my streams. I’ll leave you with a screenshot of an OBS test the night before my third stream.

7/23 and 11/30/25 UPDATES: As a bonus, I’m including my latest setup photos.

Before the 3D (7/23/25)
With the 3D (11/30/25) (pardon the dust)
To even out the gallery, this is the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller I use with my Switch 2, resting in its charging dock away from my desk. (11/30/25 UPDATE: I got two more Xbox Series X|S controllers and moved those controllers to a shelf.)

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, 11/15/23: Song pairs from 2023 albums November 16, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, smooth jazz, Technology.
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The November 15 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the last show to air on Wednesday night, and the third song pair show. The theme was pairs from 2023 albums. It was an excuse to accelerate my new release backlog airplay ritual of playing six songs from a new release. Since David Benoit‘s latest release came out in February 2022, he was absent from the show. That’s eight times in 180 shows without my favorite musician. And visiting the future, I can say it ended up eight times in 182 shows.

The playlist was created on September 9, the last in a group of four I worked on. Annotations were made alongside the other three, between September 13 and 18. The talk break script was drafted on the 21st.

I recorded this show’s first hour at the office on September 27. The first segment of hour two was recorded on the 28th (while watching VoiceUnmuted [Katie Seto] on Twitch) and the last two (plus pickups) on the 29th. The pickups were to accommodate the resulting deficit upon replacing Pat Metheny‘s “Trust Your Angels” with “Morning of the Carnival.” My September 30 quality control session (prior to Katie’s charity stream) came up clean, so no further pickups were needed.

The office recordings were the first time I changed my editing technique. You may have noticed distorted audio in talk breaks in last week’s show from the third segment on. Adobe Audition‘s declicker filter worked fine at home when used broadly (for the entire file), but not at the office where I had updated to the latest edition of Audition. So, after applying denoise, I listened intently for mouth clicks and other noises to filter out as I edited. I have since updated all my Adobe programs at home and have the same problem, meaning I have to use the same technique there.

Click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:

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.

2023 Long Island Retro Gaming expo recap: touring the expo September 1, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Computer, Education, History, Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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If you haven’t viewed the first recap post yet, click here. Skip ahead to the third recap here.

Now that you’ve seen the panels, why not tour the rest of this year’s Long Island Retro Gaming Expo at the Cradle of Aviation Museum?

Before we do that, while editing on the Monday after (August 14), I noticed a familiar face in the bottom right of this Saturday (August 12) photo in the vendor marketplace:

What?! Clint Basinger (LGR) was there?! According to his Twitter activity, yes.

I was kicking myself for not knowing he’d be there, but John Riggs and LI Retro staff member Ryan Shapiro told me on Facebook that Clint was there as a paid attendee, not a guest. In their words:

He visited the show but did not host a panel. I was very excited to see him there.

Ryan Shapiro

I didn’t know he was gonna be there, either. There were quite a few YouTube people that weren’t on the list but showed up to hang out. Tells you how awesome the show is.

John Riggs

Hear hear, John. While I missed Clint in the moment, I did notice Justin Silverman walking along a separate row of vendors. I’d have said hello if we crossed paths.

Here is the latest LGR video:

The walking photo tour begins in earnest with a “good retro morning” greeting:

Most photos were taken on Saturday, but a small amount are from Sunday (August 13). (You’ll know by the filename.)

Vendor Marketplace:

I thought of Japanese Ammo with Misa as I passed this vendor’s Pokémon figurines.
Consoles and PCs were available from vendors

EON Gaming:

The rest of the first floor:

This TV cycled through WS4000 simulator flavors to show weather conditions in several video game locations.
The music was from actual Weather Channel local forecast recordings on the tribute site TWC Classics…
…but Dan Chandler’s recreated narration was enabled.
Speaking of Pokémon, here’s the Pokélab.
The next four photos were actual museum exhibits, unrelated to LI Retro.
After taking this, I sat down in the right window seat. It was as close as I’ve been to air travel since March 2019.
Back to LI Retro exhibits.

Second floor:

The second floor had its own Game Boy Selfie Station.
Once again, I present the not-rare Black Tiger.

The third floor was Tetris-themed:

I’ve been a fan of Tetris ever since playing the Game Boy version as a kid. I have that and 21 other variations of Tetris in my collection. This includes Tetris & Dr. Mario and Puyo Puyo Tetris. I also have the three ports of Tetris 2. The sequel gets a bad rap, but I enjoy it.

Anyway, that’s the end of the photo tour. Click here for my third recap post with a conclusion and pickups photos.

2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo recap: introduction, guests, panels September 1, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Aviation, Books, Computer, Education, Game Shows, History, Internet, Media, Personal, Photography, Podcast, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games.
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Feel free to skip ahead to the second post (touring the expo) or third post (conclusion and pickups).

Introduction

The weekend of August 12 and 13 marked my fifth year at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, held in the Cradle of Aviation Museum, situated along Museum Row in East Garden City. This is LI Retro’s second year as a three-day event, running from 4PM Friday through 5PM Sunday. Again, I opted to skip Friday and just go Saturday and Sunday. I had to last year since I used my ticket for the postponed 2020 expo, but I saved money this year by purchasing a three-day ticket. I would have gone Friday if I lived within walking distance or had a car of my own.

When LI Retro’s schedule was published a few weeks before the event, I planned my days around panels, three per day. I also hoped to catch musical performances, but time would not allow that. I did not allow myself to buy games from vendors until after the last panel on Sunday.

I brought my Canon EOS R7 (and compatible speedlite, which didn’t cooperate) along with a TASCAM DR-05 audio recorder. While panels would be posted online, I wanted personal recordings to hold me over in the meantime. As of this writing, I have yet to listen, let alone edit out the beginnings and ends.

I hoped not to go overboard with photography, which means I did. A whopping 831 photos (466 Saturday, 366 Sunday) were taken with the R7 at LI Retro, plus four on my iPhone 13 Pro. I spent a week and a half editing them all, spreading out 563 of them in three blog posts. (I couldn’t possibly cram them all in one.)

This first post contains the introduction you’re reading now, photos with guests, photos from the six panels I saw, and relevant links and media embeds.

We start with an establishing exterior shot taken Sunday morning:

Waiting in line before doors opened on Saturday morning
Entering…

Guest table photos

It was fun catching up with guests and staff that I’ve seen before, and meeting new guests for the first time.

Leonard Herman (right) and Mark W. Baer (left), middle child of videogame pioneer Ralph H. Baer:

Mark gifted me with copies of his father Ralph’s patent and of the Magnavox Odyssey licensing agreement between Magnavox, Atari and Sanders Associates. From Leonard, I bought his book ABC to the VCS: A Director of Software for the Atari 2600 and Bill Kunkel‘s Confessions of the Game Doctor. Each book was published by Leonard’s Rolenta Press company.

Leonard and Mark with Patrick Wong:

Me and Jeff:

I didn’t compete with him on the Brown Box prototype this year.

LI Retro staff member Ryan Shapiro posed with Mark Baer prior to Sunday’s panel:

Me and John Riggs:

I bought another Genesis ROM hack cartridge from John’s table this year, but not one he made.

Adam Koralik:

Pat Contri (a.k.a. Pat the NES Punk) and Ian Ferguson:

I congratulated Pat for 15 years on YouTube, and he and Ian on a decade of the CU Podcast. We talked about cameras, the upcoming N64 entry in Pat’s Ultimate Nintendo book series, and my merch purchases. (I also apologized for how my podcast panel question trailed off at the end. [SPOILER])

Sunday morning, Pat was interviewed by Margaret Sykes of WRHU, radio station for nearby Hofstra University:

She then spoke to Leonard and Mark:

Adam’s table had prototype consoles and a signed copy of Shenmue II:

Frank Cifaldi spoke to Lenny and Mark before his panel, my first of the weekend:

John Riggs talking to attendees:

John’s LI Retro vlog:

Travis McGeehan (TIKevin83) and the TASBot:

On to panel photos and relevant links, including video and/or audio.

Saturday Panel 1, 11AM-12PM:
Frank Cifaldi
Adventures in Saving Video Game History

I winced at all this misinformation.
Q&A

After the panel, I ended up part of a conversation with Frank and fellow archivist Jason Scott. (I had no idea I was in the presence of greatness until a Google search Sunday morning.)

A selfie with Jason (sans top hat) and Frank:

I resorted to AI enhancing to compensate for lens blur.

Saturday Panel 2, 2PM-3PM
Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson
CU Podcast Special 2

Podcast audio out of the way, including my question:

The not-rare Black Tiger cabinet (in reference to this):

And the podcast videos:

Topic 1: Nintendo is expected to release the Switch 2 next year.
Audience member: “If it’s not backward compatible, I will riot.”
Topic 2: a scummy eBay seller.
Topic 3: Ten years of the CU Podcast
Demonstrating Steph Curry’s uninspired percussion…
…and Klay Thompson’s inspired percussion
Q&A…
Waiting to ask my question
Asking my question: Do friends and family that appeared in videos get recognized (Alison, in particular)? (Plus, I saw a Black Tiger arcade cabinet on the second floor, alluding to Pat’s Flea Market Madness encounter.)
Back at my seat
This was a question or two after mine
The last questioner asked if Pat and Ian had seen Grandma’s Boy because “it’s fire,” slang for “great.”
Looking it up on IMDB
6.9/10
A final thank you

While waiting to ask a question, I noticed my friend Daniel Greenberg of Winterion Game Studios in the audience with his wife Alex. I whispered hello and we spoke more after the panel. It turns out Daniel and Alex had visited LIU Post earlier in the day. As you’ll see in the photo Alex took, I was wearing a Post polo on Saturday:

Saturday Panel 3, 3:30-4:30 PM:
G Gracin
Growing Up Genesis with G to the Next Level (streamed live on Twitch)

Watch the Twitch stream VOD here.

In addition to streaming on Twitch, G recorded the panel for a future YouTube video.
G’s Sonic collection
Twitch montage…
To mark the occasion, G displayed three items with a New York area theme (two, at least). First, El Viento, partially set in 1920s NYC.
Next, the New York Pokémon Center Game Boy Advance.
Third (not directly NY-themed), issue 0 of the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comics series.
G turned their webcam toward the audience so we could say hello.
“Hello, Twitch chat!”
Q&A began with the same audience member who joked to Pat and Ian that he would riot if the Switch 2 isn’t backward compatible.
A clip of G rating the dubious Genesis game Slaughter Sport (a.k.a. Tongue of the Fatman).
One question from Twitch chat
A parting shot of the TV screen

G and me:

I tried to go to sleep early Saturday night, but I was wired from the long and exciting day I had. I figure I got four hours of sleep before being jolted awake by a severe thunderstorm just before 3AM. The peak came at 3:13 with two close (and loud) lightning strikes. Thankfully, conditions mellowed after that, though sleep was impossible. I got some editing done and prepped for a return to Cradle of Aviation at 10AM. Somehow, Lenny, Mark, Patrick, Pat, and my parents all slept through the storm.

Sunday morning was when Margaret Sykes conducted her interviews, and where I spoke to her about WRHU general manager John Mullen’s recent induction to the WCWP Hall of Fame.

Sunday Panel 1, 11AM-12PM:
Adam Koralik, Evil Rob Thanos, Sunshine (from Adam’s Discord)
Talking Console Prototypes: Sega Pluto (and hard drives), Atari Jaguar “Hot Rod” Dental Unit, Sony PlayStation Debugging Station, Nintendo GameCube NR Reader

Relevant videos:

Finally, panel photos:

The first and last of the above videos looped throughout the panel. Adam joked that they were 70mm IMAX editions, like for Oppenheimer.
Adam with the Nintendo PlayStation prototype
RIP Terry Diebold (right)
Adam and Rob introduced themselves.
Sunshine wondered why he was there.
Sunshine showed off the Sony PlayStation Debugging Station and GameCube NR Reader.
An audience member guessed what prototype Adam was holding.
Answer: the Atari Jaguar “Hot Rod” Dental Unit.
Adam at the National Videogame Museum
Who’s that with him outside the museum? (It’s Rob, of course.)
Lastly, the Sega Pluto…
…and its hard drives.
Q&A…
Squishchin’s question
Afterward, a fan named Rob (left) gifted Adam with Shenmue promotional material he acquired while working at an electronics store. (source)

While working on this post, I joined Adam’s aforementioned Discord. I was welcomed with open arms and given the nickname Mike Camera. I like it!

It’s where I found Squishchin’s LI Retro vlog:

10/11 UPDATE: Watch Adam’s travelogue on his second channel, Flying & Eating with Adam Koralik:

Look for me at the 22:43 mark.

Sunday Panel 2, 12:30 PM-1:30 PM:
Frank Cifaldi and Rachel Simone Weil
Unraveling Nintendo’s Most Elusive Lost Hardware: The Nintendo Knitting Machine

I mistook this Royal for a different Royal and was corrected by Frank. (I apologized for that.)
A GIF of Rachel at the controls
Rachel’s creation
My Columbo impression (a la Pat Contri’s friend Frank [last name withheld]) from the day before continued to haunt me.
Rachel’s original AI advertising
More AI ads
Q&A…

Sunday Panel 3, 2PM-3PM:
Leonard Herman and Mark W. Baer
The Life, Time and Influence of Ralph H. Baer, The Father of Videogames

As noted in last year’s recap, Lenny grew to be like a surrogate son to Ralph. You can see the brotherly love between Lenny and Mark in many of the photos below.

Mark showing the patent and licensing agreement…
…and Ralph’s book Videogames in the Beginning (published by Lenny)
Mark reenacted the What’s My Line? panelists’ amazement during their questioning
Q&A…
Answering my question: What did Ralph think of videogames (one word) becoming publicly known as video games (two words)?

This concludes post one. Click here for post two or here for post three.

Instrumental Invasion, 6/21/23 June 22, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, City Pop, Computer, Education, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Technology, TV.
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The June 21 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was still another one-day recording, done entirely on April 24. I’m not bothering with streak stats anymore. It’s a regular thing now. Pickups were recorded April 26 and 27, with extensive rerecording on May 3.

Let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way first:

The playlist was created alongside next week’s on April 15 and 16, with a tweak on the 22nd to add a Louis Hayes song. Annotations were written between April 21 and 23, followed by the talk break script draft. I hoped to get next week’s show recorded before Smooth Jazz for Scholars, but that didn’t pan out. The playlist and annotations were reworked to coincide with May 3’s rerecording.

I played two songs by The Square/T-Square and Casiopea in order to get through their catalog faster. For a time, I was obsessed with the piano solo at the end of “Night Dreamer.” The credits for “Midnight Dreamer” on Miss You in New York list one of the trumpeters as Allen Rubens, but spotty Discogs credits for that name led me to believe it was Alan Rubin. (Alan’s “Mr. Fabulous” moniker came from The Blues Brothers band and film.)

There were four retreads (down from five before swapping in Louis Hayes):

I’ve gotten more playful and goofy in my talk breaks in recent shows, either by going off script or working that shtick into the script. For example, “…East and West play bass the best…but it’s subjective.” Also, I didn’t think there’d be so much spelling.

There was a whole talk break centered around something related to anime because of the original David Benoit song I had in mind, “Yusuke the Ghost.” The May 3 rerecords removed all references (including later callbacks) and changed David’s song to “Monster in the Attic.” The morals of the story are don’t do fandubs if you want to work professionally in voice-over, and don’t blab on your radio show and blog about every little thing a creator you support does or has done.

As if all that weren’t enough, this show aired on the day I tested positive for COVID-19. It finally got me after three years and three months in the U.S. This adds to my production delays that began with the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony and continued with my mom’s retirement party last Friday and replacing my computer desk and hutch on Saturday. (Thanks to my uncle Scott for assembling the new one.) The advance buffer is down to four shows. After next week, what I’ve recorded so far (through July 19) has been reworked as evergreens without dated references. This will allow them to air as reruns if I need a hiatus. Beyond that, I’ve made playlists for four shows (including show 175), annotated and scripted one (as an evergreen), and partially annotated two others. Depending on how I feel, those will be the last shows until September or October.

Thank you for your continued support. I’ll close with before and after* photos:

*The true after photo won’t come until my dual monitor setup is complete. As of today, I am waiting for a replacement monitor (dead pixels) and its mate that I bought separately to replace the old one (seen alone in before, on the left in after). That monitor got scuffed when the tripod/webcam fell on it. At the time, I was vacuuming off sawdust from a hole my uncle drilled for the speaker’s power cord.

9:15 AM UPDATE: This is another one of those shows where I went the entire time between recording and airing without noticing a mistake: omitting Masato Honda on alto sax for “Midnight Dreamer” by T-Square and Friends. I also made a research mistake for “Over Nine Waves” by Alison Brown. Compass Records is her and Garry West’s own record label and Compass Sound Studio is their studio.

6/27 UPDATE: My dual monitor setup is complete. The replacement and mate arrived today and neither had dead pixels on their screens.

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.