2022 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo recap August 21, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Aviation, Books, Education, History, Internet, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Podcast, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.Tags: Brett Weiss, CU podcast, ian ferguson, John Riggs, leonard herman, LI Retro, Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, pat contri, ralph baer, Video Games
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Part 1: Introduction
The Long Island Retro Gaming Expo‘s long-awaited return came on Friday, August 12, after a three-year COVID-caused absence. Yes, the expo was expanded to three days starting this year, running from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. The venue was the same as always: the Cradle of Aviation Museum, situated along Museum Row in East Garden City on the former site of Mitchel Air Force Base.
The purported 2020 edition of LI Retro was announced in February of that year. I immediately bought a weekend pass (still just two days). Little did anyone know that the faraway disease then referred to as the Coronavirus would reach the United States a few weeks later. As COVID-19 spread and a pandemic grew, venues shut down and events were either canceled or postponed. LI Retro’s postponement came that May. 2020 tickets would be honored in ’21. UPLINK, a virtual expo, was scheduled in its place on August 8 and 9. Of course, I attended and wrote a recap.
Even as vaccines were rolled out going into 2021, the organizers felt it was too soon to resume. Thus, they postponed again to ’22; and again, tickets for the postponed years would be honored. Another edition of UPLINK was held virtually in February. I attended, but was overwhelmed by the amount of transcribing and note-taking I’d have to do for the panels I planned on watching. So, I abandoned the recap in favor of continued radio show production.
Last December, LI Retro held its first annual one-day Festival of Games. I was in and out within two hours after a photographic walking tour (similar to the one you’ll see later in this post), arcade game sampling, and buying games from vendors. There was a recap for that.
As August drew closer, a third day of LI Retro was introduced. I considered attending, but opted to stick to the weekend.
With a week to go, I feared I’d compulsively take too many photos, a habit that’s gotten out of hand (i.e. Memorial Day boat ride, June 18 Mets game). I only took 353 photos at another Mets game on August 10, but sure enough, I went overboard at LI Retro. To that end, this is the first post with photo galleries.
The bulk of my photos were shot with my DSLR, but I took supplemental photos with my iPhone.
I arrived at the Cradle of Aviation Museum at 10:06 AM on Saturday:
Within 15 minutes, I was inside. I walked to the box office and handed my ticket to the attendant in exchange for a badge. “Finally,” I told her, “after 2 1/2 years, I get to use this [ticket].” She handed me my badge and my adventure began.
Part 2: Panels
My first panel – after meeting and greeting, and photographing the vendor rooms, was by Brett Weiss. “I Survived the Video Game Crash of 1983” began at 11AM in Panel Room 2. I joined it in progress, grabbing a front row seat, but oddly holding back on photos.
Brett talked about his experiences with arcade games and home video game consoles from the second generation into the third, and how the rise of home computers played a role in the 1983 crash.
During the Q&A session at the end, I relayed (but didn’t ask, so I apologized) my video game experience growing up. I was a home (and school) computer guy, fluent with Apple II, and my sister and I received an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in February 1990, as the third home video game console generation gave way to the fourth.
The book in the last photo is the one I bought from Brett afterward.
After snacking on a protein bar, I entered the Main Theatre for Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson’s 12:30 PM panel. I spoke to Pat and Ian during my meet and greet session two hours earlier, reminding them that I met them in 2019 and immersed myself in content from Pat’s YouTube channel after buying (at their merchandise table) the four DVD sets of Pat the NES Punk and the book Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library. I subsequently bought the SNES guide. I wrote reviews of each – NES, SNES. (And you can buy the DVDs and books here.) This year, I bought two stickers and a CU Podcast (Completely Unnecessary Podcast) t-shirt. It was the last large size they had. I said I’d probably get along swimmingly with Frank, Pat’s older friend from New Jersey who settled in San Diego before Pat and Ian made their respective moves there.
Pat and Ian’s panel was a live portion of their next episode of the CU Podcast. Before it started, and while I settled into my front row seat, the volunteer assigned to the theater asked them to “say something into the microphone” as a mic check. Ian jokingly parroted the request: “say something into the microphone.” I amusingly replied, “I knew you were gonna say that.”
Continuing from prior episodes, Pat and Ian criticzed Tommy Tallarico and his vaporware console that would have been (or could still be?) the Intellivision Amico. On display above them was the console’s leaked “fact book.” There will be audio and video, but first, the photos:
You can hear the panel-turned-podcast-episode here. My portion of the Q&A starts at 1:57:08, but I’ve clipped it here:
And this is a video excerpt from the panel – shot with the iPhone on the table – that was posted to Pat’s YouTube channel:
I was the voice at 16:44 saying that Sean Astin narrated a video game documentary. I was thinking of Video Games: The Movie, but a comment to the video said the fact sheet was referencing the later docuseries called Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story.
I liked Ian’s quaint pronunciation of wanton, “wonton” instead of “wantin’.”
Video of the Q&A portion:
My questions start at 18:26, “Tommy” starts at 25:13.
Theater guests had to exit on the third floor, so I bode my time by taking photos of the few console freeplay tables there. Then, I snapped pics for most of the second floor exhibits prior to the Axinn Air and Space Museum Hall entrance. I saved that for after the 2PM panel back in the theater.
In that 2PM panel, John Blue Riggs performed a live ROM hack of Super Mario Bros. for the NES, the first game I played in February 1990 via the Duck Hunt combo cart. With the right software, John imported tiles from whatever NES game ROMs the audience requested, and he altered the SMB code to altered the colors and text. Let the editing begin!
I spoke to John during the meet and greet, letting him know that like his son, I am on the autism spectrum, specifically with what used to be called Asperger Syndrome. While at his table, I bought a Sega Genesis ROM hack that put Scott Pilgrim from his titular video game in Streets of Rage 2. We posed for a photo, but when I got home, I was dismayed to find that my DSLR’s lens didn’t focus on us when his tablemate Dave took our photo. They graciously allowed a do-over with my iPhone Sunday morning.
Here is John’s aforementioned vlog of his LI Retro experience:
I’m in the vlog at 13:30, going through my DSLR camera roll before John’s panel. At 19:56, he and Dave ate at Friendly’s in nearby East Meadow. I ate there with my girlfriend Kelly during her visit in April.
After the panel, I photographed what I believed to be nearly every other nook and cranny of the freeplay and tournament areas. John saw much more than I did.
The last item on my Saturday agenda was to buy games from vendors. (See the end of part 4.)
The combination of excitement from earlier in the day and a loud block party somewhere south of my house kept me from relaxing and easing into sleep. I probably slept two to four hours, at best.
I arrived at day three of the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo at around 10:30 AM. I met Justin, Marshall, and Kieran from Cinemassacre/Screenwave Media (and bought Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie), got the second chance photo with Riggs, and hung out at Leonard Herman‘s table. I’ve known Lenny (to his friends and family) since meeting him at the 2018 LI Retro and then reviewing his video game history book, Phoenix IV. In 2019, I met his associate Jeff, and this year, I was honored to meet Patrick Wong and Mark W. Baer, the middle child of Dena and Ralph H. Baer, the inventor of videogames (one word). They’re all nice and friendly, and it was my pleasure buying Ralph’s book Videogames in the Beginning, and Kate Hannigan‘s biographical children’s book, Blips on a Screen. I will definitely read that to Leo F. Giblyn School students next March, another annual tradition of mine.
Lenny and Mark’s panel was at 11:30 AM in Panel Room 2. Again, I sat in the front row. Lenny grew to be like a surrogate son to Ralph, and the brotherly love between he and Mark was on display throughout the panel, especially in the first two pics.
I linked to it in the gallery, but here again is Ralph and Bill Harrison’s 1969 Brown Box demo:
Part 3: Meet and greet photos
Lenny Herman and Mark Baer:
Patrick Wong:
Jeff, in his Pac-Man suit:
Brett Weiss:
Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson:
John Riggs:
The Cinemassacre/Screenwave Media crew, Justin and Marshall:
…and I met Kieran while browsing a vendor’s games:
You’ll see merchandise and games in the pickups portion of this recap.
Part 4: Touring the expo
Musical performance: 88bit (a.k.a. Rob Kovacs):
88bit was featured in John Riggs’s vlog.
The other performers were ConSoul, Retro & Chill, and Super Thrash Bros. (also in John’s vlog).
The line ahead of the cosplay contest, held Saturday at 3:30 PM in the Main Theatre:
High score challenges:
Just Dance 4 (to “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley):
Tournaments:
Game Boy Selfie Station with the Game Boy Camera and Printer:
Console freeplay:
Indie and homebrew games:
Arcade freeplay:
PC freeplay:
Before I left for home on Sunday, I tried out some console and arcade freeplay games, but not PC games. Maybe next year. The console games I played were Joust (Atari 7800), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo), and Virtua Tennis (Sega Dreamcast). The arcade games I attempted were Space Invaders, Arkanoid, NARC, VS. Hogan’s Alley, Ms. Pac-Man, and Mortal Kombat.
I even gave LJN Video Art a try. It was just as finicky as The Angry Video Game Nerd (James Rolfe) made it out to be.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a TV running the WeatherStar 4000 simulator, a tribute to The Weather Channel local forecasts/Local on the 8s in the 1990s (check TWC Classics for examples):
Vendor Room:
Vendor Room annex (“More Vendors”), also home to meet and greets (and the food court):
When I was finished taking photos on Saturday, I began making the rounds in the vendor room to pickup video games. I vowed not to spend more than $25 on a game, and with one exception, I honored my vow. I successfully haggled when necessary, paying $15 for $17 worth of games, $20 for $23 worth, and $30 for $33 worth. Otherwise, one vendor discounted $7 from my $132 total and another had a two for $10 deal if you bought two $6 games. The only game I bought priced above $25 was the Xbox port of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, which was $35. It was my last purchase before leaving on Saturday. My last two purchases on Sunday were Legacy of the Wizard and Rolling Thunder, both for NES.
I was satisfied with my pickups, which brings us to…
Part 5: Pickups
Saturday pickups:
Merchandise:
- Blips on a Screen by Kate Hannigan (writer) and Zachariah Ohora (illustrator)
- Videogames in the Beginning by Ralph H. Baer
- Streets of Rage 2: Scott Pilgrim (John Riggs Sega Genesis ROM hack)
- CU Podcast t-shirt (large)
- Pixel Pat sticker
- Ask Frank sticker
- The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987 by Brett Weiss
NES (Nintendo Entertainment System):
Super NES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System):
- Animaniacs
- Frank Thomas’ Big Hurt Baseball
- NCAA Basketball
- Super Caesars Palace
- Super R-Type
- Super Scope 6 (pack-in game for Super Scope light gun; someday, I’ll get that)
- MVP Baseball 2004
- NFL Blitz 20-03 (“twenty-oh-three”)
I’d wanted The Simpsons: Hit & Run ever since it was lauded in the Game Sack video on Simpsons games. (Click here to start at the relevant portion.) Epic Mickey was on my mind after seeing it on Friday in a 2017 Cygnus Destroyer video on his Top 10 Disney Games (link removed with channel in 2023). I didn’t think to check the condition of the discs before buying, and was disappointed to see their scuffed appearance on Saturday night. You’ll see below that Epic Mickey 2 was one of my Sunday pickups from a vendor that also had the original game. All discs at his booth were in pristine condition. I lamented my mistake from the day before, chalking it up to a lesson learned. This Nintendo link taught me a positive lesson on Sunday night: how to clean discs. Monday night, I took dampened part of a washcloth and wiped Epic Mickey from left to right, line by line, then did the same with a dry part of the washcloth. The game played flawlessly in my Wii U. Tuesday morning, I did the same to Hit & Run and had the same positive result in my Xbox 360. Hit & Run was more fun and intuitive to play than Epic Mickey.
Sunday pickups:
Merchandise:
I watched the AVGN movie in 2019 on Amazon Prime Video, but it was later delisted. Now, I own a Blu-ray copy. They can’t take that away from me.
NES:
Xbox:
Wii:
It may be a while before I get a Super Scope, but the Saturday after LI Retro, I bought a Wii Balance Board, Wii Fit U, and a Wii Fit U Fit Meter. Now, I can play all the Wii Fit games and track my steps.
Just as AVGN made Ikari Warriors infamous (outtakes), Wii Music’s bad reputation stems from the crazy demo at E3 2008. I almost bought still another infamous NES game, Deadly Towers, on the Saturday of the expo, but relented.
Part 6: Conclusion
All good things must come to an end, and my time at the 2022 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo ended at 2:05 PM on Sunday, August 14. I took two parting shots with my iPhone before riding home:
Thank you for making it to the end of my recap. I know there was a lot to process, and it was a labor of love to draft the post. Patience was required often as WordPress struggled to display the text I typed, presumably because of all the photos and captions.
Thank you to all the guests I met and reacquainted with, to the vendors I bought from, and my fellow attendees, like budding game designer Brandon.
Special thanks to the LI Retro organizers and volunteers, especially Ryan Shapiro. You were all friendly and highly accommodating. I greatly appreciate that.
Until next year, so long.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/17/22 August 18, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, Comedy, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, Travel, TV.add a comment
The August 17 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on June 27, along with the first segment of next week’s show, the most segments I’ve recorded in one day. Coincidentally, this came five days after the previous show recorded in one day aired. June 22’s show was recorded entirely on April 18, but whereas that was the last show produced before the Smooth Jazz for Scholars hiatus, this was the first show after the WCWP Hall of Fame hiatus.
The playlist was created on June 21 while I was in the early stages of what turned out to be an ear infection. COVID-19 was ruled out by two negative home tests (that day and on the 23rd), and a doctor trip on the 24th showed it was an ear infection rather than my fallback assumption of a cold. Since my voice was compromised, albeit slightly, I chose to start working on next week’s show, annotating and talk break script drafting simultaneously with the intent to record them both once I was better. (I still sounded nasal while recording.) This week’s show was annotated on the 23rd with the first two segments of the next show, and the talk break script was drafted on the 25th.
I continued the new habit of recording segments out of sequence to determine which to shorten, accommodating for ones that run long.
It was the second week in a row with only two songs in the middle segments of each hour. The “Shim Wha” gag came to mind while listening to The Dave Brubeck Quartet‘s Time Changes album on the way back from the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Marlins at Citi Field on June 18. I combined all the photos I took at that game in a slideshow that’s part of this blog post. I hope to have the slideshow of photos from last Wednesday’s game finished before October.
The “Cahla” gag for “Carla” by Peter Horvath had been in mind since watching every episode of Cheers on Netflix over a few weeks in March 2017.
Speaking of 2017, with a lack of music to play from new releases, I replaced the first 2017-present segment with another 1984 and earlier segment.
Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
The aircheck includes a new promo I recorded on Tuesday.
9:10 AM UPDATE: It’s been a while since I made a mistake that went unnoticed until after airing, but I made one here. Jay Beckenstein did play soprano sax on “Captain Karma” by Spyro Gyra, but his solo was on alto.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/10/22 August 11, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Aviation, Baseball, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sports, Travel.add a comment
The August 10 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP took a week to record. While the first hour was done entirely on June 10, WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony post-production left me little time to record the second hour: one segment per day on June 13, 15, and 16.
The playlist was created alongside last week’s show on June 5 and 6. I worked on each show’s first hour and middle of their second hour on the 5th, and the 2017-present segments on the 6th. Annotations for this week’s show were written on the 7th, and each show’s talk break script was drafted on the 8th.
Once again, I recorded under 18 minutes in a given segment to allow for more time in any that run long. The first hour was recorded out of sequence, with the third segment done first so I knew how short to make the first and second. That third segment was initially 18:33, so I allowed myself to go 25 seconds under in the first and 8 in the second. When I finally mixed down the third segment, I took off a second, meaning I was still one total second under. The total increased to 13 seconds as hour 2’s middle segment was 12 short. The last talk break only had to be shortened slightly to accommodate the extra 13 for the last segment.
As I said in Sunday’s post about the Mets game I went to on June 18, I was back at Citi Field yesterday with my dad and sister. On our way home after the game, while on the Belt Parkway, I saw an Iberia plane on its final approach to JFK Airport. Then, I remembered I played “Iberia” by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in this week’s second segment. It was the second of only two songs in that segment; the other was “The Epic,” a very long Pat Metheny Group tune.
In hour 2, I played Anders Enger Jensen‘s “Yamaha Reface DX and Roland CR-1000 Song.” This is the 8-Bit Keys video he wrote it for:
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
June 18 Mets-Marlins game photo slideshow August 7, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Baseball, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Sports, Travel, Video.add a comment
Back on June 18, I traveled to Citi Field with my dad, his fellow members of Freeport Fire Department’s Truck 1, and their families. We had Promenade level tickets – left field side – to the New York Mets‘ 4:10 game against the Miami Marlins. The Mets won the game 3-2.
I brought my Nikon D5500 and superzoom lens to take photos from start to finish. I compulsively took over 700 photos, whittled down to 524 after several weeks of stop and go editing. (Having a weekly radio show limits my free time.) On top of that, I took eight photos with my iPhone 13 Pro as I walked along the Promenade to get a ReadyCARD prepaid debit card in the team store and use some of that money on a collectible bowl of Mister Softee. (Dad treated me to chicken fingers and fries before the game.) When I got home around 10PM – everyone else wanted to stop for pizza in Howard Beach – I cleaned the bowl with soap and water, soaking it overnight to get out the ice cream smell. I rinsed in the morning and the smell was gone. The bowl became my new pen and marker holder, as seen the morning of Tuesday, June 21:
I couldn’t possibly post all 532 photos I took at Citi Field, so I painstakingly combined them into a video slideshow on Friday and yesterday, complete with planes on their final approach to LaGuardia Airport. It’s 11 minutes and 11 seconds long.
Dad and I head back to Citi Field on Wednesday with my sister for a 1:10 game against the Cincinnati Reds. This time, we’re at field level on the first base side. I hope to take no more than 150 photos.
Without further ado, the June 18 slideshow, set to the live version of “While the World Slowly Turns” by Brian Hughes:
As a bonus for those who made it to the end, here is the featured image (thumbnail):
Instrumental Invasion, 7/27/22 July 28, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Boating, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games.add a comment
The July 27 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fourth show in the last five with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 30, three on May 31, and two on June 1. Pickups were recorded on June 3, 5, and 9.
The playlist was created on May 28 and annotated on the 29th. The talk break script was drafted before recording on the 30th. I made a timing error in the last segment of the show, requiring a condensed script for the last talk break and ten extra seconds, the first time I went over 18 minutes since May 11.
Speaking of that last talk break, a week after referencing John McLaughlin‘s The McLaughlin Group sign-off, my sign-off this week referenced Chet Huntley‘s at the end of The Huntley-Brinkley Report. And speaking of the first, this imperfect Google translation is what led me to assume “Dinorah, Dinorah” by Ivan Lins (covered on the show by George Benson) was about a love affair with a teacher. I listened to the original for reference and to confirm the pronunciation:
And here’s a mellower 2017 duet in a lower key:
Despite obsessive listening, I said “gene-orah” instead of “gin-orah” in the initial first segment recording before going on a boat ride with my family. I redid any references to the song when I got home. I didn’t have a boat ride in mind when I added “Boat Ride” by Jay Rowe to the third segment, but it helped that I did (recap here) because it gave me talk break-padding material. I did away with some of that padding on June 9, shaving off four seconds, to make up for going over in the last segment.
A running gag established while recording – that I missed while drafting the script – was “thing/things” and all the songs written for someone. “Our Thing” by Jazz Funk Soul has made me think of the Mafia ever since More Serious Business arrived at my door 6 1/2 years ago. (Yes, the link goes to the MP3 version.) I sincerely believe the title of Jeff Lorber‘s composition is coincidental, and that’s why I always get a kick out of it.
The June 3 pickups were recorded after learning that my friend Pete Bellotti was named WCWP’s new director of broadcasting. I came out of Earl Klugh‘s cover of “If I Fell” with a liner that Pete recorded in 2020 while only working for CBS Sports Radio. Pete is still with CBS Sports Radio, but it didn’t feel right using a liner where he only identifies from there. I replaced the liner with one Game Dave recorded, giving new significance to my Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection reference. I said the low viewership was a humbling experience, but Game Dave reminded us of the big picture last July:
Playing off what Game Dave said, I performed in front of between 43 and 190 people, depending on the Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection video (as of June 3).
The expanded talk break meant I had to move the Bernie Bernard liner up one segment and put John Commins’s liner in her place.
Just this week, Dave posted a video chronicling his month-long weight loss journey with the help of exercise video games:
The June 5 pickup was recorded after learning new information from this interview Brian Pace conducted with Ivan Lins during his 2016 Blue Note engagement:
Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
2020-21 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony June 17, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Education, Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Rock, Technology, Travel, Video.2 comments
Other Hall of Fame ceremony recaps: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
Video of the ceremony can be found at the end of this post.
It’s been three years since the last ceremony, but last Saturday, the WCWP Hall of Fame finally added five new inductees to its ranks. Due to delays by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were two sets of inductees:
- 2020: Alan Seltzer and Christina Kay (announced at Homecoming in 2019)
- 2021: Joe Manfredi, Jay Mirabile and Mike Chimeri
Yes, it’s true! I’d been dreaming of getting into the Hall of Fame for years and I got the dream fulfilling call last April.
Earlier this year, outgoing director of broadcasting Dan Cox reached out to the five of us for a ceremony date that worked for us. That date was Saturday, June 11. The venue ended up being the former LIU Post campus bookstore, now known as the Alumni and Employer Engagement Building…or it was, and now it’s Alumni Hall.
I reached out to friends and family, hoping they could attend. No matter how many turned out, I’d be happy.
I wore a suit and shirt combo that I picked out on Thursday with a tie that my mother Lisa bought with colors similar to those of LIU.
I may have been one of the inductees, but I still took photos and video when it wasn’t my turn. So, after dressing up, I packed up my DSLR camera, battery pack with a spare battery attached, camcorder, GoPro, and tripods to connect to them and my iPhone, which I would have brought anyway.
Once my sister Lauren arrived at noon, she, our mom, and dad Bill all left for campus. I was worried we’d be late after traffic was diverted away from the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway entrance on Alken Avenue in North Wantagh, but once we entered via Hicksville Road, we made great time, parking next to the Alumni Hall (I’ve settled on that name) at 12:40 (hey, like WGBB!).
Not wanting to unpack my camera yet, I took establishing exterior shots with my phone:
The ceremony began at 1:22:
The first 2020 inductee was Alan Seltzer, currently host of The Grooveyard on WCWP. He was inducted by Scott Perschke:
After each acceptance speech, guests were invited to share any stories. 2013 inductee Bernie Bernard had one about Alan, which he elaborated on: the story of the 1978 Dome Auditorium collapse. 
2019 inductee Lew Scharfberg talked about the collapse at his induction, and he shared his perspective again this year.
The second 2020 inductee was Christina Kay, now of WALK 97.5. She was inducted by Dan Cox:
Dan admitted in his induction speech that he considers her a second daughter. 
Christina’s table 
Yes, the plaque has a typo. It will be replaced. 
The storytellers following Christina’s speech were Charlie Moerler… 
Chris Maffei… 
Bernie Bernard… 
David North, Christina’s colleague at WALK 97.5 when he was a news anchor and reporter there… 
…and Will Bruner. 
Before moving on to the 2021 inductees, Dan Cox awarded the inaugural Art Beltrone Founders Award to Dan Casazza:
New director of broadcasting (or station manager, if you will) and 2019 inductee Pete Bellotti inducted two of the three 2021 inductees. First, Joe Manfredi, the station manager of Old Westbury Web Radio (OWWR) (listen here), serving nearby SUNY Old Westbury:
Joe acknowledged me in his speech, asking me to name some of the musicians I interviewed (over the phone) on The Mike Chimeri Show. The interviews can be found here, warts and all (meaning I’m hesitant to listen). 
There was also an anecdote about Karen Fiorelli’s news report blunder. 
Stories were shared by Dan Cox… 
Alana Leider, currently host of The Rockin’ Sunday Show on WCWP… 
Sandra Cerrone, a.k.a. DJ Sandra Dee, one of Joe’s Old Westbury Web Radio alumni… 
I love this camcorder vidcap. It’s like a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast cutaway. 6/18 UPDATE: While editing the video that I will add once complete, I noticed that this was really in reaction to a remark by… 
Joelle Desrosiers, another OWWR alumna… 
Joe Conte with an anecdote on unwittingly playing unedited songs… 
…and Mike Kinane, Joe’s OWWR colleague, and vice president of communications at SUNY Old Westbury. 
Dan reintroduced Pete to induct Jay Mirabile, longtime host of The Disco and Funk King Show (DFK for short):
Jay and his father Len 
Jay went beyond acknowledging me, inviting me to the podium to recall funny moments in early episodes of The Mike Chimeri Show. In those early days, Jay was my lead-in, and sometimes, I would acknowledge the last song of the show at the start of mine. The anecdote he relayed was how I quipped “wouldn’t you know it, they stopped” because his last song was “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead. 
I thought he was going to mention the one where – channeling Jay Sherman’s boss Duke Phillips on The Critic – I began my show with “Jay, son, you’re a tough act to follow.” 
Upon leaving the podium, as I waved in thanks, Jay noted what great friends we are. 
This was my genuine reaction to the compliment. 
Story time. First, Christina Kay… 
Then, Charlie Moerler… 
Alana Leider… 
…and Joe Conte. 
Finally, it was my turn. I originally planned on my cousin Chris – C.W. Post Class of 2008 – inducting me, but he came down with COVID earlier in the week. His induction speech was partially complete and he offered to finish it and have Dan Cox read it on his behalf, but I declined and had Dan give his own speech:
LONG STORY: This is the first of the iPhone vidcaps. I foolishly recorded the entire ceremony from my table’s perspective when I’d have been better off recording my portion. Attempts to truncate the video and transfer to my computer via iCloud failed, even after upgrading to 50 GB of storage for 99 cents a month. The original mammoth video was still in the system and would need to be transferred with the edited version. This contributed to my insomnia Saturday night. Finally, late Sunday morning, I thought to download to my computer by connecting the phone to it with Dell Mobile Connect. It worked, but there was another hurdle. The raw MOV file wasn’t accepted by Adobe Premiere Elements 2020. Luckily, Wondershare Filmora accepted it and allowed me to convert it to an MP4, BUT I’d have to buy a subscription. $54 a year later, the video was converted, I loaded it into Premiere Elements, and extracted vidcaps. The absolute last hurdle involved correcting the wide-angle distortion in Photoshop Elements, and here we are. Anyway… 
In the center is Joan Yonke, LIU Post’s director of development, previously campus director of employer and alumni engagement. It was so great to see her there. I just wish I had thought to add her to my thank list. (More on that shortly.) 
Early in Dan’s induction, I asked my dad Bill to take photos with my camera. 
It’s time, as my table cheers me on! Besides Joan Yonke, going from left to right, there’s cousin Lisa Cassidy, my aunt Donna Dantes Chimeri (Chris’s mother), my mom Lisa’s friend Mandy Muldowney, Mom, Dad, Lori Downing, and Wendy Connelly. Mandy was the principal of Leo F. Giblyn School where Mom is a teaching assistant, and Wendy and Lori are (Lori retired in 2020) reading teachers at Giblyn. Interestingly, Aunt Donna (Post Class of 1998) knew Joe Manfredi’s father, also named Joe, but the elder Joe pronounced the last name “man-freedy” rather than “man-freddy.” 
Here I go! 
Mandy and Mom are taking photos and/or video. 
I made a two-page table in Microsoft Word of people to thank. I read from that with ad-libs here and there. 
My sister Lauren also shot video on her phone and shared vidcaps with me… 
Back to Dad’s photos with my camera… 
Joe Manfredi (the younger) kindly handled my camcorder during my speech. 
“… WCWP, the one place [my aunt Robin Rose Brinegar, then-academic counselor at C.W. Post] didn’t know anyone, has had the biggest, the biggest impact on my life.” 
“… I will never forget WCWP. Thank you so much.” 
I put the thank list back in my shirt’s breast pocket and left the podium. 
Another wave… 
…and a handshake with Dad. The expression on my face is a nasty anxious habit. Seeing myself do that in my on-camera moments has me eager to overcome the habit. 
I asked, “Anyone got stories?” Jay Mirabile had one, or at least compliments. 
…as did 2015 inductee Bobby Guthenberg. 
One final round of applause from my table (and the elder Joe Manfredi)
Dan, with his time as director of broadcasting at an end, closed the ceremony with poignant, and pointed, remarks:
Speaking of WCWP’s uncertain future: “… Let’s not let college radio go away, because if it does, there’ll be one less safe space for our kids to be when they go to college. Thank you. Have a great day.” 
A standing ovation
With the ceremony complete, all that remained were the photo ops:
Mandy Muldowney, Donna Dantes (aunt), Lori Downing, Lisa Chimeri (mom), me, Lauren Chimeri (sister), Bill Chimeri (dad), Wendy Connelly, Lisa Cassidy 
Lauren had two photos taken with her phone… 
Joe Manfredi and his OWWR alumnae: Nikki Kallipozis, Arielle Mancebo, Sandra Cerrone, Joelle Desrosiers (Names added on 6/22 via this SUNY Old Westbury article) 
Me, Lori Downing, Bernie Bernard
During Bernie’s WBAB days, she spoke at Lori’s high school, vividly remembering that when Lori told her about it.
Scott Perschke and Alan Seltzer 
Me and Jay Mirabile 
Me, Alan, Jay 
Oop, rabbit ears! 
A candid shot 
Christina Kay and me 
Joe Conte, Karen Fiorelli, me, Joe Manfredi 
Joe, Christina, Jay, me 
Pete Bellotti and me 
This was supposed to be another one of me and Dan Cox, but I wanted to leave in Bernie, her sister Melissa, and Christina. 
The last photo before I left the building: Joe, Pete, Jay, me
As I left, Dan had everyone yell “goodbye” to me. I happily waved and walked out…except that I left my camera battery charger in an outlet. I realized my error halfway to Domenico’s of Levittown. I didn’t feel like going back to campus, so Pete returned it to me today. Still, I went ahead and bought new third-party batteries with a charger. The batteries I had were 6 1/2 years old, anyway.
Joining my family at Domenico’s were Wendy, Lori, and Aunt Donna. The lone photo I took there was of a toast:
Thank you to those that gave me congratulations cards and gifts:
Thus ends the recap. I am overwhelmed by all the support I received during and after the ceremony. Congratulations to Alan Seltzer, Christina Kay, Joe Manfredi, Jay Mirabile, and yours truly Mike Chimeri, the 2020 and ’21 classes of the WCWP Hall of Fame.
6/21 UPDATE: The video is now up. Chapters are included if you want to skip ahead or know what to expect. There is occasional coarse language and suggestive dialogue.
May 30 boat ride photos June 10, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Boating, Personal, Photography, Travel.add a comment
For those that aren’t connected with me on Facebook, I went on a long sightseeing ride on my dad Bill’s boat on Memorial Day afternoon.
My family and I took boat rides often when I was in my teens and early 20s, but I didn’t go on as often in subsequent years and hadn’t gone at all since my mid 20s. It’s been so long that the boat was docked at Al Grovers High & Dry Marina on South Main Street in Freeport rather than behind what was then Ehrhart’s and Ehrhart’s Clam House on Woodcleft Avenue.
Either way, the passengers aboard the boat were me, Bill, my mom Lisa, sister Lauren, aunt Robin, and Robin’s husband Allen. They were visiting from South Florida for a couple of days.
We arrived at Al Grovers just after 4:00 and left the dock within a few minutes.
Before I get to the main boat ride photos, here are all the planespotting ones:
CV4357 (Cargolux) from HKG (Hong Kong International Airport) to ANC (Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport) with stopover at JFK, B74N (LX-VCD), Landed at JFK 4:48 PM, Departed for ANC 11:09 PM, Landed at ANC 4:48 AM (10:48 AM ET) 
AZ3301 (ITA Airways, Operated by Delta Air Lines 667) to SLC (Salt Lake City International Airport), B73J (N876DN), Took off from JFK 4:48 PM, Landed at SLC 7:06 PM (9:06 PM ET) 
LY8734 (El Al, Operated by Operated by JetBlue Airways 669) to SJC (Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport), A320 (N658JB), Departed JFK 4:51 PM, Landed at SJC 8:26 PM (11:26 PM ET) 
DL182 (Delta Air Lines) to FCO (Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, Rome), B76W (N176DZ), Took off from JFK 5:04 PM, Landed at FCO 6:59 AM (12:59 AM ET) 
DE2017 (Condor) to FRA (Frankfurt Airport), B76W (D-ABUD), Took off from JFK 5:06 PM, Landed at FRA 6:07 AM (12:07 AM ET) 
AF23 (Air France) to CDG (Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris), B77W (F-GSQL), Took off from JFK 5:04 PM, Landed at CDG 5:50 AM (11:50 PM ET) 
Here, the Air France plane was low enough to see the tail number. 
B689 (JetBlue Airways) to SAN (San Diego International Airport), A32B (N989JT), Took off from JFK 5:14 PM, Landed at SAN 7:47 PM (10:47 PM ET) 
IB6250 (Iberia) to MAD (Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport), A333 (EC-MAA), Took off from JFK 5:21 PM, Landed at MAD 6:16 AM (12:16 AM ET) 
AA66 (American Airlines) to BCN (Barcelona-El Prat Airport), B772 (N785AN), Took off from JFK 5:26 PM, Landed at BCN 6:29 AM (12:29 AM ET) 
DL202 (Delta Air Lines) to ATH (Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, Athens), A333 (N809NW), Took off from JFK 5:46 PM, Landed at ATH 9:55 AM (2:55 AM ET) 
MU588 (China Eastern Airlines) to FOC (Changle International Airport, Fuzhou), B77W (B-2005), Took off from JFK 5:56 PM, Landed at FOC 9:16 PM (9:16 AM ET) 
MS986 (EgyptAir) to CAI (Cairo International Airport), B77W (SU-GDO), Took off from JFK 5:57 PM, Landed at CAI 9:52 AM (3:52 AM ET) 
I attempted to identify all the commercial aircraft for this post (and Facebook) on last Thursday evening, but gave up before I could identify these last four. You try matching take off time with the time of the photo. If only flight tracking websites considered take off time as departure time rather than the time a plane leaves the gate. 
I didn’t bother at all with the helicopters. 
Now, the main event. This first photo was taken just as Dad started the engines:
Meadowbrook State Parkway 
Cow Meadow Park 
I took many photos from this perspective. 
A closer look at Cow Meadow. This is the spot where I stood 11 years ago during a walk. It was one of the days I stayed at a family friend’s house following Tropical Storm Irene which knocked out power at my house in Wantagh. You can read about that experience here. 
The Freeport water tower 
The plane was too far away to identify. Besides that, I racked my brain trying to figure out where this was. With the help of Google Maps, I finally determined that it’s the corner of Hudson Avenue and Howard Avenue with The Anchorage on the left end. 
The other Freeport water tower 
The WGBB transmitter 
The southern tip of Woodcleft Avenue 
I’d get a better view of the Jones Beach water tower on the way back. 
I’d get a better view of this Loop Parkway bridge on the way back, as well, but here, you can make out Jones Beach Theater. 
Oceanside landfill 
Another plane approaching JFK runway 22L; One World Trade Center is visible on the left 
Bertha Drive in Baldwin Harbor 
The Golf Club at Middle Bay 
Huge waves! Thankfully, the wake from the passing boat didn’t affect my phone or camera. They were only slightly sprayed. Good thing I had lens wipes and a paper towel sheet. 
A closer look at the landfill 
Oceanside Park 
The north end of Long Beach… 
Looking north at Island ParkBarnum Island
Long Beach Bridge 
An LIRR train heading north on the Reynolds Channel Bascule Bridge 
Going under… 
No cars drove over heading this way. 
A closer look at the train bridge 
Pop’s Seafood Shack & Grill in Island Park 
The last car… 
One last look at the train bridge as we turn back for Al Grovers 
Back under the Long Beach Bridge… 
A car! 
Looking back, I saw the train bridge was up. 
Long Beach High School 
Lido Golf Club in Lido Beach 
Another look at the golf club 
A glimpse of Lido Boulevard 
Nassau University Medical Center (also visible in some photos before this one) 
The bridge before Loop Parkway’s western terminus 
Point Lookout… 
Fisherman’s Catch 
The eastern tip of Point Lookout 
Loop Parkway’s eastern terminus 
Another look at Point Lookout’s eastern tip 
Jones Bay Bridge on Meadowbrook Parkway 
Coast Guard station 
A clear view of the Jones Beach water tower 
Crossing Loop Parkway… 
Cars! 
Fundy Channel bridge 
A clear shot (cropped like the planespotting) of Meadowbrook Exit M9E (the M10 photo was also cropped) 
Cow Meadow Park again 
Another clear shot of a Meadowbrook sign 
Closer and clearer… 
And M9W! 
Freeport Industrial Park 
Almost there… 
Back at Al Grovers! 
Left at 4:04, returned at 6:57. That’s nearly a three-hour tour, but with better results than the SS Minnow.
I hope you enjoyed experiencing my boat ride through photos. Tomorrow, I go into the WCWP Hall of Fame. A photo and video recap will be up next Friday.
Instrumental Invasion, 5/18/22 May 19, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV.add a comment
The May 18 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third consecutive show recorded over three days. Two segments were recorded on March 28, three on the 29th, and one on the 30th. Pickups were recorded from March 29 to 31, and on April 2 and 22.
The playlist was created on March 27 with annotations and the script draft on the 28th.
I first played “Five6Oh83” by Steve Cole on July 1, 2020. I noted that 56083 was the ZIP Code for Sanborn, Minnesota, but missed the connection to David Sanborn. Instead, I wondered if Steve lived there and advised against looking into that. I played “Slam” by David so I could play Steve’s tribute later. It’s also why I included “Slings and Arrows” by Michael Brecker after playing “Starburst” by Spyro Gyra, which he ended with his solo. “Slam” and “Starburst” were chock-full of alumni of Paul Shaffer and The World’s Most Dangerous Band. If I wasn’t short on time in the first segment, I would have noted when they were in the band and who replaced them.
I swapped out the second instance of Ted David‘s segment open liner with a liner by Travis Demers.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Travel photos to and from Milford May 13, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Photography, Travel.add a comment
As previously noted, I took many photos while traveling with my dad Bill to and from Milford, Connecticut, for this year’s Smooth Jazz Scholars (recaps here and here), enough to get their own post. I was dissatisfied with the quality of the photos I took with my DSLR camera the week before while Kelly and I drove back from St. James. So, I decided to use my phone’s camera this time. Its image stabilization handles driving motion better than the vibration reduction on the DSLR lens.
Let’s hit the road.
Friday, April 29
Southern State Parkway west:
Cross Island Parkway north:
UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders 
I-678 north, starting on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge:
Hutchinson River Parkway north:
I-95 north in New York:
New Rochelle 
…and Connecticut:
Northbound Metro-North train 
A southbound train 
Titan Towers, WWE Headquarters 
Bass Pro Shops in Bridgeport 
Our exit
Hampton Inn Milford, as seen from the Plains Road intersection and parking lot:
I photographed judiciously on the way to Milford, but compulsively on the way back.
Sunday, May 1
Plains Road:
I-95 south in Connecticut, where I finally realized my phone had 2x optical zoom:
Heavy traffic due to an accident 
No further delays on I-95 
Titan Towers outside my dad’s mirror 
A quick look back north at the Stamford Marriott that I stayed at once, when I was a kid, while visiting nearby relatives with my parents and sister 
UBS Stamford Branch 
…and New York:
Hutchinson River Parkway south:
Bruckner Interchange
I-678 south into Queens:
Cross Island Parkway south:
The only other pocket of heavy traffic Dad and I encountered was as we approached Exit 30E.
Long Island Expressway (I-495) east:
…and last but not least, the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway (NY 135):
For nearly a decade, my aunt Robin lived on Broadway in Bethpage, a block west of this exit. 
A blemish on the windshield obstructed the exit sign on the left. 
Last exit before home!
The loose ends from my trip are now all tied up. Thanks for reading any or all of my three posts from that three-day period.
Instrumental Invasion, 5/11/22 May 12, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video.add a comment
The May 11 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days: the first hour on March 21, the first segment of the second hour on the 22nd, and the last two on the 23rd. Pickups were recorded on April 22 and May 2, the latter of which incorporated a new liner by WCWP/LIU Post alumnus Travis Demers.
The playlist was created on March 20 with annotations and the talk break script draft on the 21st.
For the second time in three weeks, speed compression was involved. The last talk break was sped up to 98% (except for the pickup) to keep the segment as close to 18 minutes as possible. This was after removing extemporaneous tidbits, which I also had to do for the last talk break of the first hour.
One tidbit I removed was about the music video for “Mornin’” by Al Jarreau, billed only as Jarreau:
In the show’s last talk break, while back-selling “Shandling” by Ken Navarro, I referenced “This is the Theme to Garry’s Show,” the theme song for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show:
My talk-up for the short “Funky Song (SC-55)” by Anders Enger Jensen ended in rhyme: “This is Anders Enger Jensen with ‘Funky Song.’ It isn’t very long.” That was a reference to this moment on Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza:
I swapped out the 1984 and earlier segment for an extra 2017 to present, something I haven’t done since December 29, as four new albums came my way before working on this show.
Guitarist Wayne Bruce’s appearance on “95 North” by Kim Waters allowed me to make up for my oversight last June 23. Coincidentally, tomorrow’s blog post has photos taken on I-95 north in New York and Connecticut. (5/26 UPDATE: Here’s the post.) Kim had the Maryland portion of the interstate highway in mind for “95 North.”
I didn’t mention on-air that May 11 marked 28 years since my first “radio show” with my cousin Chris. He held a Talkboy cassette voice recorder and I held a Panasonic microcassette voice recorder. 11 years after that – May 11, 2005 – The Mike Chimeri Show returned to WebRadio WCWP, six days after ending the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB. He’ll be introducing me at the 2020-21 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony exactly one month from last night, on June 11.
Click here to download the May 11, 2022, aircheck MP3 or listen below:
MikeChimeri.com 