Radio Hofstra University’s 50th Anniversary and Hall of Fame
The One Minute That Changed My Life (and a Few Others)
By Michael Harrison
TALKERS MAGAZINE
Founder and Publisher
EMPSTEAD, New York –– It was a hot summer night in late August of 1967 and I was about to experience a fateful moment. Actually, it was more of a fateful minute. I was 19 years old, a college student on Long Island between my freshman and sophomore year, and absolutely obsessed with the dream of breaking into radio as a disc jockey or announcer…or anything. The closest I had come to being a “radio announcer” at that point was being the star of the PA staff back at Freeport High School only a couple of years earlier where I held court over homeroom block each morning and then throughout this particular summer with a cool job as “Happy Bargain” Mike, the hammy department store announcer at Modell’s Shoppers World in East Meadow.
The day after I passed the FCC exam (those over 50 reading this will remember that test) with Elements One and Two and I believe it was Nine – with-Broadcast-Endorsement –– I sheepishly walked into the Hofstra University radio station, WVHC-FM, and asked to be auditioned for an on-air position. I passed the audition which consisted of reading some wire copy and was assigned to do the weather later that night during the midnight newscast. It even had its own bed music. I’ll never forget it.
My heart was pounding. I was about to actually be on the radio –– broadcasting all across Nassau County and then some on WVHC’s mighty 88.7 signal! When I completed the one-minute thrill ride, a fellow who was one of the many “radio heads” hanging out on the other side of the glass approached me. He introduced himself as John Lorentz and asked me how long I had been on the radio. I told him that he was witness to my entire one-minute career. He said I was good enough to be a pro and that he would recommend me for a job at a local FM station – WLIR – (FM in those days was like internet today… not “real” radio) where he had been working for several years but was about to move on to a much bigger job at WHLI…a huge AM and FM “combo” as they were called in those days. Everyone knew WHLI –– the heritage station on Long Island –– but I had never even heard of WLIR which operated out of a dingy little office/studio in the basement of the old Garden City Hotel. It was owned by a mom-and-pop team, John and Dorothy Rieger. It had a weak signal at 92.7 and basically played a variety of segmented (or “block”) music programming (“beautiful music” as it was termed) that a 19 year old would consider painfully unhip. But, heck, it was radio!
With Lorentz’s recommendation I told Mr. Rieger I had extensive experience at WVHC (he never checked it out) and landed a seven-day-a-week, part-time job as a staff announcer where I and several other young radio hopefuls, such as my buddy Richard Neer, labored in obscurity for what seems looking back like forever dreaming of whatever would be our next step. That “next step” came two-and-a-half years later when Mr. Rieger appointed me program director and bought into my idea of flipping the station into what turned out to be one of the industry’s early (and eventually legendary) progressive rockers.
My world and many others’ changed after that. WLIR became one of the nation’s most successful icons in that genre and the list of young broadcasters who started magnificent careers via that vehicle as a launch pad in the decades that followed is too long to cite. I went on to hosting mornings on the great WNEW-FM in New York nine months later and played in the big leagues in one form or another non-stop for the next 40 years!
It all started because of my one-minute career on WVHC-FM, “the Voice of the Hofstra Community.” Today WVHC operates as WRHU (Radio Hofstra University) and has a superb track record of 50 years of service as one of America’s greatest college radio stations. Bringing this tale to the present –– 42 years later –– at presstime for our print edition, I received a call from Hofstra Radio Alumni Association President Marc Wiener informing me that I was one of the first 17 inductees being installed in the newly-established Hofstra University Radio Hall of Fame joined by such legends as Dan Ingram and Alan Colmes. For years I have been in the business of giving awards to others and I’m not used to receiving them. Because of the nature of how my career started and what that college station means to me –– this is an honor that has touched me to my very core.
Thank you Hofstra and congratulations on achieving a half century of immense pertinence. There are huge lessons to be learned from my personal story.
Michael Harrison is publisher of TALKERS magazine. He can be e-mailed at michael@talkers.com.
Hofstra Radio Alumni Association Selects its First
Radio Hall of Fame
oinciding with the 50th anniversary celebration of Hofstra University campus radio station WRHU-FM (earlier known as WVHC-FM and WHCH-FM), 17 prominent members of the radio industry became the first inductees into the Hofstra Radio Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place at a gala reunion dinner highlighting a weekend of related campus activities on Saturday March 7. More than 400 people attended the dinner deemed a huge success by its presenters and attendees.
“The Hofstra Radio Hall of Fame was created to highlight and celebrate the unprecedented and, until now, unheralded number of professional accomplishments our radio alumni have had in the past 50 years, both in and out of the worldwide media business,” says Marc Wiener, president of the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association.
Weiner tells TALKERS magazine, “The deed is done! The names of all of the inaugural inductees into the Hofstra Radio Hall Of Fame are now permanently inscribed in Dempster Hall, home of Hofstra’s 50 year old FM radio station. The induction ceremony and subsequent unveiling of the Hall Of Fame plaque at the university’s School Of Communication was an event that surpassed everybody’s expectations. The weekend was attended by the largest number of alumni ever gathered by a single organization in Hofstra’s history. Not only were staff members from all 50 years of FM broadcasting represented, but personnel from the 1950s, when the station was only a carrier current operation, were also in attendance. The emotional connection and gratitude of all the attendees to their time at the station was really overpowering. Most gratifying was the intermingling of generations. Despite the passage of time, jobs at radio stations do not change. Managers, DJ’s, news and sportscasters of every era had common experiences and stories to exchange. Also unchanged is the fact that it is still a student run operation, and the staff continues to exhibit the high degree of dedication and professionalism that has always been the hallmark of Hofstra Radio. This reality was so apparent to returning alums that a number of them will be returning to the station to mentor and mingle with current and future station members, and an even greater number were inspired to offer job networking opportunities.”
The 17 inductees include: Todd Ant, ABC Sports Radio Network; Garry Armstrong, Emmy award-winning TV reporter; Joe Barone, award-winning advertising executive, Bar 1 Productions; Alan Colmes, nationally recognized television and radio host, Fox News; John DeBella, major rock radio talent and format pioneer; Steven Epstein, long-time executive Grammy award-winning producer of classical music at Sony Classic; Lisa Glasberg, aka Lisa G, Gracie award-winning radio personality; Lee Harris, award-winning “top of the hour” anchor for morning drive on 1010 WINS-AM; Michael Harrison, rock and talk radio pioneer, publisher and founder of TALKERS magazine; Jim Helfgott, major European broadcasting and cable marketing executive; Ed Ingles, veteran news and sports reporter WCBS-AM; Dan Ingram, iconic top-40 disc jockey, WABC; Charlie Kaye, executive producer of CBS Radio News; Jeffrey C. Kraus, founder and long-time general manager of Hofstra Radio; Dick Maitland, award winning Foley artist and sound effects engineer; Darrin Smith vice president of music operations and weekend host for Sirius Satellite Radio; and Marc Wiener, veteran assistant chief engineer and production director for WCBS-FM, currently president of the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association.
Inductee Alan Colmes, who spoke at the reunion dinner tells TALKERS magazine, “I started at WVHC as a personality even before I went to college! This is a very special honor and what a fabulous time I had seeing old friends and meeting a whole bunch of new ones at the dinner!”
The One Minute That Changed My Life (and a Few Others)
By Michael Harrison
TALKERS MAGAZINE
Founder and Publisher
EMPSTEAD, New York –– It was a hot summer night in late August of 1967 and I was about to experience a fateful moment. Actually, it was more of a fateful minute. I was 19 years old, a college student on Long Island between my freshman and sophomore year, and absolutely obsessed with the dream of breaking into radio as a disc jockey or announcer…or anything. The closest I had come to being a “radio announcer” at that point was being the star of the PA staff back at Freeport High School only a couple of years earlier where I held court over homeroom block each morning and then throughout this particular summer with a cool job as “Happy Bargain” Mike, the hammy department store announcer at Modell’s Shoppers World in East Meadow.
The day after I passed the FCC exam (those over 50 reading this will remember that test) with Elements One and Two and I believe it was Nine – with-Broadcast-Endorsement –– I sheepishly walked into the Hofstra University radio station, WVHC-FM, and asked to be auditioned for an on-air position. I passed the audition which consisted of reading some wire copy and was assigned to do the weather later that night during the midnight newscast. It even had its own bed music. I’ll never forget it.
My heart was pounding. I was about to actually be on the radio –– broadcasting all across Nassau County and then some on WVHC’s mighty 88.7 signal! When I completed the one-minute thrill ride, a fellow who was one of the many “radio heads” hanging out on the other side of the glass approached me. He introduced himself as John Lorentz and asked me how long I had been on the radio. I told him that he was witness to my entire one-minute career. He said I was good enough to be a pro and that he would recommend me for a job at a local FM station – WLIR – (FM in those days was like internet today… not “real” radio) where he had been working for several years but was about to move on to a much bigger job at WHLI…a huge AM and FM “combo” as they were called in those days. Everyone knew WHLI –– the heritage station on Long Island –– but I had never even heard of WLIR which operated out of a dingy little office/studio in the basement of the old Garden City Hotel. It was owned by a mom-and-pop team, John and Dorothy Rieger. It had a weak signal at 92.7 and basically played a variety of segmented (or “block”) music programming (“beautiful music” as it was termed) that a 19 year old would consider painfully unhip. But, heck, it was radio!
With Lorentz’s recommendation I told Mr. Rieger I had extensive experience at WVHC (he never checked it out) and landed a seven-day-a-week, part-time job as a staff announcer where I and several other young radio hopefuls, such as my buddy Richard Neer, labored in obscurity for what seems looking back like forever dreaming of whatever would be our next step. That “next step” came two-and-a-half years later when Mr. Rieger appointed me program director and bought into my idea of flipping the station into what turned out to be one of the industry’s early (and eventually legendary) progressive rockers.
My world and many others’ changed after that. WLIR became one of the nation’s most successful icons in that genre and the list of young broadcasters who started magnificent careers via that vehicle as a launch pad in the decades that followed is too long to cite. I went on to hosting mornings on the great WNEW-FM in New York nine months later and played in the big leagues in one form or another non-stop for the next 40 years!
It all started because of my one-minute career on WVHC-FM, “the Voice of the Hofstra Community.” Today WVHC operates as WRHU (Radio Hofstra University) and has a superb track record of 50 years of service as one of America’s greatest college radio stations. Bringing this tale to the present –– 42 years later –– at presstime for our print edition, I received a call from Hofstra Radio Alumni Association President Marc Wiener informing me that I was one of the first 17 inductees being installed in the newly-established Hofstra University Radio Hall of Fame joined by such legends as Dan Ingram and Alan Colmes. For years I have been in the business of giving awards to others and I’m not used to receiving them. Because of the nature of how my career started and what that college station means to me –– this is an honor that has touched me to my very core.
Thank you Hofstra and congratulations on achieving a half century of immense pertinence. There are huge lessons to be learned from my personal story.
Michael Harrison is publisher of TALKERS magazine. He can be e-mailed at michael@talkers.com.
Hofstra Radio Alumni Association Selects its First
Radio Hall of Fame
oinciding with the 50th anniversary celebration of Hofstra University campus radio station WRHU-FM (earlier known as WVHC-FM and WHCH-FM), 17 prominent members of the radio industry became the first inductees into the Hofstra Radio Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place at a gala reunion dinner highlighting a weekend of related campus activities on Saturday March 7. More than 400 people attended the dinner deemed a huge success by its presenters and attendees.
“The Hofstra Radio Hall of Fame was created to highlight and celebrate the unprecedented and, until now, unheralded number of professional accomplishments our radio alumni have had in the past 50 years, both in and out of the worldwide media business,” says Marc Wiener, president of the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association.
Weiner tells TALKERS magazine, “The deed is done! The names of all of the inaugural inductees into the Hofstra Radio Hall Of Fame are now permanently inscribed in Dempster Hall, home of Hofstra’s 50 year old FM radio station. The induction ceremony and subsequent unveiling of the Hall Of Fame plaque at the university’s School Of Communication was an event that surpassed everybody’s expectations. The weekend was attended by the largest number of alumni ever gathered by a single organization in Hofstra’s history. Not only were staff members from all 50 years of FM broadcasting represented, but personnel from the 1950s, when the station was only a carrier current operation, were also in attendance. The emotional connection and gratitude of all the attendees to their time at the station was really overpowering. Most gratifying was the intermingling of generations. Despite the passage of time, jobs at radio stations do not change. Managers, DJ’s, news and sportscasters of every era had common experiences and stories to exchange. Also unchanged is the fact that it is still a student run operation, and the staff continues to exhibit the high degree of dedication and professionalism that has always been the hallmark of Hofstra Radio. This reality was so apparent to returning alums that a number of them will be returning to the station to mentor and mingle with current and future station members, and an even greater number were inspired to offer job networking opportunities.”
The 17 inductees include: Todd Ant, ABC Sports Radio Network; Garry Armstrong, Emmy award-winning TV reporter; Joe Barone, award-winning advertising executive, Bar 1 Productions; Alan Colmes, nationally recognized television and radio host, Fox News; John DeBella, major rock radio talent and format pioneer; Steven Epstein, long-time executive Grammy award-winning producer of classical music at Sony Classic; Lisa Glasberg, aka Lisa G, Gracie award-winning radio personality; Lee Harris, award-winning “top of the hour” anchor for morning drive on 1010 WINS-AM; Michael Harrison, rock and talk radio pioneer, publisher and founder of TALKERS magazine; Jim Helfgott, major European broadcasting and cable marketing executive; Ed Ingles, veteran news and sports reporter WCBS-AM; Dan Ingram, iconic top-40 disc jockey, WABC; Charlie Kaye, executive producer of CBS Radio News; Jeffrey C. Kraus, founder and long-time general manager of Hofstra Radio; Dick Maitland, award winning Foley artist and sound effects engineer; Darrin Smith vice president of music operations and weekend host for Sirius Satellite Radio; and Marc Wiener, veteran assistant chief engineer and production director for WCBS-FM, currently president of the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association.
Inductee Alan Colmes, who spoke at the reunion dinner tells TALKERS magazine, “I started at WVHC as a personality even before I went to college! This is a very special honor and what a fabulous time I had seeing old friends and meeting a whole bunch of new ones at the dinner!”
