In the newsroom, Maya Sargent, a graduate fellow from Fordham’s public media program, sat at a computer editing What’s What, the station’s daily news podcast on current events, cultural news, and issues affecting the New York City area. Down a few seats, Sam Davis, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, chatted with Bobby Ciafardini, the station’s sports director, about the guests they’d feature on One on One, the city’s longest-running sports call-in show. A few hours earlier, Jim O’Hara, FCRH ’99, associate director of technical operations, met with several students who would document the next day’s recording session with beabadoobee, a Filipina British artist, in the station’s intimate Studio A setting.

Elsewhere, Rich McLaughlin, FCRH ’01, GABELLI ’10, the station’s program director, met with General Manager Chuck Singleton to review the rundown for the station’s On the Record event, which would take place the following week. And music director Russ Borris was finalizing details for the station’s annual Holiday Cheer concert—a lineup headlined by venerable indie rockers Spoon and featuring Lucius, Grammy-winning blues prodigy Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and the Brooklyn-based band Say She She.

But afternoon drive host Dennis Elsas tuned all of that out when he stepped up to the microphone in Studio 1. “That is Beck and ‘Loser’ from 1994. And new before that: Arctic Monkeys, ‘I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’—here at WFUV,” Elsas said, then quipped “I’m here!” with comic timing and a smile that traveled hundreds of miles across the airwaves. He cued up the next song, and as he hit play, said, “Member-supported and supporting each other, it’s WFUV.”

It’s the kind of scene that has played out, almost hidden from sight, in Keating Hall on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus for more than 75 years. Before Dennis Elsas, there was Pete Fornatale, FCRH ’67, who created the station’s first pop music show as an undergrad in 1964. Before Sam Davis, there was Malcolm Moran, FCRH ’75, who launched One on One as a student and went on to become a Hall of Fame basketball journalist; and there was Vin Scully, FCRH ’49, the late, legendary baseball broadcaster who was among WFUV’s original voices. Before Maya Sargent, there was Alice Gainer, FCRH ’04, the Emmy Award–winning anchor and reporter at WCBS-TV, New York; and Charles Osgood, FCRH ’54, former longtime host of CBS Sunday Morning.

A Unique Beginning

“1947 was quite a year,” Fordham Provost Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., told the crowd of more than 200 attendees at WFUV’s On the Record event, held November 2 on Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. “Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and the transistor was invented. And at Rose Hill, New York’s first noncommercial, educational FM station signed on the airwaves. The University’s 25th president, Robert Gannon, S.J., remarked that ‘Fordham in her time has seen many beginnings. Today, we mark a beginning that is unique.’”

In mid-October, the University’s recently installed 33rd president, Tania Tetlow—who had her own unique beginning at Fordham as the first woman and first layperson to lead the institution—stood onstage in front of Walsh Family Library. “We’re here to celebrate 75 years of WFUV, the coolest thing about Fordham University,” she said during a station-organized concert that was part of the inauguration festivities. The station still trains “students who are learning journalism and sports broadcasting and everything about the industry,” and now, in addition to serving the city, it reaches “300,000 listeners in all 50 states—Idaho and Hawaii listen to WFUV—and we’re just so proud of what it is.”

Throughout its 75-year history, many things have changed. For starters, in the mid-1980s, the station became a professionally run NPR affiliate, with ample training and broadcast opportunities for students. Darren DeVivo, GABELLI ’87, now the station’s Saturday afternoon and weeknight host, was working at the station as a Fordham undergraduate at that time.

“When I got here, there was a general manager who was a paid Fordham employee. We had a chief engineer who was a paid employee from Fordham, and everyone else was students—program director, news director, music director, all student-run,” he said. “If you had some skills or had some abilities, you worked your way up.”

In 1985, Ralph Jennings, Ph.D., was hired as the station’s general manager. He brought a fresh vision to the station, working to create an authentic sound, filled with more consistent, impactful programming that would attract an audience and help the station receive financial assistance to support its growth.

“You’re bringing change to what had been a college station—there’s a mix of responses to that,” said Singleton, who started as the station’s first professional news director in 1987 and later served as program director before succeeding Jennings as general manager in 2011. “I think for a lot of alums and students at the time, there was a fear that the students would just be swept out.

But Singleton, who expanded WFUV’s coverage of community issues and helped develop its robust news journalism training program, said that WFUV strived to employ a different model. “It’s not the pure student station, it’s not the pure professional public station: It’s a professional, public station with a lot of public service impact, but one where students are a core part of this. And those opportunities [for students] are really core to the station’s mission.”

In the late 1980s, there was also a shift overall in the field of radio, according to Singleton. “You couldn’t offer a little bit of this and a little bit of that—it wouldn’t get you anywhere,” he said. “So there was new understanding that for a public radio station to attract a loyal audience, you had to be consistent in what you were offering.” Jennings and his team studied the market and found “holes that we could fill,” Singleton said, and at the time, that was primarily singer-songwriters in an “acoustic vein.”

“That format—by the early ’90s—I think it was the first sparks of what it is that we have today,” Singleton said. He noted that these efforts, in addition to technological advances like internet streaming, have paid off and allowed the station to expand its reach: WFUV went from having around 30,000 to 50,000 listeners a week in the 1980s to around 325,000 a week today. At times, the station has reached as many as 450,000 listeners.

Today, staff and students at WFUV are using new platforms like TikTok and podcasts to reach audiences beyond the radio dial. The station’s studios have even moved—from the third floor of Keating Hall to bigger, state-of-the-art studios on the lower level of the Rose Hill campus’ signature academic building. But despite all of its iterations and evolutions, WFUV’s mission and goals have remained consistent—to be a home of music discovery in New York; to be a training ground for the next generation of journalists, broadcasters, and behind-the-scenes wizards; and to provide the community with significant public service.

Home of Music Discovery

Throughout its history, WFUV has played a variety of music—from opera and jazz in its early decades to rock in the ’60s and ’70s. But it really found its place more than a quarter century ago, as commercial radio stations began making their playlists “tighter and tighter,” according to Singleton. That left less space for DJs “who had done great creative work”—FM rock pioneers like Dennis Elsas, Vin Scelsa, Pete Fornatale, and Meg Griffin, he said. Elsas, whose legendary career has included a famous two-hour in-depth interview with John Lennon of the Beatles, said that shift came for him after working in commercial radio for more than 25 years. More and more “shock jocks” were coming in and classic rock DJs like himself were being phased out. When he heard about an opening at WFUV in 2000, he jumped at the chance.

“I felt at times challenged because while I was playing a lot of music that I was very familiar with, I was also learning on the job because we were digging way deeper into blues and some more esoteric music,” he said, adding that this allowed him to “expand my musical horizons even further.”

Elsas said that he believes the station’s tagline—Music Discovery Starts Here—fits its work in more ways than one. “You could discover new music, which you couldn’t necessarily find on any other station on the market, and I think it also gave us the opportunity to say you could rediscover old favorites,” he said, adding that he’s had his own discoveries at WFUV, including the pleasure of working with and mentoring students.

DeVivo said that he personally has enjoyed finding new music and sharing it with his audience. “A band like the Jayhawks is a good example, [or] singer–songwriter Freedy Johnston—I remember the day that the album came in, and I put it in and go, ‘Holy smokes! Why don’t we hear this on whatever commercial rock station, because these guys are great,’” he said.

WFUV’s national reputation as a home for music discovery can be traced to Rita Houston, who delighted in introducing listeners to artists from a wide range of genres—folk, blues, indie rock, hip-hop, electronica, and more—and who came to be regarded not only as a tastemaker in the industry but also a trusted mentor and friend to the stars.

For more than 25 years at the station, in her roles as a DJ, music director, and program director—and with her unerring ear for talent—Houston helped elevate the careers of countless artists, including Norah Jones, Brandi Carlile, and Mumford and Sons. When Houston died of ovarian cancer in 2020 at age 59, Carlile recalled how Houston was “the very first person to play my music on the radio.” She also helped Carlile feel accepted and welcome as a fellow LGBTQ woman. Carlile recalled a time when she was showing Houston photos, and a picture of her girlfriend popped up on her phone.

“‘Is that your plus one?’” Houston asked. “‘It’s OK to talk about it.’ She could immediately tell that I was uneasy with people in the music business knowing I was gay,” said Carlile, who was 22 years old at the time.

But Houston, who joined WFUV in the mid-1990s, didn’t stop at artists. She also helped launch the careers of WFUV employees, including McLaughlin, who succeeded her as program director, and Alisa Ali, PCS’14, the station’s midday host, who has helped carry forward Houston’s passion for supporting artists, particularly local musicians.

Houston is the reason Ali came to WFUV—and Fordham—in the first place. She was listening to WFUV, thinking about how she’d love to work there, when she heard Houston say that she was going to give a talk at the Museum of Television & Radio.

“And like any naive person, I was like, ‘I’ll just go see Rita and ask her if I could get a job there and she’ll give it to me,’” she said. So Ali went to Houston’s talk and waited around to chat with her after. “And I’m like, ‘Hi, I love the station. Can I work here?’” she said, smiling at the memory. “She’s like, ‘That’s cute. No, of course you can’t. You have no experience.’”

Ali said that Houston paused and asked her if she was a Fordham student, which was “the only way you could work at FUV” without having any experience in radio.

“I went home and looked up ‘how do you enroll in Fordham University?’” she said. “I was kind of at a crossroads in my life because I didn’t really like what I was doing. And since I never graduated college, I was like, ‘Well if I don’t get a job at WFUV, at least I’ll have a college education.’

“The day after I was accepted, I came back to the station. I was like, ‘Hi, remember me from the talk? I go to school here now. May I have a job now?’” Ali said. “[Houston] was like, ‘All right, kid. I like you. You remind me a lot of myself.’”

At that point, Houston was the midday host and music director, and Ali became a production assistant. She worked her way up to morning show producer and then host of The Alternate Side, which allowed her to discover and play new artists. More recently, as the midday host, she created a segment called “NY Slice,” which features local musicians from the tristate area.

“In New York City, we have so many opportunities to see huge bands, and I think a lot of these little bands get overshadowed,” she said, describing how she came up with the idea for the segment. “Local bands actually have it easier outside of New York City—it’s a disadvantage to be a local, small band in New York City. So I just want to support these people.”

That support has helped artists including Rén with the Mane and Blonde Otter. The two bands were featured on “NY Slice” and later chosen to perform at the October concert following the inauguration of Tania Tetlow. “I love you, Alisa Ali!” Rénee Orshan, the artist behind Rén with the Mane, said from the stage that night, adding that Ali and WFUV are the “only radio station” to play their music.

The concert also featured New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has been celebrating its 60th anniversary with a national tour. The group marched down Old Elm Road with the horn section playing the gospel classic “I’ll Fly Away.” As they reached the stage, Tetlow, who grew up in New Orleans, added her own soaring voice to the mix to the delight of the crowd. She later said she was grateful to WFUV and to all the performers for helping her “feel at home here at Fordham.”

Greater Connection to the Artists

The inauguration concert was a prime example of WFUV tying its penchant for music discovery to its commitment to live music. O’Hara estimated that in a typical year, the station hosts about 200 sessions in Studio A and 20 to 30 live concerts and performances at venues throughout the New York City area.

“Live music really gives you a good insight [into]who the artist is,” O’Hara said. “You really get to understand a lot about them by hearing them perform their songs live,” and then listening to a WFUV host interview them in the studio. “It really presents a greater connection to the artists. I think that’s a great thing that we provide to our listeners.”

One of his most memorable sessions came in 2017, when Gorillaz, the Damon Albarn–led British band that doesn’t do a lot of live appearances, reached out to bring their “huge, full-scale tour” to Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. “When we first took the phone call about this, I was like, ‘Well, there’s no way this is going to happen,’” he said, laughing. “Along the way, I was expecting any one of a number of issues to be the deal breaker.” But those issues, ranging from bringing semi-tractor trailers onto campus to hooking up the band’s equipment to the building’s main power source, didn’t stand in their way. The session was a go.

“It was literally an all-day process—we got here, I think it was 7 a.m., and we didn’t leave until like 8 or 9 p.m.,” O’Hara said. “They took over the entire station. They brought the entire tour, what they would bring into Madison Square Garden. And I had just an assembly line of students, working the elevator out there, bringing stuff in, bringing cases back out. I think there had to be 30 members of their team. Every studio was filled up with something.”

But O’Hara said the takeover was absolutely worth it. “It was unique content—we were the one station that got to do that, so it was affirming as to who we are in the industry that we were offered that and were able to accomplish it,” he said. “It was just a really great source of pride for me.”

While Fordham students Allen Wang and Caitria Demeroto weren’t at WFUV for the Gorillaz performance, they’ve gotten their share of hands-on opportunities. The studio sessions typically range from two to four hours and include up to 10 students working on the production—three to four audio engineers, four to five videographers, and usually a few trainees—while the live performances at city venues also call for a mix of students and external contractors.

“There was a show for Phoebe Bridgers at Forest Hills Stadium, which is actually in the neighborhood I grew up in,” said Wang, a junior in the Gabelli School of Business. “So to go and be part of the backstage team, it was a very fulfilling experience. It was also really insightful to see how larger productions work in terms of production teams and sub crews and what their day is like.”

Demeroto, a Fordham College at Rose Hill junior, said she really enjoys the personal, intimate setting of Studio A, where she shot video of the session featuring Gang of Youths, an Australian alternative rock group.

“I think it’s just really authentic—and you feel very close,” she said. “And it definitely is a different sound than a recording. It’s so cool to see them, without any editing yet, and how they interact in their creative process—actually capturing that on camera is really great.”

Launching Pad for Success

Paul Cavalconte, FCRH ’83, a longtime radio host, got his start as a Fordham undergraduate at WFUV before his career took him to WQXR, WNEW, and Q104.3. He came back to WFUV as a guest host in 2013.

“I owe my radio career to 90.7 FM,” he said from the stage of the inauguration concert last fall. “And this is a very, very proud moment for us. We have a unique training program in sports and journalism—some of the most famous voices in media have come through Keating Hall and out into the airwaves of the world.”

That’s a credit to the hands-on training the students receive at WFUV, which Robin Shannon, the station’s news director, described as “vastly different than a lot of other organizations.” Over the past two decades, Shannon and former news director George Bodarky, FCRH ’93, who now serves as the community partnerships and training editor for WNYC, helped to grow and enhance the training program that Singleton established in the late 1980s. Today, “we have a reputation in the broadcast world of training students in a way that is going to benefit newsrooms all over the country,” Shannon said.

A big reason for that is the work of Bodarky, who was honored at WFUV’s On the Record event in November for his more than 20 years of service to the station. From 2001 until last year, he helped train many Fordham journalists.

“The thing about George is that dozens, maybe hundreds of people could be giving these remarks right now, telling you how George changed their life, how George opened the door to what became their career and their vocation,” said one of his former students, NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow, FCRH ’07.

Shannon said the journalism program is about giving students ample opportunity to practice their skills in a professional environment. “It’s not just opening a book and reading about microphones or reading about interviews— it’s learning the equipment, going out, and covering stories that people are talking about.” She said students are also “allowed to make mistakes” and, with her guidance, they can “explore and experiment and kind of see what works for them.”

For Liam Dahlborn, a junior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, that opportunity to explore allowed him to develop his own role at the station—running the news department’s social media accounts. “That kind of position wasn’t really something that they were necessarily training for, but I was able to talk to Robin and talk to George, and be like, ‘This is something that I think we need to build on, the digital assets, now that we’re transitioning into a digital world,’” he said. “And they were really supportive of that.”

Dahlborn said that all the skills he’s acquiring at WFUV, which include writing a weekly subscriber newsletter, posting to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and launching the station’s TikTok account, will help him pursue a career in media when he graduates from Fordham.

“Being able to have this professional environment in college is something that’s very unique,” he said. “Being able to work in a newsroom that’s professional, that’s state-of-the-art—that’s something that I think you don’t really get at other universities. And to be in New York City, pretty much everyone who I’ve talked to in New York City knows of WFUV.”

Noah Osborne, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, said that his experience at WFUV opened doors for him, including his most recent internship at BronxNet television.

“That wouldn’t have been possible without WFUV,” he said. “Having WFUV anywhere on a resume seems to be the big talking point. I feel like a lot of my communication skills were honed here—especially as a reporter, as an anchor, even as a podcaster.”

Osborne said that until he worked at WFUV, he hadn’t thought much about podcasting and how it can be a great way to communicate with the audience. “I feel like it’s just made my delivery of certain lines of the news just so much more authentic, a lot more conversational, a lot more relaxed. It definitely did build my confidence as an aspiring media person.”

On the sports side, the WFUV legacy runs back to Vin Scully, the late, legendary voice of the Dodgers, who is considered the patron saint of Fordham-trained sportscasters, an ever-growing group that includes NBA Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83; Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, the voice of the Yankees; Chris Carrino, GABELLI ’92, radio voice of the Brooklyn Nets; Tony Reali, FCRH ’00, host of ESPN’s Around the Horn; Bob Papa, GABELLI ’86, the radio voice of the New York Giants; and Ryan Ruocco, FCRH ’08, of the YES Network and ESPN.

When WFUV shifted from a student-run station to a professional staff overseeing the students in the late 1980s, Marty Glickman, the former New York Knicks, Jets, and Giants announcer, came on board as a coach, schooling the young sports journalists in the art of play-by-play and other types of broadcasts. He hired a producer named Bob Ahrens, who took the sports department to the next level, helping them gain press access to all 11 of the New York– area professional teams.

It’s that tradition that current sports director Bobby Ciafardini looks to build on. “I like to think that a big part of the legacy that I’m hoping to carve out here is that we have expanded the programming to include a lot more of the video component and the streaming part of what we are doing these days,” he said.

For example, One on One, New York’s longest-running sports call-in show, was founded in the 1970s, but now, in addition to catching it on the radio, viewers can tune in to a livestream and watch video clips on social media.

“The students are … learning more now than ever because they are multimedia sports professionals,” Ciafardini said. “When Sam [Davis] goes to a game now, he’s not just going to get audio; he’s doing a standup and interviewing players in both capacities.”

Davis, whose roles include social media coordinator, Mets beat reporter, and on-air broadcaster for Fordham sports, said that he wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities WFUV offered him anywhere else. “I think that covering the professional New York teams—as far as I know, I don’t think there’s really another college in the country that does that,” he said. “With the fact that everything is video now, we’re getting a lot of hands-on experience … not just being on air … but also video editing and pushing that out on social media, learning what works and what doesn’t.”

Both the news and sports departments have grown more diverse in recent years and provided more opportunities to students, something that is a strategic goal of the station, according to Singleton. For example, the sports department, which has traditionally been mostly male, now has an all-female sports podcast, All In.

Breen, who received the department’s Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting last year, said that he’s proud of the students who are a part of the station’s legacy. “Every Fordham student who decides to join this amazing radio station feels a responsibility, a responsibility to uphold the standards that all the previous students and student broadcasters have set,” he said, noting that he and his peers certainly felt it during the 1980s. “You’ve not only upheld the standards,” he said, “you’ve raised them. And I say bravo.”

Companionship for People

Students who work at WFUV said that they were drawn to the station—and Fordham in general—not only for the chance to hone their technical skills but also to be part of its public media mission. That certainly was the case with Maya Sargent, which is why she applied to Fordham’s master’s degree program in the field. The program led her to a fellowship at WFUV, where she gets to tell the stories of a diverse group of New Yorkers.

“I’ve always kind of had that intrigue to learn more and find out more about communities, and New York feels like the epicenter of cultural engagement,” said Sargent, who came to Fordham from the U.K. “It’s such an eclectic mix, and I think that injects a lot of life into the media that we produce.”

That connection to local communities is something that Thao Matlock, co-chair of the WFUV Advisory Board, has found especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s a companionship for people, and I think it’s what kept a lot of us sane during the pandemic, especially the first part when it was all doom and gloom,” she said. “A lot of us tuned in to WFUV because it was great music—we just kind of hung out; there was no anxiety. And then, the news part, the COVID news, was very calm, very sane.”

That’s been a hallmark of WFUV for decades—giving its listeners the news and music they need to find community and a reason to believe, especially in trying times. WFUV DJs received responses similar to Matlock’s from listeners in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m a nurse,” read one March 2020 message. “Today I listened in, [and] for the first time all month, danced in my kitchen, relaxed for the first time in ages. Grateful to WFUV for helping us stay safe, stay sane, stay connected in these uncertain times.” Another listener said the station’s DJs kept her company. “Now more than ever, many of us, myself included, are alone, and music means so much in our daily mindset.”

Breen, who went on to become a Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster, recalled his time as a late-night DJ for WFUV. He was on the air on December 8, 1980, the night John Lennon was killed. “The phones rang off the hook, and they were talking about what John Lennon meant to them,” he said. “One gentleman told me how he was about to commit suicide, but John Lennon’s song stopped him. Another told me he had a drinking problem, and John Lennon helped them through that. And it was the first time in my life I realized what music meant to people.”

Chuck Singleton, general manager of WFUV, said September 11, 2001, was another time when the power of music and the strength of the WFUV community were evident to the team at the station. “That day, as we reported on [the terrorist attacks], we were there for people. … I have a whole folder of letters and emails that people sent us that in their own, individual way, said, ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you.’”

Never Stopped Moving

Rich McLaughlin, who got his start at WFUV as an undergraduate just over two decades ago and is now the station’s program director, said putting all the pieces together—the commitment to music discovery, training young journalists, and providing a compelling public service to the community—is what makes WFUV “completely unique and dynamic.” “Not only do we take part in training that next generation of media professionals, but we really rely on our students to help push WFUV forward into the future,” he said. “And that’s one of my favorite things about working here because I find when it comes to social media, when it comes to music, when it comes to just general technology, our students, they know as much or more than some of us.”

One way to make sure the station remains unique and dynamic is to continue to diversify—both the musicians it plays on air and the staff it employs, Singleton said. For example, three years ago, Houston helped spearhead the station’s EQFM initiative to take on the issue of gender disparity in the music industry. It has a goal of 50% representation of women and gender minorities in music programming, events, and online features. Those efforts help the station continue to grow and reach new audiences, McLaughlin said. “Wherever there’s a platform that a WFUV listener is looking to listen to the station, or consume our content—wherever they are, we want to be.”

That spirit of innovation has run through the station since 1947, he said. “It’s really important that we maintain that heritage and the tradition that we have and take that with us as we move forward. I think you can do both—you can change and think about things differently from a content standpoint, from a technology standpoint, and still take into consideration the station’s history and legacy. I think that’s what the station has done all along.

“WFUV is celebrating 75 years—it’s never stopped changing. It’s never stopped moving. And that’s why it’s still as relevant as it is today.”

—Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15, is an associate editor of this magazine. As a Fordham undergraduate, she was a WFUV sports reporter, host, and producer from 2012 to 2015.

Correction: An earlier version of this story, including the version that appeared in the winter 2023 print edition of Fordham Magazine, mistakenly indicated that Chuck Singleton “initially developed WFUV’s coverage of community issues.” In fact, he expanded coverage that began more than a decade earlier. Thanks to John J. Robb, FCRH ’76, who served as WFUV’s founding public affairs director from 1974 to 1976, for helping us set the record straight. 

Fordham graduate Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, the lead voice for the NBA on ESPN and ABC, and the voice of the New York Knicks on MSG Networks, received the Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting. And Norah O’Donnell, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, was honored with the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

Fordham’s public media station, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this fall, also paid special tribute to two people: the late Vin Scully, FCRH ’49, longtime voice of the Dodgers, who helped define the station in its early years; and former news director George Bodarky, FCRH ’93, who helped shape the careers of hundreds of young journalists during his 20-plus years at the station.

In the ‘Same Breath as Vin Scully’

Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, voice of the New York Yankees for the YES Network, presented Breen with the Scully Award. He recalled sitting in the Rose Hill campus center cafeteria in the 1980s, eating french fries and talking with a fellow Fordham undergraduate about their post-college aspirations.

“There was a young man from Yonkers sitting there in a hideous reindeer sweater, and across from him was a young man from the Bronx, sitting there in a snorkel coat,” Kay said to laughter. “And we sat and talked about our dreams. And the kid in the reindeer sweater, who’s Mike Breen, said, ‘You know what, I really want to be the voice of the Knicks.’ And I sat there, and I said, ‘You know what, I really want to be the voice of the Yankees.’ … But since Mike is Tommy Topper, he didn’t just become the voice of the Knicks, he became the voice of the NBA.”

Kay saluted Breen for his remarkable career, which began at WFUV and includes calling 17 NBA Finals, the most of any broadcaster. He said Breen’s achievements and his character are why he “deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Vin Scully,” the award’s namesake, who always “carried himself with elegance and grace and class.”

“You could go to anybody, in any part of this industry—there is not one person, not one person that has anything bad to say about Mike Breen. So he and Vin Scully go together,” said Kay, a 2018 recipient of the Scully Award. “He’s that sort of guy. He just treats people the way he’d want his children to be treated. And that’s special in this industry.”

Breen, who became only the second Fordham graduate to receive the award, said it was a high honor because Scully was “the gold standard.”

“When you’re an aspiring broadcaster, you dream about a lot of things, but you never imagine receiving an award named after Vin Scully,” he said.

Breen said that as an undergraduate at WFUV, he did a little bit of everything at the station and learned the value of hard work. In addition to covering sports, he served as a late-night and overnight music disc jockey, which he said gave him “one of the most memorable nights of my entire life.” Breen was on the air Monday night, Dec. 8, 1980, when news broke that John Lennon had been shot and killed in Manhattan.

“I was told by one of the seniors, ‘Take phone calls, take requests, and just play Beatles music all night,’” Breen said. “And the phones rang off the hook, and they were talking about what John Lennon meant to them. One gentleman told me how he was about to commit suicide, but John Lennon’s song stopped him. Another told me he had a drinking problem, and John Lennon helped them through that. And it was the first time in my life I realized what music meant to people.”

Breen said the experience, and his background in news, made him a more versatile broadcaster, which helped him throughout his career. He also said that he wouldn’t be receiving the award without the support of so many people, including Kay, with whom he has had “43 years of the best friendship a man could have”; his MSG broadcasting partner, Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier, who attended the dinner; and his wife, Rosanne.

“When you’re an announcer as long as I’ve been, you’re fortunate to have so many great partners,” he said. “I always believed announcers should never publicly say who their favorite partner is, but I’m going to break that rule tonight. And Clyde, unfortunately, you’re number two. You see, the best part about tonight is I get to share it with my favorite partner: my wife, Rosanne.”

Breen said those relationships and others have helped him and his family get through a particularly hard time recently after his house was destroyed in a fire. The Vin Scully award is the latest for Breen, who also has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award.

‘A Fierce Journalist’

CBS News senior national correspondent Anthony Mason, who served as emcee for the evening, described his colleague Norah O’Donnell as a “fierce journalist” when presenting her with the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. The award is named in honor of the 1954 Fordham graduate and WFUV alumnus who for many decades was the host of CBS Sunday Morning.

“We, her colleagues who sit next to her, have come to recognize a certain look Norah gets in her eyes when a senator or some such official is dodging or ducking or weaving or whatever,” he said. “And this steely veneer comes across Norah’s face. That’s when the question comes out that hits right between the eyes.”

O’Donnell wasn’t able to attend the dinner, but she sent video remarks that were played at the event. “I am so humbled and honored to receive this year’s Charles Osgood Award,” she said, “and thank you to Fordham University, where my mom went, and WFUV for your commitment to journalism,” which she said is more than “just a calling.”

“At its best, it has the power to make real change in the world that we live in, to give voice to those who feel like they have been silenced,” she said. “It is a privilege to do what we do.”

Mason said he was honored to participate in the event.

“I am what they said in radio, a ‘first-time, longtime’—I’m a first-time host [of On the Record] and I’m a longtime FUV listener and fan,” he said. “I became a fan somewhere around 25 years ago, when I moved out to the suburbs so we could raise our kids, and literally my car and my 45-minute commute and WFUV were my sanctuary from my crazy job.”

Honoring the ‘Patron Saint of WFUV Sports’ and an Influential Mentor

This year’s On the Record also featured two special tributes to broadcasters who helped shape the station and carry on its legacy—Scully and George Bodarky.

Scully, who died in August at the age of 94, was remembered through a video tribute produced by the WFUV sports department.

“Vin Scully is our patron saint. We revere Vin Scully. The ground he walks on is just golden,” Kay said at the dinner. “And we miss him … but his memory lives on, and one of the great things about Vin Scully is that his talent, which is exceptional, probably is only surpassed by the person that he was.”

Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas, who received the Vin Scully Award in 2013, took part in a panel discussion at the dinner. He said that one of the best things about being honored by WFUV was finding out about it from Scully himself.

“Everyone who won, they found out from Vin Scully—no one at Fordham told the winner until Vin had called them, and you heard that unmistakable voice, and he concluded his very gracious and warm comments always, ‘So Bob, welcome to the club,’” Costas said. “And joining any club of which Vin Scully is the charter member is a very good thing.”

Bodarky, the community partnerships and training editor at WNYC, was honored for his more than 20 years of service to WFUV, during which time he helped shape the careers of hundreds of young journalists, including NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow, FCRH ’07, who presented him with the award.

“The thing about George is that dozens, maybe hundreds of people could be giving these remarks right now, telling you how George changed their life, how George taught them about broadcasting, how George opened the door to what became their career and their vocation,” he said.

Detrow said one lesson from Bodarky that has always stuck with him is that it is a privilege to tell people’s stories.

“He was talking to a student reporter one day, and he said, ‘What kind of interviews do you want to do?’ And the … student said, ‘I want to interview important people, I want to interview famous people,’” Detrow said. “And George said, ‘Those are actually the most boring interviews to do. They don’t want to tell you that much. What you want to do is interview people who have compelling stories—bring their stories to life, tell people about them.’ And I never forgot that.”

Bodarky said the honor wasn’t just for him but for all the journalists who came through the station. He asked those who had worked with him during their time at WFUV to stand up and be recognized.

“You are my success,” he told them. “You are the reason that I’m standing here tonight.”

Bodarky credited his mentors, including WFUV station manager Chuck Singleton, for helping him get his start in journalism as a Fordham undergraduate after he thought he wanted to pursue a law degree.

“This honor is also shared with my mom,” he said, “a single mother who raised two boys on her own, who always taught me to fly high and believe in myself, who I think without knowing it, taught me the importance of working hard, caring for others, and picking yourself up and dusting yourself off when times get tough.”

Bodarky said he’s grateful for the role he’s been able to play in so many journalists’ careers.

“When someone tells me that I played a role in their journalistic achievements, that they hear me in their head, guiding them when they’re on the air, writing a script, or doing an interview—that makes me feel present when I’m not present and that gives me the feeling of success,” he said.

The Next Generation

WFUV also recognized two young journalists, both of whom graduated from Fordham last May. Abigail Delk, FCRH ’22, received the WFUV Award for Excellence in News Journalism, and Alexander Wolz, FCRH ’22, received the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.

Singleton said that Delk not only produced award-winning feature stories for Cityscape, the station’s weekly public affairs show, but also “effortlessly managed her peers as editor.” Wolz was recognized for helping to turn all of the station’s sports “shows into digital, streamed programming, most notably New York’s longest-running sports call-in show, One on One.”

Breen said that Wolz and Delk are examples of students who are not just carrying on but enhancing WFUV’s legacy.

“Every Fordham student who decides to join this amazing radio station feels a responsibility to uphold the standards that all the previous students and student broadcasters have set—I felt it, I know Michael felt it,” Breen said, referring to Kay. “And I’ll say this to you two, and your fellow current students and broadcasters who are here tonight, you’ve not only upheld the standards, you’ve raised them. And I say bravo.”

Singleton said that this year’s dinner raised more than $137,000, bringing the total raised since WFUV launched the On the Record program to more than $1.1 million. That funding supports the station’s student training program, which this year includes more than 130 students.

She was passionate about movies and TV, having earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and film and television at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2020 and pursuing the accelerated public media master’s program as an undergraduate.

During the height of the pandemic, Borca-Carrillo said she and her partner watched a lot of romantic comedies, better known as rom-coms.

“I became a big fan of rom-coms during the pandemic because everything was awful. But what we both figured out pretty quickly—and she had kind of grown up on rom-coms and I hadn’t—was that there really weren’t many lesbian rom-coms” said Borca-Carrillo, who graduated from the master’s program, part of Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, in 2021.

That’s how the idea behind her capstone project for Fordham’s Master of Arts in Public Media Program, a podcast called Looking for Violet, was born. The four-part series examines why queer love stories are so scarcely told in American film comedies, while also exploring the fundamental aspects of these films and showing how those aspects relate to the niche of the lesbian rom-com.

The podcast and Borca-Carrillo have won three major awards—a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media, and a first place award in narrative/produced podcast from the independent division from the Public Media Journalists Association. Borca-Carrillo was also a finalist for an award from the Deadline Club.

The Importance of Representation

“We always say representation in media is important, and I hope that [listeners]take away from it a little bit more of the concrete examples of why it’s important,” Borca-Carrillo said. “It’s really harmful to see yourself represented only in a negative light … A genre like a rom-com—that’s supposed to be funny and exciting and about finding true love—there’s really just not that much representation for queer women in it.”

One of the things Borca-Carrillo noticed when she was starting to formulate the idea for the piece is that many rom-coms are based on the trope of men and women being different from each other.

“And a lot of these rom-coms that we were watching were just based on this kind of battle of the sexes back and forth—that men-and-women-will-never-understand-each-other kind of feeling,” she said. “And so I decided to kind of look into that and see what it would be like to have a lesbian rom-com, to have something that you felt represented by.”

But that initially proved to be difficult because Borca-Carrillo noted that there aren’t many rom-coms featuring lesbians, particularly ones that “that didn’t end terribly for the lesbians either, which is kind of another trope that I talked about in the podcast,” she said.

“A lot of the lesbian media that you will see nowadays—there’s more—but it usually ends pretty badly for the people in it,” she said.

The title of her series comes from Édouard Bourdet’s 1926 play, La Prisonnière, where one of the main characters, Mme. D’Aiguines, “uses bouquets of violets to signify her forbidden love for a housewife trapped by marriage.” Throughout the podcast, Borca-Carrillo uses a character, Violet, to explore the different aspects of rom-coms—the “meet cute,” the obstacle, the proclamation of love, and the happily ever after.

Borca-Carrillo said she aimed to use Violet to “represent a past/present/future of women/women love, one that uses its layered history to create richer meanings in future works.”

Prominent Guests

As a part of her reporting, she interviewed people like Christin Marie Baker, the founder and CEO of Tello Films, a streaming and production company that has a lesbian focus, and author Camille Perri, who wrote a book on rom-coms called When Katie Met Cassidy that is in the process of being turned into a movie. Both of these creators have been working to produce content that has been scarce, she said.

Borca-Carrillo was surprised at first that these successful creators would agree to be guests on her show.

“These were kind of shots in the dark, but what I’ve learned is that people in this community are really interested in having more things come out about it,” Borca-Carrillo said. “So a New York Times best-selling author, and the founder of lesbian film service, and countless other really cool people were really excited to talk to me because this is a really small community.”

A Wild Ride

Borca-Carrillo said their participation, along with the awards, has been amazing.

“It’s been pretty wild,” she said with a smile. “Being recognized alongside a Bloomberg podcast at the Deadline awards, where we had a speaker who was a prize-winning journalist—it was really overwhelming. I think it’s really encouraging to know that a story that is created with a lot of personal attachment to it [can be so successful]. All the guests that I interviewed really put their heart and soul into their work that they do.”

Beth Knobel, Ph.D., who serves as the director of the public media program and an informal adviser to Borca-Carrillo, said that it’s been “thrilling” to see her recognized “over and over” for this podcast.

“I am so incredibly proud of her. She’s really talented, and it’s an important time for representation. A couple of years ago, I don’t know if people would have reacted to this podcast series the way they did. People have become, thankfully, much more aware and open to a wider array of voices in journalism. And it’s crucially important that this podcast bring visibility to the LGBTQ+ community and help people see it more clearly.”

Expert Editing

Borca-Carrillo also said that her mentor, George Bodarky, an adjunct professor at Fordham and former news director at WFUV, who is now the community partnerships and training editor for WNYC, was instrumental in helping her put this piece together.

“George helped me finesse all the different parts of the podcast so I’m eternally grateful to him and his guidance,” she said. “And I really do give the credit to the people that I interviewed, and to George and to Fordham for giving me the platform to put all of this together. … It was really formative to learn from people and to learn how much better projects can be when you really care about what you’re doing.”

Borca-Carrillo is now working as a junior producer at Wonder Media Network, which is a podcasting, women-led startup company that she said is “dedicated to lifting up underrepresented voices.” She got the job after interning at the company during the pandemic.

“It’s been really great to get better at podcasting while using all the communication skills I picked up at Fordham along the way,” she said.

“She was just so vibrant—if you knew her, she just had this wonderful energy about her,” WFUV news director George Bodarky, FCRH ’91, said of White, who spent more than two decades as a producer and, later, director of creative services for BronxNet, a cable network that specializes in public affairs programming by and for the people of the Bronx.

For the past few years, Bodarky worked closely with White on Bronx Connections, a collaboration between BronxNet and WFUV, as well as Norwood News, that allows Fordham students to get experience in TV news production and helps WFUV—Fordham’s public radio station—reach new audience members in the Bronx. Through the show, students have produced reports on gun violence, the legalization of marijuana, and the 2020 election.

Bodarky said that White exhibited “such a strong commitment to educating students.” She also helped him when BronxNet turned his weekly WFUV program, Cityscape, into a television show.

“She worked really hard to set people up for success, including myself,” he said. “I’m a longtime radio person, but Marisa came out on a shoot with me and she gave me tips and advice about being in front of the camera and making it natural. She wanted to help people be the best that they could be.”

‘An Absolute Powerhouse’

White, who grew up in the Bronx, graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1988. She began working at Cablevision while still in school, working her way up as a videographer and production coordinator. She joined BronxNet in 1994, soon after the network’s inception in 1993. She earned a New York Emmy award for her work as a producer of the video series Best of the Bronx, and served as the network’s intern coordinator before being named director of creative services in 2015.

In that role, she oversaw BronxNet’s signature shows, such as BronxTalk and Bronx Live! She also was a lecturer in media studies at Lehman College, where BronxNet is headquartered. In all of her roles, one of her main passions was working with young journalists, including high schoolers.

“We want these kids to go to college. We want these kids to have professional careers. We want these kids to say, ‘I grew up in the Bronx, I went to school in the Bronx, I got trained in the Bronx, and look at what I accomplished,’” White once said in testimony to city leaders.

Beth Knobel, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the public media master’s program at Fordham, said that she first met White in 2007 or so, when she went to BronxNet to talk about internship opportunities for Fordham students.

“I just remember my first impression of Marisa was that she was an absolute powerhouse,” Knobel said. “BronxNet is an absolutely amazing organization—it’s a huge team, and there’s just so many people doing so many things that, I think, it would overwhelm most people. But Marisa was like this island of calm in this incredibly active and slightly chaotic world.”

Bodarky said that all of the students who worked with White were able to not only gain experience in television but also take away some of her energy.

“I think what she really did for them—beyond what we could afford them at WFUV—was give them an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of television news, reporting, television show production,” he said. “Also, her enthusiasm and excitement for the industry—I think it’s something else that was infectious and, I think, hopefully also spurred them to be more excited about what they were doing.”

Knobel said that White helped teach students about loving their work and the community where they do it.

“She did so much to get our students excited about doing television, and to help them do it better,” she said. “She made her students fall in love not just with television but with the Bronx.”

A Legacy of Giving Back and Caring

Knobel and Bodarky said that White was committed to Fordham and saw working with WFUV students as a way of giving back to the University.

“I think that her experience as a student at Fordham was deeply influential to her,” Knobel said. “And she seemed to leave the University with a feeling that she wanted to give back and she did give back, and that’s a beautiful thing to emulate.”

Bodarky said that he will miss her expertise and her passion for providing “more in-depth coverage of an underrepresented community.”

“And her smile,” he said. “She always would greet you with a huge smile and a great sense of [being]so happy to see you. She really made you feel valued.”

White is survived by her husband, Raymond White, and two daughters, Amelia and Tessa.

“Working at WFUV was hands down, the best decision I ever made,” she said. “It changed the trajectory of my life. I was going to be a business major, and walking into WFUV, I just fell in love with journalism and people and news. And I did not see that one coming. We call it ‘the radio bug.’ And I definitely caught that.”

As an undergraduate, she began as a “day of” reporter, rising through the ranks to eventually become newsroom manager. Migliore reported on everything from gun violence to mold in New York City Housing Authority buildings, earning awards from the New York State Broadcasting Association, the Alliance for Women in Media, and the New York Associated Press.

After graduating from Fordham College at Rose Hill with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, she landed a job as an overnight news anchor and writer at iHeartMedia in New York.

What are some of the reasons why you decided to attend Fordham?
My story with Fordham actually started way before I was a senior in high school. My cousin had gotten married at Fordham when I was 16 years old. I wasn’t really thinking about college, and then I went to this wedding at Fordham’s church, and I was like, wow, this is beautiful. I love this place. It’s [in]the city, and the buildings are just so “old world.” Something about it just made me feel like it fit. I worked really hard in high school, because everybody was telling me it’s a really hard school to get into. As I got older, I recognized that it has a huge alumni network and it’s a [strong]academic school. Those were the three things that were really important to me when I was making my college decision—location, academics, and where I would go afterward.

What do you think you got at Fordham that you couldn’t have gotten elsewhere?
I know without a doubt, I would have never gotten the radio working experience that I did working at WFUV [if I had gone somewhere else]. Fordham has great programs—the academics, no doubt—but the icing on the cake was WFUV. And that’s something I’m super, super grateful for.

Did you take any courses or have any experiences that helped put you on your current path?
The journalism major paired with WFUV was fantastic. I had great, encouraging professors. The class sizes at Fordham are so great. My biggest class when I got into my major was nine students. When I was taking astrology or astronomy—I think that was the biggest class I had—it was maybe 45 students. So I think another thing I wouldn’t have gotten almost anywhere else is the teacher-student ratio and the small class sizes. I really built great relationships with my professors. And they’ve become great mentors to me. I also wrote a little bit for The Ram, and I was a part of the ampersand for a while. Once I got into journalism, I got into it and wanted to be a writer in any way that I could.

How did you get started at WFUV? Is there someone there you admire the most, and why?
I actually walked into WFUV [initially]and was like, “I’ll clean the toilet.” And they’re like, “No, we don’t do that here. If you want a job as a student, you can decide between news or music or sports.” “Well, I’d be interested in news.”

Somebody gave me the contact of George Bodarky [the station’s news and public affairs director], and I emailed him: “I would love to be a part of your workshop.” And he said, “Well, Natalie, we’d be happy to have you, but if you want to be a part of our workshop, are you willing to work afterward?” And I was like, “What? You want me to work? Absolutely!” So I took his workshop and then I jumped right in as an intern.

George and [Assistant News and Public Affairs Director] Robin Shannon taught me everything I know about news and really just [helped me build]that foundation to where I am today.

How did you land your current job? Can you paint us a picture of your responsibilities?
My current boss is a Fordham alumna, and she worked at WFUV. George encouraged me to reach out to her for freelance work, so when I reached out to her, she said, “Actually, we’re interviewing for a full-time position. Would you be interested?” And I said of course. I’m now an overnight news anchor for iHeartMedia Radio New York, which basically means that I write summaries for the metro area—so Hudson Valley, New York City, New Jersey, New Jersey shore, and Long Island. At the end of my shift, I anchor for Long Island, so I’m a news writer/anchor. It’s a funky schedule. I work from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. But it’s fun, and I really, really enjoy what I’m doing.

What do you hope to accomplish, personally or professionally?
I always wanted to be a long-form reporter from the work that I did at WFUV, so eventually, I’d like to get there. At first, I really wanted to stay in public radio, because WFUV is an NPR affiliate, but commercial radio’s growing. I would love to be able to work on long-form pieces and be a feature reporter or work on podcasts—I definitely find that really interesting.

Fordham has given me a great work life and personal life, because I met some lifelong friends at Fordham.

Anything else we should know about you, your plans, or your Fordham connection?
I’ve already joined the Young Alumni Committee to [continue to]be part of the Fordham community, either by mentorship or just trying to help Fordham students around the country, whether they graduated just recently or [will be graduating soon]. I would love to be a part and help in any way that I can.

If you’re worried you’ve exhausted all your Netflix options, look no further. Fordham News asked faculty and staff members for updated suggestions on the best things to read, watch, and listen to for the upcoming winter months. (In case you missed it, check out our last list of faculty recommendations here.)

Films

Jennifer Moorman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies

Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020), directed by Osmany Rodriguez
I know Halloween is over, but it’s always horror season for me! This one was actually recommended to me by a student in my Horror Film class, and I found it moving as well as fun. A horror-comedy focused on three boys battling vampires while simultaneously fighting off gentrification in their Bronx neighborhood (an issue that should concern all of us at Fordham), this film has so much heart. It has its share of cheesy moments and clichés, but overall it entertains while reminding us that Black lives matter, our communities are worth saving, and we are stronger together.
Available on Netflix

Bacurau (2019), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
This Brazilian riff on The Most Dangerous Game is a thrilling, powerful, anticolonial tour de force. Warning: It gets pretty graphic. But its messages about the dangers of globalization, imperialism, and white supremacy are as urgent as ever, and will hopefully inspire you to organize in your own community to fight the power. Its meditation on the ways that advanced technologies invade our lives and can hurt as much as they help is particularly relevant in this moment of ever-increasing dependency on digital (and specifically remote-learning) tech.
Available on Amazon

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), directed by Céline Sciamma
Arguably the greatest queer love story (or any love story, for that matter) of the 21st century thus far. Exquisitely shot, each frame is a painting. The compositions are breathtaking, the characters written and portrayed with unusual depth, and the story is incredibly moving and all too relatable for anyone who has a “one that got away.”
Available on Hulu

The Lighthouse (2019), directed by Robert Eggers
This is a great companion piece to Robert Eggers’ previous feature, The Witch (which I also highly recommend). It’s darker and more challenging, but also funnier. Its exploration of the horrors of isolation feels all the more relevant now than at the time of its release, and if you look beneath the surface, you’ll find a biting critique of capitalism and toxic masculinity (and some would say, also a homoerotic love story).
Available on Amazon

Beth Knobel, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies

Broadcast News (1987), directed by James L. Brooks
This is one of my favorite films about television news. It’s also filled with classic moments that speak to the nature of friendship, success, and love. I’ve shown it numerous times to my Fordham students to illustrate the power and limitations of broadcast journalism.
Available on Amazon

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 (1987)
Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985 (1990)
Produced by Henry Hampton
Everyone who wants to understand the roots of the American civil rights movement should spend the time to watch Henry Hampton’s monumental, prize-winning documentary series Eyes on the Prize. Its 14 parts, produced as two series, explore the major moments of the movement, from school desegregation, to the fight for voting rights, to the elections of Black politicians in major cities like Chicago. It’s engrossing and important.
Available on Amazon

Brandy Monk-Payton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies

Time (2020), directed by Garrett Bradley
This award-winning experimental documentary by Garrett Bradley is a beautiful and intimate portrait of a Black family that follows Sybil “Fox Rich” Richardson as she fights for over 20 years to free her husband from his prison sentence. Using interviews as well as Rich’s own homemade videos, the film is a brilliant love story in an era of mass incarceration.
Available on Amazon

Television Shows

Brandy Monk-Payton

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
Based on a 1983 novel of the same name, this limited series is a coming-of-age story about Beth Harmon, an orphan who also happens to be a chess prodigy. Set during the Cold War, Beth defies the odds as a female player who gains widespread public attention winning in a male-dominated sport, while also privately battling addiction. Watch for the mesmerizing scenes of chess play.
Available on Netflix

Grand Army (2020)
This gritty young adult drama series is set in Brooklyn and follows a multicultural ensemble of teenagers as they confront issues of identity at their prestigious public high school. At times difficult to watch due to its themes, the film has vivid characters and stellar performances by the young cast.
Available on Netflix

Jacqueline Reich, Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies

My Brilliant Friend (2018-present)
There are two seasons available of this amazing adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s four novel series set in Naples beginning in 1945. Most of the actors are non-professional, and there are wonderful echoes to Italian neorealism and other film traditions. It is compelling storytelling at its best, and when we can’t travel to Italy, the series transports us there.
Available on HBO

Borgen (2010-2013)
Borgen is probably one of the most highly praised international television series in recent memory, and Netflix subscribers can now see it for the first time. It revolves around the first Danish female prime minister and her family as she adapts to her new role. You will be riveted. Also along these lines on Netflix is The Crown, with Season 4 having just been released.
Available on Netflix

The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977)
One of the pioneering television series of the 1970s, Mary Tyler Moore plays Mary Richards, a single career woman living in Minneapolis. It was one of the first shows to feature work life and home life (modeled after The Dick Van Dyke Show, also starring Moore), and spawned several spinoffs (Rhoda, Phyllis, Lou Grant). I watched all seven seasons during the worst of the quarantine, and Mary’s sunny disposition and optimism were just what I needed. For a great companion read, I recommend the book Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted by Jennifer Kieshin Armstrong, which tells the background story behind the scenes.
Available on Hulu

Clint Ramos, Assistant Professor of Design and Head of Design and Production

Alone (2015-present)I love it because it shows you how we really need socialization.
Available on Netflix

Street Food (2019)
It’s set both in Asia and Latin America. I love it because it’s not about the food, it’s about the people who make the food.
Available on Netflix: Asia and Latin America

Beth Knobel

Occupied (2015-2017)
This multilingual Norwegian three-season television series revolves around a Russian invasion of Norway over energy resources. As someone who spent 14 years living in Moscow, working as a journalist, I was glued to the edge of my seat by the portrayal of the Russians and the twists and turns in this biting political thriller.
Available on Netflix

Books

Heather Dubrow, Professor of English; John D. Boyd, S.J. Chair in the Poetic Imagination; and Director, Reading Series, Poets Out Loud

Detective fiction and crime fiction in general! Long-standing favorites include Sherlock Holmes and Ed McBain, especially the ones about the 87th precinct, which I enjoy not least because they are set in New York. 

Michael Connelly has been another favorite for some years—partly because of how the values of the detective are represented (he repeatedly evokes police work as a “mission”) and also because of how the relationship with his daughter has developed in the course of the series. But OK, I’ll let the cat out of the bag: I’m writing a critical article on Connelly, which demonstrates that I need to try harder to follow the advice I give my students about getting away completely from academic work occasionally. 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
What an extraordinary eye and ear he has for English culture.

Seamus Heaney
Not surprisingly, I keep returning to Heaney, virtually any of his poetry books and prose too. 

Why I Am Not a Toddler by Cooper Bennett Burt
Given our troubled times I’d recommend for light reading, especially to people who enjoy some of the originals, the parodies of golden oldie poems Stephanie Burt claims were written by her infant son. One of my favorites there is in fact a riff on the Bishop poem that is itself one of my favorites, “One Art.” [Bishop’s compelling lament, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” becomes the kid’s “The art of mouthing isn’t hard to master . . . And look! my last, or / next to last, of three big crayons…”] 

Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America by Robert Bruegmann (Editor)
I love reopening and flipping through art books, including catalogues of exhibits to which I’ve gone. Art deco means a lot to me, and right now that bedside table also includes a book on deco mailboxes, a sub-sub genre of art deco design no doubt. And I often revisit a couple of books I have on the lacquer creations and other work of Zeshin—wow.

Music

Chuck Singleton, General Manager, WFUV

WFUV’s The Joni Project, which features artists covering songs by iconic singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell

Our Stress-Free Soundtrack pandemic playlist

The EQFM “Album ReCue” series, on landmark albums from women, which includes Spotify playlists of every album and Alisa Ali’s conversation with WFUV DJs

George Bodarky, News Director, WFUV

Everyone should have Nina Simone’s “O-o-h Child” on their playlist, especially now.

But really tapping into ’70s R&B has been uplifting, including “Shining Star” from Earth, Wind & Fire. 

Anne Fernald, Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Every summer, my family and I make a summer playlist. The rule is that it has to be brief enough to fit on a CD (so 100 minutes or so) and that it should capture the mood of the summer. We spend our summers up on the New York side of the Canadian border, listening to a lot of CBC 2. Their smooth-voiced nighttime DJ is a musician called Odario Williams, and his “Low Light (In This Space)” is a song that captures the hopes and aspirations coming out of #BlackLivesMatter.

Also on that playlist was Phoebe Bridgers’ “Kyoto,” which is both heart-breaking and inspiring and just grows and grows on me. 

And I am always charmed by the Swedish song “Snooza” by Säkert! It’s (apparently) about urging your lover to hang out and snooze a little longer. It’s a very cheerful pop song in a language I don’t speak and one of those gifts from the algorithm: a “you might like” song that I love. 

“I really believe this is unprecedented,” said George Bodarky, news and public affairs director at WFUV, Fordham’s public media station. “[On] 9/11, people were still able to come in. There wasn’t this sort of spread of disease, and our location in the Bronx was obviously even more advantageous at that point because we were so far away from Ground Zero, but now everywhere is ground zero with this virus.”

Bodarky, who graduated from Fordham College Rose Hill in 1993, is one of many Fordham alumni in the media adapting to this new world, which includes staff working remotely, information and misinformation coming in fast and furious, and an uncertain public looking for answers.

Working Remotely

For Alice Gainer, a local news anchor and reporter for WCBS, the pandemic has not only affected what she’s covering each day but also where she’s working from and how she’s doing her job.

The CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, where Gainer, a 2004 Fordham College Rose Hill graduate, usually works, has been closed multiple times due to employees there testing positive for the novel coronavirus. CBS has been working with its Los Angeles affiliate to help get some of the newscasts on the air, she said, including on Wednesday, March 18.

“They [anchored]our 5 p.m. newscast for us [that night]out of their station in LA, still using our reporters out in the field here,” she said.

Many of the events Gainer would usually attend in person have also been moved online.

“I’ve just been making calls at home,” she said. “Rather than showing up at the station for a meeting, we’re doing the Zoom meetings. Now we’re not going into press conferences; we’re just watching the feeds that the mayor puts out.”

Many interviews have also been moved to web platforms, such as Zoom or Skype, but for those that still take place in person, Gainer said she and her colleagues are taking extra precautions.

“We are keeping our distance—the six feet—so that is challenging in terms of audio when we’re interviewing people. We’re keeping the microphones either very far away or we’re just keeping it on the camera itself. We’re not putting that handheld stick mic in people’s faces anymore, and we’re also disinfecting the equipment a lot,” she said.

A Time of Uncertainty

For Connell McShane, co-anchor of Fox Business Network’s After the Bell, two main overarching stories have taken over the show—how the hospital system is handling the pandemic and what the effects might be on businesses, particularly local ones.

“This story, because of how quickly it hit, and how surprising it was to so many people who run businesses, has had [a large]impact on small and medium-sized businesses,” said McShane, a 1999 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate.

While larger corporations will also feel the effects of an economic downturn, they’re better prepared to handle it, McShane said.

“There are others who are going to get hit and are getting hit hard by this, but are normally able to at least buy themselves some time to weather the storm and get through it, whereas the small to medium-sized businesses have literally had to make decisions in the minute to unfortunately lay off workers and sometimes close down completely, at least short term,” he said.

That’s something Gainer said she’s seen up close on the streets of New York City.

“A lot of the bars and restaurants have shut down in Hell’s Kitchen,” she said. “I was talking to a couple places—‘are you going to do takeout?’ and they said it’s not even worth it. ‘We rely heavily on our in-dining,’ so they’re shutting down and they don’t know if they’ll be able to reopen which is really hard and sad to see. Walking on Ninth [Avenue in Manhattan], just seeing a lot of these places shuttered, it’s weird.”

‘News You Can Use’

One of the strategies McShane said he and his team have tried to employ for their audience, which he said consists of many small-business owners, is to explain the details of what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and state capitals across the country, so viewers can get information they can use.

“We try to dig into the details as opposed to saying, ‘Oh, you have … however many trillion dollars in stimulus … being added to the economy.’ That doesn’t tell someone as much as saying, ‘You’re a small or medium-sized business. You’re going to be able to take out a loan, and you’re going to be able to get that loan immediately, or you’re going to have to wait this amount of days for that loan,’” he said. “That’s a more specific and actionable story where someone can do something with that information, [rather]than just generic, $2 trillion stimulus bill type stories.”

Bodarky said that his team, made up almost entirely of students working remotely, started a live blog on the coronavirus for similar reasons.

“We felt the best way to inform our audience of that rapidly changing news cycle was we’d create a live blog so we can consistently [provide]new information as it comes—whether that’s President Trump declaring a national emergency or all of New York City public libraries closing, or New York state opening its drive-thru COVID-19 mobile testing centers,” he said.

It’s also opened up opportunities for reporters not focused on the live blog to take deeper dives into more in-depth stories related to the pandemic.

“We have our journalists, who are now working remotely, working on some more enterprise ideas—how this is impacting businesses, how this is impacting the economy, how it’s impacting nursing facilities,” Bodarky said.

Providing the Correct Information

Both Gainer and Bodarky said that when the coronavirus first broke out, they were constantly hearing misinformation spreading.

“There’s a lot of misinformation being spread on social media, so it’s very important to make sure that those rumors are put to rest and put to rest quickly,” Bodarky said. [Last week,] I heard that New York City subways were going to close, and the Metro-North was going to stop. A friend texted me, ‘They’re closing the bridges and the tunnels so you can’t go in or out of New York City unless you have emergency reasons,’ and that’s not true either.”

Gainer said over the last few days, she’s seen some of that die down, but she emphasized that it’s critical to provide information from reliable sources.

“Really what we’re doing is just providing people with the information, and they can make the decisions themselves,” she said. “We’re not obviously telling people what to do, it’s just presenting: here’s what the mayor’s saying, here’s what the state’s saying, here’s what the CDC’s saying.”

Bodarky said that his advice to his journalists and others is to make sure they’re providing information the public needs, not just playing into the hype.

“It’s very easy to fall into the hype, but just really ask yourself, ‘What’s the most important thing right now, what do people need to know, what’s impacting their lives, what’s critical?’ and not buy into the hype that we’ll see revolving around us on social media,” he said.

With the announcement on June 23 of the winners of the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated awards, the station officially surpassed last years’ haul of 21 accolades.

News director and Cityscape  program host George Bodarky said he was thrilled that staff and “young journalists” at the station are being recognized for telling good stories and being a voice for underrepresented communities.

“We don’t use the word ‘students’ because that’s not what they’re doing here,” he said of WFUV’s reporters—Fordham students who usually come to the station in their first year and go through an intense news training and internship program.

“We work really hard to see where there are issues that are underrepresented, and we look to bring those things to light,” he said.

“We really try to foster an environment of open ideas and experimentation and conversation and discussion. I think having that open conversation consistently in our newsroom leads to really solid reporting.”

When there are stories that have already been told, such as the opioid epidemic, Bodarky said WFUV journalists were great at finding new angles. An award-winning piece titled Addiction and the Brain, for example, addressed drugs effects on brain chemistry.

Stories With a Higher Purpose

He said he was especially proud of the stations’ Strike a Chord series, of which that episode is a part. The series is PSA campaign that focuses every quarter on issues such as affordable housing, job training, music education, senior services, and parks. In another episode, reporters revisited Super Storm Sandy five years after it devastated New York City, and revealed gaps that still exist in the recovery efforts.

In another piece that Bodarky did himself and which won several awards, he explored how Roosevelt Island is one of only two places in the country—including Disney World—to have a garbage collection system that relies on pneumatic tubes to suck garbage into a giant compactor.

“Anything we can do to make our listenership go ‘Wow, I had no idea!’ then I think we’re really doing our job,” he said.

“We don’t produce content with the goal of winning awards, but it’s nice when we do, because it’s an indication that we’re doing something right.”

The complete list of awards:

New York State Associated Press
Documentary: The Bronx Develops (First Place)
Use of Sound: How Roosevelt Island Sucks Away Summer Trash Stink (Finalist)
Art Athens General Excellence of Individual Reporting: George Bodarky, “Uncovering NYC” (First Place)

Student AP awards
Bill Leaf Memorial Award for Best Regularly Scheduled Local News Program: Kacie Candela, (First Place)
Chris Ulanowski Memorial Award for Best News Story: Sandy Five Years Later: Build it Back (Finalist)

New York State Broadcasters Association
Outstanding Public Service Announcement/Campaign: Strike a Chord: Combating Drug Addiction
Outstanding Interview: Cityscape: Suicide Prevention
Outstanding Use of Audio: How Roosevelt Island Sucks Away Summer Trash Stink
Outstanding Sports Coverage: Bob Hurley’s Biggest Game

Student NYSBA Awards
Outstanding Newscast: 12/21/17 Newscast of Breaking News Day
Outstanding Public Affairs Program or Series: Addiction and the Brain
Outstanding Interview: Exclusive with Vin Scully

Alliance for Women in Media Foundation Gracie Awards
News Feature: Combating Mental Health Issues in NYC Public Schools
Podcast Host: Kacie Candela for Prickly Politics

Deadline Club (New York City Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists)
How Roosevelt Island Sucks Away Summer Trash Stink (Finalist)

Society of Professional Journalists:  Mark of Excellence Awards
Best All-Around Radio Newscast: Rowan Hornbeck (Finalist)
Radio News Reporting: Sandy Five Years Later: Build it Back (Finalist)
Radio News Reporting: Addiction and the Brain (National Winner)

The Guides Association of New York City
Best Radio Program/Podcast: Cityscape

The New York Press Club
Rev. Mychal Judge Heart of New York Award: Cityscape: Here’s the Scoop

Public Radio News Directors Incorporated
Arts Feature: Celebrating 50 Years of Art in the Parks (Second Place)
Commentary: Life Interrupted (First Place)
Commentary: The Leaving Game (Second Place)
Nationally Edited Soft Feature: How New York’s Roosevelt Island Sucks Away Summer Trash Stink (Second Place)
Newscast: Robin Shannon’s Morning News (First Place)
Student Newscast: Breaking News Day 12/29/17 — Kacie Candela (First Place)
Student Newscast: Diana Nelson on Afternoon News (Second Place)
Student Spot News: President Trump Visits Long Island Town Plagued by Gang Violence (Second Place)

Ippies Awards

The Center for Community & Ethnic Media awarded the Norwood News, WFUV Radio and BronxNet Television a first place Ippies Award for Best Multi-Media Package: The Bronx Develops

The Fordham College at Rose Hill junior works as a reporter and news manager at WFUV, where she anchors four newscasts every Wednesday, co-hosts a politics podcast, and covers the United Nations beat. On Nov. 1, she’ll be honored with WFUV’s Award for Excellence in News Journalism at the station’s annual On the Record fundraiser.

Managing her schedule has been a bit of a juggling act.

“There were days last year where I would go to class, come into work, go to class, and then come back to work,” said Candela, who started training at the station during her freshman year. “It’s a lot of balancing, but it’s my favorite place to be on campus. It’s my second home.”

A typical day at the station can go one of three ways for Candela: On Wednesdays, she builds and anchors her newscasts, which air during late afternoon and evening drive time. But on other days, she might be working on a “day-of” story, which she’ll pitch and then report on in the field. Or she might be working on her podcast, or a longer “deep-dive” story that she develops over time.

Telling Stories for a Public Radio Audience

When she builds her newscasts, Candela combs the daily news wire for stories that will interest WFUV’s audience.

“We like to lead with a local story if there’s something relevant enough, as we’re a local station,” she said. She also needs to be mindful of the types of news she includes. “We’re public, we’re not commercial,” she said, “so we don’t cover the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ stories. We don’t really cover crime. We don’t cover fires. We’ll cover politics, city news, human interest stories.”

On a recent day at the station, located in Keating Hall on the Rose Hill campus, Candela produced a short story on the eve of the New York City mayoral primaries. She wanted to include some commentary on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s chances, but she didn’t want it to be her own.

“As public radio journalists, we don’t do opinion,” she said. “Our job is to just give the listeners as balanced and unbiased a viewpoint on a story as we can.”

So she used a sound bite from an interview she’d done for her Prickly Politics podcast the day before. The podcast, which Candela started last summer with co-host and fellow FUV reporter Jake Shore, focuses on the mayoral race and examines New York City issues that are important to voters, like transportation, Rikers Island, and campaign finance. For this mayoral primary episode, she’d talked to Jeff Coltin, FCRH ’15, a reporter for City & State magazine and an FUV alumnus, about the mayor’s chances and the lack of available polls. So she grabbed the clip of that conversation, and her story, and headed into the recording booth to put it all together.

Standing there with her notated script, Candela mentioned how important it is to “mark your copy.” It’s a trade trick she learned from WFUV News and Public Affairs Director George Bodarky, FCRH ’93, and Assistant News and Public Affairs Director Robin Shannon.

“Robin told me how to do breath marks after periods and certain commas, and George told me how to underline key words.” She read the script into the mic with the vocal cadences of a seasoned reporter, plugged in the sound clip from Coltin, and saved the piece to be included in her colleague’s evening newscast.

Training and Mentorship

Candela said Shannon and Bodarky “have become advisers in every way. … They teach you the trade and they see you grow and they encourage your progress.”

Bodarky, who runs the news training programs, said Candela has an “overwhelming sense of confidence, which is pretty remarkable. She is someone who is not afraid to express her opinion or put forth ideas,” he said, adding that she also has all the qualities of a great journalist. “She’s curious, skeptical, she looks and listens for the truth, and she cares about the medium and wants to use it effectively.”

All WFUV student news reporters take Bodarky’s training workshop and complete an internship at the station before being moved to a paid reporter position. Students get vocal training, learn how to conduct interviews, study journalism ethics, and learn how to work audio recording and editing equipment. The training program—and the on-the-job experience that comes later—are often touted by alumni as the best journalism education around.

“Everybody knows the reputation that FUV has,” Candela said. “They know if they hire an FUV reporter straight out of college, they will come in knowing exactly what to do.”

Award-Winning U.N. Reporting

After recording her mayoral primary story, Candela searched for news about the U.N. Security Council meeting on sanctions on North Korea, scheduled to happen that day. Candela has a strong interest in the U.N. and has reported on it extensively for WFUV; her series on the U.N. election won a first-place New York State Associated Press award this year.

If the timing worked out, she would report on the North Korea meeting for WFUV; she was also writing about it for her other job as a freelance assistant editor for PassBlue, an independent website producing news about the U.N.

Candela learned about PassBlue when reporting a U.N. story for WFUV. She asked if they had any summer internships, and instead they asked her to pitch a story. Now she’s a paid freelancer with significant responsibilities. “I’ve been introduced to ambassadors and treated like a professional,” she said.

Connections for the Future

An international political economy major and a student in the Fordham honors program, Candela plans to stay at Fordham for a master’s in ethics and society. After that: law school.

“The things I’m reporting on right now are what I want to work on policy-wise later, like human rights and global issues and sustainable development goals. I think the connections I’m making now and the expertise I’m developing on these issues will definitely help later on.”

A TV producer covers Brexit, OPEC, the French elections, and Vladimir Putin

As Bloomberg TV executive producer for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Annmarie Hordern oversees a team of about a dozen producers from Dubai to London, where she’s based. They’ve produced programming on a wide range of topics, from Brexit to OPEC to the French elections.

“Last night we did four hours of breaking news with the numbers coming out,” she said by phone the day after the first round of the French presidential vote. She enjoys the fast-paced work. “You’re thinking as quickly as you can on your feet about how you’re going to tell that story.”

The Long Island native said it’s an “amazing time” to be in Europe. “It just seems like there are never-ending interesting stories to cover that will really have an affect on our future.”

Last November, Hordern was at the OPEC meeting in Vienna when the group decided to cut its oil production for the first time in eight years. OPEC is one of her favorite stories to cover, she said, in part because of the major potential impact of the work. “Any news we end up reporting,” she said, “could move the price of oil or other assets.”

Perhaps Hordern’s biggest story was Bloomberg’s exclusive interview with Vladimir Putin in September 2016, just before the U.S. elections. As the producer, Hordern handled the many logistical issues that come with producing content for several outlets, including Bloomberg Businessweek. “It’s about trying to work as one global team,” said Hordern, who also went to Tehran to cover Iran’s elections in May.

This year, Hordern was named to Forbes’ “30-Under-30 Europe” list for media. When she was under 20, she got her start as student reporter at WFUV, Fordham’s public media station.

“When I went to Fordham I wanted to be a lawyer. That was before I stepped foot into [WFUV News and Public Affairs Director] George Bodarky’s office,” she said. She realized she’d been bitten by the journalism bug “the first time they sent me out with a mult box and a mic.”

Bodarky said Hordern “was on a path to greatness from day one. It’s just who she is.” He recalled her first feature, about a couple that exchanged vows in a shark tank. “She won two feature awards for that piece.”

While at Fordham Hordern interned for Charlie Rose, which proved fortuitous. “He tapes at Bloomberg TV,” she said. With a little help from an FUV alumna at Bloomberg who passed on her resume, Hordern started working at Bloomberg TV in New York the summer after graduation. “I was a production assistant. … Slowly they would give me more responsibility, and I said yes to everything.”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles. 

From l to r, students Jack McLoone, sophomore, Christian Goewey, senior, Drew Casey, senior, ESPN’s Brent Musburger, and WFUV’s Bob Ahrens. (Photo by Chris Taggart)

Casey, a native of Union, New Jersey, was broadcasting the game live from Santa Clara, California, for WFUV Radio (90.7 FM/wfuv.org).

For his work at the station, Casey was honored at On The Record, held Nov. 9 at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, with the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism. Fellow student Jake Shore, FCRH ’18, who was unable to attend, received the WFUV Excellence in Journalism Award for news reporting.

“Covering the Super Bowl was incredible,” he said. “It almost makes me a little cautious about what comes after Fordham.”

At the ceremony, the station bestowed awards named for broadcast legends and WFUV/Fordham alumni Charles Osgood and Vin Scully. This year’s honorees were CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl and ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Brent Musburger.

Shore, a Los Angeles native and a journalism/political science major studying in London this semester, joined the station during his freshman year, thinking he could score tickets to concerts as part of the promotions department staff. He was tapped for news instead.

“It was a lot of training, but once I got the hang of it I really loved it,” he said.

He credited general manager George Bodarky and Robin Shannon, assistant news and public affairs director, with mentoring him.

“From the first day, they want you to be the best you can be. You can’t get away with mistakes. I appreciate that they would hammer that in,” he said.

His training included covering a lot of press conferences. One press conference last spring turned out to be especially newsworthy: a group of politicians gathered outside a house in the South Bronx to protest an owner’s use of AirBnB to rent property as a venue for large parties.

“It was a standard press conference, but then it got so crazy,” he said. “Neighbors came out and started yelling at the guy who owns the house, and the guy started yelling back at them. The local politicians were caught in the crossfire.”

Shore’s AirBnB story earned him honors. The excitement of doing it is also one of the reasons he plans to stick with journalism once he graduates, he said.

Casey said he knew from the very beginning that he wanted to pursue broadcasting. He’d already tried his hand at it at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, and he chose Fordham in part because of the opportunities WFUV offered.

In addition to covering two Super Bowls, he has spent the past year traveling with the men’s football and basketball teams. Two of his feature stories—one about the Special Olympics, and another about American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win—received awards.

Winning the award is meaningful to Casey because executive sports director Ahrens, for whom the award is named, is also Casey’s mentor. As sports manager, Casey estimated he speaks to Ahrens every day to receive critiques of all of his broadcasts.

“The time that I’ve spent with Bob has been instrumental in my growth as a broadcaster, as a young sports media professional, and as a person,” he said. “Officially, its work, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

Casey said that upon graduation, he’s considering moving to Montana or Idaho—if he can land a gig broadcasting minor-league baseball.

“It’s my passion. I love doing it. I would certainly pick up and go there if the opportunity was right,” he said.