They both appeared at the annual On the Record gala hosted by Fordham’s public media service, WFUV, to receive awards named for alumni who learned their trade working at the station as students.

Chung received the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, named for the beloved CBS News broadcaster who died in January. “May I say to the Osgood family, I knew Charlie so well and loved him so dearly,” Chung said in accepting the award. 

“I’m very, very thrilled to have this wonderful honor in Charlie’s name.” (She was introduced by her husband, television host Maury Povich, who told a familiar story about once being referred to as “Mr. Chung” by a hotel doorman during a visit to New York.)

Chung was in the midst of a tour to promote her new bestselling book, Connie: A Memoir. Visser received the Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting, named for the acclaimed announcer for the L.A. Dodgers, who died in 2022. She began by lauding Scully for his “humility and passion and professionalism” and joked with Scully’s family members, who attended. “To hear that voice coming across the breakfast table, not out of the TV? I can’t imagine. You’re so spoiled!” she said, to laughter.

She gave shout-outs to colleagues in attendance, including those who work on her weekly sports show, We Need to Talk. “We are the only all-sports network talk show produced, directed, and hosted by women, and you’re all here!” she said.

At the event, attendees viewed a video about the WFUV student journalist experience—ranging from news and public affairs reporting to sports journalism, audio production, and more.

On Oct. 31, administrators from both schools met at the Rose Hill campus with Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham, and the executor of Scully’s estate to accept the gift to the University and to speak to the importance of Scully’s legacy. “With this gift, we celebrate Vin’s talents and fundamental decency, and teach them to the next generation,” Tetlow said.

“He loved these schools, and this is a way for him to express his gratitude,” said the executor, Edward White, during the meeting. He visited both schools to go over the gifts, which can be used however each institution sees fit.

Also on hand to celebrate the gift were Ed Kull, Fordham’s athletic director, and Chuck Singleton, general manager of WFUV, Fordham’s public media station, where Scully worked as a student broadcaster before gaining renown as the Voice of the Dodgers, the baseball franchise that moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles in 1957.

Sometimes referred to as the Velvet Voice, Scully was beloved for his eloquence and iconic style as an announcer, and provided inspiration for generations of sports broadcasters. Scully served the Dodgers for 67 years, retiring in 2016. He was 94 at the time of his passing on August 2.

His many awards and honors include induction into the University’s Hall of Honor and into the broadcasters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as a Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed by President Barack Obama in 2016.

On Nov. 1, Scully was honored with a video tribute at WFUV’s annual On the Record awards dinner. On March 20, he will be honored with a posthumous Founder’s Award at the 2023 Fordham Founder’s Dinner, to be held at The Glasshouse in Manhattan, with Scully’s family accepting the award on his behalf. Two days later, on March 22, the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, will celebrate a memorial Mass in Scully’s honor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 10 a.m.

In addition, the press box at Houlihan Park at Jack Coffey Field will be renamed in Scully’s honor, among other initiatives to honor his legacy, the University announced on Nov. 14.

Setting the Tone

The son of Irish immigrants, Vincent Edward Scully graduated from Fordham Prep in 1944 and went on to call baseball, basketball, and football games for WFUV—which was founded during his student years at Fordham College at Rose Hill.

“WFUV turns 75 this fall, and in the beginning, there was Vin Scully,” Singleton said. “Vin set the tone in 1947, and his influence echoes today in the quality work of WFUV’s talented young sports journalists.”

Scully kept up with Fordham over the years, taking interviews from FUV student journalists, hosting some workshops for them, and returning to campus as commencement speaker in 2000 and receiving an honorary doctorate from the University. His presence is also felt in Fordham athletics, since he played for the baseball team as a student.

In remarks after the meeting, Kull said Scully was “more than just a voice; he was an institution and a true master of his craft.”

“The impact he made on not only baseball, but the entire sports media industry, is humbling,” Kull said. “His story, with his Fordham and Bronx roots, continues to inspire our Rams and the entire Fordham family.”

A Bond with Fordham

Scully’s Fordham baseball career included a game against Yale, whose team included a future U.S. president, George H.W. Bush. When Bush was president, he met Scully for golf and later sent him a framed photo taken of them, White noted at the meeting.

“He frequently spoke very fondly of his experience at WFUV, and always felt that he was a part of the Fordham family … and wanted to contribute equally to Fordham Prep and Fordham University, which is exactly what he did,” said White, Scully’s business manager and friend for over 40 years, after the meeting.

“As a lifelong Catholic, he had a deep appreciation for the faith foundation provided at this exceptional Jesuit institution,” said White, senior partner with Edward White & Co., LLP, in Woodland Hills, California. He noted that Scully sponsored him during his own conversion to Catholicism. “He loved the foundation that he received, spiritually and academically. Every time he spoke of Fordham, it was glowing.”

He sometimes glimpsed Scully’s kindness and generosity—as well as his fame—while traveling with him, along with Scully’s late wife, Sandra, and his own wife, Mary White, who also attended the Oct. 31 meeting.

“Wherever we went, he was so well received, and so appreciated and so loved, and people would oftentimes stand in line to see if they couldn’t get his autograph or if they could have a photograph of him,” White said. “He was very thoughtful and compassionate to everyone. Whether he was speaking to a parking attendant or a most senior person [in politics]or in the commercial world, he treated everyone equally.”

During his trip to New York, White attended another event with a small Fordham connection—a Nov. 1 ceremony in which another client of his, the late singer and actress Lena Horne, a 1997 Fordham honorary degree recipient, became the first Black woman to have a Broadway theater named after her.

It was a joy to see where Scully attended school, White said. “He was truly a wonderful, giving, loving human being. We all loved him. We miss him indeed.”

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.

The event honored television journalist Jane Pauley, sportscaster and former baseball catcher Tim McCarver, and retired ESPN executive and Fordham Trustee Fellow Christine Driessen, GABELLI ’77, for their decades of achievements in their respective fields.

Held at the Lincoln Center campus, the dinner was a celebration of both those at the pinnacle of their careers and those just starting out; two student broadcasters also received awards for their accomplishments. It was a particularly poignant evening for Pauley, who, after 30 years in news broadcasting, succeeded Charles Osgood, FCRH ’54, as host of CBS Sunday Morning in 2016.

Like Coming Full Circle

Pauley was presented the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism by CBS Sunday Morning producer Rand Morrison and Osgood himself, who sat next to her as she stood at the podium. Morrison said he knew they could never replace Osgood, but that Pauley has exceeded their every expectation.

“It was our lucky day at Sunday Morning, because suddenly the path became clear and all fell into place. Jane getting this award with Charlie’s name on it could not be more appropriate. It’s like coming full circle,” he said.

Pauley said she was still amazed to have gotten the best job of her life when she was 65, and confessed to feeling pressure to live up to the standards that Osgood upheld.

“When I first started at [CBS Sunday Morning], inevitably I would hear the voice of Charlie, [in my head]  because no one spoke the language with such effortless eloquence, pacing, and timing as him. Maybe a year or two years went by, and I stopped trying to be you,” she said to him.

A Storied Career in Baseball

McCarver was a two-time all-star and two-time World Series winner who played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Montreal Expos, and Boston Red Sox, from 1959 to 1980. He went on to call a then-record 23 World Series and 20 All-Star games and earn three Emmy Awards. On Tuesday, he was presented the Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting.

Scully, a 1949 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill, lauded McCarver in a short videotaped message from Los Angeles, where he called games for the Los Angeles Dodgers for 67 years before retiring in 2016. Steve Hirdt, a nationally recognized statistician and longtime friend of McCarver, presented him with the award. He noted that McCarver was able to bring into the broadcast booth the kind of knowledge that only someone with 21 years behind the plate can bring, such as the best way to run from third base to home when a ball is hit to the third baseman (shadow him, and then break for home if he throws to first).

“These things are things that would be delicious morsels of information not just to casual viewers, but to people such as myself who have watched baseball my entire life,” he said.

“When the rights to televised broadcast baseball shifted from one network to another, the first thing the networks would do is go after McCarver.”

In his acceptance speech, McCarver noted that when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s homerun record in 1961, he was never walked by opposing pitchers, because fellow slugger Mickey Mantle batted after him. Just as this afforded Maris an opportunity, he said, his success was due in part to the generosity of others.

“This is a very emotional moment for me and my family,” he said, noting that because he’d won the award, he got the chance to speak with Scully over the phone for the first time.

“Vinny—you would have thought he played the game. He understood it like no man who hadn’t played it did.”

Trailblazing a Path for Women

In a first for the event, a third special tribute award was also bestowed, upon Christine Driessen, GABELLI ’77, who recently stepped down as executive vice president and chief financial officer for ESPN.

Driessen joined the network in 1985, and in 33 years, she rose to become the most-tenured senior woman there. She is credited with helping the network’s unprecedented growth during that time, and, in her remarks introducing her, Fordham women’s basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley hailed her as a trailblazer for successful women in sports.

Driessen credited Fordham with introducing her to power of sports in business and in life.

“Fordham taught me the value of leadership, integrity, humility, and most importantly, speaking up for those who need a voice, especially women in business, and women from around the world, for the power of sport,” she said.

In a discussion afterward moderated by Sara Kugel, FCRH ’11, the award winners touched on everything from what advice they’d give to students looking to pursue a career in their fields, to the future of those same fields. Driessen suggested students work hard, learn to ask for what they want, and learn to communicate effectively. She also emphasized the importance of mentoring others, a point Pauley revisited later in the conversation.

“Christine, just in case you want to go to bed tonight not wondering whether you influenced someone positively or not, ding!” she said, raising her hand in the air and pointing to herself.

Honoring Student Broadcasters

Proceeds from the awards dinner, which this year raised close to $160,000, help fund WFUV’s training programs for University students, two of whom also received recognition. Natalie Migliore, FCRH ’20, was given the WFUV Award for Excellence in News Journalism, and Charlie Maisano, FCRH ’20, was presented with the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism—named for the station’s recently retired executive sports producer.

Migliore, WFUV’s current news director and a lead reporter for the station’s Strike a Chord campaigns, said she was grateful for the opportunity to work on extensively researched stories on air pollution in New York City and a school walkout against gun violence.

“WFUV is a gift to Fordham University students, and I’m beyond proud to enter the work force telling people where I started,” she said.

However, when Woodruff became co-anchor of PBS NewsHour with the late Gwen Ifill—making history as the first women to co-host a national nightly news show—the pair was determined to take a different route. 

“I had known Gwen for years, but had only been working with her for five or six years, and we had gotten to be good friends,” she said. “So once we were named partners on the air, we just decided nothing was going to get between us.”

The Q&A discussion, held on Nov. 1 at the Lincoln Center campus, was part of WFUV’s On the Record, a celebration of achievement in news and sports broadcasting.  Sponsors included the Susan V. Bershad Charitable Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Linda Mahoney and Peter A. Smith, Charles Osgood, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This year’s ceremony honored Woodruff while honoring posthumously Ifill, who died last year after battling cancer. The third honoree was the legendary sportscaster Bob Wolff, who died at age 96 this past July.

Woodruff and Ifill were recipients of the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, which was presented via video by former CBS News Sunday Morning host Osgood, FCRH ’54.

Ifill’s cousin Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NACCAP Legal Defense, accepted the award on behalf of the award-winning African-American correspondent. She described Ifill, who held positions at NBC News, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, as a “friend to people of America from all walks of life.”

“She was a journalist who really believed in getting the story,” she said, adding that Ifill “dug deep” to find universal experiences and was curious about other people’s perspectives.

Basketball and Baseball Hall of Fame sportscaster Wolff, who was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest consecutive run as a broadcaster, was honored with the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting. Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, voice of the Yankees on the YES Network, presented the award to Rick Wolff, Wolff’s son and longtime host of The Sports Edge on WFAN Sports Radio, on his late father’s behalf.

Kay said “when word of Bob’s passing reached people in our industry, there was genuine sadness because not only did our business lose one of its giants, but the world lost one of the best people it has ever seen.”

Rick Wolff shared that his father, who covered every major sporting event and broadcasted for teams such as the New York Knicks and New York Yankees, made a name for himself when covering the Washington Senators in 1947 by cleverly giving scores during the games without saying which team was leading.

“He became very adept at how to tell stories and entertain various listeners,” he said.

Though On the Record commemorated industry legends, it also celebrated tomorrow’s broadcasters.

Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) junior Kacie Candela was presented with the WFUV Award for Excellence in News Journalism, and FCRH senior John Furlong received the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.

Ahrens, who recently retired after 20 years as WFUV’s executive sports producer, praised WFUV alumni like master of ceremonies Alice Gainer, FCRH ’04, a CBS 2 News reporter, for being role models for up-and-coming student broadcasters.

“It is comforting to know that there is an enthusiastic and active WFUV sports and Fordham family out there [who are]eager to give back,” said Ahrens, who was also honored during the night with a special video tribute.

As one of the Mets beat reporters for WFUV, Fordham’s public media service, Furlong spent the day at Citi Field. He watched from the press level as the Nationals beat the Mets, 3-2, then rushed down to the interview room for Mets manager Terry Collins’ postgame press conference, and headed to the Mets clubhouse to collect audio from players Jacob deGrom and Seth Lugo before choosing the best sound bites for FUV’s Monday morning sportscast.

In the past few years, Furlong has taken on myriad roles at WFUV, and on Nov. 1, at the station’s annual On the Record fundraiser, he’ll receive the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.

The award, given annually to a member of the WFUV sports staff who’s excelled on and off the air and demonstrated strong leadership ability, bears the name of the station’s longtime executive sports producer. Ahrens, who retired earlier this year after two decades at WFUV, currently serves as a consultant during the transition to his successor, Rick Schultz, FCRH ’98.

Furlong says he’s honored to be chosen, and that it’s especially meaningful because of the award’s namesake. “Bob Ahrens has been a second father to me at Fordham,” he says. “He’s been a mentor to me, in and out of the studio.”

Preparing to Work Alongside the Pros 

Furlong initially chose Fordham for its swimming team, and he competed for two years, but he knew he ultimately wanted to go into journalism. During his sophomore year, he came across WFUV’s table at a club fair. Impressed by the professional nature of the station, he signed up.

Like all members of the WFUV sports department, Furlong learned the ropes during an intensive year-long training program. In one semester, students learn the basics of radio production, like how to use the station’s recorders and computers. In the other, they rotate through various roles in a mock talk show, getting experience as a host, update anchor, producer, and engineer. And that’s all on top of workshops and informal conversations that teach students how to conduct themselves with professionalism in the press box.

“The standards we’re teaching are not college standards,” Ahrens says. “They’re professional standards. Because those are the standards by which they’re going to get judged when they get out of here.”

Reporting and Producing

By the end of his training, Furlong began to get involved in actual WFUV broadcasts, both as a producer and in an on-air role. He also landed his first internship, with CBS New York. During his junior year, he started working on Fordham football broadcasts, then landed another internship, this time with SNY.

As the year went on, his role continued to expand at FUV: He traveled with the men’s and women’s basketball teams and served as the field engineer on those broadcasts. He did play-by-play for Fordham’s baseball, soccer, and water polo teams. And at the start of the 2017 baseball season, he was named one of the station’s two Mets beat reporters, covering roughly half the team’s home games as well as events like this summer’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction and the 2017 MLB All-Star Game. 

Leading Younger Students, Looking Ahead 

As summer turned to fall, Furlong was preparing to switch to sharing the Islanders beat at FUV, while also working as a field producer and color commentator on Rams basketball games. He’ll have a hand in FUV’s One on One sports talk show, which airs on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings, alternating between hosting and working on the production side. He’s also helping lead this year’s training program for the next group of WFUV staffers.

“John assumes a lot of the coaching and teaching roles with the younger students coming into the sports department, because I think he felt that that’s what was done for him,” says Schultz.

This winter will bring another golden opportunity: Furlong will travel to South Korea to work as a production assistant for NBC Sports during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“Every door that has opened to me in my career has been opened by WFUV,” says Furlong, who wants to work on the production side of broadcasting when he graduates. Looking ahead, he says the training and experience he’s received at WFUV have given him confidence that he’ll thrive in the industry.

“Whenever they show a shot of the control room during an ESPN radio broadcast, [I see that] we have the same equipment as they do. Literally. It’s like, ‘I could run that board right now. I could probably go produce that show if I wanted to,’ which is really cool to think about.”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06

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.”

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.

Rose was presented the Charles Osgood Award for Excellence Broadcast Journalism, named for legendary broadcaster, WFUV alumnus, and 1954 Fordham graduate.

In his remarks, Osgood complimented Rose for his productivity and his recent inclusion by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

“I cannot imagine when he sleeps or where he keeps his Legion of Honor medal or all the Peabodys and Emmys and the other cups and plates,” said Osgood. “You deserve them all Charlie. With you accepting it, I feel honored.”

Rose returned the compliment to Osgood, a colleague at CBS.

“He understands that a picture is worth a thousand words, but a word can define a thousand pictures,” Rose said.

Emrick, a play-by-play announcer for NBC and NBCSN, and former voice of the New Jersey Devils for 21 seasons, was awarded the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting, named after the Hall of Fame broadcaster, play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and alumnus of WFUV.

Scully, who graduated from Fordham in 1949, lauded Emrick in a taped segment as “nice a guy as ever got into the profession, meticulous in his preparation, and able to effortlessly broadcast hockey matches.”  Bob Ahrens, executive sports producer at WFUV, presented Emrick with the award.

Emrick singled out Sam Flood, executive producer and NBC Sports, and Lou Oppenheim, CEO, Headline Media Management as key colleagues.

“For those of you who are students here tonight, 50 years from now I hope you have two people in your life who take as good care of you as Sam and Lou have done for me,” he said.

In a post-award discussion led by CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Jane Pauley, Rose said growing up as an only child in a tiny town in North Carolina had a profound effect on him.

“Conversation was the way you found your place—by asking questions, by being able to somehow figure out how curiosity would serve you well,” he said. “That’s where it all began for me.”

Emric, when asked how he manages to narrate the action of a game that moves at lightning speed, said that, ironically, it’s easier at the professional level than in amateur sports.

“When I was riding the bus leagues for several years, you’d have a 5-1 lead and it would become a 7-5 loss because there would be a lot of mistakes made and a lot of changes of possession. But at the level I get to work at now, its much more predictable,” he said.

The fundraising event, which replaced the annual gala that WFUV began celebrating in 2008, raised $200,000. On May 13, 2016, the station will celebrate its musical heritage with “The FUV High Line Bash: A Moveable Feast of Music and Food,” at Milk Studio in lower Manhattan.