To illustrate the cover story—“WFUV at 75: Behind the Scenes at New York’s Home for Music Discovery”—the magazine’s creative director, Ruth Feldman, turned to artist Tim Robinson, a fan of Fordham’s public media station whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications.

Like WFUV itself, Robinson’s illustration incorporates retro, classic elements in a vibrant collage. He created several other collages for the story, written by Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15. Taken together, Prinz’s words and Robinson’s illustrations highlight how Fordham’s public media station connects an impressive legacy with an increasingly national reputation as a multimedia training ground and home for music discovery.

The UCDA Design Awards, established in 1971, recognize exceptional design and creative work done by communication professionals to promote educational institutions. Fordham Magazine will be featured among 145 other award winners at the 2023 UCDA Design Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, this fall.

Shortly after Scully died on August 2, 2022, at the age of 94, Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci used the Latin phrase eloquentia perfecta, or perfect eloquence, to describe Scully’s gift and well-honed craft. “Freshmen at Fordham, including Vin Scully, class of 1949, take a seminar class taught by the most accomplished faculty called eloquentia perfecta,” Verducci wrote. “It emerged from the rhetorical studies of the ancient Greeks, codified in Jesuit tradition in 1599. It refers to the ideal orator: a good person speaking well for the common good. It is based on humility: The speaker begins with the needs of the audience, not a personal agenda. Vin Scully was that ideal orator. A modern Socrates, only more revered.

“He was an amazing firsthand witness and chronicler of history. … And yet never did Vin place himself above the people and events he was there to chronicle.”

In a career spanning seven decades, Scully described some of the most memorable moments in baseball. He was erudite and eloquent, with exquisite timing and an ability to frame the drama as it unfolded. He could weave anecdotes about the players, literature, and history into the flow of the game, interrupting himself to describe a pitch without losing the thread of his tale or his listeners’ attention. But he also knew when to go silent and let the magical moment—and the roar of the crowd— speak for itself.

He received numerous awards throughout his career, including induction into the broadcasters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, an Emmy Award for lifetime achievement in 1996, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2016. “The game of baseball has a handful of signature sounds,” Obama said at the White House ceremony. “You hear the crack of the bat, you got the crowd singing in the seventh-inning stretch, and you’ve got the voice of Vin Scully.”

The Early Years

Scully was born in the Bronx after his parents immigrated from Ireland. He grew up in Washington Heights and attended Fordham Preparatory School. After graduating in 1944, he served briefly in the Navy before enrolling in Fordham College at Rose Hill, where he majored in communications. In 1947, he became one of the original voices of WFUV, the University’s radio station. He penned a sports column in The Fordham Ram, worked as a stringer for The New York Times, and sang in the Shaving Mugs, a campus barbershop quartet. For two seasons, he played outfield for the Fordham baseball team.

Five decades later, on May 20, 2000, Scully returned to Rose Hill to receive an honorary degree from the University and deliver the commencement address. He told graduates that the “four-letter words” he associated with Fordham were “home, love, and hope.” And he didn’t put himself above his audience: “It’s only me,” he said, “and I am one of you. … I walked the halls you walked. I sat in the same classrooms. I took the same notes and sweated out the final exams; drank coffee in the caf and played sports on your grassy fields.”

But Scully’s favorite place to be was behind the mic. He called Fordham baseball, basketball, and football games for WFUV. And in a 2020 documentary on the station’s celebrated sports department, he joked that he would even call games to himself while playing for the Rams. He recalled listening to games as a kid and being “so thrilled by the roar of the crowd that first, I loved the roar. Then I wanted to be there, and eventually I thought I would love to be the announcer doing the game.”

The Voice of the Dodgers

After graduating from Fordham in 1949, Scully spent the summer at a CBS radio affiliate in Washington, D.C., before he returned to New York to speak with the network about working there. Just a few days later, he received a call from Red Barber, the legendary CBS sports director and broadcaster, asking him to cover a college football game that Saturday. By spring, the 22-year-old Scully had joined Barber in the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast booth. When Barber left to work for the Yankees following the 1953 season, Scully became the team’s primary announcer, a position he held when the franchise moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season and kept until he retired in 2016.

The highlights of his career are too numerous to recount in full, but in 1955, he called the final out of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ only World Series victory. He described Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, calling it “the greatest game ever pitched.”

He was behind the mic for another perfect game a decade later, by the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax on September 9, 1965. That game was not televised, but Scully’s descriptive, evocative call of the last inning helped listeners see and feel the drama. “And you can almost taste the pressure now,” he said after the second strike against the inning’s leadoff hitter, Chris Krug. “Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the cap back down, fussing at the bill. Krug must feel it too as he backs out, heaves a sigh, took off his helmet, put it back on, and steps back up to the plate.” Moments later, Scully said, “And there are 29,000 people in the ballpark and a million butterflies.”

On April 8, 1974, the Dodgers traveled to Atlanta to play the Braves, whose veteran slugger, Hank Aaron, was one home run away from breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs. In the fourth inning, Aaron stepped up to the plate with Scully behind the mic to describe a drama that would resonate far beyond the ballpark. “It’s a high drive into deep left-center field. Buckner goes back to the fence. It is gone!” Scully said, then let the crowd take the mic for 26 jubilant seconds before remarking on Aaron’s historic achievement: “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.”

A dozen years later, Bill Buckner, the outfielder who watched Aaron’s recordbreaking home run sail just out of reach, would be at the infamous heart of another one of Scully’s most memorable calls. Now playing first base for the Boston Red Sox, Buckner and his teammates faced the New York Mets in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. They were up two runs and only one out away from breaking the so-called Curse of the Bambino, having not won a World Series since trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season. But the Mets staged a gritty comeback to tie the game in the 10th inning. Finally, the Mets’ Mookie Wilson hit a seemingly simple ground ball Buckner’s way. “Little roller up along first, behind the bag, it gets through Buckner!” Scully said, his voice rising. “Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!” Once again, he let the crowd roar—this time for nearly two minutes, as viewers were shown the replay of Buckner’s error, a delirious New York crowd, the jubilant Mets, and the despondent Red Sox. “If one picture is worth a thousand words,” Scully said when he returned to the mic, “you have seen about a million.”

The ‘Patron Saint of WFUV Sports’

Scully’s iconic style made him an inspiration for generations of sports broadcasters who followed in his footsteps at WFUV and at Fordham, including Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, the voice of the Yankees for the YES Network, who called Scully “the greatest broadcaster who ever lived.”

“Every game was a master’s class as he turned an inning into poetry. And as great as he was, he was just as nice. Class, elegance, and grace were all part of his humble but regal being,” Kay wrote. “His loss is heartbreaking as his golden voice is silenced, but he will live forever as an example of what to try and be on and off mic. RIP Mr. Scully, and rest easy knowing how much you made a difference to all who met you and had the joy of listening to you.”

In the 2020 documentary on WFUV sports, Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, described what made Scully the best: “His vocabulary, his storytelling, his personality—everything. He just was perfect,” Breen said. “It made you … [want] to make sure you were always prepared anytime you went on the air.”

Bob Ahrens, WFUV’s sports director for 20 years before his retirement in 2017, said Scully always made time for the students. They usually interviewed him about once a year for the weekly One on One call-in show, and Ahrens said Scully hosted at least two workshops over the phone. “They can’t see him in person, and the control room is packed,” Ahrens said. “He loved FUV, he loved Fordham, and he was always willing to help out.”

In 2008, he became the first recipient of WFUV’s Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting, a lifetime achievement award that Breen accepted last fall and Kay took home in 2018. “To be given an award with Vin Scully’s name on it is beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” Kay said at the awards ceremony. “He is the patron saint of WFUV sports, he is the patron saint of anybody who does baseball play-by-play. He is the best at what he’s done.”

Mike Watts, GABELLI ’14, who calls games for ESPN, Westwood One, and other networks, said that Scully inspired him to come to Fordham. “There is no WFUV sports without Vin Scully,” Watts said. “His name gave all of us credibility. To have the greatest at anything come from your school, your radio station, your program—it’s the light that all of us were following.”

‘Smile Because It Happened’

On October 2, 2016, Scully called his final game. Before heading to the playoffs, the Dodgers and the Giants—two teams with New York roots—concluded the regular season with a game in San Francisco. In the final inning, Scully said that he’d had a line in his head all year, a common, anonymous expression often mistakenly attributed to Dr. Seuss, he said. “The line is, ‘Don’t be sad that it’s over. Smile because it happened.’ And that’s really the way I feel about this remarkable opportunity I was given, and I was allowed to keep for all these years. … I have said enough for a lifetime, and for the last time, I wish you all a very pleasant good afternoon.”

—Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15, is an associate editor of this magazine. Chris Gosier and Ryan Stellabotte contributed to this article.

Born in South Carolina in 1916, she moved to New York City to live with an aunt during the Great Depression. By 1974, when she earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, she was in her late 50s. She had served as executive secretary of the city’s Community Mental Health Board, and two years earlier, helped form and lead Black Citizens for Fair Media, a volunteer group that challenged broadcasters’ discriminatory employment practices and negative depictions of Black people.

“At first we thought broadcasters could do as they pleased. … Then we found out that ‘the airwaves belong to the people,’ and that phrase became our slogan and call to action,’” she once wrote.

They pressured major networks into changing their programming, employment, and training policies—and if they resisted, Bowen’s group filed challenges to the renewal of their broadcast license with the Federal Communications Commission until they relented. In the late 1980s, her group became the Foundation for Minority Interests in Media. Renamed the Emma Bowen Foundation following her death in 1996, it connects students of color with internships at leading media companies.

At Fordham, Emma Bowen’s spirit is reflected not only in the public service mission of WFUV but also in the students supporting Bronx farmers markets through the Center for Community Engaged Learning and in alumni like trustee Valerie Irick Rainford, FCRH ’86, and Patricia David, GABELLI ’81, recently honored by Inclusion magazine as “trailblazing leaders who wrote the playbook for implementing” diversity, equity, and inclusion values and practices in the workplace. Bowen’s life and legacy deserve to be better known.

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. 

So he spent the next two years cold-calling professors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. And he worked his way up in positions of increasing responsibility in the publishing field while nurturing ideas for an innovative series of self-help books.

At first, traditional publishers weren’t buying into his ideas, but he found a home with IDG as a founding member of its new book division. Before his 10th Fordham reunion, he was living in Silicon Valley and working as the CEO of IDG Books Worldwide, the startup publisher of the popular “For Dummies” book series that he created.

“My premise was that dummies are smart but are made to feel dumb by the techno, financial, and pervasive ‘babble’ across a wide variety of topics,” he explained. “There was no limit to topics that my team and I believed could help improve the quality of people’s lives and enrich their careers.”

Perseverance Pays Off

Since the release of the first book, DOS for Dummies, 30 years ago, IDG and Wiley (the series’ publisher since 2001) have put out more than 2,000 titles and sold 250 million copies. The series has generated $2 billion in retail sales.

“I can safely say I used every bit of the knowledge gleaned from my four years at Fordham throughout my career,” Kilcullen said, adding that the icon for the series was inspired by an advertising class he took at Fordham that covered mnemonics. “It’s about creating a character, a device, or a geometric shape that’s instantly recognizable and memorable. That Dummies caricature was literally me with a spiky haircut. It translated well in the packaging, and having this androgynous icon would speak to the dummy in all of us.”

When it comes to growing businesses, Kilcullen is certainly no dummy. After taking IDG Books public in the late 1990s, he held several leadership roles in book and magazine publishing, including president and publisher of Billboard magazine and The Hollywood Reporter. Today, he’s a consultant for startup CEOs, guest lectures on innovation and entrepreneurship at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and treasures family time with his wife, Jessica, and their four sons.

Coming Home to Fordham

Last fall, Kilcullen returned to his alma mater to deliver the keynote speech at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the Fordham Foundry, the University’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. His messages were humble and inspiring: “Be intellectually curious.” “Spot gaps in the market and take the road less traveled to separate yourself from the pack.” “Carpe diem!”

Above all, he encouraged entrepreneurs in the Fordham community—alumni included—to take advantage of the support available at the Foundry, which “can help you realize your startup dream,” he said. “I wish it was available to me when I was here. It is Fordham’s best-kept secret.”

Although his connection to the Foundry is fairly recent, he looks forward to deepening it while enhancing Fordham’s growing presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is already planning an event he’ll host at his vineyard later this year.

“I am so stoked about the Fordham Foundry and its mission to support innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the entire Fordham ecosystem,” he said. “Their small team of entrepreneurs and mentors have accomplished so much in 10 years. I have no doubt the best is yet to come.”

—Claire Curry

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
My family. My wife, Jessica, and my four sons are my world. I am also one of eight [siblings] and live in California, but most of my family live back East, so I love organizing family reunions and fun get-togethers. Fordham has been home to some of those gatherings in part because two of my six sisters attended Fordham, and my nephew is a Fordham Law graduate. On one of those occasions, I remember charging our home court at Rose Hill with my young son Conor on my shoulders at the conclusion of a riveting, upset victory. Conor was mesmerized and excited by all the students flooding the court. On the professional front, I am passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I was asked by a former colleague who sat on the Amazon board to meet with Jeff Bezos in Seattle during Amazon’s first year. I asked Jeff about his plans to create Amazon’s culture. He enthusiastically replied with a story about how he and his dad built desks for each member of his team using wooden doors (instead of purchasing desks). His message to his employees was simple: leaders lead by example. Employees notice when founders and senior executives do the small things instead of delegating. Jeff’s story reinforced my own view that when there is a trade show to attend, for example, get there early and help the team assemble the booth. Get in the field and make sales calls. Lead from the front, not from the corner office.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
It depends. When I need to pray for a loved one, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is my sanctuary. Central Park has a special place in my heart, as that is where I completed the New York City Marathon. I also enjoy working with the V Foundation, which affords me the opportunity to shoot hoops at the Garden before the annual V Classic. Madison Square Garden has been the venue for so many memorable concerts and basketball battles throughout my life.

I love returning to my mom’s home county of Mayo, Ireland, to visit my aunt and cousins. No trip to Mayo is complete without a visit to the Ashford Castle. Maui is my happy place for relaxing beach time and collecting art. The north and south islands of New Zealand are epic for food, wine, and hikes—and Whistler, B.C., is amazing for family skiing.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I spent most of my career in publishing, so there are so many books I enjoyed reading and working on. The Power of Positive Thinking spoke to my entrepreneurial soul. I also loved Lee Iacocca’s book, Iacocca: An Autobiography. Lee joined me for lunch with key retail clients in Chicago and shared an incredible story about reinventing Chrysler. I identified with Lee’s zeal in battling established industry giants and championing the underdog. I created the unconventional “For Dummies” series and an innovative company culture emulating Lee’s esprit de corps. I am proud that the “For Dummies” book series and brand has helped tens of millions of people around the world and continues serving that mission 30 years later. Remaining positive during the early years and establishing a contrarian, underdog culture was influential in scaling the company from startup to IPO.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
My favorite professor was Dr. Maurice O’Connell, who taught Irish history and was the great-great-grandson of the legendary Irish Liberator, Daniel O’Connell. The Fordham icon I admire most is easy: Father Joseph O’Hare. I have fond memories of sitting next to Father O’Hare at football and basketball games, sharing laughs and cheers. His quick wit, insightful stories, radiant smile, and love of alma mater were always evident. He was a Fordham president who was a man of the people and a true friend. I dedicated a study room in the [Walsh Family Library] to honor our shared love of books.

What are you optimistic about?
My wife’s nickname for me is Captain Optimistic. I see the world as a glass half full. And every day I wake up optimistic as it’s a new day. Embrace it, enjoy it, and be a lifelong learner—and give back. I firmly believe in the resilience of the human spirit to triumph over adversity, persevere against all odds, and see the good in everyone.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Claire Curry.

Watch John Kilcullen’s keynote address at the Fordham Foundry’s 10th anniversary celebration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvcyhA4fAn4

It was a voice he honed as an undergraduate at Fordham, where he majored in communications and was one of the original staff members of WFUV, Fordham’s public media station. During a major league career spanning 67 seasons—from 1950, when he joined the Dodgers, to 2016—he described some of the most memorable moments in baseball with poetic simplicity and exquisite timing.

He had an uncanny ability to frame the drama as it unfolded—and he was known for the wisdom, humor, and humility he conveyed to people, on and off the air.

Here are some of his most memorable calls and heartfelt words of gratitude and wisdom.

Don Larsen’s Perfect Game: ‘The greatest game ever pitched’

On October 8, 1956, the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers faced their Bronx rivals, the New York Yankees, in the fifth game of the World Series.

Scully split the TV broadcasting duties that day with Yankees announcer Mel Allen, who kidded his colleague in the top of the second inning when a foul ball zipped by the broadcast booth. “Vin Scully played baseball at Fordham, but even so, he flinched just a little on that one,” Allen said. “Forgot to bring his glove with him today.”

Scully may not have had his glove in the booth, but he certainly had poise and a bit of poetry. He took over from Allen in the bottom of the fifth and guided fans to the game’s final, dramatic out, when Yankees pitcher Don Larsen completed a perfect game—retiring all 27 Dodgers he faced. It’s a feat no pitcher had done before and no pitcher has done since in the World Series.

As the final batter stepped to the plate, Scully conveyed the sense of nervous anticipation throughout the ballpark: “Yankee Stadium,” he said, “shivering in its concrete foundation now.” And when Larsen struck out Dale Mitchell to end the game, Scully said simply, “Got him! The greatest game ever pitched in baseball history, by Don Larsen. A no-hitter, a perfect game, in a World Series.”

Sandy Koufax’s Perfect Game: ‘29,000 people … and a million butterflies’

Nearly a decade later, on September 9, 1965, Scully was behind the mic for another perfect game, this one by the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, who had already pitched three no-hitters in his illustrious career. The game was not televised, however, so Scully’s evocative call of the final half-inning helped listeners see and feel the drama.

“And you can almost taste the pressure now,” he said after the second strike against the inning’s leadoff hitter, Chris Krug. “Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the cap back down, fussing at the bill. Krug must feel it too as he backs out, heaves a sigh, took off his helmet, put it back on, and steps back up to the plate.”

Moments later, Scully said, “And there are 29,000 people in the ballpark and a million butterflies.” And in the middle of the inning, he made this poignant observation: “I would think that the mound at Dodger Stadium right now is the loneliest place in the world.” Listen to the entire ninth inning:

Hank Aaron’s 715th Home Run: ‘What a marvelous moment for the country and the world’

On April 8, 1974, the Dodgers traveled to Atlanta to play the Braves, whose veteran slugger, Hank Aaron, was one home run away from breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs. In the fourth inning, Aaron stepped up to the plate with Scully behind the mic to describe a drama that would resonate far beyond the ballpark.

“It’s a high drive into deep left-center field. Buckner goes back to the fence. It is gone!” Scully said, then let the crowd take the mic for 26 jubilant seconds before remarking on Aaron’s historic achievement: “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.”

1982 NFC Championship Game: ‘It’s a madhouse at Candlestick’

Scully was best known as a baseball broadcaster, but he also covered golf and football for CBS, and on January 10, 1982, he called one of the most memorable games in NFL history. In the final minute of the NFC championship game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Dallas Cowboys led the hometown 49ers 27-21. With the ball on the Dallas six-yard line and a trip to the Super Bowl at stake, San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana took the snap and rolled right. “Montana looking, looking, throwing in the end zone,” Scully said. “Dwight caught it! Dwight Clark!” Scully let the crowd roar for nearly 30 seconds before returning to the mic: “It’s a madhouse at Candlestick, with 51 seconds left,” he said. “Dwight Clark is six, four; he stands about 10 feet tall in this crowd’s estimation.” Watch the clip and listen to Scully’s call. 

National Baseball Hall of Fame: ‘I want to sing, I want to dance’

On August 1, 1982, Scully received the highest honor a baseball broadcaster could receive—the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, to honor a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.”

He was 54 years old at the time and not quite at the halfway mark of his career, as it turned out. He still had 34 seasons ahead of him—and numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he received from President Barack Obama in 2016.

His acceptance speech in Cooperstown, with his wife, Sandi, and children looking on, is a prime example of his humility and gratitude. “Why, with the millions and millions of more deserving people, would a red-haired kid with a hole in his pants and his shirttail hangin’ out, playing stickball in the streets of New York, wind up in Cooperstown? Why me indeed?”

He didn’t have an answer, he said, but “I do know how I feel: I want to sing, I want to dance, I want to laugh, I want to shout, I want to cry. And I’d like to pray. I’d like to pray with humility and great thanksgiving.”

Game 6 of the 1986 World Series: ‘If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words’

On October 25, 1986, Scully was at Shea Stadium in Queens, where the New York Mets hosted the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 of the World Series. The Red Sox were up two runs and only one out away from ending the Mets season and breaking the so-called Curse of the Bambino—at that time, the Red Sox had not won a World Series since trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season.

With their season on the line, the Mets staged a gritty two-out comeback to tie the game in the bottom of the 10th inning. And then, after fouling off pitch after pitch, the Mets’ Mookie Wilson finally hit a seemingly routine ground ball toward first baseman Bill Buckner.

“Little roller up along first, behind the bag, it gets through Buckner!” Scully said, his voice rising. “Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!” Once again, he let the crowd roar—this time for nearly two minutes, as viewers were shown the replay of Buckner’s error, a delirious New York crowd, the jubilant Mets, and the despondent Red Sox. “If one picture is worth a thousand words,” Scully said when he returned to the mic, “you have seen about a million.”

Kirk Gibson’s Walk-Off Home Run: ‘In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened’

On October 15, 1988, Scully was in the booth at Dodger Stadium to call the opening game of the World Series. The Oakland A’s led the Dodgers 4-3 with two outs in the ninth inning and their star reliever, Dennis Eckersley, on the mound. When injured Dodgers star Kirk Gibson emerged from the dugout to pinch hit with the tying run on first base, Scully set the stage masterfully.

“All year long, they looked to him to light the fire, and all year long, he answered the demands—until he was physically unable to start tonight, with two bad legs: the bad left hamstring and the swollen right knee. And with two out, you talk about a roll of the dice, this is it.”

Gibson gamely fouled off several pitches and worked the count to 3-2 before connecting on a backdoor slider. “High fly ball into right field, she is gone!” Scully said, as Gibson hobbled around the bases. Scully then let the crowd roar for 67 seconds before adding: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”

Fordham Commencement: ‘It’s only me, and I am one of you’

On May 20, 2000, Scully received an honorary degree from Fordham and delivered the commencement address. “It’s only me, and I am one of you,” he told the Class of 2000. “I walked the halls you walked. I sat in the same classrooms. I took the same notes and sweated out the final exams; drank coffee in the caf and played sports on your grassy fields.”

“This world … will try very hard to clutter your lives and your minds,” he told them. “Leave some pauses and some gaps in your life so that you can do something spontaneously rather than just being led by the arm. And, above all, dream. Don’t ever stop dreaming. Dream for yourselves and dream for us, because out of your dreams will come hope that we will have a better world and a better moral climate.”

Final Innings: ‘Smile because it happened’

On October 2, 2016, Scully called his final game: a contest between the Dodgers and the Giants in San Francisco. He told a story about Giants announcer Russ Hodges’ famous call of the 1951 pennant-winning home run by Bobby Thomson. Willie Mays joined him in the booth at one point, and so did many members of his family, including 16 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and his wife, Sandi. “What a way to celebrate your last game,” he said, “having your family here with you.”

In the final inning, Scully said that he’d had a line in his head all year, a common, anonymous expression often mistakenly attributed to Dr. Seuss, he said. “The line is, ‘Don’t be sad that it’s over. Smile because it happened.’ And that’s really the way I feel about this remarkable opportunity I was given, and I was allowed to keep for all these years. … I have said enough for a lifetime, and for the last time, I wish you all a very pleasant good afternoon.”

“There’s a certain magic to seeing artists perform live in the studio,” Rita Houston noted in 2012, when she was WFUV’s program director and the station’s then-nascent video channel became an especially rich source for music discovery.

In a typical year, WFUV hosts and documents about 200 sessions in Studio A and 20 to 30 concerts at venues in and around New York City, with students working as audio engineers and videographers. The videos are beautifully shot and edited, and the artists thrive on the authenticity and immediacy of it all.

Here are some of the Fordham Magazine team’s favorites.

Joan Armatrading: “Down to Zero”

When legendary British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading visited Studio A in May 2018, she was 67 years old and in her fifth decade of making music. Yet her performance of her 1976 song “Down to Zero”—a classic tale of a wayward lover begging to come back—is filled with enough raw emotion to make one think she had had her heart broken that very day. Armed only with an acoustic guitar and her contralto voice (oh, that voice), Armatrading displayed the deft musicianship and openhearted intensity that has made her a cited influence on artists including Fiona Apple, Melissa Etheridge, and Morrissey. From the opening guitar chords to the pained final recitation of the phrase “fall at my door,” it’s a gripping, stunning performance of a timeless song by one of modern folk music’s leading luminaries.
—Adam Kaufman

Lake Street Dive: “You Go Down Smooth”

The band Lake Street Dive’s WFUV roots run deep. In December 2012, at the station’s annual Holiday Cheer concert at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan, then music director Rita Houston introduced them as one of her “favorite up-and-coming bands.” It was the biggest stage the group had played, leader singer Rachael Price noted at the time. Like many other popular WFUV artists, Lake Street Dive combines a variety of genres, including swing era jazz and classic pop, which you can hear in their November 2012 Studio A version of “You Go Down Smooth.” But the lyrical inspiration for this song, according to original band member Mike “McDuck” Olson, came from the Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life.” Olson said that he was inspired by Paul McCartney’s description of that song as an ode to marijuana, and he wanted to write a love song that also could be a “veiled ode to some vice.” You can hear this contradiction play out as Price sings, “And I am afraid to need you so / And I am too sober not to know / That you may be my problem, not my love.” One thing that wasn’t a problem for the group? Capturing attention with this performance, which has garnered more than 4.2 million views, making it one of WFUV’s most popular videos.
—Kelly Prinz

Elle King: “Ex’s & Oh’s”

When Elle King belted out “Ex’s & Oh’s” live in WFUV’s Studio A in early 2015, not even her drummer could resist the urge to lip sync along. Recorded in February, the intimate performance was bluesy yet full of angsty pop charm and a bit of soul. Just a few days after the session in Studio A, King’s debut album, Love Stuff, was released, with lead single “Ex’s & Oh’s” helping to launch the album as high as No. 28 on the Billboard 200. Since then, King has pivoted into country music, singing alongside the likes of Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley.
—Sierra McCleary-Harris

Pixies: “Wave of Mutilation”

With a penchant for cryptic lyrics, pop hooks, and extreme dynamic shifts, the rock band Pixies released a string of influential albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They broke up in 1993 and reunited about a decade later. When the band visited WFUV in September 2019, they closed with the “UK Surf” version of the classic “Wave of Mutilation.” Unlike the loud and fast rendition on 1989’s Doolittle, the surf version maintains a slow, dreamy vibe that underscores the song’s surreal mystery and melodic beauty. Lead singer and songwriter Black Francis (Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, aka Frank Black) recounts the narrator’s underwater adventures after driving his car into the ocean: “I’ve kissed mermaids / and I rode the El Niño. / I walked the sand with the crustaceans,” he sings. When he adds, “Could find my way to Mariana / on a wave of mutilation,” there’s a yearning in his voice that, together with Paz Lenchantin’s breathy harmonies and guitarist Joey Santiago’s bent, twangy surf tones, seems to belie the violence implied by the song’s title and refrain.
—Ryan Stellabotte

Adrianne Lenker: “Anything”

For two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 to April 2022, WFUV ceased hosting artists in Studio A. Instead, the station worked with them to share videos of intimate performances at their homes or other remote locations. One of the artists to offer FUV an at-home performance was Adrianne Lenker, who had appeared in Studio A several times before, both on her own and with her band, Big Thief. In one of the videos from her performance, she sits inside a home in Joshua Tree, California, where she has lived on and off in recent years, and plays “anything,” from her 2020 solo double album, songs/instrumentals. The sunlight and desert landscape are barely visible through the windows, but the clip feels bathed in warmth and intimacy, with Lenker strumming her guitar in her understated-yet-complex style and singing lines like, “Weren’t we the stars in Heaven? / Weren’t we the salt in the sea?” Like much of Lenker’s music, the performance feels both earthy and cosmic, equally concerned with the small moments and big questions.
—Adam Kaufman

Kamasi Washington: “Truth”

“Cosmic” is also an apt way to describe the WFUV performance by Kamasi Washington in 2017. The jazz saxophonist brought his 10-piece band to Studio A, and one of the songs they played was the 13-minute space-jazz odyssey “Truth,” from Washington’s 2017 EP Harmony of Difference. “Truth” is a huge, awe-inspiring track that feels like one long crescendo, with each instrumental layer—from the opening of the rhythm section to the soaring, wordless vocals that begin several minutes in—making it feel like you’re being lifted even higher into the air. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to sit in silence for some time afterward, to stay floating on its groove for as long as you can. While Washington’s was not the biggest Studio A production in terms of personnel (hello, Gorillaz!), it’s hard to imagine a much bigger sound emanating from a small room than the one the band achieves in those moments when each player is locked in, working in unison to create something that feels not quite of this world.
—Adam Kaufman

Weyes Blood: “Everyday”

The first thing you see in the WFUV video of Weyes Blood’s May 2019 performance of “Everyday” is a shot of the artist (real name Natalie Mering) in a white blazer and sunglasses playing a simple melody at the piano in Studio A. It’s a fitting visual for a song with a bright West Coast sound and an infectious melody that could make Brian Wilson sit up and take notice. Mering’s music is generally tinged with psychedelia and a certain darkness around the edges, but “Everyday,” from 2019’s fantastic Titanic Rising, is as close to pure pop confection as Weyes Blood gets, with lovely “baaa baa-baa baaa” vocal harmonies that recall the Mamas and the Papas. Still, Mering’s lyrics reveal that underneath the breezy delivery, dark clouds of doubt and loneliness are threatening to creep in. “True love is making a comeback,” she sings at the start of the third verse, only to follow it up with “for only half of us, the rest just feel bad.” That moment of pulling away from traditional love song territory speaks to the larger project of Weyes Blood’s body of work—one that incorporates so many familiar sounds of the past but always pushes them along toward some mysterious future.
—Adam Kaufman

White Noise
a film based on the novel by Don DeLillo, FCRH ’58

Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise has aged well since it won a National Book Award in 1985. Darkly funny, it parodies academia and captures the media, technology, and consumer culture of the mid-’80s—what one character calls the “incessant bombardment of information,” much of it unreliable. People commune in the supermarket like it’s a kind of church, and when a train crash releases a cloud of chemicals, the “airborne toxic event” leads to sickness, evacuation, and the threat of ecological disaster. The novel is also about the anxieties and wonders of family life (“the cradle of misinformation”) and the fear of death. And now, it’s a smart, funny Netflix film, faithfully adapted and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Adam Driver. Driver plays Jack Gladney, a middle-aged professor of Hitler studies who lives with his fourth wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), and their blended family of four kids. “I’m tentatively scheduled to die,” he tells her, explaining that he’s been exposed to the toxic cloud. She confesses that she has exchanged sex for Dylar, an experimental drug meant to relieve her intense fear of death. How they deal with their fears, their envy and infidelity, is the heart of the film.

—Ryan Stellabotte

Looking for Violet
a podcast by Carmen Borca-Carrillo, FCLC ’20, GSAS ’21

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carmen Borca-Carrillo watched a lot of romantic comedies, or rom-coms, with her partner. “What we both figured out pretty quickly was that there really weren’t many lesbian rom-coms,” she said. That’s how Looking for Violet was born. The four-part podcast was her capstone project in the public media master’s degree program at Fordham. In it, she examines why queer love stories are scarcely told in American film comedies. The podcast earned her multiple honors, including a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. “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,” said Borca-Carrillo, who is now a junior producer at Wonder Media Network, a women-led podcasting company she said is “dedicated to lifting up underrepresented voices.”

—Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15

All the Women in My Brain
by Betty Gilpin, FCLC ’08

In 2016, not long before her breakout, Emmy-nominated role as a wrestler in the Netflix series GLOW, Betty Gilpin returned to the Lincoln Center campus to speak with a group of Fordham Theatre students. She said her own student days in the program continue to motivate her. “Especially as a woman, it’s totally different. You’re going to be told things like, ‘Don’t make that weird face when you cry,’ or, ‘Great, just wear more makeup next time,’” she said. But “what you’ve built here is invaluable. You’ve built this ocean of weird to draw on, to love from, that not everybody has.”

With humor and wit, Gilpin generously shares her “ocean of weird” in this debut essay collection. The title, she writes, is a reference to all the personalities who “take a turn at the wheel” in her brain—some “cowering in sweatpants, some howling plans for revolution.” She skewers the “glossy cringe” of Hollywood and writes about her struggles between ambition and self-doubt. After 15 years as a working actor, she has come to see her experiences as a “perfect allegory for being a woman in this world. Having to cycle through identities to give whoever is in front of you the girl they want.” And she credits the Fordham Theatre program for helping her realize that the craft she chose “wasn’t just sequined escape, it was naked examination.” “Make your demons trade knives for paintbrushes,” she advises young artists. “And like yourself enough to do it out loud.”

—Ryan Stellabotte

A consensus All-American, he broke a slew of Fordham and Patriot League records, including most passing yards (4,891) and most touchdowns (56) in a season, plus career marks for completions (1,032) and passing yards (13,454). He was named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year—for the third straight time—and in January, he was the runner-up for the Stats Perform Walter Payton Award, which honors the offensive player of the year in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Throughout his Fordham career, DeMorat demonstrated poise in the clutch. “I’ve always thought that I’ve had that ‘clutch gene,’” he told The Transfer Portal CFB earlier this month. “You trust in your teammates—they make great plays for me—and trust in the coaches. I love to be in those high-pressure situations. I feel like that’s when I play my best, throw my best balls.”

The Florida native, a communication and media studies major, added that he’s preparing for the 2023 NFL Draft, set for April 27 to 29. “I want to play in the NFL, so I’m going to train for that and see what happens. … It’s always been the goal, it’s always been the dream,” he said.

Watch the full interview:

“I don’t normally go out on a school night! I’m a teacher. I get up at 4:45 in the morning,” she said shortly before the December 13 performance. “But for this? I am willing to make that sacrifice.”

The show has been a long time coming for Ruffin. She has been an Ailey fan for years—“If you are an inner-city Black girl, you’ve heard of Alvin Ailey,” she said of the famed company, founded and fronted by the boundary-breaking eponymous Black dancer. But she hadn’t been to a show since 2000. A lot of life has passed since then. Ruffin went to Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and earned a master’s degree. Now she teaches seventh-grade public schoolers in Manhattan. And she somehow missed the part where Fordham brags about its partnership with the Ailey School. Since 1998, the two institutions have been offering a joint BFA program through which students learn dance at Ailey while getting a full liberal arts education at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

“I had no idea that Fordham had this connection with Alvin Ailey. And if I would have known that, I would have been humming and bumming for tickets for my teachers a long time ago,” Ruffin said. Does it lend Fordham a little—“Street cred? Absolutely!” Ruffin beamed. “Fordham never—I must admit, they do not cease to surprise me.”

The bond between Fordham and Ailey was on full display that Tuesday evening. The alumni event attracted a varied cohort. Couples, young and old, chatted over wine and cheese plates in the 100-year-old theater’s gilded lobby. Lovers of modern dance came alone; others brought friends. There were families—a couple of teenage daughters sat off to the side on marble stairs, avoiding small talk. Fordham trustee emeritus John Costantino, GABELLI ’67, LAW ’70, did not. “A lot of the programs tonight, they really relate to people,” he said. “They mean something.”

Costantino was talking about the dances—including choreographer Jamar Roberts’ In a Sentimental Mood, which had its world premiere earlier in the year, and three classics by Ailey, who died in 1989: Reflections in D, Cry, and of course Revelations, the 1960 piece that ends nearly every Ailey performance. But he could have been talking about the Ailey/Fordham BFA, too. The program certainly means something to Courtney Celeste Spears, FCLC ’16, one of seven Ailey/Fordham graduates now dancing with the company. She would take the stage later that evening, but first, she addressed a room of Fordham alumni and friends in the lobby—an intimate moment before the lights went down.

“It was such a whirlwind of four years,” Spears said of her college experience. “I think so much of the foundation that I got there shaped me as a young woman, as a professional, as a dancer, as an artist in so many ways. It was such a well-rounded program.” But more than anything? “I always felt just very covered, and safe and advocated for.”

That was music to the ears of Andrew Clark, Ph.D., a Fordham professor of French and comparative literature who also co-directs the BFA program. Clark’s sister was a classical ballet dancer, on her way to a professional career, when she tore the ligaments in her hip. “That totally changed her life. She couldn’t dance ever again. … She had to pick another path,” he said.

Today, the Ailey/Fordham program offers students a best-of-both-worlds approach: a top dance education and a top classroom education in New York City. “Having other curiosities, having other skills and interests and passions [beyond dance is]really important,” Clark said. But don’t think for a second that he doesn’t care about dance. His voice rose talking about the first number of the night: Spears would be dancing with Christopher R. Wilson, FCLC ’17, whom Clark advised when Wilson was an undergrad. He is “such a beautiful dancer, and they dance together all the time and they’re amazing,” Clark said.

Minutes later, the theater filled up. The show began. The program was rhythmic, painful, energetic, beautiful. A New York institution, performing for a hometown crowd. It was worth losing sleep for.

—Jeff Coltin, FCRH ’15, is the City Hall bureau chief at City & State New York and a contributor to this magazine.

The Ailey performance was one of many cultural events hosted throughout the year by Fordham’s Office of Alumni Relations. Learn more at fordham.edu/events.

A Bridge to Justice: The Life of Franklin H. Williams

People tend to view 20th-century civil rights heroes through a “sepia lens,” Sherrilyn Ifill, former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, once said. But those leaders were not “superpeople deposited from some other planet.” They were “ordinary people of extraordinary intellect” and courage who still have the power to show us how to create “a true democracy.” Ifill was speaking at a 2018 Fordham Law School event celebrating the legacy of civil rights attorney and diplomat Franklin H. Williams, LAW ’45.

In A Bridge to Justice, Enid Gort and John M. Caher recount Williams’ “profound impact on the (still unfinished) struggle for equal rights.” Born in New York City in 1917, he attended Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting historically Black university, before enrolling at Fordham Law School in 1941. Service in the segregated U.S. Army interrupted his legal studies and “scarred Williams,” the authors write, but he earned his law degree in 1945 and soon joined the NAACP.

For the next 14 years, he worked on seminal civil liberties cases that overturned racially restrictive housing covenants and school segregation. And he often put his life on the line, once barely escaping a lynch mob in Florida, where he defended three Black youths falsely accused of rape. He went on to help organize the Peace Corps; serve as ambassador to Ghana; lead a nonprofit dedicated to advancing educational opportunity for Africans, African Americans, and Native Americans; and chair a New York state judicial commission, now named in his honor, that works to promote racial and ethnic fairness in the courts. Williams died in 1990, but his life story, the authors write, “is an object lesson for those with the courage and fortitude to … help this nation heal and advance through unity rather than tribalism.”

Cross Bronx: A Writing Life

“The most important thing human beings have, the thing that makes us human, are stories,” Peter Quinn, GSAS ’75, told this magazine in 2017. For more than four decades, the Bronx native has been a remarkably accomplished storyteller—as a novelist, chief speechwriter for New York Governor Mario Cuomo, and witty, humane chronicler of New York City and the Irish American experience. In the past two years, Fordham University Press has reissued four of his novels, including Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York, which earned Quinn a 1995 American Book Award; and an essay collection, Looking for Jimmy: A Search for Irish America (2007). Now comes this delightfully funny and frank memoir of his Catholic upbringing, his enduring affinity for his native borough (“I don’t live in the Bronx anymore, but I’ll never leave”), and the circuitous, consequential path of his writing life. His journey took him from Fordham grad student to chief speechwriter for two New York governors and corporate scribe for “five successive chairmen of the shapeshifting, ever-inflating, now-imploded Time Inc./Time Warner/AOL Time Warner,” a chapter of his memoir he cheekily calls “Killing Time.” He also writes of meeting and courting his wife, Kathy, of the “intense joy and satisfaction of fatherhood,” and of coming to terms with his own emotionally distant father. “Looking back, what I’m struck by most is luck,” he writes. “What I feel most is gratitude.”

South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City

For nearly 40 years, Jill Jonnes has been among the most persistent chroniclers of the Bronx, giving eloquent voice to the citizen activists who have driven its revival. In 1986, when she published the first edition of South Bronx Rising, Bronxites were just beginning to reverse the toxic effects of long-term disinvestment. “Today,” she writes in the third edition of the book, “we far better understand the interplay of blatantly racist government policies and private business decisions … that played a decisive role in almost destroying [Bronx] neighborhoods.”

The revival began with “local activists and the social justice Catholics … mobilizing to challenge and upend a system that rewarded destruction rather than investment.” Countless Fordham students, faculty, and alumni have contributed to this movement, helping to establish and sustain groups including the Bronx River Alliance and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. It’s not all roses: The South Bronx remains part of the country’s poorest urban congressional district; the “calamity of COVID” hit communities hard; and gentrification threatens to undo hard-fought progress. But Jonnes provides ample reason to celebrate and continue the work.