Interviewing our Host: Jon "JAG" Gay, Class of 2002

Interviewing our Host: Jon "JAG" Gay, Class of 2002

Author: WJPZ March 3, 2023 Duration: 44:35

Today, we turn the tables on our host and put Jon "JAG" Gay, from the Class of 2002, in the hot seat.  Doing the honors is his classmate and one of this year's Hall of Fame inductees, Matt DelSignore.

 

Matt starts by asking Jag about the WJPZ at 50 Podcast, how the idea started, and what he's learned by hosting it.  From there, we turn to Jag's time at Syracuse and WJPZ.  His story is very similar to many previous podcast guests. He got to Syracuse wanting to be a sportscaster, but didn't really find his tribe until he started at Z89. 

 

At WJPZ, Jag had several exec staff positions, including Chief Announcer and VP of Operations the year we were in the Ostrom House.  Matt also asks Jag about the 9/11 broadcast that we discussed on a previous episode. 

 

We retrace Jag's steps through a terrible internship at Kiss 108, his first part time job in Providence, Rhode Island, then his full-time on-air career in Burlington Vermont, Detroit, New Orleans, and back to the Motor City.   It shouldn't surprise you to hear he had a lot of help from JPZ'ers along the way.

 

Following his last radio layoff a week after he got married, Jag was a newlywed with no job and potentially facing a career change.  He credits his wife Ellen for encouraging him to start his podcast business, which he's grown since its inception in 2018.  

 

We close on a really personal topic.   JAG's Syracuse roommate and best friend, Bill Leaf, was killed by a drunk driver in 2006, at age 25.  Bill was also a summer Z89 staffer.   Jag talks about his passion for both honoring Bill's memory and speaking out against the dangers of drunk driving.

 

This episode was produced and edited by JAG in Detroit podcasts - learn more at https://jagindetroit.com/

Want to be on the show? Email JAG at jag@jagpodcastproductions.com

Connect with the WJPZ Alumni Association: https://wjpzalumniassociation.org/


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For fifty years, the student-run airwaves of Syracuse University's WJPZ at 50 have been more than a radio station; they've been a launchpad. This oral history project captures that legacy not through dry facts, but through the voices that built it. Each episode is a conversation with a different alumnus, from the pioneers of the 1970s to recent graduates, tracing how their hands-on experience in what's called the "world's greatest media classroom" shaped careers in broadcasting and far beyond. You'll hear personal stories of late-night broadcasts, technical mishaps turned into triumphs, and the forging of lifelong bonds that created a unique professional family spanning generations. This podcast digs into the real, often messy, work of learning by doing, revealing how a campus station became an enduring institution. Tune in for a collection of fifty interviews that together form a living archive, celebrating the people, not just the programming, behind five decades of student-led radio.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

WJPZ at 50
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