Today's guest is Kat Brady, one of many in a long line of great station leaders in the 2010's. This Long Island native wanted no part of going to school in her home state - she wanted to go elsewhere. But at every turn, she kept hearing about Newhouse and SU. And when she saw the school, her parents saw "the look" in her eyes that many of us had. It might have helped that she was on campus on a game day.
As a freshman, Kat sought out the TV station at the activities fare, but was quickly "poached" (her words) by Allie Gold, who convinced her to come check out WJPZ and welcomed her with open arms. Kat quickly fell in love with the vibe and people, and added her name to the list of people excited to rearrange her class schedule and trek to the station at 5am to do the Z Morning Zoo. She tells us her favorite bit, "Tool or No Tool?"
Kat went abroad, but struggled with the decision to leave her Z Family for a semeter. Next thing you know, however, she was interviewing for VP of Programming over Zoom from a coffee shop in London. She got the gig.
You'll enjoy hearing about the importance Kat placed on teaching and paying forward what she learned from those before her, what she learned as PD, and a tremendous "format flip" for April Fool's Day.
Following graduation, she parlayed her former production internship at Z100 into a gig at iHeartRadio and Premiere Networks, where she further honed her skillset.
Today, Kat is the senior communications manager for the Central Park Conservancy, which runs Central Park in New York. She handles internal and external communications, and probably has the best office view of any of our alumni. You'll hear her love and passion for the park come through when she talks about her day-to-day. But she credits the commnications skills she developed at WJPZ for informing everything she does in her current role.
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast Series is produced by Jon Gay, Class of 2002, and his podcast production agency, JAG in Detroit Podcasts.
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