Many of us have spent time on the air at various radio stations, but if there's one jock the current students know, it's probably Ryan Sampson, '99, the host of the Morning Mashup on SiriusXM's Hits 1.
Like many of us, Ryan grew up a news and sports junkie, and considered himself fortunate to get in to Syracuse. He joined WAER and WJPZ, but had more fun at Z89, where he succeeded Scott MacFarlane as news director.
After his parents moved to Baltimore, Ryan did some promotions and other work there, before getting hired at Hot 1079 his senior year. There he experienced a real radio moment. When Cox gave the station to ClearChannel, they were without a program director for a period of time - the airstaff collectively figured out what they wanted to do.
When PD Tommy Frank arrived, he was of the "mess with the other stations" mentality. They went hard after 93Q (Ryan shares a couple examples). But WJPZ wasn't immune from the radio wars. While Ryan points out he'd moved on to Baltimore for some of the particularly egregious moments, we do spend a few minutes on the WWHT-WJPZ rivalry.
Then, in Baltimore, Ryan turned down part time work in New York to get music director stripes. But the job wasn't necessarily what he was expecting. He needed PD experience, and through a small world story, landed a programming gig in Lincoln, Nebraska - where he experienced some Big Ten culture shock. #GoBigRed
Years earlier, Ryan had put a word in for Rich Davis to get a gig at Hot. Well, it was time for Rich to return the favor, and recruited Ryan to come to New York and fledgling Sirius Radio, which had yet to hit its first million subscribers.
Ryan started as an entry level programming coordinator, and began climbing the ranks, before he was tapped to move to the (then voice-tracked) morning show on Hits 1. He walks us through the wild story of how the team of he, Stanley T, and Nicole came together in 2006. They've been doing the show ever since.
We pick Ryan's brain about the current state of radio, and he uses a stark analogy to describe the current state of music radio. He wonders if the industry is due for a massive overhaul, like in the 1950's.
Today's guest really does love his WJPZ roots. He talks about meeting so many of his current friends there, and the lessons learned he still applies today. Recently he's joined the board of the WJPZ Alumni Association, where he hopes to continuing paying those lessons forward.
Ryan and Mark Zito's podcast "This Is Happening"
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-is-happening-with-mark-zito-and-ryan-sampson/id1578714347
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J4cjMpLuSj0qgl5JUPqe3?si=1ab878b4c45448e3
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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