If you've got a backlog of several episodes of this podcast to listen to, we highly recommend you bump today's to the top of your list. If you were in Syracuse for this year's Banquet, you heard from two of the all-female leadership team of WJPZ: General Manager Grace Denton and VP of Programming (and Lock Award winner!) Maddie Doolittle. Both women are Class of 2024 and were excited to sit down for a wide ranging conversation about where WJPZ sits now, in 2023.
We start with a bit of background. Grace (from New Jersey) and Maddie (western Massachusetts) graduated high school in 2020. That means they started their Syracuse careers at the height of the pandemic, masked up, attending classes over Zoom, and unable to discover Z89 in the sense many alumni did. Both of them, quite candidly, discuss the temptation to transfer out of SU.
Grace joined the station her very first semester, after meeting then-GM Kyle Leff at an information fair at Newhouse. Soon she got involved with the station's social media - as one of the few things she could easily do during COVID.
In the Spring of 2021. Maddie went to an online info session for the station led by Kyle. And she started training hybrid - both online and at the station.
When Grace and Maddie's sophomore year started in the Fall of 2021, the campus was starting to open back up. There was a pent-up energy to get out and participate in campus activities, and interest in Z89 was booming. Soon Grace was managing social media and Maddie was music director. As exec staff members, they quickly identified the need to make connections with everyone at the station and turn recruits into active station staffers. They both discuss the importance of fostering a welcoming environment.
We have a very frank conversation about WJPZ's place in the current media landscape of 2023. Station leadership is well aware that students who don't have cars are not spending the same time with 89.1 FM, or even the station stream, as previous generations. And while the on-air product remains important, Grace and Maddie see the station's brand as equally, if not more crucial. This has turned into the station associating itself with University Union for on-campus concerts and events, concerts and ticket giveaways for venues all over town, and a robust presence across social media. In fact, the students credit recent alumni like Matt Gehrig and Allie Gold, who run social media for MTV and Elvis Duran respectively, for showing them out to create a brand personality on social.
Maddie and Grace were also very willing to talk about their place as an all-female leadership team of WJPZ. If we're being honest, the station and alumni base are dominated by white men. And while we are taking steps to be more inclusive in our Hall of Fame and Alumni Association as a whole, the same is happening at the radio station. Today's guests are quick to credit the leadership team before them for being allies and always making them feel welcome and heard. And they aim to pay that forward with the classes that follow them.
What about the overall relationship between the current staff and the alumni? Today's guests actually use the term "fangirl" when it comes to how they feel about alums - from more recent grads to giants in the field like Dion Summers and Adam Eisenberg, and more. They felt a true sense of validation when alumni complimented their efforts with the station and are very excited to maintain those relationships.
Take a listen to today's episode, and you'll quickly realize that WJPZ is in great hands. Maddie and Grace are well aware of the 50 year legacy of this institution, and are proud to move it forward into the future.
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The WJPZ at 50 Podcast Series is produced by Jon Gay, Class of 2002, and his podcast production agency, JAG in Detroit Podcasts.
Want to be a guest on the pod or know someone else who would? Email Jag: jag@jagindetroit.com.
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Connect with the WJPZ Alumni Association: https://wjpzalumniassociation.org/
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