Allie Gold, Class of 2015, joins us today. She's a former general manager of WJPZ, and is currently the digital content manager for Elvis Duran and the Morning Show at Z100 New York.
Allie, like many of us, talks about her obsession with the radio growing up. Given how far out on Long Island she was, she was more of a WBLI P1 than Z100. But BLI is what made her fall in love with radio.
She got to Syracuse, however, thinking she wanted to get into television. But it was a chance meeting with Craig Hoffman at accepted students day in the Dome that brought her to WJPZ. After training on-air, she quickly became a part of the Z Morning Zoo with Jeff Cucinell and Luke Walsh.
Allie had aspirations of being General Manager, but after spending a semester in Florence, she didn't think it would work out. But it did, and she ended up choosing Z89 over a second semester in Italy. Back stateside, she had to re-establish the community of the station after a remodel. The station had been voice tracked out of Newhouse for a semester during construction, and it was on Allie and her team to rebuild the social fabric of WJPZ. She did this with by establishing a kickball rivalry with Citrus TV, social events like "HallowZeen," and more.
The lessons Allie learned at WJPZ, and the relationships she built, eventually landed her at Z100 in New York. We close the podcast by talking about what Allie sees as radio's future in a post-pandemic world. She talks about the importance of positivity and rebuilding communities.
Join Us in Syracuse for Banquet on March 4th: https://bit.ly/WJPZ50BanquetTickets
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast is produced by Jon Gay '02 and JAG in Detroit Podcasts
JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay. Joined today by Z100's own Allie Gold, digital content manager for Elvis Duran in the morning show and Z100. General manager class of 2015. Anything else I forgot? Welcome Allie.
Allie: Thank you for having me.
JAG: We're recording this full disclosure at 4:00 PM Eastern and after you've been up and done the morning show all day and you got the mid-afternoon nap and you were telling me offline.
Allie: Yes. And now I have my like tired, have been working all day voice.
JAG: You are fine. Don't worry about it. We're happy to have you. We'll start at the beginning. Tell us about growing up and how you got to Syracuse and JPZ and what you did there.
Allie: So I grew up on Long Island, a loyal listener of WBLI and Z100 a little bit, but where I am from, the audio would cut in and out for Z100.
I was a little too far out on Long Island, so BLI was definitely my home station. And I used to listen to Dana and Jeffrey in the morning and I just loved them. We would pull up to the bus stop when I was going to middle school and I would literally pray the bus wouldn't get there before the entertainment report was over, because I had to get my celebrity gossip for the day.
It's the only way I really consumed celebrity culture. So I always knew I was into radio. Definitely always was inspired by it. I used to come home in the afternoon, then put on BLI.com and listen to BLI on my computer while I did work, while I did my homework. So definitely always obsessed. I think the only music I knew were songs that were popular on the radio, so I wasn't even like a fan of an artist. I was just a fan of popular CHR music.
JAG: So it's funny because as we go through this and we're talking to alumni from all different decades in all different generations, one of the through lines is, and Scotty MacFarlane said this in the documentary, everybody is the same person, just a different age. And you, growing up, listening to the radio, I think some folks would be afraid that somebody who graduated more recently may not have grown up on the radio like so many of the rest of us did. But you're right there with us.
Allie: Yeah, absolutely. I was nonstop. It really was my only way into music. I had my Walkman, but I would listen to the same song over and over again, or once I graduated to an iPod, I would listen to the same five songs over and over again. . Now I've become way more interested in artists and artist journeys and I think that has a lot to do with interviewing them over the six years, but before that it was really just what was popular.
JAG: Okay. So how did you end up at Syracuse and then JPZ?
Allie: When I graduated high school, or my senior year, I kind of wanted to try broadcasting on television. So even though I always liked radio, I still, you know, watched to be that girl on TV delivering E-news at 10:00 PM.
And so when I visited schools I always wanted to make sure they either had a TV or a radio station. And when I got to Syracuse, it was the day of a basketball game. It was like zero degrees out, but the energy on that campus was just like something I had never experienced before. And I was sitting in Faegan's with my mom and the game led out from the dome, and there is just like orange in the. streets, and I was just so inspired. And I had a family friend at the school who had friends at Citrus and they brought me over and I watched a sports broadcast after the game. And that was just super inspiring. So when I went to apply, I knew I was going to apply early decision to Syracuse and I did.
JAG: Awesome. And you get in and you're thinking maybe tv. And then how did JPZ come into the picture?
Allie: So I went to accepted students day with my parents and that's where you go to the Dome in April before your freshman year. And I'm in the dome and I'm going around to all the booths. And Craig Hoffman was actually running the JPZ booth in the center and they were live broadcasting throughout the accepted students day.
So me and my family went over to them. We started talking about radio. It turned out Craig's aunt grew up in the same town as my dad and knew him and he was like, oh, you gotta come back to the radio station with us, like I wanna show you around. So we went back with him to JPZ. I think I watched a red carpet report happening ,or one of the shows on air, and I got his information.
And when I got back to Syracuse in the fall, you know, he was one of the first people I hit up.
JAG: So what was your involvement at the station from walking the door to working your way up to general?
Allie: So when I got to my training session, first of all, I almost didn't make it to them. I kept avoiding Craig at all costs. I was kind of just like, oh, maybe I'll just figure my way my first semester and join things in the second semester. But he insisted I come to the last training session that they had for the entire year. So I went and there I met Jeff Cucinell. and Rashaud Thomas was actually the one who did my training.
I did my on-air portion, and afterwards Jeff Cucinell asked me to be on a morning show with him, and I think like less than two weeks later, I was waking up doing a Z Morning Zoo with Jeff Cucinell
JAG: So this is fall or spring of your freshman year?
Allie: Fall of my freshman year. So within two weeks I was already on a Zoo and being a co-host to Jeff Cucinell and Luke Walsh. And we were, I think Thursday mornings and yeah, it was a blast.
JAG: And a sign of things to come for your career as to where you'd end up now.
Allie: Yeah, I mean my career, a lot of it is to thank Jeff Cucinell, one for getting me on the air at JPZ. And he actually helped me get my foot in the door at Z100.
JAG: So how did that story go?
Allie: When I graduated I knew I wanted to do something in radio. I had applied for a bunch of jobs, was getting interviews through other alums at JPZ, but nothing really panning out. And after like five months working in TV analytics, I reached out to Jeff and like one other person I knew that worked in radio and said, Hey, I am missing radio. I wanna go back. I've only been at this job five months, but if you hear of anything, just like, let me know. I'm not gonna put out resumes yet, but I'm just putting out feelers.
JAG: Sure.
Allie: And immediately Jeff was like, This job that he had talked about earlier when I graduated, was going to actually be officially opened up and for me to apply.
So I applied and I was at that new job in a matter of a couple weeks, which was a digital content coordinator for Z100 and KTU of New York.
JAG: So that is just gathering content for a website and social, or what is that, that role?
Allie: Yeah, it was running their social media accounts and writing editorial content.
JAG: That's pretty impressive to be just outta school and trusted with a brand, two brands like that with Z100 and KTU..
Allie: When I was offered the job, my boss, who still is my boss at the time Tony Malaee. he said, "Are you ready to be the online voice of Z100?"
JAG: Wow.
Allie: It felt like a dream come true. It honestly did.
JAG: What stuff sticks out to you from your memory alley about your time at JPZ? Whether it was significant moments in the history of the station, or just significant things that you remember as you worked your way up? You know, starting on the morning show and eventually becoming general manager.
Allie: That morning show was everything to me. I think starting there is when I realized that everyone can become a character. When I was working with Jeff Cucinell and this other guy, Luke Walsh, we had a sports guy coming in, doing a sports update, like twice a show. He would come in and he wouldn't say much. He'd do a sports update. He'd kind of sit in the background and then one time we were talking about Thanksgiving food and we were talking about like what we would want in our Thanksgiving dinner.
We were kind of doing a food draft, like who was gonna have mashed potatoes, who was gonna have turkey. and then all of a sudden this quiet guy gets up from his chair and he goes, "What about stuffing?! Can't forget about stuffing!" And he had the hottest take on stuffing at Thanksgiving, and this is Lukas Favele, who ended up becoming one of my best friends at the station at the time.
It just made me realize that you could bring in anyone and create a show, and I think that's a lot of what I've learned from Elvis Duran as well, working for him. He's someone who looks at the people around him and he picks up on their stories, and the show is really made up of the characters around him. And that was something I learned in my first couple months, working for the Zoo, and it's one of my fondest memories and we laugh about this day.
JAG: Again, you keep drawing these parallels between JPZ and Z100 and how you learn so much and experience so much at Z89 that mirror your experience now at arguably the biggest radio station in the country. Tell me about your time as becoming GM and what that experience was like as you stepped into a leadership role at the station.
Allie: Yeah, I always felt that I wanted to become general manager of JPZ. I had started as I think a research or office manager, which was like the person who took care of stuff around the studio.
And then I went into becoming a zoo producer, went from being a zoo producer, and then I went abroad and I just thought it wasn't going to happen. I thought just the timing was off. So I just didn't think it was in the cards. And then I got a call from Corey Crockett, who was the GM at the time, saying that no one was really interested in being the GM, and he asked me to apply.
I was like, are you sure? Our programming director at the time, I really thought was just going to become gm, but Corey was like, no, like please apply. We want people to apply for the position. So I applied, I did all the interviews and stuff. I think from Florence where I was staying at the time. And then I was actually at the moment debating staying another semester and doing a full year abroad because I just was really having a great experience and I told myself if I got the position at JPZ, I would take it as a sign and go back to Syracuse.
And I ended up getting the job and, and flying home. Never looked back. Made radio my entire life.
JAG: So you picked WJPZ over a second semester in Italy. I mean, that says a lot.
Allie: I did. I just, I'm always, I'm a huge believer in signs and one of them,like meeting Craig on accepted students day. That felt like a sign.
And this also, it really did feel like, okay, like this is what I'm meant to do. I was debating what I want to do with my life. I was debating teaching, which I was doing in Italy. I was teaching English to Italian students. Or radio, and I thought, If I'm gonna even try to do radio, I need to get hands-on experience being a general manager. And I definitely got that when I got back. .
JAG: Well expand on that a little bit, Allie. So your experience as MG, what did you learn about, you know, culture and managing people and all that, and how has it served you today?
Allie: Right before I took on a general manager, we had just finished renovating the studio. So for a semester and maybe a semester and a half, we were working out of Newhouse offices.
So there was no real community at JPZ at the time. You really only knew the people that came in before you or after you or the people on your shift. So when I got back, I told them that really what I wanted to do was bring everyone together again. We had this brand new studio and I knew that everyone just felt so separated from each other.
I didn't know anyone in the years below me. I only knew the people my age and above, and I was coming in as a junior for gm, so I just wanted to bring back that feeling that you get every Banquet where everyone's walking in and saying hello to each other and I want to get that feeling back in the station.
So when I got back my first duty was going to a bulk candy shop and I put out these jars of candy just to get people to sit down in the newsroom that we had. I just wanted people to hang out there. So I just bought a bunch of candy and I set up the Watson Cup, which was this kickball game between us and Citrus.
And that's something they still do to this day at the end of every year. So that is definitely one of the legacies I'm most proud of. But it really was meant to bring people together, to have a common enemy against Citrus. And also did team building. Like we joked around, we had practices, things like that.
I also created "Hallowzeen, "which is like this big Halloween party that we started doing every year after that. And yeah, I think the biggest thing for me was to bring people together. And at the end of my first semester as GM, I had senior guys in the sports department coming up to me saying this was the best semester they've ever had at WJPZ.
And I knew it was because of me just wanting them to hang out. with everyone else at the station.
JAG: It's just come up so much in the podcast, Allie, of finding your tribe. And how many of us found our tribe at JPZ where we may not have had that natural of a fit elsewhere at SU, but finding that group.
And so that was what, 2013-ish when you moved back into the new studio when you had to sort of rebuild the social fabric from scratch?
Allie: Yeah. Yeah, 2013. Yeah.
JAG: So you end up becoming gm. You have a great experience at JPZ. You end up going on to work at Z100 and now in the role as the digital content manager for Z100 and for Elvis Duran.
Let me ask you what your perspective on the world of radio is. I'm gonna put you on the spot, given that you are in one of the biggest brands, again, if not the biggest, in radio. Nationally syndicated show all over the country. Hugely successful. And you're running social media. I'm curious for your thoughts on where radio is, where it intersects with social media and the digital piece of it, just from where you sit.
Allie: I think in general, content is forever changing. I think there is no right recipe, but some of the things, especially post pandemic ,that I think we've learned is people just miss feeling good and people miss their college days. Miss the nostalgia of being with friends, being in social settings, and that's definitely like where radio's going right now.
We are playing more throwbacks, even on a CHR station. We want people to feel good. We don't wanna bring negativity into their morning. And I think just like invoking that feel-good emotion in people is something that was always there, but I think even more important. And that's definitely a trend I'm seeing in just modern radio in general.
JAG: Again, goes back to finding your tribe and that feeling and that connection that radio does so well that we all learned at JPZ. Any funny stories, interactions with folks at the station that come to mind that if you see somebody at Banquet and you're like, oh my God, remember the time when...?
Allie: Well, anytime I'm with my friend JP Chunga. He does radio out in Salt Lake City now. And anytime I'm with him, we joke about this show that was on air.
It was called Bleacher Creatures, and it was supposed to be a sports show, but they ended up just being like, people just like ragging on the randomest sports. And they would bring me on to do funny sports trivia, like when I don't know anything about sports. And every 10 minutes or so, JP would ring a bell and give a random sports update from like volleyball in Nova Scotia, and it was just the funniest thing,
And it was this Thursday night show and like I was the GM at the time. So you would think I would go in there and be like, guys, be serious. But honestly, the content was so funny. It made everyone in the room laugh so hard. There was just nothing better and it was one of my favorite shows that we ever put on, and honestly like it made me interested in sports.
JAG: And then it did its job.
Allie: Exactly.
JAG: Are there alumni, you've talked about a lot of your classmates that have had a big influence on you. Are there other alumni folks you've met in the alumni association that have had an impact on you personally, professionally?
Allie: Yeah, so my senior year at fall conference when I was still gm, I met Maynard.
And I met him and just, we immediately clicked and he definitely has been someone that's just been a real inspiration to me and has really helped in my career with advice and someone who knows a lot of people who work at iHeart and at Z100. So we're just able to bond over that. But also like I'm still really close with Jeff Kurkjian.
I went to his wedding in April. I'm going to my friend Jeff Cucinell's wedding this summer. And then, yeah, a couple of the younger alum when I was a senior GM and I was doing the recruitment into the station for the fall. Something that was really important to me was bringing more women in. I was really one of only a handful of girls in my class.
I actually don't even think any of them were on staff with me. And so I really want to bring in new females to the station. And after that we had like a couple girl GMs and Kat Brady who has been like one of my best friends still to this day. My friend Gigi, who became our social media manager and has worked at Peacock since, and like all these other great things. I've kept in really good touch with.
So yeah, we've kind of just like did a girl takeover from then on out and it was awesome,
JAG: Allie, closing thoughts in general about your experience at WJPZ?
Allie: One of the things I learned at JPZ was that if you don't know what you're doing, ask someone. Especially when you think like students. Okay. None of us know anything, but together, us not knowing something, we're able to come up with anything.
So I think that definitely taught me to be more vulnerable in my career. At this point, hopefully I know a lot of stuff, but I'm always learning, especially working in digital content. I always have to stay up to date and, you know, learn from what's going on around me and talk to people. What's their experience, what are they seeing on their social media, how can I relate that back to our station?
So, you know, never stop learning and never stop. Never give up on the people around you to help you learn something.
JAG: And that theme of learning fits great with the world's greatest media classroom. I think we'll leave it there. Allie Gold. Thank you so much for your time today. Hope to see you in march.
Allie: Yes, thank you. I'll see you there.