Today's guest is the always passsionate Ben Green, aka Ben G, aka Mr. R&B, from the Class of 1985. He takes us from humble beginnings at Syracuse (including changing majors when he couldn't afford to rent equipment and buy film), to his tour through New York radio, through creating radio stations as a middle school educator today.
At Syracuse, Ben G first went to WAER, but when the University took it over, around the time that WJPZ was preparing to go to the FM dial, it was an easy jump. In addition to doing almost every shift on the station, and staying on campus through many holidays, Ben tells stories of doing a live New Year's Eve broadcast, the Sunday Night Love Flight, and meeting a listener when he left the station.
You'll hear of the invaluable advice that Ben received from mentors - everything from networking to etiquette tips for job interviews. It was tough love at the time that served him well.
After landing a gig at WMCA, he headed over to WWRL, then WCBS AM and the new WFAN. He handled commercial traffic and learned how to showcase his worth and get a significant raise.
Ben G also spent time in television, from BET to the fledgling FOX cable network as their channels were just starting out. Then, like our host, he was laid off right when he got married. And similar to Jag, Ben's new wife encouraged him to pivot and follow his passion. Ben's was for teaching. He finished his undergraduate degree and earned Masters Degree in education. This led him to a teaching career in New Jersey, where he continues to pay WJPZ lessons forward. And that doesn't just mean he teaches kids how to speak confidently. You'll hear how he's cultivated online radio stations for all age groups.
We'd be remiss if we didn't as Ben G about one of his great passions. The Friends of SU is an alumni organization for students of color. He became President in the late 80's and now serves as the organization's advisor. Ben has long been working on a podcast telling otherwise unknown stories of the Syracuse University's students of color. He's covered everything from the Syracuse Eight - when football players protested inequality in 1969 - to the creation of SU's African American Studies program. And when he saw a lack of representation during SU's 150th anniversary celebration, he knew he had to change that.
You can learn all about the Friends of SU here: https://theofficialfriendsofsu.com/
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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JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay. Very excited. Today's guest from the class of 85. Do I have that right? 85?
Ben G: 85 by walking, but by receiving my actual degree. You ready for this? 2008!
JAG: We'll go with 85 for context, but I'm glad you went back and got that degree. Ben G, welcome to the podcast.
Ben G: Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
JAG: Tell me about how you ended up at Syracuse and then finding the radio station.
Ben G: Coming up, growing up in New York grew up in Queens. I really actually grew up in upstate New York, not far from Syracuse, Utica, New York. But my family moved down when I was about like eight or nine.
I had an uncle. My uncle Paul always told me, you're gonna go to Syracuse. You're gonna go to Syracuse. When you're in high school, you choose, back then it was your five top colleges you wanna go to. So it was New York Tech, NYU, Buffalo State. Syracuse University, and Rochester Institute Technology cuz I wanted to be a filmmaker.
And I also wanted to go to that Hill and rode down a hill by the College of VPA.
JAG: So that's how you chose Syracuse? Those two criteria.
Ben G: Come on now. That and Newhouse.
JAG: Of course. Yeah.
Ben G: The College of Arts and Sciences. They had things, as a kid, you're like, do you see that hill? You see the land they have; you could breathe fresh air!
JAG: Coming from the city. That's understandable.
Ben G: Exactly. Exactly. But I came in, started cuz because I wanted to be a filmmaker and I was dually enrolled in Newhouse and arts and sciences.
JAG: What were your majors?
Ben G: My major was gonna be film and it's gonna be like history. And that changed after my first year. Imagine me coming from Queens. I don't have any money. When I took my first film course, I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford to rent equipment and I could not afford the film. So I'm walking through Newhouse depressed and I hear music, and I was a big music person.
I said, what's that? That's a radio station. I'm going, what radio station? They go WAER. Wait a minute! Is that seriously what I hear when I'm playing jazz and some album oriented rock and stuff. How much did that cost to join? And they go, it's free. I went in there, started training how to be a news person.
I got involved with WAER and that's how I got my beginning and start in radio. You know when AER became a switchover from student run to NPR? Of course, we protested and didn't like it. But then I knew a young man, you probably heard of Kenny Dees, and this other guy named Mike Brown.
They did WJPZ and I think it was Malik Fortune. She did news and I went to this gray building off of University Ave. Now where the Schine stands. And then they had, what is the name of the store? Spectrum Records. They began in the basement. Playing records off of like a plug and play.
JAG: I think some of the other eighties alums refer to 'em as a couple Radio Shack turntables.
Ben G: Now remember, I'm older than you guys, we listened to radio. You guys had digital sound. We had a transistor radio. So if you turned it the right way, you picked up WJPZ 1200 AM. I lived up on The Mount, so I could get WJPZ. There was no interference.
JAG: You were just close enough to that tiny little transmitter.
Ben G: Yep. So that's how I made my trek to Syracuse and I got connected to WJPZ, very raw.
JAG: That's how it was in the eighties. And then after the AM signal went down, it was over to Carrier Current before it went over to FM, at that time in the mid-eighties. What do you remember about your time there, Ben?
Ben G: Now that was the cool time. That's when I got more involved with WJPZ. So Kenny Dees and I, we were, radio veterans by then, we're not the type of students who went home all the time for Thanksgiving. For Christmas.
Sometimes we hung around cause one we lived off campus and we had to pay rent. And we had side jobs. So I remember I heard, I said, Kenny, you're on cable. He goes, man, we're no longer AM. So until they work out, they eventually want to go FM, do you want to come on?
I said, does a cow like milk? So I started doing radio on the cable network. I already broke into my chops about certain things. We read news tags at times when people weren't there. We kept the station going during the holiday and we even tested who was listening to us.
JAG: How?
Ben G: Hey, we’d say it's Thanksgiving weekend. You know what? I don't have any Turkey. I'm quite hungry. If you happen to be stopping by Watson Hall, please drop off something. Don't you know we got three or four pizzas? Guys sent us a case of sodas. I was like, they're listening. I took it even more serious knowing that the community had their ears open.
That's the beautiful thing about WJPZ. When we spoke, not only did the campus listen, the community bent their ear and they heard us even when we sneezed. And then as things progressed, we saw they building a studio. Wow. We're going FM. You go to the mid-eighties, you come into the end of 84 going into 85, and you look and you're going, this is going to be a dynamite radio station.
Man. You know how a kid can't wait until Christmas? No, Christmas Eve. Yeah, that's what it was like every day. Oh, did you see what we added his time? Did you see that board or was gonna be professional? And that kicked in.
JAG: You know what you're saying, Ben, it echoes what a lot of other eighties alumni I've had on the show have said. People were dedicated, people were listening, like you said, sending you pizza when you're on this carrier current radio station, but to go FM that just blew the doors off. I bet.
Ben G: Man. Solvay, all those smaller towns. When the phone rang, hi, this is John from, on certain nights, people were calling, could hear us bounce off somewhere from Utica, New York.
JAG: No kidding. That, that gotta be a full circle moment for you. You find out somebody's listening in Utica.
Ben G: He said, I can't pick it up all the way, but. Are you DJ Ben G? I'm going. Yeah, you're breaking up. He goes, yeah, I'm calling from U..... And it got cut off, man. I wish I had a recording of that.
JAG: I bet. I bet. So Ben, you did on Air Middays afternoons nights. What else did you do at the radio station?
Ben G: One of the very fun things I had was I was very fortunate to do on-campus gigs, like when dorms. Had parties out on their quads and stuff.
JAG: Yep. Lawrinson, stuff like that.
Ben G: Yes. So you go out to do that. And they did these what? Air band things. You would play the music and they would act like the band.
That was the most craziest thing he did, because like we were the mouthpieces. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Lawrinson versus Sadler. Okay. What song do you have? Stairway to Heaven! Uh oh folks, they're going for a true one. And there were some students who would truly lip sync like it was the real thing. I was amazed!
JAG: Way before Jimmy Fallon had his game show doing that.
Ben G: Thank you. Right way before then. One of the finest moments was? Remember the G Bar?
JAG: I don't, you'll have to fill me in.
Ben G: Imagine M Street on the corner. There used to be an ice stream store. Yeah. There was a small bar in there called Generic Bar. I don't know what it's called now. That little hole. I'm sure that was illegal. I know you put all the people in there, you can't even breathe. And there was like maybe one exit. So the DJ booth was like a back of the corner. I, along with Mr. Rich Usher, he was like an MC. We hosted a New Year's Eve party there.
JAG: No kidding. Live on the air.
Ben G: On the air, yes. I said, Rich, we're making history. He goes, what? Think about it. I said, what other student radio station? Look, forget that. What other commercial radio Station has ever broadcasted from these bars in this area? He goes, no one. I said, dude, this is history.
JAG: I love it.
Ben G: And then we hyped it up from then, it was awesome. I remember the come down. Oh my God. So we made history. You know what the hard part was? Trying to get back to the station!
JAG: It's hard when you're doing those New Year's Eve gigs, and I'll tell you, I've done many a New Year's gig in my radio days and that you hype up that countdown until midnight. The only thing that's different about New Year's Eve than a regular bar night is people peak early on New Year's. At 11:30, 11:45 and then by one o'clock they crash.
Ben G: Yes. And then you get to one, it's like the cabs start making their dough. Yeah. Thank God. I think, I don't know who had a car.
JAG: Crates and crates of records. I'd imagine too.
Ben G: Thank you. So I did that. And then before I left, there was a show called The Friday Night Street Beat. Some of the young fellas came in, I would fill in for them and then Bruce Melvin began the Sunday Night Love Flight. Before the ladies took off and Bruce, just, oh man, talk about wearing the ladies out the phone. Rang off the hook all night long, and one time when I filled in for him, I'm like, oh. A very interesting phone call from some very interesting women. And not all young.
JAG: Calling a radio station. Interesting people. You don't say.
Ben G: The weirdest thing was, when you leave outta Watson, you're at the four corners of Dellplain across from Kimmel. I remember walking down this car turned, going downhill toward Bird Library and beep beep! And I'm looking around, I see a car, but I, no, they're not talking to me cuz I don't know them. They knew me. Excuse me. Are you DJ Ben G? I'm like, yeah, did you just get off the air? And I'm like, I'm ready to run. Cause I'm thinking this is somebody crazy. . She goes, no, I just heard you. I'm Doreen, blah, blah blah blah, single woman. Would you be interested to get a bite? I'm like, jokingly you paying? She goes, sure. I'm treating.
JAG: Oh, free food for a college kid?
Ben G: Thank you. We sat. We talked she about how she listens to the station. She was naming different people. I catch the morning show. Those guys are crazy! I said, that's why it's called the Crazy Morning Show. Back then when you can trust listeners.
JAG: We live in a different world now. You can't trust anybody.
Ben G: But yeah, that's what I did. I was a DJ, I did some special things and then yeah, before leaving the kickoff on FM. I was there the day with the news people around, we stood in the room, they kicked it off. And I think you can see that on YouTube now. And when we kicked it off, boom. Nonstop. I love it. The staff and everybody. We worked like dogs saying, okay, now that we are here, this is the ship that has a stay afloat.
And guess what? Today? It's cruising.
JAG: Almost 40 years later since the station went on FM. 38 years after the station went on FM. That's wild. Tell me about your journey after Syracuse. What was after Syracuse for you Ben?
Ben G: So after Syracuse, I was very lucky. There's a young lady who I had given debt to who told me something before I graduated, and I passed it on to all the undergraduate people I speak with, and I saw it at WAER. Networking. So my sophomore year I realized all the senior were graduating. And they kept saying, this one guy, Henry Bruin, said you gotta take my number down. I wrote it down in a book. And then I realized the next year or two years later, before I would graduate, people's phone numbers weren't working, the addresses weren't working.
So Monique said, you know what you need to do is put their names in ink. Put everything else in pencil. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this is before the internet. Okay. We did it the hard way. We tracked people down. We made phone calls, we wrote letters. Yeah. And we waiting for it to come back.
So I kept a book and I still had a little black book where I wrote their names down in ink and I tracked them each month. Wow. Hey, how you doing? I'm keeping in contact. I wrote a letter, you know when they did, they wrote back, wow. When it was time for me to graduate, I came to New York, it was a group called The Friends of Syracuse University.
They are, and still are, because I'm involved with them, a group of alumni of color who had great relationships like the students at WJPZ, I would keep in contact. The same thing they were doing with the networking. And she sat me down and she said, okay, what are you gonna do?
Like in my face. Wow, you ain't gonna sit around cause you didn't sit around at school. Remember you were doing things at school now. You didn't come back here. You didn't do all that work to do nothing. And scared me and I realized, yeah, she's right. Wow. I can't be a lame duck in the real world.
So she said, if you're going to an interview, shine your shoes. Don't you ever show up at an interview with dull shoes! Remember you're going in a fish pond. They know what they want. Boy, they're waiting for somebody to walk through that door who looks like they already got the job. Your shirt better be starched, your tie better be clean, and your shirt never wrinkled.
So she told me how to wear, what to wear a dark jacket if you need one, but go in there and this is the beautiful thing, you know back in the days you go into a building and you see all the other applicants waiting to be interviewed. Yeah. She was like, look, you're a radio guy. You're confident.
Walk into the room, carry the folder with your resume. Carry a pen. And if you need to get a clipboard, walk in there and say, Mr. Johnson's expecting me. I have a 3:05 appointment. Don't look at anybody when you walk in there cuz they're gonna be looking at you. Wow. You don't wanna walk in there look like the rest of the fish.
You wanna walk in looking like the shark ready to eat the fish. I was like, oh. So let me tell you something. I remember interviewing for jobs in radio, WMCA, back then, was talk radio. I interviewed for a board operator for the weekend. I walked in, there may have been two or three people. I don't know what they were there for.
I didn't care. I walked in, I have a 1:30 appointment, please have a seat. And she said, when you sit down, don't look at anybody else. Look at your things, and if you look up, you look for a second and a smile. What are they doing here? And then go back to what you're doing. Don't look at anybody.
Don't move until they call you. Because everyone's gonna be watching you. I did that and she said, when you go to meet, shake a firm handshake.
JAG: My dad always taught me that.
Ben G: Look 'em in the eye. And she said, here's a big thing. If you're shaking a woman's hand, please don't squish it to death.
JAG: Yeah, true.
Ben G: Gently hold it, wait for them to grip you, and then you return that same firm grip. Because you know it's all about before you sit down.
JAG: Only one chance at a first impression.
Ben G: And they said, now when you go in there to allow them to ask you questions, what they're doing is you're the fish. They're gonna put a worm in front of you. Sit there like you're not interested, but you're listening, answer your questions in full, complete answers. Don't stutter. Talk cause that's what you came there for. Why am I sitting there talking to you? I'm the one you wanna hire. You can tell all those people in the lobby, go home.
That's the attitude you need to have. Trust me, I had that. Yes, I've worked at these two stations at Syracuse University. WAER, FM Jazz, 88. And then, there was a college station. That was very professional. It was like a classroom. We learned a lot. That's why I'm here. I've learned a lot enough to take on the big city. I'm here to work with you and for you.
JAG: Wow. That advice had to be so key. Any 21, 22-year-old coming outta school, they need to be told these things. Because what do we know at 20, 21 getting outta school?
Ben G: Unless someone didn't school you. Yeah. So I went in, sat down, talked that talk, and then you have to let them know that you know something about the station.
I go, my parents used to make sure I listened to you. When I asked to do a quick news study for my social studies class. You, you vibe a little bit right? And it sounds like you're announcers have great vibes and they sound like they know what they're talking about. And I said, that's what I like and I'd rather work for a team of people I can learn from cuz I'm new to this city, but not new to the radio game.
JAG: Love it.
Ben G: The guy said, when can you start? If you need me to be your overnight caretaker, I'm not the guy you'll find falling asleep when they get here and the six, 5:00 AM or 4:00 AM he said, that's what I want to hear. You're hired.
And she debriefed me. Oh my God. So how did you walk in? What did you say? How did they respond? And you gotta remember all that. Accountability. So if you don't know, how can you improve the next time? Because you wanna move up in the ladder, now you know how to approach them.
JAG: So you get that first job in radio after graduation, thanks to some really important pointers. Tell me about your career after that. Ben G.
Ben G: If you ever work in radio, you know that every three to five years, radio changes, things were changing. And from WMCA, Monique got me a gig writing news at WWRL. Okay. Todd Lee Brown was a newsmaker. On the Black station. It was international, national local news.
That was WWRL doing that. And then I got a job at the station. It was K-something before I became K92. I was a traffic coordinator. I handled the copy. Y. And thank God I knew how to type 35 words per minute, 30 second copy. 60 second copy for the whole day. Geez. And then after a while when you do traffic, you schedule commercials.
Which were on reel to reel. And you had to label that stuff when it came in. So I learned that system. I got involved with traffic, made more money. I was at the same time, I still working the weekend at WMCA and stuff. And then eventually someone at MCA, someone told me, Hey. There's a guy leaving. Go for the job.
That's not a job that everybody knows how to do. And I said, you're right. And I became the assistant traffic manager. Okay. And this is before the traffic software? This is by hand. You wrote everything by hand. Lemme tell you something that hurts.
JAG: So tell me about your career since then, Ben.
Ben G: I finally made it to big leagues.
I went to. WCBS AM as the traffic person. And an SU alum was the sales manager. That's why I got inside cuz I interviewed with him. He was like, wow, you know your stuff. Syracuse. Syracuse definitely. From CBS. AM, WFAN 66. Imus in the morning was there. Now, before going to 66 AM this new guy came into town. Chris Russo.
JAG: Oh, Chris Russo. Yeah. Okay.
Ben G: Mad Dog. So I'm going, why does that name sound familiar? Guess what? When I was a board operator, when he came from Florida into New York, I was Chris Russo's board operator on the weekend. So when I met, I said, Chris, remember me? He looked at me and goes, Ben? He said, dude, you saved me. You a board operator. You made sure I came in and out on time. You flowed. I'm like, yeah, man. He goes, what you doing? I said, I'm doing copy. You're making a commercials reel for me. I said, that's right dude.
So I got into traffic where you learned that, wow, how much are they spending for a 30 second spot?
And then that's when you realize your worth. I'm putting it half a mil and I'm only getting $3,000. There's a problem. Again. So I did what Mougie said. Count your worth, do your work, make sure you got certain contracts in. Then said I'd like a raise. Guess what? I was able to back it up. So you remember the second quarter when you brought all this contracts, you didn't think they could get 'em in? But I got 'em in. You were able to bank that money thanks to me? $10,000 raise.
JAG: Wow. Almost doubled your salary.
Ben G: Yes. So yeah, I worked there. Went for CBS- AM, our W F A N and then you ready for this? CD 101.9. I was the copy person there. Assistant traffic manager. I did for about two or three years.
Met a lot of people there on radio. Was still in contact with a few now from CD 101.9. I had a in between jobs, I was assistant operations manager at BET.
JAG: Oh wow. Okay.
Ben G: 1515 Broadway. I'm going, wait a minute, mtv, oh my God. I got this other MTV stuff while I was there.
JAG: What year is this, roughly, Ben?
Ben G: So it had to be like 94, 95, somewhere around there. And that was a temporary job. I networked with the operations manager. She goes, oh yeah, listen. I hear that Fox was looking for someone to put in contracts. I go there, I go in a temp pool. There were eight of us. We are there for a year. After a year, the other seven people go, hey, I'm scheduled for an interview. How about you? And I'm like, no.
Meanwhile, I'm the only one putting in contracts. I'm the one who knows how to do what I do.
JAG: Wow. Okay.
Ben G: I'm now quite upset. How come they have interviews? I don't. They come back. I said, did you get it? Yeah. Yeah. I got it. So now I'm really sour. Of course. After that we have lunch and then my boss is, come, I need to talk with you. And I'm meeting a big boss there. I said, oh, this is my interview? She goes, no, it's not your interview. My heart went down south.
She said, you already got the job. Oh. I go, what? She goes, you've proven you could do the job. You don't need an interview. Oh my god. I almost passed out.
JAG: This is the Fox Network when it was just starting at that point?
Ben G: Fox cable network when it was just the FX channel and I think they just started the Sports channel. Then they bought Nat Geo. There was five of them. That's when they got crazy. I worked for them for five years. Wow. Okay. Next thing you know, they said hi, we're not firing you. You we're just ending your position. Your position is no longer needed.
JAG: Your position has been eliminated, which is essentially no different.
Ben G: My position, they don't need someone just to put in contract anymore. I go, oh, so what's a new job? You have to go search for one. Once again, you're not firing me. This was. May of 2006. Guess when I was getting married? July of 2006.
JAG: So you got the Zig two months before your wedding. I got the Zig a week after mine. Wow.
Ben G: So thank God we had, what we call a grown folks wedding. We paid for everything. But here's the thing, everything that I created that helped them make easier, I put in my files, took it outta there cuz I created it. Y it wasn't their property. And then I found out from one of the salespeople, they were mad. What happened? She was like, they cut your job and now five of us gotta make up the difference in what you do.
Oh. So I'm doing a job of five people. They didn't want me to be a manager. That was 2006. Got married, came back, thought about what I wanted to do. My wife, she is a teacher. An educator. She says, you need to go into education cause you love teaching kids. I'm like, I'll try it. Fall of 2007, I just came in just to watch and see what's going on in Newark at one of the schools that my wife used to work at. I liked it. I became a substitute teacher in 2007. To this day, I am a teacher, mainly fourth and fifth grade. I am a science teacher now at College Achieve in Patterson. I teach fifth grade science.
JAG: I'm looking at this stuff in your classroom behind you.
Ben G: You see this guy? That's the poster I like. He's a scientist.
JAG: He's a PhD and he is wearing a Syracuse hat. I can see the little Otto the Orange on it. That's great.
Ben G: David Kelley, PhD. That's terrific. He's a computational biologist. Wow. I'm lucky. My room colors are blue. The poster up there's orange. Come on. Syracuse is all over the place.
JAG: Like it was meant to be. So you had to go back to school and get an additional degree to get into teaching. Ben?
Ben G: I went back to school to finish some credits I had in my undergrad. 2010. I was like, okay, let me up the game. I went back and got my master's in education.
JAG: Very cool.
Ben G: Master's of science where I learned how to teach kids online, work online and learn the software online for education. Remember, pandemic hasn't come yet. 10 years before the pandemic, I was taught this.
JAG: Man ahead of your time.
Ben G: Yes. And they were like, I remember our thing was, one day you'll be able to teach kids who are sick and teach them online. That's good to know. So the years working in Newark, working in Orange. I was training my team. Look one day this stuff is gonna crash. Kids are gonna be taking tests online. What happens? No more paper tests. Kids taking tests online. As I told you, I said be ready because you don't wanna be a useless teacher.
2019, comes. I'm working for this company and where I was a push and pullout teacher, I came in to help out kids specialized cuz they're low in ELA, in English or math. All of a sudden, boom. Pandemic. Everything's online. I was like, Woohoo, I'm ready. I've been waiting for this for 10 years.
All the other teachers go, we don't know what to do. I got you. I trained my teachers. I got paid for the knowledge I had. Had fun online teaching kids using my radio skills. Come on now. It was show time! It was the Mr. Green show. What I taught the young kids. I would begin, with a theme song boom. Hey, good morning. Yeah. Lemme say who else is there? And that would make them turn on their cameras. They want to come. And learn.
JAG: Because that had to be something you had to battle during the pandemic as a teacher, as an educator. Ben G, because we all got Zoom fatigued having work meetings online. I can't imagine kids sitting there. Oh God, okay. It's science class online today. But you're making it interesting. You right, you're using those skills you learned at J PZ to grab their attention right out of the gate.
Ben G: Exactly. This and when you're ready, remember the mic is on. You never go cold. That is the opportunity of a lifetime. You give them the show they want. So when you do stop, they look at you like what? Why? Why'd you stop?
JAG: Leave them wanting more. There you go.
Ben G: Let me tell you something that got me into something that I started in 2009. Now they call it podcast.
JAG: Yeah. I wanna ask you about this. Near and dear to my heart.
Ben G: Back in 2009, there's a guy outta LA, he had this site called, In Soul we Trust. He featured. DJs who mixed around the world. And I'm looking at 'em going, okay, but where the people who act like DJs? I said, you have no one doing a radio show. He goes, no. I ssnt him my demo and was doin’ it. All I had to do was pay for $40 a month.
And you rented, basically you rented the space per se. And it was awesome. I had a show called The Funk Show. Two hours, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Heard around the world. Awesome. And that ran from 2009 to around 2013. 2014. When I got deeper into charter school teaching and stuff, and I brought what I did online into the classroom.
My first podcast was the second year, 2009, when I was teaching first grade. I had my kids create a one-hour radio show. I was the engineer, but they chose the music they were the hosts. They interviewed the principal, vice principal, first graders and second graders who they were going to be. I'm the one who actually edited and put it together, but they did all the work.
JAG: That's amazing.
Ben G: The principal was like, wow, you are really teaching these kids the real deal? I said, yes. Fast forward three, four years later. While I was working at another school, someone called me and said, yeah, we need some help with the seventh and eighth graders. I was like, what do you need? Can you do that podcasting thing?
I go, n only can I do it, I said they're older. They're gonna be a radio station. We had a station manager, we had a sports manager, we had a news manager, we had a sales team, we had a promotion team and the key was, first we developed what type of show we're gonna do. They did a two-hour show. You ready for this? Live.
JAG: Whoa.
Ben G: It was through Google, early days of Google. No kidding. Wow. We did a live 2-hour show. The kids, they did some pre drops. But they were there live doing news, live doing sports, live doing live interviews. A host, they chose the music, the promotions people. This is what we did. They created posters and the name of the school was Lincoln. So the real station was W LLR, Lincoln Lions Radio.
JAG: Love it.
Ben G: Oh, see, the key to promotion is you gotta get people interested. So what you do is you don't tell them everything. You give them just enough and then you walk away. I said, that's called dropping the bomb. I said, watch during, lunch go W LLR. It's coming. And walk away.
So a d they go what are you talking about? So for a week they kept doing that. Don't you know teachers kept asking me, what's WLLR? And I kept saying in that smile, it's coming. . And they were frustrated. And then the second week they made posters and they stuck 'em up in the hallway.
So then in the poster said, coming to you live from Lincoln Elementary School. W LLR radio station. And people are like, wait a minute, what's going on? So now we had everybody's piqued, from kindergarten all the way up to like sixth grade, cuz the seventh, the eighth grader we're doing it. And then the day that way we're gonna do, I said, now you drop the bomb. Turn on Google.
2:00 PM today. W LLR is gonna be live. Let me tell you something. I think we almost crashed the unit We had everybody listening. Three other schools heard about us. Someone must have gave them the link. They were listening. No kidding. The superintendent heard us. He's oh? We're doing live radio. That was a proud moment for me.
JAG: What I love about this story, Ben, and this is something we talked about in all of our guests, 50 years of WJPZ, and we've called it the world's greatest media classroom, and our mission has always been to teach. Nobody exemplifies that better than what you are doing then and right now that you learn so much at JPZ. And I guess AER. We'll leave them out of this conversation.
Ben G: I know, right?
JAG: But at JPZ. And not only did you go on to work in radio for a number of years, but that passion for teaching, you turned that into a career now and you're merging that with radio, which is just the most amazing thing. I love everything about this story.
Ben G: Definitely. And I appreciate this. In Mr. Green's class, I go to the furthest of the room. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Loud and proud. Stand up.
JAG: And you're giving these kids beyond radio. You're giving them confidence, which is so important.
Ben G: Exactly.
JAG: Before we wrap up, Ben, I wanna ask you again about FSU and Friends of SU, which you, I know you're extremely involved with it. You're, so passionate about it. I see it on social media all the time. You do a great job of promoting it in that loud and proud voice. You talked about what great benefit you got out of that organization with all those tips about a job interview when you graduated. And now it's come full circle because now you are the advisor. So what's it like from the other side of it?
Ben G: Man, what I've done is this. Many of the alums who I've met along the way before I got there. While I was there, I'm still in contact with some of the founders. At 2019, during the pandemic, watching all these shows, the Good Times in Jefferson, and they talking about history in the making, I started talking about WJPZ.
I go, wait a minute. The Friends of SU, when I became the President back in 88, 89. I met some dynamite people. Never forgot it. And they told me how they created things on campus as students of color, but what made me mad, was, remember when Syracuse put out 150 years?
JAG: Yeah.
Ben G: I'm thumbing through it and I'm going, didn't I protest on campus in the shanty towns, the divestment of South Africa. I don't see that in their history. There were some things missing. I'm going, whoa. They chose certain things, but they didn't tell everything. They mentioned a slight thing at WJPZ, but it was like it was bigger. Like we went to FM, we broadcasted, okay, that should have been a major thing.
It wasn't. So I said, I need to take our history into our hands. You could no longer let someone tell your story. Cause all you could tell your story. So that's why I came up with this podcast. FSU, our history is here. Because the founder of Friends of SU, he was one of the people who began the Martin Luther King Library on campus.
JAG: Wow.
Ben G: Him and a couple of other people, we had books that started out very small. I can't think of the man's name, but he's the African American brother who works for Nike. He's the one, he began the student African American society. . I call a young lady, but there's a woman, Class of 72, interviewed her.
Cause I said, did anyone make history while at school? She goes, yeah. She goes, I originally came from Newark, New Jersey. I was a freshman in 1968. I got a full ride to Syracuse University. I'm going, what? In 1968? . She goes, through the Boys and Girls Club. So she told me her story. You have to remember, 68, 69, 70.
Back then people of color weren't treated well. And she was telling me how on the campus a lot of students were racist. And they didn't treat them well. I was like, wow. She was, yeah, we had problems. The fact that, remember the Syracuse eight or nine who protested? She was there then. She knew those guys.
JAG: Wow.
Ben G: So she had a rich history. I'm going, how come I didn't read about this in the history of Syracuse University? So I got some great truths for someone who lived it.
JAG: Firsthand account. Yes.
Ben G: So friends of SU, I realized that's our history. So I started doing that and then Andrew Mans, I love it. He's class of 75. When I became president of Friends of SU in 1988, 89. The first thing I did was pay homage to the people who started the group. There are 12 of them all together. We honored those who could make, I think eight of them showed up. But Andrew Manz, I found out during our, my podcast, he was the first student to get a degree in Afro-American Studies when it became a new part of the system.
The young lady I interviewed, she and another guy wrote up Black Studies, which eventually became the Afro-American Studies Department. You couldn't find us anywhere else. So I duck for to now with my podcast, that's what I'm doing.
JAG: You're preserving that history.
Ben G: I'm gonna add them into the Syracuse University archives. That history will be forever cemented at Syracuse University.
JAG: I think that is a great place to leave it knowing you're doing this to preserve the history of the Friends of SU and everybody with that organization and the ground that so many of you broke while students at Syracuse University. And thank you for being a part of this living piece of history of the radio station. Thank you for your time today. It's great to be with you Ben G.
Ben G: Hey Jag, this has been great. And thank you for taking me back Fif-Z Years to present an awesome time. You are awesome. Please keep up the great work.
JAG: Thank you sir.