Chris Velardi, Class of 1995, is the Director of Digital Engagement and Communications of SU's Office of Alumni Engagement. He joins us today to walk us through his time from Connecticut to Syracuse to Connecticut to Syracuse.
Chris got to SU from the Nutmeg State, like many of us, wanting to be a sportscaster. He quickly found a job in the Carrier Dome. When that, um, changed, he found WJPZ. There, he earned the nickname "The Weasel," because he weaseled his way into every aspect of the station, wanting to get as involved as possible.
Following graduation, Chris worked in radio news in Ithaca, before transitioning to TV. His next move was a dream job - being a morning anchor in his home state. In fact, he stayed there for a decade and a half. Then, he and his family decided it was time for a change. We spend some time talking about the difficulties of moving out of TV and radio. In fact, it's a topic Velardi has counseled many WJPZ alumni on.
Like many media folks, Chris first tried PR - but didn't have the same passion. Then, through his network (he likes network as a noun but hates it as a verb), he came upon a job opportunity at his alma mater. Next thing you know, he and his family were headed to Central New York, where he gets to play host at Banquet every year.
Velardi credits his time at WJPZ for teaching him out to multitask, as well as how to hear and understand different perspectives. And you won't want to miss this story. You'll find out why, 30 years later, he still gets screen shots whenever someone hears En Vogue.
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast is produced by Jon "JAG" Gay, Class of 2022, and his company JAG in Detroit Podcasts
JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay, joined today by yet another illustrious member of the class of 1995. He's now the Director of Digital Engagement and communications of the Office of Alumni Engagement. He's come home to work at Syracuse University. Mr. Chris Velardi, welcome to the show.
Chris: Thanks very much, JAG. It's been fun to listen to these and to go down memory lane like this.
JAG: That's exactly what we're gonna do in the next 30 minutes or so. We'll start at the beginning. How did you end up at Syracuse and finding Z89?
Chris: So I think like a lot of people of my generation, I wanted to be Bob Costas.
JAG: Not just your generation.
Chris: Correct. My generation and beyond. And I did my homework and thought, all right, I was one of those kids. I knew what I wanted to do. I wasn't happy unless I was watching sports or news on tv. and generally playing along with it. Yeah. And so I was driven and all of my focus led me to go to Syracuse.
That was a no-brainer. I didn't apply early admission. I applied to a few other places, but it was always Syracuse. And so when I got that acceptance and we, as a family, we were able to figure out a way to make it work. Syracuse was the place to be. I will never forget sitting in that big studio in Newhouse that probably first week, where they were giving us the introduction to all of the things we would get to do and have access to as students.
And I remember how many people at the time when whoever was giving this presentation said, how many of you want to be sportscasters? How many of you are here because of Bob Costas? I'd say about 98% of that room raised their hands. And I thought, wow. Okay. All right. So we're all in this same boat together here
JAG: In a the Sea of Future, Bob Costas Assis is, or whatever the plural of that would be.
Chris: Yeah. Bob Costi there you go.
JAG: How do you end up coming over to JPZ?
Chris: I did not find it my first semester. My first semester I just tried to get the lay of the land as a college student, in classes. I was actually. Working in the Dome, I had a work study job in the Dome and so I was working in one of the suites.
I was the attendant for the suites. So that was my introduction to, being at Syracuse football games in person. It was not a terrible job. And the football team was good back then too. Yeah. Kirby Dar Dar. The return against Florida. I will never forget watching that play from the suite. So I got to watch football, I got paid.
When there were extra brownies and chicken tenders, at the end of the day, I was able to put together a little care package, which every freshman certainly wanted. Until the very last game of the season, when the people who owned the box or whatever rented the box decided, you know what? Paying for the attendant is a little too much.
We don't need an attendant. And so I, in the last game of the season, got stuck pouring Dome Foam in a place where I could not even see the field or a monitor. Thought. Okay. This is it for me. I'm done with this job.
JAG: Wait, what? Dome Foam? What is that?
Chris: It's beer. It's the suds.
JAG: Oh, okay.
Chris: It's the Dome foam. It was not pleasant. That was a really bad experience. And so that was the end of my work study career at the Dome. And, I needed to find something and I had, I remember sitting in a biology class, pretty sure it was biology, Marvin Druger. Second semester, early second semester.
And some of the people I was with were talking about JPZ, and I thought I love broadcasting. I love radio. I love this idea. These people seem like my kind of people. So I followed them to the orientation or the, the recruitment fair and I was hooked.
JAG: What did you do at the station, Chris?
Chris: Pretty much everything. To the point of annoyance. I think certainly that first semester I joined the sports staff. I thought it'd be great to be a DJ. I did some overnight shifts, but I also thought, man, all the juniors and seniors do the morning show. That looks like fun. So I'd do the overnight shift and then I just hang around until the morning show and essentially intern, I don't know. I just, I was there. Some folks listening may be familiar with my nickname. The Weasel. Which was given to me cuz I just weaseled my way into all of the things cuz I thought it'd be fun.
JAG: Who was on the morning show at that point?
Chris: Oh boy. Definitely Beth Russell was there because she's the one who gave me that nickname. As always, it was a rotating cast of characters, but I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be a part of all of the things. So I did news, I did sports, I was a jock. I just wanted to try it all and really feel like every experience was valuable.
JAG: Okay, so tell me about graduation. You get finished at JPZ, then you started a career in television, right? Or am I missing, am I skipping a step?
Chris: My first job after college was I went back home and was waiting tables. But this is one of the Syracuse stories that I love, and it's not necessarily JPZ directly, but JPZ has its fingerprints on all of it. When I went home, I didn't have a job in media out of college and a former professor of mine, Barbara Fought, who I had for several classes who was also new at that time.
So we stayed in touch and she put me in touch with a radio news director in Ithaca who was looking for a third person for a three person news team. Local news. And there were two all news stations, essentially all new stations in Ithaca. So that tells you what radio was like, in the mid nineties, right?
With local staffs. I went to interview with Chris Smith is his name, and I got hired and moved to Ithaca and took a job in radio as the number three reporter. Did nights, updates in the afternoons and did stories at night. And that was my first broadcasting job outta college. And I have an alum and a professor to thank for the opportunity.
I got laid off after three months because they couldn't afford to keep my not quite $12,000 a year salary. But I was hooked. I had to make this happen. So I went to the other, all new station in Ithaca and I freelanced there. And then I got a job in Homer, New York at WXHC Radio.
JAG: What is that near, what is that Utica like? Is that
Chris: Homer's Cortland. Just outside of Cortland.
JAG: Okay. By the way, do you own an Ithaca is gorgeous t-shirt?
Chris: Oh I'm sure there is. There is at least one in my box of old t-shirts. No doubt. And probably a sticker.
JAG: Fair enough. So you're in Homer.
Chris: I go to Homer. I get hired by, and again in this small world by a guy who used to be a sports director at Channel five in Syracuse, and now he owns this little radio station. He used to work with Mike Tirico at Channel Five., He gave way to Tirico. And I was replacing a woman who was going on to more assignments at ESPN in Beth Mowins. Again, it's such a small world, but I replaced Beth Mowins at WXHC as the news director.
JAG: Wow.
Chris: In Homer. Did that for, it wasn't even a year, and then had an opportunity to move to TV in Ithaca and did TV in Ithaca for a year and a half, two years. It was actually probably closer to two years. Went to Allentown, Pennsylvania, then went home to Connecticut.
JAG: Tell me about the gig in Connecticut, cuz you were there for a little while, right?
Chris: Yeah. That was always a dream, right? To be able to work in TV at the TV station you grew up watching. I worked at the ABC affiliate in New Haven for just about 15 years.
A good chunk of that time anchoring mornings, which, I wouldn't have traded for the world. It's what I wanted. I didn't sleep a lot. But, as I described during my JPZ days, my freshman year when I was doing overnight shifts as a disc jockey and then just hanging out at the station until the morning show, I didn't sleep a lot in college either.
JAG: So you probably got more sleep than doing overnight at JPZ than doing morning television. I gotta imagine.
Chris: Probably true. Yeah, I was probably able to work it into, to the day a little bit easier. But yeah, it was great. I hesitate to use the phrase dream job because it's too easy to have a lot of dream jobs, to be honest with you.
But it was great to be able to anchor mornings to the TV station that I grew up watching. When I was in college, I got to work at the radio station I grew up listening to in Connecticut. During the summers. I never stayed in Syracuse. A lot of people, my era stayed in Syracuse, to keep the station on the air over the summer.
And I never did that. I always went home and worked, usually waiting tables, but also in radio. And I look back at the opportunities I had to work in radio in Connecticut to work in TV. And have a 15 year career at the TV station in Connecticut. And I feel really fortunate.
JAG: I am one of many people who have reached out to you for advice on getting out of television or radio. I remember distinctly having a long phone call with you when I was hiding in my studio in New Orleans thinking about getting outta radio. And you were so gracious with your time to talk to me. And there have been a number of other alumni, you've had the same conversation. What went into your decision to get out of television and led you to where you are now?
Chris: It was hard, absolutely. When you are kinda like us, right? When you are a broadcaster at heart, like I said, I was a kid who was, calling football games as I watched them on tv.
I knew it's what I wanted to do. And I was able to do it and do it in a place that I wanted to. But the business changed, right? My family was growing and the kids were getting older and things were happening that something would, a big news story would happen or a snowstorm or whatever.
A hurricane was coming up the coast of Connecticut and I was always going to the TV station. I was working and my family was stuck at home with no power, with two feet of snow on the ground, and I'm sleeping on the floor of the TV station on a an air mattress so that I can do 12 hours of live coverage.
I loved that. That was, I think, I felt like I was doing a service. But at the same time it was tough. And as the kids were getting older, and then as I was getting older, I was thinking, I'm not sure this is sustainable. And then the question, and these are the conversations that you and I had at that time for you and I had with other people when I got out and other people have had with me is, okay, now what? Now what do we do?
JAG: We're hardwired in that way. And it's yeah. How do you pivot? How do you change?
Chris: I think there's a couple of things you do, right? You figure out, okay, what skills do I have? And I think one of the things, certainly in tv, they don't want you to realize the skills you have.
They want you to think that you're lucky to have this gig.
JAG: Oh, radio too. Yeah.
Chris: Yeah. And then you realize, wait a second, I can communicate, I can get a message across to an audience where they are in a way that they understand. I can take information, process it quickly and turn that around and make it useful for someone else.
I can write, I can do these things, and these things are valuable in the real world and so you figure that out, figure out the skills and figure out that they really do translate and apply to the myriad of other jobs that are out there. And then you figure out, the passion. You figure out what it is that you really love and you're interested in, and you find a way in a best pace scenario to combine those.
It's not always easy and it's not always gonna happen the first time. And I think I'm an example of that. I did what TV people do when they leave tv and I went into PR. And, the skills translated Yeah. But the passion wasn't there. A few clients I got passionate about and felt good about, helping to communicate and share their story. But it was very unsatisfying in a lot of ways, and that's how I wound up, back at Syracuse.
JAG: How did you go from this PR stint after TV to reconnecting and getting involved in the University?
Chris: Again, it's a small world and the connections, the friendships, the relationships that you build, it paid off and it paid off in a way that I wasn't intending it to.
I'll go off on a tangent here for a second. A little bit of a side street. I'm not a big fan of using the word network as a verb. Never have been. It feels transactional. It feels okay, I am networking to get something. It feels slimy to me. I much prefer to use the word build relationships.
JAG: Yeah, I like that.
Chris: Okay. Because I am building a relationship with you and we are becoming friends. We are becoming, colleagues with shared interests. Whatever it is, it's a relationship of some sort. You may be part of my network. I'm fine with that as a noun. I just don't like it as a verb.
I don't like "networking." I like communicating with people, talking to people, sharing stories, building relationships. So get off that side street. Back to the main road we were on. I obviously, through JPZ, and we didn't go to school together. Right? We know each other. There are a lot of people that fit that category.
People who didn't go to school at the same seven year span. You know, whatever that is. The four years that I was there, the four years that they were there, we didn't overlap for any of them. So I've developed friends through the JPZ network of people, and it was through one of those connections that I met Kim Infanti, who I work with now.
We became friends. I saw her post a job on her Facebook page and I reached out to her and said, I'm not thrilled with this PR life I'm living. I'm thinking about a change. Would this job be a good fit? And, six months later I was able to take that job. There was a lot of back and forth. I moved the family from Connecticut to Central New York again and.
JAG: Was the great white north of Syracuse a hard sell for the family?
Chris: It wasn't like a no-brainer, but it wasn't a super hard sell. Okay. My wife worked remotely. And she went to school at Cornell.
We met in Ithaca. So we both have kind of family ties in the area. So for us it was always a spot that we said we could see ourselves living there. The kids, it was a little bit more difficult because kids put down roots right where they are and hadn't known anything else, but technology being what it is, they were able to stay connected.
And my family's still in Connecticut, so it wasn't like we were going across the country or leaving and never coming back. So we were able to make that sell and they bought in and it's worked out pretty well.
JAG: Do you have any fun stories of, I'm not gonna say that you networked with, but fun stories of the Syracuse alumni you've gotten to spend time with in that gig?
Chris: Really amazing. And we have a pretty diverse and accomplished span of alumni. Having an opportunity to, talk with Eileen Collins, right? The first female astronaut in space. That's pretty cool. Having a chance to talk to Jim Morris, who's the head of Pixar.
He was behind some of the greatest Pixar movies of all time. Having an opportunity to meet and have conversations with some of the people in the arena that I love broadcasting, the Mike Tiricos of the world and Ian Eagles and people like that. And having them because of the role I have at the University after the second or third meeting. not needing to reintroduce myself. It's just cool. That's cool. It's just a cool thing to be able to do that, to run into Chris Licht at a tailgate and be able to say hello to him because we did a podcast together. We've had a couple of conversations. It's pretty cool.
JAG: You led me into my next question. Plug the podcast Cuse conversations. Tell me about it real quick.
Chris: Cuse Conversations began as a podcast that my colleague, when he was with me in the Office of Alumni Engagement, John Boccacino did, and the idea at the time was it's going to be Syracuse alumni telling their Syracuse stories across, whatever industry they're in, whatever their accomplishments are.
It has now morphed and become a more broad Syracuse University podcast. So John has left our office and now works for the communications team on campus. So he's doing podcasts with faculty and administrators. He's still doing alumni. I'm doing alumni podcasts. We're adding voices as hosts, but we're also adding voices as guests.
So the Cuse Conversations podcast has grown, I think, in scope, and it's fun to be able to do it right, again, scratch the broadcast itch. To get a chance to be able to host a podcast, what I'm doing right now. That's what we're both doing right now. It's what we're both doing and it's the kind of thing that is fun to be able to just have as a way to, to do the things I feel comfortable doing.
Like I joke with some of the people on the team, my job entails a ton of things. It's building emails, it's doing social media. It's doing runs of show for events. It's hosting events occasionally, whether in person or on Zoom. And I always joke with my colleagues, it's the events that I'm hosting that I feel like I'm in my element, I know what I'm doing when I do those things.
The rest of it, I'm gonna make it up as I go along, but the hosting events, I can do that. I can interview people. I feel comfortable doing that. So it's nice to be able to do those things. In my wheelhouse.
JAG: With that in mind. And it's weird to call you Chris. I just wanna call you Velardi, just out of habit, but that's fine.
What lessons and experiences do you take with you from your time at JPZ that have served you well in this multifaceted, I, you could hate to use that word, but multifaceted career that you've had to this point?
Chris: I think there's so much that I don't know that we appreciated when we were doing it, but I think I know I appreciated in hindsight. One is the versatility I mentioned. I did everything. I wanted to get my hands involved in all aspects of the station as much as I could. I did some promotions. I did, news, sports, DJing, all that kind of thing. I hosted a Friday Night Party!
JAG: I didn't know that!
Chris: I hosted the Friday night party. I did Zappy Hour, I did morning shows. I wanted to experience all of it and learn from all of it. So I think just learning how to be versatile as a broadcaster in whatever industry you're in, I think is really important. They may not all be what you're best at, but having the ability to at least understand what the people who do those jobs do I think is really important. I think it helps everyone get perspective in, in whatever they're doing. So I think that's one part of it. Honestly, I think one of the biggest parts is just the relationships. Is just like we were all college kids doing professional level jobs and really figuring it out as we went along.
And understanding the ability to give people grace, to be patient, to know that we're all figuring it out as we're doing it. And I think just keeping that in the back of my mind as you go through life and understand the people are just trying to figure it out, and giving them that space to do that.
And I wasn't always great at it, right? Like I know that, I know, but I also know I was a college kid and so learning those things along the way are really helpful. And then just the variety of people you meet. I think that's the other thing that, that is so great is it was such a diverse group of people that exposed me to things I didn't have growing up in Connecticut. It's, I was like, all right, I am learning so much more doing this and I think. That was so valuable.
JAG: As you look back on your time at JPZ, are there any just hilarious stories that you think about, over beer fagans and we all come up every year? Or just stuff that sticks out in your memory?
Chris: You know, I knew that question was coming and I tried to think about it. And there, there are some moments I think. I would be remiss without the fact that thanks to Larry Rocket Ross. The song Never Gonna Get It will always be something associated with me . Which is both unfortunate but also just a little bit of JPZ lore and it's fun.
And so there are still times when someone will be riding in a car, listening to the nineties on nine on SiriusXM. And the song will come up and I will get a text with a screenshot of said songs.
JAG: What's the story behind it?
Chris: I believe I was doing news on one of Rocket's afternoon shifts. So I was a freshman. I was a freshman in my first semester at the radio station. And Rocket was doing, I dunno if it was a Thursday afternoon or whatever. And the song was the song prior to my newscast. So Rocket comes out of this song, and I believe he may have been juggling. A racketball. Or two. And said something about along the lines of, "Speaking of never gonna get it" and then toss to the newscast.
And it just, it stuck. And so never gonna get it. So there you have it there's me and En vogue we go way back.
JAG: It's those funny little moments that just take on a life of their own decades later. I love it.
Chris: Decades later, decade later. Yeah.
JAG: It's gotta be unique for you, Velardi, to be there in Syracuse and to have all of us descend upon you. Every March and everybody comes up. You don't have to worry about, not getting there because of a snowstorm or a flight canceled or anything, or stuck on the thruway. Like you are there. We're all coming to see you. That's gotta be a cool feeling.
Chris: It is really interesting to be here now and to see Syracuse, from the perspective of being a townie, I guess it's cool to be able to be here and to, to share little things that I hear on the air as I'm listening to JPZ or a student who I may come across. In addition to alumni engagement, I adjunct at Newhouse, so I get JPZ students.
I have served on the board as the community representative. Which is cool to stay connected in that way. And here's a really cool thing. I am still connected in a very direct way now because I'm now the faculty advisor. For JPZ, the staff advisor, if you will.
JAG: Congratulations!
Chris: It's fun to be able to stay connected in a way, it is not the kind of hands-on, I am not a, I am just a resource, right?
I'm just someone who can provide some answers to questions once in a while, some connections or whatever. But it's a cool opportunity that presented itself and was met with very positive response from, the board and from the students. And. I'm gonna be in that role, which is really cool.
It's cool to be able to continue to have JPZ be a part of my life in that way.
JAG: So you're the new Rick Wright?
Chris: I don't think that's possible. But to follow in that line is pretty cool. It's definitely a cool opportunity to have everyone come back and to be able to see people, was able to host the East Coast picnic here after the year that the Banquet didn't happen.
Just because I'm local and so people came back and also got to see Syracuse and a different light. We went to a couple of different restaurants and went to a Syracuse Mets game on Friday night and so just to be able to be here when people do come back is, it's nice.
I always liked coming back to Syracuse for the banquet weekend because I got to see, the family and it is cool now to have the family come and I'm always here, so anytime they come, I get a chance to see people, which is nice.
JAG: Chris Velardi, Class of 95, new faculty advisor to WJPZ. Thank you so much for your time today.
Chris: You got it. Happy to be on.