How does a goofball from the Crazy Morning Crew end up building a massively successful syndication company? You'll find out in today's podcast, with Hall of Fame guest Danno Wolkoff from the Class of 1986.
This Cleveland native starts by telling us how he found out about Syracuse and Newhouse by accident, and then how a dorm mate asked him to do a radio show. This was just before WJPZ moved to FM. After the move to 89.1, Danno moved to mornings with Danny Klass, E Double R, and one of this year's Hall of Fame nominees, Happy Dave Dwyer. Even though radio wasn't his career goal, Danno somehow found himself at the station every day from 7 to 10am.
Following graduation, Danno went with his then-fiance to New York, but needed to find a job. After failing to find paid work at all three major networks, he took a gig at MJI Networks - but not after completely blowing the interview, as he explains.
He worked his way up through affiliate relations and sales, before deciding he wanted to raise his growing family back home in Cleveland, not New York. So three decades before the world went remote, Danno convinced his employer to let him open a Cleveland branch of the company. His wild success spurred openings in Chicago, Los Angeles, and more.
MJI was eventually acquired by Premiere Networks. Danno and his wife created their own company, Envision Radio Networks, leveraging the relationships built with radio stations, and some of the soft skills he learned at WJPZ. To commemorate Envision's 10th birthday, Danno made a large donation to WJPZ to assist in the building of their new studios at the end of 2012. Turns out that wasn't as cut and dry as he'd hoped. There was a lot of "orange" tape to go through.
Eventually, Envision was acquired by another company, and the Wolkoffs left, "sort of retired," and are now focusing on other projects. These include turning podcasts into audio books through Happy Land World. and putting electric vehicle chargers in fast food parking lots - an idea his daughter was instrumental in.
Throughout today's podcast, you'll hear about the many lifelong relationships Danno has cultivated through WJPZ, and the lessons learned. But he leaves us with two hilarious stories. One involves "accidentally" broadcasting live from a moving bus in downtown Syracuse, and the other involves a big red button they were told not to touch!
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. Today's gonna be a good one. We have another Hall of Famer on the podcast today from the class of 1986. Mr. Danno Wolkoff, welcome to the podcast.
Danno: Oh, thrilled to be here. And I appreciate you inviting me on. You know when you get old like I am, you think everyone forgets about you, so I'm just happy. Happy people still remember and I'm still alive, so that's good.
JAG: I will say that speak on behalf of many alumni when we say we'll never forget you, your contributions to the radio station, both as a student and as an alum. But before we get into all that, cuz we do have a lot of ground to cover today. Danno, start at the beginning. How'd you end up at Syracuse and how'd you end up at JPZ?
Danno: So I ended up at Syracuse cause a friend of mine and I took a road trip the summer before we graduated high school. Syracuse was not on my list. I actually wanted to go see BU and go to the broadcasting school at BU. I had no idea about Syracuse and Newhouse and none of that.
We stopped there because he wanted to go pre-med. So we stopped at Rochester and Syracuse on our way out to the east coast of like Boston and Georgetown and I can't remember the other stops. So the reason we stopped it was because he wanted to see the premed. I ended up saying, that's interesting.
They have this communications school, I'm gonna go check it out. And I walked in and I got a tour and immediately they walked us through back then Newhouse one and two, but two had all the studios in it, the television studios, and again, this is back in the eighties. So the fact that they had a huge studio and they had three cameras and, on the wheels and looked like a regular broadcast facility.
I said, wow, this is really cool. I better check this out further. We came back, I got the literature, I checked it out and it turns out I go, wow, Syracuse really does have a fantastic communication school, and Newhouse is well known and well respected. And I just decided after seeing BU and you knowing the environment in the land, I said, Syracuse seemed like a good fit.
So I went early decision. I got in early decision into New House and I didn't even apply anywhere else. Once I got in, I was like, all right, that's done. I don't have to do anything. So I picked them, they picked me. It worked out great and I was thrilled to end up going there.
JAG: All right. So when you get to the campus, how did you find up finding out about JPZ?
Danno: JPZ came about because my freshman year I lived in Marion. And at that point, this is before they redid the studios in Watson, there was the original studios they put in Watson after they wrecked Spectrum. So the original JPZ studios were in Spectrum, I think by freshman year, and then sophomore year they wrecked that building.
So they moved JPZ over to Watson Theater and they carved out a little area for them and UUTV back then. My hallmate, his name was Alpo, and he was doing a radio. He said, why don't you come over and we'll do a show together and be Alpo and Danno. And so once a week we got an afternoon show.
And again, remember this is before FM, so we were just on a, common carrier signal that went into all the dorms. I don't even know if the AM was broadcasting at the point. Hung out and it did a three-hour shift. I think it was like Wednesday afternoons or something like that. That's how I started at the station.
Then they decided to go through the whole being licensed. So when they wanted to get the FM station up and running, they made everyone take the test to get an FCC broadcast license. I think I have mine somewhere, but it was funny. We took the test and then I think they finally decided technically we don't need to have an FCC broadcast license.
When we finally went on the air, but we all took the test. I got certified. And in all honesty, I really don't know how I ended up getting picked for the mornings. Alpo was not gonna do the show anymore. I was just looking to do a shift. And they came back and at the time, I don't know if it was Larry Barron, I don't remember, it could have been Dave Levin. Whoever it is, picked a bunch of us just to do the morning and be part of this morning zoo and they say, hey, we want you to be one of the people on the morning zoo.
And I go, really? They go, yeah, Okay.
JAG: Because you went from just being a regular jock shift to morning.
Danno: Yeah. And I didn't think I was that funny, by the way, so I'm like, you scratch your head and say I guess I could do that. So they paired us up and I think I started with Monday and Wednesdays and I think Fridays were optional.
And then the other morning crew was Tuesday and Thursdays and Fridays was optional. I think I showed up Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I think I was always there seven to 10 on those days. And, we interacted happy Dave Dwyer, was there Danny klass, Danny, the K was there. E Double R was there.
So a lot of these guys, and they were doing, either ERR did sports, we had news people. We're doing the whole thing, but our core group was Danny and Happy Dave and myself. . And so that's how we got started and started to have some fun. And then semesters changed and my schedule changed where basically I was only taking courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and pretty much like from 10 o'clock on, right?
I had nothing on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and I had to get up on Tuesday and Thursdays anyway, so I started showing up every day. Every day. I was just showing up. Yeah. No one cared. No one said you can't do that. No one said Hey, not fair. And I'd do a couple bits and we'd do a couple breaks and we'd talk and we'd joke and laugh and just make fun of people and whatever it was.
And that's how it ended and it really took off. The morning show, the original, crazy morning crew, once it hit the airwaves, it was crazy the amount of people that knew about it, not only on campus, but when we would go anywhere, like in the city to a restaurant or something, and it came up.
They would say, oh my God, listen to you guys all the time. So it was really, yeah, it was cool. It was cool to see it start. It was great to be at the beginning. and I guess I was just on every day so everyone knew oh, I hear you. If you listen anytime. Yeah, I'm on. So you're gonna hear me. It's fun.
JAG: Okay, so you do the morning show and at some point, you have to graduate. So you do that, and then you have had an incredible career since graduation. Walk me through it as best you can, starting with where you were after Syracuse.
Danno: So let's be clear. I went to Syracuse not for radio. So this was the sidebar, right? This was just like, no, this is fun. This is interesting. I. Listening to radio growing up. In Cleveland we had great radio stations. Going back to am, WIXI 1260 was a Heritage AM Station. I grew up listening big top 40 station on the am now on the FM side, they had G 98 and an M105.
And the course, the one that everyone knows is WMMS. Which is just the huge call letters, going up and listening to, the morning show there as well. So I loved listening to radio. I thought it was fun to listen to. I never thought I wanted to be on. And that just worked out as a hobby and just an escapism, so to speak.
That we had some fun and was it was, I enjoy it, got me up in the morning, but quite frankly, if I didn't do radio, I probably would've slept all day. It quite literally got you up in the morning. Yeah. Literally. And when I say got up, we started at seven and I roll in at, like seven. I could hear the break on the radio coming right.
Yeah, the overnight just ended and they're kicking it to the morning show and it's 7:01 and they're doing top of the hour news and I got two minutes and I literally walk in and then, the mic just turns on. We just start talking. I, that's how quickly we cut it, but that was my wake-up call.
So I went to Syracuse for television and graduated with TRF production. Back then, we called it producing for the electronic media. . And my goal was to go into television and write, produce, direct television commercials. That's all I cared about. That's what I pretty much majored in, took all my coursework and the only thing I did at radio was JPZ and hung out at the station.
I moved to New York right after I graduated and my wife. I was already engaged. She had a job working for Macy's back then, Bambergers in New Jersey. So we're already located there and I had to find a job. I Went to every network television station, so ABC, NBC, CBS. By the way, there was no Fox back then. Those are the three networks you could apply to. and all of them said, you're welcome to come in. You could be an intern. But they're not paid. And not only was I flat broke, I was in debt, up to my ears and I looked at 'em. I said, I love it, but I gotta have a job.
Long story short, before I left, I was in Professor Breyer's office. As I was walking out and saying, hey, I'm moving to New York. If you hear anything, let me know. He basically, as we were talking, said, great, I don't know about anything right now, but gimme your number. And just then the phone rang and he goes, hang on a second.
And he talks to this fellow for a couple minutes and writes down a name and a number and hangs up the phone. He goes, hey, I know this isn't TV, this is radio. But if you're interested, there's a syndication company, a network in New York City, you're moving there. You may wanna check with them. And I said, great.
And so he writes down a name and a number and literally I kid you not, I didn't even look at it. I took it, I folded up the paper, I put it in my wallet and I left. That was the end of it. Didn't ask any questions, nothing. And go to New York, find out I'm not getting a job anywhere, at least out a paid job, and I gotta find work.
I gotta go, make a living. And I finally remember, I go, oh my God. I go, I remember he gave me this company radio. I don't know? So I pull out the piece of paper, it says, M J I broadcast and has a number to call and a guy to ask for his name was Eric Sheffield. It turns out Eric Sheffield graduated the year before I did back in 85.
He did not work at the radio station. I think he was in TRF management, ended up working at MJI. The company was in its fourth or fifth year, starting to grow, and they were looking to hire and the job that was available was literally, working in affidavits clearance so collecting affidavits.
Back then they had card readers, right? This is, I don't even remember this. You used to fill out, little circles on a card and put 'em through a card. And that's how you fill out your affidavit.
JAG: It's basically the spots from the network ran on these stations at these times, right?
Danno: Correct, correct. And there were little bubbles that you filled in. So you, my whole job every day was scanning these cards and then generating a report. That was what I did in a back office when I started at MJI. So that's how I got in. That's, that was my start. Luckily I called, and by the way, when I went for the interview, here's a great tip, so you know, for people who are listening and you're going for an interview.
They asked me, so you know, what do you see yourself doing in five years? And remember, I'm talking to a network radio company. And I say in five years, oh, I see myself in television doing television commercials, right? Needless to say, I didn't get a call back, and I'm like really?
I can't get a call back. And I had a call back to the COO and I said, hey, I haven't heard from you. And I said, yeah, we're feeling like you aren't really into radio that television's your thing. And of course I did the, oh no. I love radio. And yeah, I could be doing TV in five years, but radio is my first love and I'd love to be in there.
And so I begged for the job. I literally had to come in and beg to get the job, and they gave me a chance. They go, okay, we'll give you a chance. So that's how I got started and I worked my way up from, doing affidavit and clearance into affiliate relations and into sales. And then, overseeing the sales department, for them.
And again, these were affiliate relations, adding affiliates to all of our programs and stuff. And so I did that for a good solid six, seven years. And then my wife and I, who were married at that point, started to have kids and decided we wanted raise our family back in Cleveland. So we basically said, hey, it's been great.
I'm moving back to Cleveland and I'll have to go find another job. and they're like looking at me like, what do you mean? And I go I'm not raising my family here. Yeah. I'm gonna go to Cleveland and I'll have to find another job. And at that point, the internet was just kicking in. You can connect computers. And I said, I'm going to open a regional office. And they said, listen, that would be great. Can you go to Chicago? And I said, no. The point of moving was to go Cleveland.
JAG: What year is this, Danno?
Danno: This is 92. So I was with MJI from 86 through 92. Long story short, I put together a proposal.
I said, hey, we can open up these regional offices and have people all across the country versus everyone under one roof in New York. And so I finally convinced them to let me go back to Cleveland and they gave me a si- month trial. They said, you go back to Cleveland, open up the office, figure out how to make it work.
The only thing we're gonna pay for is your phones and a fax machine. Cause fax machines were just coming into state at that point. And other than that, you gotta rent your own office or work from home and you gotta figure out the rest. So listen better than not having a job. And so we move back.
I start working. Long story short on this one is my sales went up by 500% because I'm there. I'm in Cleveland, right? I don't have to fly to Cleveland and talk. I'm living in Cleveland. I'm calling on stations, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit. I could drive to these people in one day. I could see 10 radio stations in a day, have all these meetings and get stuff done.
So they said, this is a good plan. And so they put me in charge of all the outside offices and we just began to open offices across the country. So we opened up LA next, so I flew out to LA. I got that office set up and they hired people out there. Did same thing with Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, all the big cities.
And I basically was overseeing all these offices that were now operating outside of the New York, hub and that's what I did with them all the way up until the company got bought by Premiere. So I ended up moving on and working with Premiere. And I did that for three years and we consolidated, MJI, broadcasting and Premiere, and everything went under the Premiere umbrella and it was a good run for a couple years.
But, I got tired of, basically having to clear Rush Limbaugh. And to me it just wasn't appealing. MJI was entrepreneurial. We developed programming, we listened to the marketplace, we created stuff, we built it from the ground up. It was very exciting, very innovative, and I love that.
And nothing wrong with Premiere. So people work at Premiere who are listening. I love you guys. It's great. We made it quite clear they were just going to buy companies like MJI and other companies. And they weren't gonna ever build anything from the ground up. Everything was gonna start. Even Rush Limbaugh was on the air, years before Premiere took it over.
JAG: Because you might say the same thing about other companies that were bought by that same larger company. Even in podcasting now that same company's doing that.
Danno: Exactly. And again, that's business, that's how it goes.
But again, this became an aha moment for me. So when I realized that's all that Premiere was gonna do, and that my time was really, gonna be up there. We're merging all the departments. Last one there, turn off the light switch is basically how that goes.
So as my time wound down there, I made the decision along with my wife that we would go out and start Envision. And the goal here was literally to go back to the original days of MJI, right? We would find producers who had programs that wanted to syndicate or had ideas they wanted to bring to the market.
And we really specialized in my background, which was affiliate relations, affiliate sales. So as I said, if had a good idea, we can absolutely, build a network. Or at least we could say we can get you on stations. So the goal was, is if you had a good idea, we'll get you on a station or two.
If you have a great idea, we'll build a network. And that's how we started. We started, to a couple shows and services. One was a prep service and everyone laughed at me and said, are you insane? There's so many prep services. I said, yeah, but this is better.
JAG: Which one was that?
Danno: It was originally called Bit Exchange and is now called The Rooster. And Mike Marino, a guy based out of L A who never took my phone call, never wouldn't meet with me, nothing. And when I started Envision, I called him up and hey, I got my own company now and you never met with me with the other one, but maybe we can help each other.
And he finally met me for, lunch out in LA somewhere. And he said, all right, let's do this. So we kicked off with his prep service. We had a couple long form weekend programs, and the most important thing that we did was a guest booking service. So when I left Premiere, there was a group of us that worked on this guest booking service.
We'd provide morning show guests for radio stations. The satellite tours, so basically celebrities would come in, they'd talk to ten stations via satellite, and there'd be like 10 minutes each. And that would be the whole tour. And so they let go of that whole division. And when I started Envision, we hired back that whole division.
Oh, wow. Yeah. Started right where they left off and affiliated the same 25 major market stations we had before. And that kind of was the foundation all the way. It still, to this day, it still goes on. The service still. So you're talking 20 years later, providing guests for morning shows, which we started way back when, is still around to this day.
But that was really the cornerstone for what we did at Envision and always look for just innovative ideas. So for 17 years, that's what we did. My wife and I ran the company. So working with your wife is a very interesting dynamic. It freaked out a lot of people because we would not go into meetings introducing, hey, meet my wife.
We went in as separate individuals. She was COO. I was President and CEO. Until we really got further along, we started talking about personal life and kids and oh, you have three kids? Yeah. And how many kids do you have? I have three kids. So it took a while for that dynamic to get in there.
Full disclosure, just so you know, we're married. When we say three kids, it's the same three kids. There's not more of us. It's the same ones, and it's been great. And to this day, we're still working together on some projects cuz eventually Envision, we did sell. It got bought by Gen Media Networks a couple years ago and we got merged in with Sun Broadcast Group.
So we became part of the management team at Sun. We did that for about a year and a half and decided it was best to part ways. And so we did, we retired, so to speak, and are now focusing more on renewable energy. So if you need a charging station, In your place of business, let me know. We're really good at doing that right now.
JAG: So what is the company you're at right now?
Danno: The company that we're at is called Tandem Three. We are consulting for companies that are looking to place electric chargers in their parking lots. And I can't take credit for it. Our daughter who we moved from New Jersey, when we decided to move back to Cleveland, that was why. She was born. And then we had another one on the way. She started her own company and their goal is to put chargers in fast food restaurant parking lots. So the idea is, you go to Taco Bell, you wanna go get your chalupa right? You plug in, you walk in, go to the restroom, eat a chalupa, get something to drink.
15 minutes later, you have another a 100, 150 miles of charge on your vehicle. and you're off to the races to wherever you're heading to next. So that's their goal.
JAG: And you're doing something with audio too. You're not completely out of audio, right?
Danno: No. So the other company that we broke off when we sold Envision was called Happy Land.
Happy Land World. We do audio focused in mostly on converting podcasts into audiobooks. The goal here is people who create a serial podcast or have done podcasts on a certain theme. We've been able to figure out how to take those podcast episodes, turn them into chapters of books, and now we create audiobooks that can be sold and distributed on a whole nother platform worldwide.
JAG: Love it. Especially as the podcast guy. I love it. I wanna come back to what you said about when you started Envision and taking the group that was no longer needed or so they thought at Premiere. And bringing that in. And then also working with these affiliates and radio stations and major markets you had worked with. At MJI, at Premiere, I feel like the lesson here is relationships. And that relationships are everything. And I think any JPZ alum would tell you that, but you have that real first-hand experience, Danno. Being able to leverage those relationships that you spent a long time cultivated in building to grow your own business when you started your own business.
Danno: You make an excellent point, and when I was inducted into the JPZ Hall of Fame, which again, I'm very proud of. Because again, so many people have come through that radio station and are in the industry and literally are icons of the industry. So the fact that I'm even in the same group with 'em is impressive to at least myself, not so much my family, but at least for me.
And the takeaway from that is I gave a speech about then, LinkedIn was just coming onto the scene, and was really taken off, about 10 years ago. And I was trying to explain to everyone how important networking is, right? And finding ways to connect and make those relationships.
Whether you were at school at the same time with these people or you're in the business and going to conventions and you just gotta understand how to work the room. You really gotta be able to go out and meet people and talk and communicate. And Jag, you've done a fantastic job of that.
I see you out and about all the time. And I think that's something, some people have it naturally, others have to learn and be taught it, but networking is key. Going back to your original question, when we took this group, three people that were booking guests for morning shows. And again, we started them in an office in New York City, in a shared office space.
I did that while I was on vacation with my family in Vegas. We took the kids to Vegas to, see it, and then went on to Palm Springs. Not that I'm in a huge gambler or anything, but back then they were making a family friendly, so we.
JAG: They were air quotes there, by the way. "Family friendly."
Danno: Yes. Yeah. Air quotes, “family friendly.” Yeah. So we did this all, on the fly and found a place for them to go to and move in. And so we had that kind of New York office even before we had a Cleveland office set up. They kept booking guests and I called the stations and said, just so you know, I know that Premiere announced that this is ending, and I just wanted to let you know that we're gonna keep it going and keep it booking.
But when I said. I never really said we meaning Envision or we, I just said we, the collective we are gonna keep it going. And funny enough, we signed, I think there was 25 affiliates. We signed 21 of the 25 to new contracts. The contracts clearly read, it was Envision, but I don't think anyone paid a lot of attention to it, the fine print.
And they just thought that the service was just continuing, like it was just a new variation of the service that they were using before, which it was. Wow, okay. What was never really disclosed was right, that it's a completely separate company. Everyone just heard "Danno," and so they just assume that it's just Danno, Danno from, MJI, Danno from Premier, it's just Danno. And these are people that I knew and they trusted me and there wasn't a lot of questions after they just said, great, we love the service.
Send a new contact, we'll sign, we'll keep going. And that's how it went. So we came in under the radar. And mind you, some of these were, back then, these are iHeart stations, so these were Clear Channel stations. Because Clear Channel owned Premier e and they were supposed to be using only their own services.
This is back when you know you're not supposed to use outside companies. And so we didn't draw a lot of attention to it, and I think it helped with the fact that I had very strong relationships and people weren't questioning. Who are you? What are you doing? It's Danno, so we know it's gonna be good. It's gonna work.
JAG: I gotta imagine that's a lesson you started to learn at JPZ. What other lessons do you feel like you've taken with you throughout your career that you learned at Z89, or I guess at the time, JPZ.
Danno: Yeah. The greatest classroom in the entire world. It is, yeah. And my biggest takeaway from there is, yeah, I know it sounds trite, but how to play nice with others.
It's a lot of personalities. A lot of people, not happy for whatever reason, because they didn't get the air shift they wanted, that they had to pay their dues or they didn't become music director, or they weren't named the program director. There was always some angst that was going on.
And so even with us doing the mornings you had to learn that, you can't hog the mic. Like you can't talk every break, that you can't do it all. And for someone who's just there having fun, like you always wanna be on and do something, but you realize you know what? It's okay, I'm gonna sit out the next couple breaks, let these guys do it.
They got a bit, they got something they wanna do, they wanna talk about. If you need help, holler, I'll pick up a mic. If not, go do your thing. And so that really I think guided me and allowed me to understand that you're gonna be dealing with a lot of personalities when you get out in the world.
And a lot of things are gonna happen in business. And as you can imagine, particularly in radio, lots of egos, lots of ego driven people. People get fired for no other reasons because of their ego, right? So I think my biggest takeaway was just the ability to learn to get along with others.
Understand you don't have to be right all the time. I had a very sarcastic, biting, sense of humor, . So you can imagine, you gotta watch it. You just gotta be careful. Yeah. Who are you, what you say to who, and how it gets taken. And fortunately I think, was able to read the room and not use it in the wrong situations, but, In the right situations, obviously it's a huge asset.
JAG: I wish I could go back and put a dog shot collar on my 18, 19, and 20 year old self and zap myself every time I said something I shouldn't have said. So your point is certainly well taken.
Danno: Yes, exactly. I think we all want that.
JAG: What are some of the relationships that you've taken with you whether it was your classmates or other alums that have really, grown over the years?
Danno: Again, and that's what I love most about JPZ, is the relationships. Again, two gentlemen, Alpo, I talked about another guy named Ted Lambrenos. We all worked at the station. We all did our separate things, and they were both a year ahead of me. So they graduated in 85 and I was there, 86 without them.
But to this day, very good friends. We go on vacations together. Our kids are all friends. They all vacation together. When we all got married, we were all in each other's, weddings Those are lifelong relationships and it's amazing when I think back about it all because we were connected through this radio station, so that to me is thrilling.
People like Happy Dave and Danny Klass and all that. We don't talk on a regular basis. LinkedIn, we do all send messages occasionally. Happy birthday, what's going on? The fact that, I see them pop up every so often and we get to see each other, at a reunion is just fantastic.
And we all start to laugh, with all the good stuff that we remember being back on the air. And then other relationships like, Rocco Macri and Chris Bungo. Those two I love to death. When I started Envision, they took a chance on our company. We worked with them on one of their, new products that they were rolling out.
They were kind enough to give us a chance. We had very little success. Quite frankly, it just wasn't, it wasn't a good fit for us because it was technology based and all of our salespeople were more radio based. And this is where, the merging of technology and bringing in, and, but they stuck by us and I'll never forget that, they could have easily said, we had a year-long contract or something and they could have easily turned to us and said you know what, Danno? This isn't working after the few months and we're out. And they didn't. They stuck with it. They wanted to see it work. We worked together and since then we've been lifelong friends and we knew each other at the station, but we just didn't do a lot together.
Rocco was more into the, marketing stuff. Chris was more into the production stuff and other than, seeing him in like the production studio, Chris and I really did the very little together, except wave at each other. Yeah. But that's another lifelong relationship that came out of there.
Mary Mancini, Dave Levin. We didn't know each other at JPZ. My long running joke about Mary is that when we were on air and we would always break format and play records that we shouldn't play or play 'em out of rotation because again, I wasn't good at following rules, so I would just, they said it's gotta be a blue, and I said, I wanna play a yellow, it was just, However, the wheel went.
JAG: It served Mary well when she opened that record store in Nashville, though.
Danno: Exactly right. So the joke was they said, you're gonna get in trouble with Mary and I don't even know who Mary is. Don't let Mary come, and I get, angry about it. I tell you what, Mary comes in here, if she could kick my ass, then I'll start following. So there was this going, I don't think Mary ever heard it. And when I saw her at a reunion, I told her like how everyone feared Mary. I just said I don't care about Mary, whatever and all. And she started laughing. She like, so she goes, that's so funny. She was like, yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about. That wasn't a thing. Like it was, oh my God. It was like created, like Mary would be upset and Mary was I don't, I could care less what records thought he played and all that stuff.
We have a great time when we get together at the reunion. And then Rusty Rob Barrell, even more recently, Corey Crockett, Kevin Rich, Alex Silverman Josh Wolf, Matt Friedman. These are all people I did not go to school with. They were good. 10, 15 years, after I was there. And we met at the reunions and we have this kind of relationship. Jag, you're another one. It's just I feel like I know you. Outside, not at the reunion. If I was in Detroit and going to a game or something, I saw you, we'd stop and talk for a half hour.
So to me it's just incredible and I just, I love the fact that connection just keep getting bigger and people get more and more involved in, and hopefully, the students that are coming out understand and realize that it's just something that you're gonna have the rest of your life.
JAG: And with that passion that you clearly have for the radiation, the alumni, Danno, you may have seen a sign at one point in history, the Envisioned radio network studios.
You have been extremely generous with both your time and financially as well to the radio station. Talk to me a little bit about that piece of it and what it meant to be you position where you could give back to the station.
Danno: Yeah. I feel very blessed and fortunate and the timing was just right for everything. Envision was turning 10 years old. We were coming off a fantastic year. We wanted to do like a big blowout celebration and toot our own horn and, Envision's 10 years old and a big party. This would've been 2012. Yeah, 2012. 2013 would be, we've been 10 years old, so everyone's giving me ideas and plans of what to do, and we can do a huge party and be great and the industry and all that.
And then I saw that JPZ was, basically building new studios and they were putting stuff together and they started to reach out to the alumni and see if we can raise some money. And the University put up some bucks and they were just hoping that, we can kick in something.
And I think Corey was, started it and Liz Doyon. They changed GMs and so those two got with the university and we figured out Hey, we wanna make a donation. I don't wanna do a party. Let's just donate some money and let it go for the studio and buy the equipment.
And so it was great. I thought it was a good idea. It was a warm and fuzzy. It made me feel good. It made my wife feel good. It was, just a great way to give back and to something that really has impacted our lives. And not just, from a business standpoint, but. Rocco and Chris and Mary and Dave and Alpo and Ted, and these people are friends of my family, right?
These are family. Yeah. Now this isn't that. I think about that and I say, we need to do something to continue and to help this, go further. And donating money for the new studio just seemed like a natural fit. Now, an interesting story out of this, Not so easy to donate money directly to the radio station.
JAG: Oh, cuz of seen the Syracuse University bureaucracy or?
Danno: It turns out that you can't just, donate the studio because it's a building, it's a structure in the structures owned by the University. Therefore it's like a classroom, it's like a building. They have certain guidelines that you have to follow and it was hard to do and I was saying, we gotta figure out something else.
What we decided to do. We weren't gonna donate the studio that the money could be used for equipment, not a problem. And that we were gonna just basically, donate the airspace that everyone would work in. So that's why, I don't know if they still do it. They used to say broadcasting from, the Envision radio network studio or something like that.
So it wasn't the studio itself, it wasn't the hard walls. It wasn't the four walls. But they were broadcasting and that's why they could say it on the air as well. We're broadcasting from..
JAG: You were quite literally on the air.
Danno: On the air. Correct. And the University went along with it. I'm not, they're gonna hear this and come back and say you can't do that. But they agreed to it. They said, you actually, you have a point. You actually could do that. So that's what we did and made it work.
JAG: That's the ingenuity of a business owner right there. Figuring out a way to make something work when told no, finding a yes.
Danno: Absolutely. Yeah. No is when the sale begets, right? That's what they say.
JAG: I like that. I'm gonna use that in my business. Last question for you, Danno. Any funny stories you can think of from back in the day that you still look back on and laugh over a beer at Faegan's when you come back?
Danno: Oh my God, I gotta just tell you like every time I went into the studio, which again, as I said, was on a daily basis. I would go in probably, hungover or I would go in like I just woke up like I'm tired or just not in a good mood. And then every day I'd walk out there with a huge smile because we would laugh. We would just laugh, for the whole time that we were together on the air, cuz we were just having so much fun.
And it was just, stupid stuff. It could be as silly as, a story. It could be, as Danny the K, making fun of Morris Day and doing his impersonation, which sounded nothing like him, but made me laugh. Or Happy Dave, just, screwing up a break or whatever it was.
And we were just, it was just fun, a bunch of guys, ragging on each other, which was always interesting. One story in particular. I'll give you 2. One, we did a live remote and we just got these wireless microphones and we went downtown and we went to the central bus stop, which was in downtown Syracuse, which by the way, back then, no one went to downtown Syracuse.
That was not a thing that you did. And we said, let's just do this. It'll be kind of fun. We'll go out on the street, it'll be let's meet the people and the people are driving. So we did the man on the street, I had the microphone. I'm talking to people and one of the people I talking to got on the bus.
And I wanted to continue the conversation and I got on the bus, right? And so we're talking and the doors of the bus closed, right? And, now I'm like illegally on the bus. I didn't pay to get on the bus, I just walked onto the bus with the other guy and I didn't care.
And the bus takes off and it goes down the street. So I'm still listening, with my headphones cuz we're broadcasting and I'm saying like, I wonder when this will cut out. And they're laughing and saying, yeah, you're like now two blocks away and it's still going so we're good.
Like a thousand yards or something like that. Finally it just, static just came. They're laughing. I think we lost Danno. I guess we'll see him tomorrow. So it was very funny. It was just a piece of radio that again, you couldn't think of. We did dream up. Yeah. It was just spur of the moment, that, something like that happened.
I wish I had the hair check of it. Made for some really fun radio going down.
JAG: You said you had two stories?
Danno: A second story, the station finally goes on the air, right? Big hoopla. If you haven't seen the documentary, you know that Scotty put together for us, you, everyone should watch it. It basically the history of the station, but the, how it got on the FM dial and started.
So anyways, station launches, huge party, huge celebration. Everything is great. Everything's running great. Technically, we didn't know if it would work. It did work. Right. All the guys in the background, Fox, who was the engineer, figured it all out. And the dumbest thing that they did is there was this huge box, which was obviously, transmitting to the top of day hall to the top of Mount Olympus.
And it was a microwave dish, right? That would pick it up and then it would go out and be broadcast across all of Syracuse. But there was a little button on this little panel. . And it basically, they put a big, huge "DO NOT TOUCH.", this is the button in the studio. Do not touch, but no explanation, no nothing.
Other than do not touch this. And I would be in the control room and I see it and I start asking a question. I go, why can't we touch that button? Who said we can't touch the button? What will happen if we touch the button? And so Happy Dave's looking at me, he goes I think that takes us off the air.
I go, that is the dumbest thing. Are you saying if I push this button, I'm gonna take us off the air? And he's saying, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what's gonna happen. I go I just don't believe it. Danny's saying, oh, push the button. I said I go, but I don't wanna be responsible.
And so this is going on for five minutes. And so finally I get to the point where, I'm gonna push the button, I'm gonna push the button. They go push the button. I go, I'm gonna do it. I push the button? And the station goes off the air.
So the engineer comes running in, people are screaming, we're off the air. Who did it? Who did it? And I, of course, we look over, I go, I didn't do it. Happy did it! And everyone's pointing at each other. So needless to say, after that, they moved it and that button no longer was there in the studio.
Like they finally realized that why do they even have that visible for anyone to even push? That was a dumb idea.
JAG: Why would you put a do not press this button in the middle of a morning show. Yeah. You guys had great instincts for bits even back then.
Danno: Exactly. Again, that was, to me it was, it's funny cuz it was, it went on for a long time and finally I just said screw it, I'm pushing the button.
Cause I wanna know what's gonna happen. I'm like a two-year-old. It. Don't touch that. I gotta touch it now because you said don't touch it.
JAG: Throughout this podcast, we've seen how similar personalities we all are throughout 50 years of this radio station. Whether you graduated in 75, 85, 95, 05, 15, or 25 now, but that is all of us listening right now going. I would've pushed the button . I know I would've!
Danno: Now, everything's computerized and all that. So yeah, I guess you really do still push a button somewhere. You click a mouse, is more of the thing that happens now. But back then it was lots of buttons, lots of dials, lots of buttons, lots of pots, lots of, there were always things to be, so the fact that there was a button that you compost was very tempting.
They're like, we gotta push that button.
JAG: Danno, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you so much for your contributions as both a staffer and as an alum, and we really appreciate everything. We'll see you in March, and with that I'm gonna go push this button right here.
Danno: Don't push that button!