While many of us flipped burgers or bagged groceries in high school, Dave Roberts was reading the news on an AM station and (literally) herding cats as a 15 year old. When he toured Syracuse and saw the WJPZ prize van, and he met Hal Rood, Jim Remeny and more. He knew it was where he had to be.
After starting on overnights, Dave quickly climbed the ranks to news director and eventually VP of Business. That may sound like a strange trajectory, but Dave's always loved news (and meterology). And when the station was in dire financial straits, he knew he either had to write a check, or go collect checks. The first of course was not an option.
You'll hear about some WJPZ firsts in today's episode. Dave tells us how our non-commercial station managed to get beer money on the air, through a lucrative (and creative) campaign with Pabst Blue Ribbon. He also signed a sponsorship with the University's study abroad program, closing the deal in an unusual way. And at a time where NOBODY had voicemail, he helped set up the "Z89 line" - with 5 different mailboxes for contest information and more.
The real defining moment of Dave's time in Syracuse, however, was the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. We chat at length about the emotion of those weeks and months, as well as the crucial role WJPZ played as an information resource for those who just couldn't wait for the evening news or the next day's newspaper. Everyone stepped up, comforted each other, and navigated the best they could.
By the time Dave graduated in 1992, Z89 had become a household name in the industry - his experience there landed him major market interviews, but he followed his passsion for meterology - and went to Ottumwa, Iowa. Then, there were stops in Missouri, Alabama, Fort Myers, Cincinnati, and Mississippi. Today's guest really fell in love with Jackson, Mississippi (before Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars did), and has made this market home. And yes, he got all his certifications along the way.
Throughout today's episode, you'll hear Dave talk about his love of Z89 and our family. And you'll also hear a great story about being trapped in Providence with Brian Lapis during a blizzard - and what happened next. And even a little bit about what WJPZ taught him about being a realtor.
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, and today we go down to the Gulf Coast and broadcaster, meteorologist Dave Roberts. Welcome to the show.
Dave: It is so great to be on here with an esteemed broadcaster like yourself.
Jag: So class of 92, tell me how it got started, where you grew up, how you found out about Syracuse and the radio station.
Dave: So I grew up in New Jersey. My first job, while everybody else. had jobs working in fast food I was 15 years old and I was reading the news on an AM radio station in northern New Jersey that was actually broadcast from someone's home. I would read the news. I literally would "rip and read" is the old saying. I would rip the wires that would come off.
I'd put together a newscast and I had cats climbing on me while reading the news. Believe it or not.
Jag: That's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Dave: So I tell people I was mauled by cats in my first job in broadcasting and that people really don't understand the, perils involved in this industry. It's quite a dangerous field.
I found that out at a very early age, although they were, you know, house cats. ..
So from there it was time to go to college, right? I interviewed at a bunch of different colleges, a bunch of different places. I remember literally on my tour of Syracuse University seeing this WJPZ van. I said, what is this? I have to go find this out. I didn't find it out necessarily right away. But I did go over there and visit it.
And on my first, I gotta believe now, I may have the days messed up here, but people that I initially met were Hal Rood, James Remeny, we used to joke around calling him Jim can't find the remedy, but James Remeny. and there were a couple other people and I was like, I need to be involved in this.
This is definitely speaking to me. That was one of the best decisions I think I ever made, and it was the reason that hooked me into Syracuse University. Ironically, I looked at the other schools, they all seem very stodgy and stiff. And I just didn't know where I was going to fit in necessarily. So this was a place like everybody was just there.
To be a part of something and it was a club, but it was a club that brought together all kinds of different people, all walks of life, and I really enjoyed it. my fondest memories of Syracuse University all come back to Z 89.
Jag: So there's a lot of ground I want to cover with you today, Dave, on stuff we haven't talked about on the podcast before in terms of things that happened at the radio station while you were there. You started off on air doing overnights like everybody else, I'm guessing?
Dave: I did. I did overnights. Oh my gosh, was that brutal! But I did it because I just wanted to get on the air, whatever it took, and I did those overnights with a smile on my face, even when falling asleep.
Jag: What are some of the other roles you had at the station, Dave?
Dave: I did the morning show for a long time, the Z Morning Zoo. I became news director, and then I eventually became vice president of business, and, those were my, Two defining roles at the station and I pretty much was active in those roles three out of the four years I mean I was part of WJPZ and Z89 from day one to the final day of being there But I'm just saying as far as being an executive director I think I held the executive director position at least three of the four years I would think.
Jag: That's an odd trajectory or an unusual trajectory I should say because you're going from news director to VP of business Yes, what kind of made you slide into that role?
Dave: There were a couple things One, I love news, and that was my calling. I'm also obviously into meteorology. That's always been there, too.
And the station needed money. The station was in a financially bad time, bad place, almost from start to finish. It was always tough. Things were lean. I was there the first year. We had to give up our news service. We were actually getting news service from the Associated Press. We couldn't pay for it.
We didn't have the money to pay for these things. So I think I was always acutely aware of the financial dire Straits that Z 89 was constantly in, and it was something we had to face all the time. It wasn't a nice station per se. It was a studio, a production room. And a little room that you could set a lunch table in with a telephone on.
And that really was Z89 in essence. And the rest of it was all, blood, sweat, and tears. Everybody contributing and volunteering and whatever. for me, it was either write a check, which I had no means to do. Or go collect checks, which I certainly did do. There you go. And I was very happy to be a part of some real, monumental things, some firsts that happened at Z 89.
And there were some pretty sad moments too, working at Z 89 during my tenure there, which, it's a part of the pedigree of Z 89.
Jag: Absolutely. Before we touch on the sad moment, I know where you're going there. Tell me about some of these firsts.
Dave: Okay. we were always pushing the limits of Z 89.
I think that's the great thing about Z 89, is you had people from different perspectives, but all pushing the limits of A, their know how, and the possibilities of this small, puny radio station. Okay, that had a mighty voice, but a small station and we pushed the limits in so many ways when I became vice president of business, I had a random inquiry from, Pabst Blue Ribbon's advertiser, PBR, the beer, and they said, listen, we did some research.
We found that the audience of Z89. They're huge beer consumers. I said, really? You should see what they do with liquor. But that was not, that was my own personal research from M Street that had nothing to do with anything you could quantify.
Jag: All anecdotal. Gotcha. yeah. Okay.
Dave: Yeah. Anecdotal research is the worst or it's the best sometimes.
So they said, we got to find a way to get on the air. So no joke, we spent days going back and forth with the FCC with our own legal counsel. How do we put a beer sponsorship on a non commercial radio station? As far as I know, this was a first. This had not been done before. I'm sure there were other markets where you probably had a classical radio station where maybe, champagne was a sponsor of This Hour of Beethoven brought to you by, right?
But, now we're talking about beer. Okay? And, as at that time, you couldn't do these call to action sayings. You couldn't say, hey, go buy a car from... Chevrolet. It's on sale today. Couldn't do that. Same thing applied when you're talking about a beer advertiser. So the way we got around it non commercial station.
The way we got around it is their slogan is PBR me ASAP.
Jag: It's a factual statement. It is not a call to action.
Dave: And we did it without emotion and sure enough PBR's advertiser became one of the largest advertisers on the station. One of the other things we started doing is we started getting Syracuse to pay for sponsorships on Z89.
Jag: Such as?
Dave: We actually had, the student union. we had, one of the big things was their division of their study abroad program became a huge sponsor under me.
Jag: Really?
Dave: Yeah, that was all on a dare, by the way. So I met with them. I met with the, the head of the program. We had a nice conversation.
For them, it meant big money in the sense that the more students they got into their program, as this is an expensive program. For us, it became a lot more money because for them, a little bit of advertising was a lot of money for us and they wanted students to go into the student abroad program.
So the challenge was when I met with the head of the program, he said, do you like Korean food? To which I responded, I've never had Korean food before. He says, you go have lunch with me and discuss this over Korean food, and we'll talk serious about giving you a check. We had a good conversation, I laid out everything that the station could do, what we could offer, da I mean it was a pretty easy match, it really wasn't a hard sell.
To this day, we still keep in touch. I remember eating there, and I remember at the end of lunch, him and his, I forget who else was with us. They sat there and they said, we really like what you're saying. We like what you're offering and you went to lunch with us. So they wrote me a check. It was a very large check.
I want to say it was North of $3,000 or $4,000 to start. And that was just to start. And then they actually started seeing results. And when they started seeing results, not only was I going to lunch, I really was going over there and dropping by the program on a regular basis to see what they were doing.
And it was a great partnership. I developed some really good partnerships that we enjoyed at the station.
You want to talk about innovation. That was something else I also brought into the mix. Back then, nobody had voicemail. I know this sounds crazy.
Jag: This is something I wanted to ask you about. I'm glad you're going here.
Dave: Okay. Okay. Am I, taking you too fast? Too far?
Jag: No, You're a professional broadcaster. I'm loving this.
Dave: And I really can't tell these stories to too many people. I have my core friends that I've kept in touch with at Z89. So we regurgitate this. But when you start talking to people outside of Z89, they scratch their heads and it's really something when I meet people that have gone to other colleges and universities that have entered into the broadcasting business. I do look at them differently. I know this sounds horrible, but I look at them differently because I say, wow, you didn't have the benefit of the experience that I had.
And they tell me about working at some radio station and they tell me about doing this, but no, these were not dynamic radio stations. at the time, and still to this day, but at the time, Z89 was such a unique, it was the unicorn. Okay. It was the unicorn. And so we started something that was interesting, this voicemail.
And I said, wow, wouldn't it be awesome if we could have people call into a voicemail and we just gave information on the voicemail ala back in the day There was a thing called movie phone. And you would call up and you would get all the movies for that day I said, why don't we do something like that?
That became the birth of the z89 line. And on the z89 line we put down our contest information. We put down all kinds of stuff and we had it set up. We went to, ready for this? The first voicemail. You had to go find voicemail Companies. Couldn't really find that many. The ones we found wanted to charge a ridiculous amount of money.
So as it turned out, I found this. I don't know how I came across this. It was some medical company in Syracuse, and they had a giant voicemail system that they procured, and we linked it up to their voicemail, and they gave us, at the time, I think we had five voicemail boxes, so you could call into the Z 89 line.
For contests, press 1. For this, press 2. For that, press 3. And then we sponsored it.
Jag: Oh, yes!
Dave: And all of a sudden, we had this new avenue of sponsorship revenue. And, It was very successful. Of course, as the internet developed and as different things happened, and then of course social media, the relevance of a voicemail became insignificant.
But at the time, remember, this is 1990, the internet was talked about. It was at the time you used a service called Prodigy. We had computer rooms where if you needed to use a computer on campus, you could go to a computer room and sit down and use one, but the actual university did not offer any voicemail to its students. You were given a phone line.
Jag: You were offering something on demand before on demand was a phrase that was even coined.
Dave: Correct. I didn't know what it was either, and I'm not going to pretend to know that I knew what it was that we were doing.
Jag: That's tremendous. That's tremendous. Yeah. What other things do you remember from your time at Z 89, Dave?
Dave: I think the defining moment for me at Z 89 and as a young adult and something that I've thought about all through my life, it never leaves me, is Pan Am 103.
Jag: Of course.
Dave: And we lost 30 plus students. Plus all the people that were on that plane. I'm just, but I'm focused on Syracuse. That day will live.
It just lives on in me forever. And it's a hard day. I think about it all the time. I knew people who were lost on that flight. I also knew people who knew people that were lost that flight and it changed them forever. And it was a defining moment. I think it's a defining moment for me. I chose a career in broadcasting.
Part of it's for that reason. I chose the career in broadcasting because of that reason, if that makes sense.
Jag: Wow.
Dave: I didn't want to do certain things, but I was in news at that time. And... Something was very wrong with that day in the first place. I was walking up to my room at Day Hall and I had a friend who I was just talking to and they worked in the broadcast industry and they said, hey, you see what's going on?
There's a plane. Apparently it's gone missing from London to JFK. I was like, Oh no, that's not good. So I'm in my dorm room and I'm just sitting there and it just was unsettling. Just, I can't tell you how the brain was processing things. Yeah. I knew there were also students coming back from the abroad program.
So you're just sitting there and you're uneasy about stuff. So I mosey on down to the radio station, which is what I did anyway.
Jag: Yeah.
Dave: You're bored. Go to the radio station. For some people, they're bored. They would drink. Some people are bored. They eat. Me? Let me go by Z89, see who wants to do something for lunch. That kind of realm. I get in there and then there's some chatter. People are starting to talk and then we start digging. And the next thing you know, we realize that flight had Syracuse students on it, had Syracuse residents on it. And we had a story that, to explain to you, watching a bomb explode in slow motion is really the only way to explain how that story just enveloped the whole campus.
Not just for that day, but for days we went on the air and we stayed on the air. There was no terminus. There was no okay, stop going at this point because the information kept flowing in and I think what was so tragic To me, and it hurts me even to this day, and we're talking what, we're talking 35 years ago, three decades ago, and yet for me, it feels six months ago.
And I just remember what will stand out for me forever is everybody came together, everybody came to the station, but we had people crying that were still at the station. Why were they crying? Because they knew their friends were on that flight. Or they knew the anticipation they were going to get that their friends were going to be on that flight.
Does that make sense? And we lost somebody, we lost a staff member,
Jag: Stephen Berrell.
Dave: Yeah. Yeah. And for a very long time we had a plaque. That was there. I haven't been to the station in a few years. I'm hoping to visit in, in 2024. I actually feel it's necessary for me to do that for my psyche.
It really will be a great way for me to reconnect. But whenever that plaque was there, I used to pass it. And I, there's a pause in your brain, You can walk past something, but it doesn't stop your brain from processing and recognizing it. I didn't know him. Okay, but I feel like I'm related to him, if that makes sense, because we were all part of the same
club.
Jag: We're part of the same JPZ family. Yeah, exactly.
Dave: Exactly. And so people were coming in that day, walking into the radio station, asking, do you know if this person's on the flight? Do you know if that person's on the flight? And we were able to compile a list over time. And we realized that a lot of those people would come in and they'd find out from the first time, either on the radio, where they'd find it for the first time by walking in the studio.
And we were all kids. Yeah. How do you provide grief counseling to someone that just learned something so tragic? And the death was so tragic because we all knew what happened. We all had an idea what happened. Okay. We all knew what happened. We didn't need all the forensics. Everybody knew.
What this looked like, what it was, and it was a terrorist attack and it can't hit any closer to home than that. And then of course, from that day forward, we were involved in a lot of things as a radio station. Not only were we involved in families and friends trying to cope in grief, which many students left campus after that.
It was Christmas. It was a Christmas holiday. So it was the end of everything. So a lot of people didn't have support mechanisms. Some students didn't come back the following semester. they just, it was too much to bear. I know somebody who lost her boyfriend on that flight. It changed her life forever.
And I got a chance as a station, we got a chance to meet the families of a lot of these students in the coming months and years, because as there was a big monument erected leading up to the quad. And we were there for that. I was there for the dedication of that. And these things are things that stand in your memory forever.
And it lets you know, you're not guaranteed tomorrow. It's a stark reminder. You really have to make today count. And it's never left me. It's now a part of my DNA. It's also taught me to be a little bit more caring. I'm in a field now where I have to let people know, sometimes on TV, life and death.
Jag: Yeah.
Dave: And I deal with this all the time. I can tell you. We had 20 something people dying in a tornado in 2023, beginning of 2023. And I was on the air for it. And you have to let people know some really hard stuff. And you've gotta be caring about it. You can't be a machine. You can't turn it off.
At least I cannot. And, the station was there for a lot of people. I will never forget that. And the station was a valuable community resource for a lot of people. It wasn't just people from Syracuse University. And you remember that town, Syracuse. Embraced Syracuse University, which it still does. Yeah, but it was different.
It was a different world back then So to know the whole town was grieving and this did not go on for hours. It went on for months and years.
Jag: Yeah, I think about the episode we did with Rocket Ross. I want to say he said he was a freshman or a sophomore when this happened he was on the air the next day because short staff for Christmas coming up And he was the one that had to field calls his entire shift of, Okay, I have the list.
Because at that time in 88, it was either wait for the evening news or the next day's newspaper. you guys there were the source of information. He talked about being on the air and fielding calls and, having the list, because word had gotten out that you had the list. And answering these calls as a 19 year old kid of saying, Okay, that person is not on the list, or worse, I'm sorry, that person is on the list, and, what an important role the group of you had at that time, and, as 18, year old kids, you all rose to the occasion.
It's not surprising for you to say, Dave, that, how life shaping that moment was.
Dave: Let me put this to you in relative terms. Back then, you had TV and radio. You'd have to wait the next day for the newspaper. Today, you have TV, radio. You have internet, and of course on the internet, it's, there's a gazillion resources, right?
Jag: Sure.
Dave: You can count on one hand, or two hands really, your TV sources for local news. Back then, we were the internet. Z89 was the internet. So think of it that way. Think of it as I could turn on the TV, And which, of course, they did continuous coverage, too, because it was such a locally impactful story.
Jag: Of course.
Dave: You had radio, but we were the dominant player at this point because we were doing stuff. There were other radio stations doing stuff, don't get me wrong, but I'm just saying, from a campus standpoint,
Jag: Oh, yeah.
Dave: We were basically serving the role and the prominence of what the internet is today, but we were the whole internet. Does that make sense?
Jag: It does. And the comparison that I made with Rocket was, 9/11 was my senior year. Yeah. And, to your point, everybody gathered at the station. Everybody was clamoring for information. We were gathering the information, getting it out as quickly as we could. We had some internet in 2001, but obviously not like it is today.
But, the stories that echo throughout the years of these tragic stories, students coming in and being put in that situation and it being... As we always say, the world's greatest media classroom, the lessons we all learn covering things like that.
Dave: It was time to grow up. Let's put it that way. It was time to grow up for everybody on that day. And everybody rose to the occasion. I can tell you right now, I can tell you a million and one great stories of people that really, worked overtime to make the coverage count and to be there for the community. And it was really something that has stood out for me about what a real local media operation does.
Jag: And you talk about what you accomplish at that time But I got to imagine like it has for 50 plus years. It comes down to the people.
Dave: Why because they had different viewpoints on things didn't always agree with them. that's the thing Z89 is not a place where everybody is rah, rah, rah. You know what I mean?
It is a contrasting and It's a mishmash of different ideas, but that's what really I think gave rise to a lot of things for me I was so involved in the radio station that I never saw a career outside of radio. I worked at a WSYR in Syracuse. I worked at WHEN in Syracuse. When I left Syracuse, I interviewed, to be on air at WTMJ in Milwaukee.
I also interviewed to do sales in Miami, in radio and Orlando as a matter of fact. And just so you know. My experience at Z 89 was something they were all excited about. Z 89, the cat was out of the bag by the early 90s. People knew, oh wait a second, oh, that's that station in Syracuse? Yeah, come on, listen, I'd love to talk to you.
I interviewed with, CBS Radio in New York, right out of college to be in sales.
Jag: Wow.
Dave: I interviewed in Miami and Orlando. Miami, I actually interviewed for two jobs. One to be on air. Yes, to be on air in Miami. You heard him correctly. And another one to be in sales at another station in the same market.
And I remember they both knew each other and they said, so what's it going to be? You're going to be on air or you're going to be selling the air, And so what did I do? I always had an interest in meteorology. So I get a job offer in the middle of nowhere to be the chief meteorologist. In Ottumwa, Iowa.
Jag: Really?
Dave: Yes, in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Jag: Let me stop there for a second because Brian Lapis talked about you taking this path to become a meteorologist and him following in your footsteps. Yeah. What did you have to do for training between Syracuse and going on the air as a meteorologist?
Dave: So I had always been fascinated by meteorology. I had done a lot of studying. In fact, I was actually during my high school I was a lab tech at the climatology meteorology lab at Rutgers University. Okay, so it was not a foreign subject to me. It wasn't just something I picked up one day and said I'm gonna be a meteorologist It was something I tried to avoid I had friends in the TV industry that were like you need to be don't go into this business You'll never find work You'll always be out of a job.
There's no security and you'll never make any money. This is what I was told, but I had a thing where I wanted to do it. I enjoyed meteorology. I enjoyed the weather. So there I am, take my first job at a TV station in the middle of nowhere, making $15,740 a year. I negotiated that salary by the way. Okay.
I'm a good negotiator because they offered me $15,000. I had three ties and two sport coats. I lived above a jewelry store with a pop out bed. In the apartment.
Jag: Fantastic.
Dave: Yeah. I didn't even know what money was for a security deposit. She said, I need money for the security deposit. So what's that? She says, it's, it was not even much.
It was a hundred bucks. I said, I'm sorry? Anyway, by the way, every market I've ever been to. First thing I've always done once I take the job, I go visit the radio stations. Yes. I always was doing that and nobody would do that. I would do it. Every market I've ever worked in. So it went from Purcell, Missouri.
I went to Montgomery, Alabama. I did a brief stint in Birmingham. Then I went to Mississippi, Jackson for the first time. left Jackson to go to Cincinnati, left Cincinnati to go to Fort Myers, worked at two different competing stations in Fort Myers, Florida, and then when Mississippi had an opportunity back in 2010 to join them. I did, and then, stations, TV stations started merging, and ironically, I was on the receiving end of a bigger company was merging with us in the market and they said, yeah, we want to use you.
I said, okay. And they said, we want you to be the chief over both stations. So I have actually been a chief meteorologist now at three different stations in. Mississippi. it's familiar to me. Now you asked a question. How does someone who's doing radio sales, sponsorships, advertising, marketing news, running a business department at a radio station? How do they fall into meteorology?
So I went back to school. I said, Syracuse was so affordable, right? It's a joke.
Jag: Yeah, especially now.
Dave: Oh, I can't even. Forget it. So what do I do? I put myself back in school on my meager salary. Nobody's putting money in my bank account. Except me, and I paid for going back to school and I graduated from Broadcast Meteorology at Mississippi State.
Jag: Now, I just want to get my facts here straight. You got the job, to be on the air and then you got the certification while you were working on, in TV. Years later.
Dave: Back then you could be on TV, you could be a TV meteorologist without any real credentials. That's a different world now, obviously. But back then they needed people that were communicators.
Guess what? Z89 made me a great communicator. So I was in a unique position for that. And then I got my certifications on top of getting my, graduating from the broadcast meteorology program. I got my AMS, my NWA certification. And all that time, all throughout that time, I never gave up being involved in radio.
You would find me in Fort Myers, when the morning show DJ would be out, guess what? They'd bring me in to be the co host for a few days or a week, and I really loved it. In fact, when I'd look at TV stations, I always used to ask, Do you own any radio stations in the market? And they always found it fascinating.
They were like, nobody ever asked us that, And I was like, no, it's an important thing. And in Fort Myers, we had, at the time, seven radio stations as a part of the TV station. So it was a perfect marriage for me.
Jag: Are you the TV meteorologist that does the forecast for all the radio stations?
Dave: No. Ironically, I don't do anything on the radio here in the market.
Jag: And what market are you in Mississippi right now? Just so I'm clear.
Dave: I'm in Jackson, Mississippi. It's a top 100 market and, we're a dominant player. It's the NBC and Fox affiliate for this market. We play a lot bigger than the market size and a station for this market. Does that sound familiar?
Jag: It does. And Oh, by the way, let's not forget also name dropped in Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson.
Dave: You were absolutely right. I, every time that sign comes on, we got to stop right at that moment. Jackson, Mississippi. Yep. Great catch by the way.
But that falls in line with, again, what was Z 89? A player that played a lot bigger. I will say we have far more resources here in this operation. But I really like it. I enjoy the community. People are so friendly here. I think what I've learned over time that I didn't necessarily know at Z 89, I try to tell this to people now too, is be good at what you do. But make sure you find a good quality of life along the way.
Jag: That's great advice.
Dave: Because it can't be all work. It just can't. I know there's a lot of people that are probably involved in the radio station that are thinking, I just want to go as far as I can. And there's some of that.
For me, it became over years over the time. I worked in big markets. I worked in Cincinnati. It just didn't, it was too difficult for me. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoy, for instance, a smaller market like Fort Myers or even a smaller market like this. There's a lot of notoriety, sure, which doesn't do anything for me, but it's nice to be familiar with your marketplace and get out there and meet people.
It can't be all just behind a screen or in front of a screen or behind a microphone.
Jag: Agreed.
Dave: And, Brian Lapis and I, we had a great moment. This is a great Z89 moment. There was a blizzard in 96. And Brian invited me to come visit him in Providence, Rhode Island when he worked for 92 PRO FM.
I fly in the night before the blizzard. They don't have anybody there to cover the blizzard. So guess what? Brian says, we're going to work. And we worked for two days on the radio, at Pro FM in Providence. Some of the most entertaining blizzard coverage I'm pretty sure Rhode Island has ever had. There's even a flyer that we put up on the wall. We had weather charts. And it said The Blizzard Brothers. That's what they called us. And, after about 12 hours of coverage, we were getting, we were getting a little cuckoo.
Jag: A little punch drunk, yeah.
Dave: We were calling it "The Blizz-ARD.". We were trying to make it fancy, we called it The Blizz-ARD.
Jag: Dave, as a native New Englander, I've gotta say, why the hell didn't you just call yourself The Blizzahd Brothas?
Dave: We didn't go that far. And that's really on Brian, not on me.
Jag: Yeah, it is. Absolutely.
Dave: Okay. We're going to put that on Lapis, right? Because he should have known the market a little bit better. But I do remember we, we had before the storm hit, we did have some good Chicken Frances at Twin Oaks, which is a big place in Rhode Island. it's a very beautiful place and Dana Dieterle too, by the way was up there.
And so we did our coverage on 92 PRO FM, very proudly, representing Z89. And also me being already a TV meteorologist and Brian Lapis having a twinkle in his eye and, he made it very far in radio and I said, Why do you want to ruin your life and go work in television? What's the matter with you?
He says I'm already in radio. So I think for him, it wasn't as much of a, it wasn't as much of a leap of faith when you're already in that business. It's already precarious enough. Your existence is already, I'm a thin line. So you're hey, I'm just going to do it. But yeah, we did some great coverage there.
By the time we were so tired after about two days, I remember the last thing, like I said, we were reading cancellations. As I said, Brian Lapis's annual shower has been cancelled tonight as well. I think that's how we end our coverage, but... The thing about Z89, lots of laughs, okay? Lots of laughter, lots of joy, lots of fond moments.
it's an emotional thing for me, it really is. Yeah. It has an emotional thing. My only disappointment... And I'm going to say this, my only disappointment, my generation, previous generations, and current generations of Z89. I'm just shocked that nobody from Z89 invented Google, or YouTube, or Facebook. Why in the world?
Why in the world are these people who I've never heard of before, okay, Jeff, what is it, Zuckerberg?
Jag: Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, yeah.
Dave: Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, whatever, I'm calling him Jeff, alright, but why were they not the program director in Z 89, class of 95. That's what I want to know.
Seriously. It has always bothered me because it was such a place of innovation. And I'm mad at myself too, by the way. I'm not just mad at other people. I'm mad at myself. How come I didn't think of these things? Because I really feel like I was in such a... a nutrient rich place to come up with these ideas.
And so I really am scratching my head sometimes, right? And I look at these success stories and there's so many successful people that have come out of Z89. And by the way, not all careers, some just have a really good life.
Jag: Oh yeah.
Dave: Okay. Some just sit there and say, Hey, I do this and not related at all to Z89.
I got this kid, this amount of kids. I'm living a great life. And I look at them and I say, I'm proud of them. I'm also proud of the people that have gone far in the TV and radio industry as a result of Z89 and their contributions to and from Z89. But again, why did nobody from Z89 invent Google?
And it drives me crazy. How come Instagram wasn't created by somebody in the class of 93 or in the, you know what I mean? What did we miss? What did we do wrong? That's it.
Jag: As somebody who has interviewed roughly 110 people for this podcast, your sentiments are certainly shared by me. It is such an incredible group of people and so close and it's really hard to explain this to somebody outside the organization, what a special place this is, and a special people this is, and you are certainly no exception to that. I can't thank you enough for your time today, Dave Roberts. anything else you want to hit on before I let you go?
Dave: No, it's a pleasure. this is exciting. When I was even asked to do this, I love talking about my experience at Z89. It's hard to explain it to significant others. It's hard to explain it to people who just don't know. Because it is such a special thing. I haven't been able to attend banquets because of, the clash with Mardi Gras.
Jag: Been there when I lived in new Orleans. I understand.
Dave: I'm all about catching beads. maybe you can incorporate that into the banquets going forward and that could get me to be there more. But the bottom line is I hope to see everybody in a 24, 25, and even not maybe just, in the off occasion during those midyear picnics or barbecues that the alumni hold.
It'd be great to reconnect with everybody, but it really is a special experience and I'm grateful for it. I'll always be grateful for it. Something else I want to just touch on. It's helped me in my real estate career.
Jag: Really?
Dave: Yes. So I, as a side hustle, right? Doesn't everybody have a side hustle these days ?That's the way it is. Some people have three or four jobs. The people that have less than three jobs are just lazy. And that's just the way I look at it, but. What did Z89 do for me in real estate? I never really was into real estate until I moved to Florida, right? And everybody in Florida, when you get your driver's license, you check a box to become a realtor.
It's on the driver's license. It's an extra 10 dollars, so I checked that .
Organ donor, realtor, yep.
Jag: Exactly. So I checked that box. And one of the things that it taught me is I started looking at real estate and I started accumulating some money because actually people said, you'll be broke your whole life. And I was like, actually I'm making a little money now.
Dave: And I'd go to the beach and I'd say, I can't afford this. who can afford the, I'm in the media, you can't afford that. But I looked at tier two properties or, third tier properties, maybe they were five miles from the beach. Maybe they were 10 miles from the beach. And what did I learn from Z89?
Z89 was a powerful force. It wasn't the number one station in Syracuse. Okay. Personally, I feel it was, but from a ratings and revenue standpoint, it wasn't. So I learned, I modeled my real estate business. In that way, I bought up these second tier, third tier properties and turned them into something.
There's something special when you can take something that just looks maybe untarnished, or tarnished, from the outside, and you say, you know what? Let me turn this into something. Let me contribute and build this into the neighborhood. And, believe it or not, it's led to a lot of success in my career.
I have bought properties in places that people used to make fun of me when I would buy them. And then a few years later, after I put my investment into them, they'd say, Wow! What are you doing? And by the way, what does real estate draw upon? Marketing. Where are you going to learn more about marketing in four years than anywhere else?
Yes, Syracuse University, but Z89, okay? And a lot of the marketing things that I learned from being in that radio station, okay, and I say learned, okay, because I learned a ton. Those things I've implemented into my real estate business with quite a bit of success. So I, look at people now. that worked at Z89 and became a chemist.
I work at people now that were a part of Z89 and became a DJ or became a real estate agent or became whatever, a marketing rep at some firm. And I'm like, aha, they took their knowledge and they spun it. And that's the great thing about Z89. You could take the knowledge you learn there. And you can spin it in a million and one different directions, and it will lead you to success if you pay attention.
Jag: That is a perfect place to leave it. Dave Roberts, thanks so much for doing this today. This was a lot of fun.
Dave: Jon, my pleasure. Anything else I can do for you, just hit me up anytime.