Every year, the WJPZ Alumni Association, via the Berrell Award, sends two students to an industry event. In 2023, GM Grace Denton and former sports director Joe Puccio went to Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show. We sat down with them to hear about the experience.
We've met Grace in her previous episode with PD Maddie Doolittle. So first we meet Joe and get his background. And we hear about their summer 2023 positions- Grace at Taylor Swift's Republic Records (thanks Adam Eisenberg) and Joe at the Cape Cod Baseball League.
After coincidentally being on the same flight at Stephen "Tex" Kurtz, Grace and Joe hit the ground in Vegas running, checking out as much tech as possible from brands they knew, and some they didn't. They described themselves as "kids in a candy store" with Grace zeroing in on overall station tech and Joe focused on the sports side. But the experience was about so much more than tech.
In true Z89 networking fashion, Joe's Cape Cod League boss, WJPZ alum Dan Duva is the radio voice of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. He took Grace and Joe out for a night on the town. And while Joe wasn't yet 21, Grace had just had her birthday, which led to a wondeful wine selection.
You'll hear some great Vegas stories from Grace and Joe - from getting headshots, to receiving an invite to speak to a class in Atlanta, to eating gelato with some Citrus TV classmates who were in town for a different conference.
Overall, today's guests share what an amazing opportunity this was. This year, GM Patrick Chambers and PD Ilana Epstein will be heading to Morning Show Boot Camp in San Diego!
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. Today, we have our first return guest to the podcast as we record this on July 25th of 2023. That is the current general manager of WJPZ. Welcome back, Grace Denton.
Grace: Hi, thank you. I feel so special.
JAG: We have a second guest today who I think I'll let you introduce.
Grace: Ok, our second guest, my dear friend, used to be sports director of WJPZ back in the 2022 term. Now he's still doing sports and also is my boyfriend, which I think is pretty well known now. And this is Joe Puccio.
JAG: Joe, she led off with friend before boyfriend. So you guys were clearly friends first.
Joe: Oh, big time. Yeah. But we have something to talk about after the podcast. I think. No, I'm just kidding. Good to see you guys.
JAG: So Joe, we got Grace's story when she was on the podcast with Maddie before. So why don't we get a little bit of your back story, where you're from, how you ended up at Syracuse and the radio station.
Joe: Of course. So I am originally from Rochester, New York. I have family out in Buffalo.
And so growing up in western New York, Syracuse was not only my favorite college basketball team and the school I always rooted for, but it was the school that I always wanted to attend. My Dad says that I've wanted to be a broadcaster since I was five years old. And anytime he told me about becoming a sports broadcaster, he said, Syracuse is the place to be.
Graduated from New Hartford High School out in Utica, New York, and now I'm going to my senior year at Syracuse. So I got to Syracuse fall of 2020, and I just did as many things as I could on air behind the microphone. Started off at WJPZ writing as a first-year writer. Going into the spring was bumped up to sports staff that spring of 2021.
So my freshman year covering women's lacrosse and I've been on sports staff ever since. And going into the 2022 term, I was talking to the previous sports director, John Dales, and he said that sports directing was definitely something that I could do. And so I applied, got the position. That's where I met Grace.
I met Maddie also, Maddie Doolittle, one of my best friends as well, and thoroughly enjoyed my experience sports directing in 2022. The ability to meet high school athletic directors to cover high school football, but then also to communicate with the Syracuse Athletic departments for women's lacrosse and women's basketball was a joy.
And I found a joy leading a sports staff, leading a group of people that are of a collective mindset and people that just genuinely want to get better at the craft and they don't take anything personally. They want to go out and be the best broadcasters they possibly can be.
Outside of WJPZ, I'm the assistant sports director at WAER. I am also on air at Citrus TV and the ACC network. And outside of Syracuse, I have been calling baseball games for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. There's definitely a handful of other things that I'm forgetting about, but ever since I've gotten to Syracuse, I've just tried to apply myself the best that I can.
JAG: And for those of you listening, Joe is joining us from the press box in Chatham, Massachusetts where I can think of a worse place to spend the last two summers than Cape Cod.
Joe: Right now, it's about 85 degrees up in here, so I'm trying to... We'll turn on this fan in a little bit, but other than that, it's pretty nice.
JAG: Have you run into Hal Rood when you're down on the Cape?
Joe: Yes! Chatham's in the East Division and Falmouth's out in the West, so we only go to Falmouth twice a year, but I've seen him both times that I have been out in Falmouth, and then there's a broadcaster's meeting before every season, and I've seen him a few times out at that broadcaster's meeting, so it is a nice little Z run in out here on the Cape.
JAG: Fair enough. And you're both having amazing summers. I want to hear about Grace's summer now. Is it Republic Records you're interning at? It is. And how did that come to be?
Grace: Back in the winter, I. pretty much applied for every possible radio music industry Internship I could find I honestly probably applied for 10 at Republic alone.
The big thing with Republic is, for me, Taylor Swift. It's Taylor Swift's label. So I was like I need to be there. I love that woman and obviously it applies to my other interest in radio. And so I was really interested in it. I heard back once for an interview and then didn't hear back. There was a weird little gap and I don't remember if it was me reaching out first or he was just asking me how I'm doing, but Adam Eisenberg, also a podcast guest, great person, lovely human. Him and I talked about it.
And he told me he knew someone at Republic who works in touring and events. And she ended up, talking to the people in the Promotions Department. And I then got a second interview with the head of promotion at Republic Records. His name's Gary Spangler. And they hired me. So now I'm doing promotion at Republic Records.
JAG: So what is your day to day? What are some of the stuff you're responsible for, Grace?
Grace: Basically what I do is get data and a bunch of different reports on the songs that they're impacting to radio at the time. It's very data based, so I just am in charge of getting a lot of the data for them to look at those songs, but I get a couple of other random tasks along the way, which is always fun.
JAG: That dovetails into what you and Maddie talked about in your episode, and I would encourage anybody listening to go back and listen to that if you haven't already, about the, where streaming and radio are converging and where we are in 2023. Are you looking at streaming data too or just strictly radio?
Grace: Both. It's always funny because on Mondays we have so many of these reports to do, because we look at Mediabase, we look at Music Connect, Shazam, so we get all the streaming and radio and Shazam search results and people look at Spotify for Artists kind of thing.
It's always a bunch of different sources they use for data and they're all pretty different too.
JAG: Is there a focus on one or two particular areas or is it just taking in as much information as humanly possible?
Grace: They definitely focus on radio and getting the songs to radio and Mediabase is the key resource to everything which is also good because we use it at Z as well.
And they tend to celebrate radio accomplishments really more than anything else, but we definitely still look at streaming numbers. And that's also a big kind of celebration point when an artist is really doing well on Spotify. We always get like a fun little email and we'll have a little celebration for them.
JAG: Very cool. So I want to turn to the NAB show in Vegas. This is an award that's been generously furnished by some of the alumni and the Alumni Association. How did it come to be that you found out about this, applied for it, and won this scholarship to go out to Vegas?
Grace: I got an email, I believe from Alex Brewer, just telling me about the award and that they had offered it to me after the Banquet.
I knew Maddie and Kyle had gone last year, but didn't know the real details of how someone got that award or anything. And then all of a sudden, I had an email about it, and I was very excited.
JAG: And Joe, from your side?
Joe: I just got a text from Grace. She said, hey, do you want to go to Vegas? And I said sure. I would love to go. And it's very difficult for a sports staff member in the spring, who is an upperclassman, to say, hey, I'm going to miss a weekend of men's and women's lacrosse. I'm sorry. But I was going to make that happen. The NAB show was an experience I knew that I couldn't pass up. And when Grace had offered it to me, I was through the moon. I was excited. And so I immediately said, yes, I cleared out the schedule and we were off.
JAG: You know it's funny, a lot of the alumni we've spoken to in the podcast, for a date when they were underclassmen, maybe it was Denny's on Erie Boulevard, or it was IHOP, or maybe even Faegan's for a really nice night out, you two are off to Vegas together!
Grace: The funniest thing is I got that email. And this is so mean, but I got that email from Alex, and I said, Perfect, I'm gonna bring Maddie. And they said, no, she already won. I said, Alright.
JAG: You have a free trip to Vegas for a weekend, and you immediately think best friend over boyfriend.
Grace: To be fair, I'm very lucky with my options there. I happen to work with those two the most out of everybody, and they also happen to be my best friends, and one of them my boyfriend, so I've got really good odds there. I was very lucky.
JAG: There you go. So tell me about the trip you ran into. I think it starts with you running into one of our alumni on your connecting flight out, right?
Grace: Yeah, we ran into Tex at the Dallas airport. I've never had anything like that happen before where you see someone and the funniest thing was, I'm pretty sure I said to Joe, I wonder if we're gonna see anyone here and all of a sudden Tex was asking just about us going to the conference and we're like, yeah. We're in the Dallas airport now and he's no way me too and we were on the same flight So it was already off to a very good start
JAG: Any other alumni that you ran into while you were out there?
Grace: I think he was the only alum, although we did have a run in with the Citrus TV kids.
JAG: A run in?
Joe: Oh yeah. We realized that they were going to, I forget the name, it was, there was an award conference that wasn't affiliated with NAB, it was a different conference, and we found out that the, there was a few Citrus TV kids that were going. So we met up with them on our last day that we were in Vegas. But in terms of alums, Tex was the only one that we ran into. We ran into a few audio engineers from the ACC network, which was cool. Just seeing people with Syracuse polos, you have to go up and say hello. But in terms of alums, it was strictly Tex.
JAG: So it was friendly with the Citrus TV folks. I'm picturing that scene in Anchorman where they like meet each other in the alley. The two competing TV stations. It wasn't like that at all, right?
Joe: No.
Grace: It started actually a little bit because Joe had taken a picture of me. And put it on either Facebook or Instagram.
And the reason we found out they were there is because their GM went and recreated the picture of me. That's how we found out we were there. And then we hung out and it was really cool. We had a good time.
JAG: Where'd you guys stay in Vegas?
Grace: The Mirage.
JAG: Nice. Very cool. Tell me about some of the stuff that you experienced at the NAB show. Some of the stuff you learned. What are some of the things you got out of it?
Joe: The NAB show, from my point of view, was a lot of companies that were showcasing their newest equipment and latest models to owners of radio stations. And I think it was a great experience for Grace and I to go, because there are technical sides of things that Grace found interesting in terms of racks and other intricacies with microphones and all that. And for the sports side of things, there was a lot of sports production that I think Z89 could benefit from if the current sports director were to go or future sports directors were able to see this.
One of the main things that I took away from the experience was that the industry is changing more rapidly than we think. And traditional radio can evolve into a multitude of different things. Whether you're taking a radio broadcast and putting it on iHeartRadio like we do at 89. 1 FM. Whether it's videos from on air radio broadcasts going to social media, whether it's even not in the radio side of things, but just like a green screen with two walls and a floor that sports producers use to put graphics in front of people on air. I think it just boggled my mind to see how quickly things are changing. And honestly gave me motivation to, continue working with WJPZ and the other assets we have at Syracuse so that I can experience some of those things in the real world.
Grace: Yeah, just really reiterating, seeing how things change and we felt very honored and very lucky to be there because we obviously run everything at Syracuse and put a lot of time and effort into it and it goes very well, which we're lucky about, but to see that there's so many possibilities that we could take on, it made me feel like we really have an advantage over so many other schools and even other stations at Syracuse.
We got to go to this conference and really see everything that's happening and know what moves we should do next and know what products we should maybe budget for in the future or just anything that real huge radio stations and even TV stations are taking on that we can borrow from to really improve everything we do was Just really eye opening and it shows you a lot about all the possibilities that are out there and all the things that we can develop off of. So knowing that there was so much out there and so many people Working on these amazing advancements and products was really cool.
JAG: Alright, let's geek out for a second, Grace. Give me one or two specific pieces of technology you saw that impressed you.
Grace: Oh. My favorite thing that we saw was not super radio, but it was something where they had cameras that you could run yourself. And it was a really cool display they had, and that got me really excited just to see how crazy good cameras are.
I just had a lot of fun at that one. But the ones that got me really excited were seeing the brands we know. So we were freaking out when we saw like the Comrex booth. Oh yeah. And it was so funny because we went up to them, so excited. And they were confused. I think Joe was like, I use your product all the time. And they were like, OK!
Joe: I went up to the table and they were showcasing all of the consoles. And I was like, I know each of these sets. I know each of these models. I can tell you how it works. And so they were just like, okay, do you want to scan a QR code? And I was like, yeah. And they sent me emails about Comrex stuff. So that was definitely my favorite interaction because I felt like I knew more than the company itself solely through my experiences at Z.
Grace: It was definitely like a kid in the candy store kind of moment. Because A, we were actually the youngest people there, and B, there was just all these huge displays of products, and we'd never seen anything like that before.
So we saw Adobe, and we saw Comrex, like I said. All of these products that we use and like Telos and everything and the Shure microphones, all these things that we use and every booth, we were like, no way we use that. It was so cool.
Everyone important was there, it felt like. There were so many huge displays for companies that are really running the show. Like Amazon, for example, had a huge display of all kinds of crazy technology.
JAG: What were they doing?
Grace: They had a car that had some sort of virtual reality thing going on with it. And it's cool that you can also see that these companies are having their own little conferences there. So we could see their employees going in and out and having meetings. And it was all under their display of huge screens and cars and crazy green screens and virtual reality.
So to see that really shows you that there are a lot of places to go forward in the industry and that it's way bigger than we ever realize. And that if you want to keep going, it's a really good way to know about what the future of that industry is doing. And to reiterate what I said before, it really makes you feel like you are ahead of the game and that you are getting really advanced knowledge of everything you'd ever need to know, even at such a young age for us.
Joe: When we're in our own Syracuse bubble, Grace alluded to this earlier, we have what we have, and it's better than any other college radio station. But at the same time, there are things that you can learn in the real world that you have to get out of Central New York in order to experience.
And one of the best parts about Syracuse and about WJPZ is that we have people everywhere. And I realized that when we went to Las Vegas, that. Not only is there real-world experiences that, oh my gosh, if we were freshmen in college or seniors in high school, we would be over the moon thinking about and dreaming about, but that it's possible and we can go do this.
What I would tell people applying this is, if you really want to experience what it really is like being in the communications industry. Apply for this because you will experience it.
JAG: We'll include links on how to apply for this year's award in our show notes. Before I forget to ask, are you both 21 or were you when you went to Vegas?
Grace: I was 21 in Vegas, Joe was not.
JAG: Oh, that had to be heartbreaking.
Joe: It was a shame.
JAG: You can hopefully make a return trip at some point together.
Grace: We hope to.
Joe: Yeah, fingers crossed.
Grace: The coolest place I've ever been, I think.
JAG: Any any extracurricular stuff as far as outside the conference stuff you got to do and check out while you were out there?
Joe: Yeah, so I'm happy that you asked because my boss with the Chatham Anglers is Dan Duva, who is a WJPZ alum. And he is also the radio voice for the Vegas Golden Knights.
JAG: Ah, yes.
Joe: So when we were out in Vegas, I was going back and forth with Dan, and I believe it was the second night or third night we were there.
He took us out to an Italian restaurant. And it was, I am Italian. I hardly get blown away from Italian restaurants. I was blown away at how good it was. We were there all night. We celebrated Grace's birthday.
JAG: Wait, you turned 21 in Vegas?
Grace: No, it was right before, but I'll let Joe continue.
Joe: It's a good story. So I told Dan, I said that we had, Grace's birthday was a week ago. And so he put it on himself to make it a birthday celebration.
JAG: Oh, wow.
Grace: It was the first time I met him too and he threw me a little birthday party.
Joe: So they're giving Grace bottles of wine, taste testing everything.
Grace: They brought me three desserts, I think.
Joe: Yup.
JAG: Priorities.
Joe: Exactly. And Grace had an amazing time at that dinner and so did I. But then afterwards, Dan was driving us around Las Vegas. And so we went down and up the strip. We saw the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign. And we. And we tried getting in to T Mobile arena where the Vegas Golden Knights play and we couldn't get in, but we were still waiting for the NHL to release the Stanley Cup playoffs bracket because there was a chance that on the last full day. we were there that Vegas would be playing In game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Vegas, but it happened to be the next day.
So we didn't go to any of the games and then Vegas ended up winning the Stanley Cup. So how awesome would that have been? But that day of going to the Italian restaurant and then trying to get into T Mobile Arena. was nightcapped by Dan dropping us off at the Bellagio. And he said, I am not dropping you off at your hotel.
You are going to the Bellagio and you're walking down the strip. He made us walk home. He made us walk home. But Grace, I don't want to speak for you, but that was the best moment of the trip by far.
Grace: It was great. It was so wonderful. It was, and I guess actually we lied before because we did run into another alum, which was Dan, but that one we knew about in advance.
Yeah. It was like the first time I met him and he brought me this extravagant like dinner, he picked us up in his little sports car and they were bringing me like three different cakes and everything. And then, yeah, we got dropped off at the Bellagio and walked through all of the hotels back to where we were staying, so it was real Vegas.
JAG: Sensory overload when you walk through all those hotels, right? And everything to see?
Grace: It was crazy.
Joe: It was such a good walk that the next day we said, okay, we have to do this again. And the next day we walked through the same hotels, we went through the same shopping mall, And that's when we met up with the Citrus TV friends, and we went up into the Ferris wheel. In Las Vegas.
And so we went at night so we could see all the lights and we saw the strip from a high vantage point. And that night with Dan, we were like, okay, we need to just do this again. And so we went to the conference earlier in the morning the next day, made sure that we could go around and see everyone at the NAB show so that we could allot ourselves enough time at the end of the day to do the exact same thing that we did the day before.
JAG: That's amazing.
Grace: We must have had 50,000 steps each day this trip.
Joe: Oh yeah. We were really going, but it didn't even feel like it because it was just the best experience you could possibly have.
JAG: Before I let you guys go, any other funny stories? I know what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but we're making an exception here, obviously.
Grace: I think on our last day of the conference, we were there in the morning, and we were up on this upper level that we had found that was a quiet place, and they actually were doing headshots up there, which is my LinkedIn headshot now. Thank you to the conference for that.
And we were exploring. Also, I guess a funny story within a funny story is they had this big poster that had like TV radio personalities on it. And they had a big picture of Elvis Duran. And we like took my picture and sent it to Allie Gold. And I was like, your boss is here. So that was funny.
But as we're doing all this, someone came up to us. And they give you kind of name tags. So he saw that we were students. And I believe his name is Jacory. We're connected on LinkedIn now also. He came up to us and started asking us very casually about what we do. And we were telling him about, everything we do with radio at school.
And he said he teaches a class for young students. I'm pretty sure in Atlanta, if I'm remembering correctly. About how they can get into the communications field and how it is a possible career path Even though it can seem difficult and he would love to have us come talk to this class of kids Oh, and we were like, whoa. We felt famous honestly! That he came up and was kind enough to ask us this so we connected and everything and that hasn't happened yet, but hopefully that's something we do in the future because that was such a great connection we made and he was just so kind and it was really cool to have someone come up and recognize that we were students and pay attention to that.That is definitely a reason I would recommend going for chances that something like that can happen.
Joe: And I think the coolest part of that interaction was that even though we're students, we have enough knowledge as almost professionals to go to a classroom of students in Atlanta and tell them how to get into the broadcast industry.
We're still students. We're still learning how to do this. But through our experiences at WJPZ, we've had almost exactly a professional experience at a college radio station. I feel that if Grace and I were to go down to Atlanta or speak to them on Zoom, that we would have an easy time talking about how to get into the industry and what makes a good radio personality.
JAG: What I love about this conversation is how many JPZ values and themes from the overall podcast have popped up today from, paying it forward and educating like you're both talking about right now with this class in Atlanta. To be learning and geeking out over this stuff and then also the networking and who you meet and spending time with them. And then of course whatever randomness can happen in Vegas that can you know benefit you as you get ready to graduate and go forward.
I can't thank you enough for being here. You two are both tremendous representatives of WJPZ and thank you both for your time today
Grace: Thank you so much.
Joe: Thank you. Thank you. Jon.
JAG:Anything else before I hit stop?
Grace: I was just thinking about us saying, how lucky we were to go to this crazy Vegas conference. The night when we all got back from the conference and we were hanging out with the Citrus Kids, we ended up going on a walk again through the Bellagio, and I guess someone who worked there saw us just wandering around being pretty in awe of the entire place because it's beautiful.
And they let us out on this closed off balcony where you could see a pool. And so we were freaking out that we wanted to stay there forever because they let us out onto this little balcony just for kids. And we came back in and we had just had the longest day of doing the conference and walking around Vegas.
And we just plopped down in these chairs in the Bellagio eating gelato. That's one of my favorite memories. We were just sitting there for honestly like hours because we were just tired. Just the four of us sitting there eating gelato, like telling funny stories at Syracuse.
Joe: I had to pinch myself because it was a Monday night during the spring semester and I'm eating gelato in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. It was, it would not have happened without WJPZ.