"Hollywood" Hal Rood is a WJPZ Hall of Famer who programmed the station at an incredible moment in its history. From there, he went on to several radio jobs, before founding his own company, Strategic Solutions Research, 15 years ago.
Despite his impressive resume, Hal credits his classmates at Z89 for shepherding the station out of some dark times and into the "flamethrower" days. Folks like Scott Meach, Henry Ferri, Carl Weinstein, Scotty Bergstein, Mike Tierney, and more. This incredible team got the station out of debt and profitable. It ran a successful PR campaign to explain the mission of the station, and garnered some of the highest ratings in the station's history. And oh by the way, it gave away a Pontiac Firebird at the Great New York State Fair.
He tells us to great stories, including one about a Mike Tyson fight on Pay Per View, and one that you may know of. Talk about "kicking the competition," Hal shares the story of the famous 93 "Q Ball."
More: Hal's Company Website: https://www.strategicsolutionsresearch.com/
Join Us in Syracuse 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, joined today by Hollywood Hal Rood from the class of 91. Hal, thank you so much for being here,
Hal: Jag. Anytime I get the chance to talk about JPZ I drop everything for it.
JAG: Hal, you were at the station at a really pivotal time.
The "flame thrower" days is what we know it as. So talk to me a little bit about what was going on at the station and what you guys were able to accomplish at that time?
Hal: Yeah, I feel very fortunate to have been there through some real lows and some real highs. I mean, my freshman year, it was a time of a lot of tumultuous with the radio station politically on campus.
And then it was just prior to me coming to Syracuse when management of the station decided to go it alone and raise their own funds instead of taking any funds from the university. That creates some bumps in the road and we weren't generating a lot of revenue at that point. And there was a little bit of mismanagement with one of the general managers where, just spent a little more than we were taking in.
So the station found itself in a lot of debt, which caused some controversy on campus. And really the turning point when I was a freshman, I saw this kid, Scott Meach take over. Putting together some changes and he was eventually elected general manager and that was really the turning point Jag, because he just, set forth some fiscal responsibility.
And fast forward a couple years later, and I was lucky enough to go up through the ranks and was elected to be program director, and I just tried to build upon what the great program directors ahead of me did and learned from them. Carl Weinstein. Mike Tierney, and I mean, there were so many mentors that I had.
Scotty Bergstein wasn't a PD, but I learned a lot from him in my younger years and I just put all that together as program director. And just so happens that in our year, Jag, we just had an amazing collection of talent, not only in my class, but in couple of the younger classes too. And we just put it all together.
A lot of talent. And I'll never forget, it was my first book. We were getting the quarterly ratings issued by Birch at that time. And I'll never forget walking back to my apartment at 507 University and Meach was coming toward me walking back to the radio station and we cross paths and he said, Hollywood, you're not gonna believe it. And he just hands me the book and I open it up and we got a 6.7 share and I couldn't even believe it.
JAG: Wow!
Hal: Because that was higher than the station had ever been before. And I just, you just never forget that moment. And the rest is history, built upon that and then got to an 8.9 share in the market and it just really, it was a tremendous team we had.
JAG: Hal, lemme go back to what you said about when you first came to campus. That would've been, if my math is right, fall of 87, correct?
Hal: Yeah, that's right.
JAG: And this was in the documentary from the 40 year anniversary, so, tell me if I have this right. And it was just before you got there, but there was a lot of pressure to make JPZ a typical college format radio station.
Open it up to different groups, like WERW was when I was there. It may still be. And they said, No, the mission of the station is to be a professional top 40 radio station and train students for the industry. And is that where the issue came in where they had to no longer get university funding because they weren't gonna become a traditional college format?
Do I have that part of the story, right?
Hal: Well, it's a little before my time. As I understood it, it was the radio station's management that decided to opt out of the funding from, the student activity fund because they wanted to be independent and be able to make their own decisions on the programming.
And the student government kind of wanted input into the programming, so the station's management decided to go on their own.
JAG: And you were on the programming side and you mentioned Scott Meach, who came up as a general manager and what a key role he had. How much pressure was there on you at the time as the radio station to make enough money to run the operation without that backup of SU funding you?
Hal: It was a lot of pressure and there was a lot of pressure in a couple of aspects because when I was first getting started, you'd see article after article in the Daily Orange talking about how terrible JPZ is,because they're not a block Formated radio station, and there just wasn't any understanding of what the radio station was supposed to be. The campus didn't understand what the mission was. And that's another thing scott Meeah did when he got to campus was a PR campaign to help everyone understand that JPZ is not supposed to be a block formatted radio station.
It's supposed to be a consistent brand all through the day, just like a professional media brand is supposed to be. And so that caused a lot of stress, because of the misunderstanding that people on campus had. You're right. I mean, the other pressure was, hey, we have to, make sure this transmitter stays on the air.
We have to pay for the electricity. And so we didn't have great equipment back then. And as those years went on while I was there, the equipment, was getting older and older. And so there was definitely pressure on us. And fortunately, as the years went on, we recruited people from the management school and recruited friends who were a little more business oriented and people like Henry Ferry, who was a friend of mine from public affairs class.
I invited him to come down to the radio station and say, Hey, We have a lot of fun here and you know we could really use your help. And he brought in another friend, Ken Scott, and they started to really make some good inroads on the financial side. But up until then it was tough.
JAG: Talk to me about the programming side, and you mentioned this historic ratings number that you came in with, that me showed you from Birch.
Talk to me about the music back then, some of the stuff you were playing, and just the overall feel of the radio station as best you remember.
Hal: I can remember making a pilgrimage down to New York where Carl Weinstein was living. He was working, I think at Hot 97.At that time, Hot 103, and I just talked to him about programming and branding and marketing.
And it was about that same time Mike Tierney, who was the broadcast consultant, he was the former program director, and he handed me this book and said, You gotta read this. It's gonna change how you look at everything and and shape how you look at everything. It was a marketing book by Al Reese and Jack Trout and I just fell in love with it, fell in love with that whole concept and the way they look at marketing.
And in fact, in later years I had the opportunity to interview Jack Trout for our blog, our company blog. So that was a really formative time in my life and it really helped shape how we transformed Z89. With Mike's help, frankly, I remember sitting with him in a diner in Syracuse looking over the playlist and we saw a bunch of dance records and then one rock record, I can't even remember what the rock record was, maybe something from Aerosmith, right?
And we just looked at each other and said, You know what? We just gotta go all out and be a pop and dance radio station and just focus. And that's really what did it. And you can see from that, Our ratings started to increase from, it was a 4.5 when it took over. We went to a 6.7 and then to an 8.9.
It just shows you the benefit of focus.
JAG: 8.9 huh?
Hal: 8.9. That was literally our share. 8.9 share. 12 plus in the birds. Yeah. In that summer. Yeah. Ironic, right?
JAG: That's tremendous. So we have, It goes without saying, just a number of all stars in our alumni association and how as a consultant, one of the smartest guys that we have, one of the smartest people that we have. Talk to us a little bit about,
Hal: Are you talking about me? Me? I'm one of the smartest?
JAG: Absolutely.
Hal: Dude. I'm as average as they come. . I just learned from everybody else and just try to do what makes sense. But thank you.
JAG: I saw your presentation at the last fall conference. You know your stuff when it comes to programming and being a consultant.
Tell me about your journey from JPZ, what you learned there, where you went from there and how you applied those lessons throughout your career thus far.
Hal: Yeah, I mean I was doing radio in high school and I went to Syracuse thinking I was gonna be a sportscaster and be in the line of all those other sportscasters.
But you know, I spent time at WAER. But once I spent time at WJPZ I realized this is my people. This is really, what I wanted to be doing. And I just loved everything about it, loved the people, really looked up to them and realized this is where I had to be. And I really fell in love with radio.
I can remember when Henry Ferri and tagged along with him to go on a sales call and we got some trade from Popeye's and I realized, oh my God, trade, we can eat some food for free. And that's when I realized, oh, , that's it. Radio's the love of my life. I can get free food, free t-shirts, it's great.
But yeah, I mean that's where I fell in love with it. And the stuff I've learned through that experience at JPZ, I've carried through through my whole life.
JAG: Take me through your career, where have you been? From Syracuse, where did you go and how did you end up where you are now?
Hal: Coming out of JPZ I mean, there was a lot of press around the radio station spring of my senior year. Which it was lucky for me because I was looking for a job at that point, and I ended up getting a job as an APD in Portland, Maine, working for a really small broadcaster. I was there for really a short time, wasn't really for me, and then I decided, I got recruited to go to Voice of America in Washington, DC They had this really fascinating division that played hot AC music via satellite to radio stations in Europe. And these weren't just any radio stations. We were actually helping fund the birth of commercial radio in these markets in central and eastern Europe that it didn't have commercial radio for the,
JAG: So this would've been the early nineties. This is the post Soviet Union after the collapse of the USSR. Do I have that right?
Hal: Exactly. Yeah. I graduated in 91 and I joined VOA in 1992. And so the US government was trying to provide seed capital to entrepreneurs in these countries that, after the Berlin wall fell and Central and Eastern Europe and how do you foster democracy, but with a free media?
That's the first thing you do is set up free media and that helps foster democracy. And that's exactly what happened is, for very little money we were, giving seed capital for transmitters and we were advising radio stations on programming and then we were providing 24x7 satellite delivered programming in English with Hot AC American Music, which was, really popular for Central Eastern Europeans to hear real Western American style music. That was pretty groundbreaking.
JAG: Nothing says freedom like Michael Bolton .
Hal: Exactly. And these people ate it up. They loved it. And I was really happy to be part of that whole experience and a lot of those people that I met back then are running major radio groups in Europe today, 30 years later.
JAG: See, this is why I'm so glad I'm doing this podcast, cuz I never knew that about you, that piece of your history. That's fascinating.
Hal: It was a lot of fun. I mean, the past 25 years I've been doing market research and strategy and have loved it. And it was just another, kinda lucky break. There was a programmer, Steve Rivers, who got my resume. I had sent out a bunch of resumes and he was one of the few to actually give me a call. I couldn't even believe he was calling. He said, Is this Hal? I said, Yes. This is Steve Rivers. And I said, No, it's not.
Yeah, but it was, And he introduced me to a guy named Frank Cody. Who was, a real legendary guy through the eighties and nineties, and Frank hired me, and I've been doing market research ever since and for my own company 15 years ago.
JAG: Tell me about starting your own company and how you got to that point.
Hal: I'd been with Clear Channel, which became iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia. I'd been with them for 10 years. And it gets to a point where, you know, even if you really love what you're doing at that 10 year point, you're at a crossroads. Do you continue staying in the company or do you go out and try something new?
And just decided there were some new ways that we could approach strategy and market research. And I formed this company, with a colleague that I was working with at that time. And that was 15 years ago and the early days you were starting from nothing. So it was a little nerve-wracking at the beginning, but it's been fantastic.
JAG: I gotta imagine you've drawn a parallel here between, being at Z 89, the equipment is, shoddy at best and failing. And you're getting by in a wing and a prayer and same thing financially, and then all of a sudden you're starting your own business. I've gotta imagine there's some similarities there from your experience at JPZ.
Hal: You know what? Yeah, it's a good point I never really thought of. Day to day at JPZ back then in 1987, 88. I mean, it was lean times. And I guess when you've been through an experience like that, you realize, well, we've been through hard things. You grind through it. And I think that's the beauty of the JPZ experience is when a group of students is doing it and it's all up to them, they figure out a way.
And that's a great life skill to have that you really can't get out of classes.
JAG: Do you have off the top of your head a funny behind the scenes story or two of the crew at the station that you feel comfortable sharing? I'll put that caveat on there, but do you have a story or two from back in the day that strikes you as just you look back on it, these years later and just laugh?
Hal: God, there's so many, and that's what's so fun about radio is that you never really take yourself too seriously and there's just such, so many wacky things. I'm gonna give you two. I can remember when Henry and Ken convinced a car dealer in Syracuse to give us a prize van that we then, you know, painted with the logo and a pontiac Firebird to give away at the end of that summer of 1991 at the fair.
JAG: That's a legendary story. Gave that away at the New York State Fair. Right?
Hal: We gave it away at the New York State Fair. We had what we called the 89 days of summer. Every day we would register listeners all through the summer. It was all culminating at the New York State Fair at the end of the summer where we would give 89 people, we'd select 89 people who would each get a key.
And then each of them would walk up to the car and if their key opened the door, it was clear they were the winner. So there was a lot of drama. And I mean, God, we had no money. So you know, we were trying to dress up our area at the New York State Fair and have like a beach party. So we bought some bags of sand at Home Depot and looked pretty rough and we had no money.
All we had was Coca-Cola trade. And that was about it. So we gave away Cokes to people, but I was thinking too. Why in the world would this car dealership give us two vehicles to a bunch of goofy college kids? It was. It was totally insane, but it was also at that New York State Fair because again, we didn't have any money that we decided, well, how can we turn this into a contest and turn our disadvantage into an advantage?
Because, just down Radio Row was 93Q. Which is giving out bumper stickers and other prizes. And we said, Well, how do we turn our weakness into a strength? And so we offered any person who would bring us 93Q bumper stickers, we'd give 'em a free Coke. That's all we had to give them . And so kids that were attending the fair turned it into a huge game and they would bring us stacks, handfuls of 93Q bumper stickers.
So I look at Henry and we're like, All right, what are we gonna do with these? So we just start mashing them up and then we were like, Wait a minute, let's make it into a ball. So that is how we did what we called the Q ball, and the ball ended up becoming about the size of a soccer ball. I have a picture of it somewhere, and at events like concerts at Weedsport, we would have listeners kick the Q Ball for prizes,
So just That's so great. Just the visual of people kicking the logo of our competitor. It was delicious. And one time, the 93Q GM came over and tried to steal the ball, and everyone starts booing. We took it back and it was, the visuals were crazy and yeah, it was really funny.
JAG: You had a second story you said?
Hal: Yes, so the second story is just typical wacky college kit stuff. We had an apartment at 507 University on the top floor, which then we ended up giving over years later to Dave Gorab. So it remained in the JPZ family for probably four years . And we had a party that we invited all the station staff too.
And then, some of our other roommates friends came. So there were a good 75 to a hundred people there and we charged. Because it was going to be the Mike Tyson fight. And back then you had to pay an additional fee to the cable company and if you're gonna watch it, so yeah, so we had some kegs of beer and we charged everyone probably five bucks to get in and watch the fight and drink some beer and have a good time.
Then we realized Mike Selesky our roommate, he was in charge of booking and paying the cable company for us to view the fight. He didn't actually do that. He just acted his way into watching the fight and no one noticed, cuz everyone was drinking beer before the fight. But all of a sudden, myself and my roommates, including Henry Ferri, all looked at the TV and there was a warning flashing saying, Warning, you are not authorized to watch the Mike Tyson fight.
We are gonna cut you. In the next whatever, 60 seconds. And then that goes away. No one sees that little sign flash. And it was one of those fights where Mike Tyson knocks the guy out in 30 seconds, and boom, he knocks him out. We turn off the tv. Hey, thanks everybody. Aw, that one's pretty fast. . We made it by the skin of our teeth. Jag, is that not like radio?
JAG: Oh my God. Yeah. Absolutely. That's amazing.
Hal: Just pulling something outta your butt.
JAG: So just getting by and doesn't matter how the sausage is made, all that matters, that's coming outta the speakers or in that case, the screen.
Hal: It was total theater. Yep.
JAG: Hal, you are also one of many alumni that have a child follow in your footsteps. Your son Brett's a senior at Syracuse now, right?
Hal: He is, yeah. And he's in Newhouse. Radio really wasn't his thing. So he's focused on the film side, but there's a total JPZ connection there because we were looking at colleges. He was searching around for different colleges he might wanna attend when he was a senior in high school.
And we were out in LA looking at the film schools out there, and I said, Brett, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine who has been a TV commercial producer, Scott Bergstein. So we met in Santa Monica and Scotty comes strolling up and I just leave them talking. Brett falls in love and idolizes, Scott Bernstein after that and understands the magic of. Scotty. He was a DJ at JPZ for a long time, but he, as I said, went on to be a big time TV commercial director and worked for Ridley Scott for a long time. And it was Scotty who said to. All right. You gotta go to Syracuse. Like, let's stop even talking about it.
JAG: Hearing it from your dad is one thing, but hearing it from outside is totally different. Right?
Hal: Well, especially when it's, Scotty Bergstein, come on. You get a little taste of that magic that Scott has and you can't resist.
JAG: So a JPZ alum convincing a fellow JPZ alum's son to go to Syracuse, I love it.
Hal: Yep, definitely. But I mean there, there are other alums where, the kids have actually worked at JPZ, Carl Weinstein's son went on to work at JPZ.
JAG: Got an episode of the series with Carl and Cole together.
Hal: Oh, there you go. Perfect. Yeah, there's a lot of that.
JAG: Very cool. You've got some great stories. You've mentioned Henry a few times. There is such a great camaraderie amongst the alumni association. Are there lifelong friends Hal, just people you met at the station that you just are still close with to this day?
Hal: Yeah, a lot. I mean, JPZ really shaped all of the people that I'm close to, particularly from Syracuse. And it's a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It's really is a family, Jag. When I see you and I see other people that I don't see all the time at the banquets, yeah, it's like coming home, but there's just some friends, like you said, that are particularly close.
I mean, Henry's like a brother to me. Ken's like a brother, Scott. I really look up to all of them, and they're like family. And then not the least of. I met my wife there, Tina. I don't know if you know this.
JAG: I don't think I did.
Hal: Yeah, Tina worked in the news department. Because a friend of hers, Tina, Antonikakas was working as a news person there.
So my wife Tina decided, Oh I'll come and help out and do some production. And she was in the production room one day and I was like a bone head and was tapping on the door cuz I was nailing up some new bulletin board on the door, not realizing, Hey dope, they're recording on the other side, . So Tina opens up the door and says, uh, we're recording here.
And that's literally how I met Tina who, eventually we got engaged and we've been married 30 years.
JAG: Wow. I think I may have known you met your wife there, but I don't know if I knew how you met your wife there. And it's funny there as you go through the history of JPZ, I've thought about in planning this podcast, several different couples that we're gonna have on that have met there, but there could have been so many more, yourself included.
Hal: Oh yeah, absolutely. It's funny to look back at the people who met at JPZ and even got married. Thank God I met someone through JPZ because that's all I really ever did at Syracuse. I spent most of my time there.
JAG: Right. Think many of us can relate to that statement, that's for sure. Hal Rood, one of the smartest guys I know. One of the most generous people I know, because if you were not at the banquet in 2022, he, for the raffle, put up his house on the Cape for a week. Which I was very bummed that I didn't win as a Massachusetts native, but very happy for Stacey Simms and hopefully she doesn't trash your place when she's there for a week.
Hal: No, knowing Stacy, it'll be in even better condition after she leaves.
JAG: All right, Hal, really appreciate your time today. Thanks for being part of the podcast and we'll see you soon.
Hal: Jag, I just thank you for doing this. I mean, it's very kind of you to bring people together, kind of share stories, and this is a great gift to the radio station and to all of us.
So thank you.
JAG: Appreciate you saying that, Hal. Take care.
Hal: Alright.