Since graduating SU in 1996, Kafele Khalfani has done it all - moving from the advertising world to following his passion to help young people. Today you'll hear about his career in higher education, as well as his time fostering and adopting kids.
Kafele saw a brochure for Syracuse University with a picture of Rick Wright at Z89, and he immediately put all his eggs into an orange basket. He applied early, nowhere else, and got to campus in 1992. It was during a summer program that he found a staticy station at 89.1 that was playing the music he liked. He reached out, and Kim Sykes brought him in when school started.
At Z89, Kafele was on the air (you'll hear his various on-air monikers), and worked in promotions, PR, and just about everything else at the station. WJPZ was home for he and his classmates. As he said, in a time before most cell phones, if you were looking for someone, they were either in their room, at the station, or eating at Kimmel. You'll hear many familiar mid-90's names in today's episode.
After graduation, Kafele got into advertising during the dot com boom. When that boom turned into a bust, he got involved in higher education. He had such an amazing undergrad experience, thanks in part to WJPZ, he wanted to see a new generation of students have that. In 22 years in higher ed, he's been a Residence Director, Dean of Students, consultant, and more. He's also done work in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space.
Kafele always wanted to be a dad, but for him, it wouldn't be easy. He hilariously explains why. When his best friend, a social worker, told him about fostering and adoption, he was hooked. Turns out he'd have to get certified twice - in New York, then when he returned to California. He tells us the fantastic story of his first foster, who he'd later adopt, and when he finally felt like a Dad. He's gone on to foster more kids since.
We wrap up the episode by talking about the issue of race at WJPZ. It's a topic that's been brought up by several of his classmates, and with Kafele's experience in the DEI space, we wanted to get his perspective.
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. Joined today from the class of 1996. Mr. Kafele Khalfani, welcome to the show.
Kafele: Thank you, JAG. I'm so happy to be here.
JAG: I've been looking forward to having you on for a while. We have a lot to cover, but I'll start with you where we start with everybody, which is how you find out about Syracuse, get to campus, and then find out about the radio station.
Kafele: Sure. So it was funny when it was time for college. I'm from Long Island and I swore up and down that I was not going to school in New York, so I was gonna go somewhere else far away to escape. And I lived up the street from Nassau Coliseum. And that's where they had these huge college fairs.
And I swear I probably signed up with every school that was there. So I was receiving mail and mail and mail. And eventually I got something from Syracuse and I was like, huh. Okay, this looks like a interesting place and in going through one of the brochures, There's this picture of Dr. Wright in the station.
You know this one right? And it's like he's in the station, you can see all the radio equipment. There's a little placard behind him, says that Burning Up is the Madonna hot song of the day. Yep. And I was just like, okay, this is the place for me because right before, I think it was junior high, my television died, and it was the summer. And my mother absolutely refused to buy a new television.
And so I'm like home all summer with nothing to do. And that's when I fell in love with radio. I started listening to Z100 and the morning show. So I thought that growing up, me and one of my friends, we were gonna wake up New York as host of a morning show. Having that at Syracuse was what really attracted me there.
I had never visited campus before I went. So I went to a presentation at the Marriott also up the street from my house next to the Coliseum. So did that whole thing and I saw the presentation and everything. I don't think they showed snow.
JAG: They never do.
Kafele: They never do. They never do. And I was like, okay, this is the one. And my mother was like, okay, if this is the one, let's go. Let's do it. Let's get this over with. So I applied early decision. So I found out by December that I was in and I did not wanna do anymore college applications. So that was the only school I had applied to is the only one I got into.
JAG: Wow.
Kafele: Yeah. Hindsight 2020. I probably should've applied to a few more schools, but no, but I don't regret it really,
JAG: Yeah. It's funny, we've had people on the podcast say, oh, I knew the second I set foot on campus. You knew without even setting foot on campus.
Kafele: Never set foot on campus. Never.
JAG: So you get to the Hill and thanks to the brochure, and Dr. Wright, you already know about WJPZ before you even set foot on campus. So when did you walk into the radio station?
Kafele: So here's what's funny. I applied to Newhouse, got deferred. So I went into arts and sciences cuz I wanted to dual in like English and communication. So I got into arts and sciences and I was doing a summer program and I knew there was a radio station, but I didn't know specifically which station it was.
I'm managing around, we lived in Haven for the summer program. And I'm from New York, so I'm trying to find like music that I would listen to at home. And really wasn't finding anything. But there was this little staticy station that I found at the beginning of the dial, and this is old school where there was a real dial, you remember?
JAG: Yep yep.
Kafele: You could not touch it for fear that you would not get a signal. Again, depending on where you were.
JAG: You couldn't sneeze. Cuz if you got that to 89.2 or 89.0, that wasn't happening.
Kafele: It was like staticy staticy. So there was the station, but I liked the music. But it was weird. There was a lot of dead air.
The DJs weren't very good. And I was like, how is this on the air? But the music is good and I came to find out that it was Z 89. It's the station in the summer when all of the students are gone. So we're picking up, high school folks, people who've never been on the air and are in slots that they probably shouldn't be in because someone needs to be on the air.
And one of my friends told me, oh, that's the campus station. I was like, what? So I called over. I spoke to someone and I was like, I'm gonna be a student in the fall. I'm really interested in joining the station. And they were like, okay, great. Somebody will be in touch. And I was hanging out at the front desk and somebody walked over looking for me and I was like, that's me.
Cause I was like, who's this person looking for me? And it was Kim Sykes. And she handed me a letter and it was like a welcome letter. Hey, thanks for your interest in WJPZ. We'll do a fall recruitment at this day. Come here and we'd love to have you.
JAG: Wow.
Kafele: I know! And so from that moment on, that is why she's one of my faves.
So that sort of touch. And then when it came to the fall, I was there. I was ready for the big jock meetings, ready to take the test. Pass the test. Thank God. Was ready to go on air. I think I had a 2 to 4 shift. Yep. Cuz I would not have made it through a four to six.
JAG: You wouldn't think there's that much difference between two to four and four to six, but there's a big difference.
Kafele: You can stay awake for the two o'clock, right? You can't stay awake for four. Like you were sleeping, you're out. Hopefully your roommate wakes you up to get you there in time, but I had a two to four, which was, thank goodness. It was awful. I went through many a name change, so I think when I started, I couldn't use Kafele because clearly no one knows how to pronounce that, so I absolutely had to go with a different name.
So I think I started out as KJ Spidah. Which was awful, and that luckily did not make it outta overnights. So then when I went moved into midday, I went with the more work friendly KJ Steele, all right, and stuck with that one for the remainder of my time. On the air.
JAG: That's got a nice ring to it.
Kafele: Yeah, I liked it. Steel with an E at the end.
JAG: Yes. That's important to differentiate. Yeah. So was it mainly on air Kafele, or what else did you, were you involved with the radio station?
Kafele: First, I was on air and back at that time, I think we had a number of like powerhouse women who were on the exec team at that point.
So you had then Sharon Goodman, now Sharon Michaels, who was in charge of public relations. She is like the sun and everything is attracted towards her and she just like the sweetest, most welcoming and like, all you wanna do is go be hugged. And she was BB at the time, like you just wanted to be in BB's like area to be hugged, to be called Bubbie.
So she was in charge of PR. So you really wanted to be near that energy. Bette Kestin was in public relations. And then Jeanne Schad was doing promotions and Tina was doing production. So I did a little production and promotions, little bit of public service. And just wanting to get involved in those.
So I was doing a lot of contest hours. In those days, we were giving away a cassette or CD of your choice. Back when there was a choice between a cassette or a cd. And then we used to have Hoyts Cinema passes. Which we literally were printing like fake money. It was awful.
We would just have this like template and just run it on Z89 letterhead, just printing them. Like it was going outta style.
JAG: They all worked. They, they were accepted on the letterhead all the time, right? Yeah,
Kafele: it worked. So it was good for two people. There you go. Just outta control. So I did a lot of contest hours with promotions.
I tried to go to events, just really wanting to be in the station all the time. I think in production I was Dion's producer on the Power 30 countdown. Which was really just these are the top three songs, which pretty much were the entirety of my time. Oh gosh. It was a combination. I think it was between Boyz II Men "End of the Road," and like Whitney Houston, "I Will Always Love You."
JAG: Knowing Dion's affinity for Whitney Houston. That's not surprising.
Kafele: So just like weeks in a row, I didn't have to change it. It was the same three songs in three, two, and one. So I did a little bit of that. And what else? Those are the big things that I was doing.
JAG: So you, as class of 96, you came in and you mentioned the powerhouse women that were there ahead of you. The class of 95 is just so well represented in the alumni association, not to mention so many great alums from, 94 and 93 as well. You mentioned of course, Dion. Who are some of the other names that you haven't mentioned yet that you quickly connected with at the radio station?
Kafele: There were so many, so we had Marvin Nugent. . AKA The Big Daddy was a big influence. Kurtis Green, who was Danny Cagney, they did Saturday Night Dance Jam. Yep. So they were pretty big in my life. While I was there, you know the big thing that you wanna do cuz you, you wanna spend as much time in the station as you possibly can, as much time on air as you possibly can.
And I came back up for Christmas. So I went home for Christmas and came back right after. Because the station was yours. Like you could be on the air for hours upon hours and just get your air check tapes and do that. We came back up. I stayed with Curtis and Marvin in their South Campus apartment and was just on the air all over the break.
So those folks were big. In my life. Who else was there? I caught the tail end of Dave Gorab. Beth Russell at the time. So all of these folks who were just like out here knocking it out the park, I think were there. So I think we were a pretty golden age of the station.
That was when we had switched our format a little bit to, it was like a rhythmic CHR with an urban slant. Okay. And so at that point in the nineties, you had TLC. You had Arrested Development. Who else were we playing? We were playing, Brandy was everywhere. So there's a lot of Brandy. So there was a lot of popular stuff that we were playing that not a lot of other people were playing as well.
So I think that was a nice differentiation in the market for us. And what was really one of the fun things, it was the music that I wanted to listen to. It was also when, during our time, that's when Hot 97 switched. From dance to hip hop. And we had a pretty nice connection to Hot 97 because of Rocco.
He was very gracious and like they had Hot night and he would give us tickets, which they were giving away like millions of tickets. We had two. And that was like a whole promotion. And you would've thought that we were giving away the world the way we promoted that. I was there during the period where we gave away the car.
So we were doing a lot at that time. I think we were feeling about as professional as we could be with still being where we were, both with age, with experience, and all of that. So we really felt like we were running a professional station.
JAG: And I think that probably shows here we are, 30 years later and so many of the folks from your era are so well connected to the radio station.
I think that probably speaks to the shared experience that you all had there, where you were just together 24x7 and accomplishing such great things in the nineties, it really was a special time for the radio station. So let's go through your career after Syracuse, Kafele. So you've had quite the journey since graduation. So take us through it.
Kafele: I think originally I thought I was going to stay in media, so my undergrad was in marketing cause I was in School of Management and then went to Michigan State for grad school for a degree in advertising. And I was in advertising for about three years after. So I started out at Ogilvy and Mather.
I worked in the account side on brands like Cotton Incorporated, Hershey. And then pharmaceuticals and the dot coms were a big part of that. So we know where this story is going which is down in flames. So I was in New York for the first two and a half years. And it was funny because we were losing people left and right to the dot coms.
People were like doubling and tripling their salaries to go to a dot com and I'm sitting there in the agency like, what about me? But then they all lost their jobs and their, dot coms all went under.
JAG: That bubble burst right at the turn of the century.
Kafele: That bubble burst quite nicely. Yeah. And then also the economy tanked when I had moved to Los Angeles. So I had just moved and the company that I was working for had a very small piece of business from Quaker. Quaker got bought by Pepsi. The worst thing in a merger is what happens to your ad agencies, especially if you have more than one.
And they had three and I was like I know who's not gonna win this one. And it was mine. So I decided to figure out something else to do with my life, so I would not be homeless and unemployed having just moved to los Angeles. Which was rough. So I think I was like couch surfing on Adam Eisenberg's couch and he was done with me after about a week.
Cause he would be like, so how's that apartment hunting going? And I was like, what? Yeah, where are you leaving? Oh, okay. No. So I had found a job in advertising that was, again, had my own place finally. And then the market was gonna tank. I was gonna lose my job again, and I was like, I can't do that. I can't do it.
So I went back into higher ed because in undergrad I'd been an RA. I had also done that in grad school, so I became a resident director at Loyola Marymount University. I thought that would be like two years while I figured out what I wanted to do. And then we're now about 22 years later that I'm still working in higher education.
Essentially, it is college all the time. Working with students, working with student organizations serving as an advisor, helping folks with different issues when they're falling into crisis. So I've worked in residence life in orientation. Most recently I was the dean of students for one of the undergraduate colleges at UC San Diego.
Have been since doing some diversity work, so consulting. So did some consulting work at another college, and I also do that for a market research company every day.
JAG: What is it about the higher ed space that once you got back into it, you said you thought it'd be two years and now it's been two decades. What is it about that space that's so appealing to you?
Kafele: I think one, working with students keeps you young. So I continually forget how old I am. Because I'm hanging out with, not hanging out, but interacting the vast majority of my day with 18 to 24 year olds. And so I'm not looking in a mirror, so I'm like, I am only 27.
So that keeps you young doing the work, day in and day out. I'm helping someone graduate from college. I feel like that was an experience for me, that was transformative. I think higher education has that opportunity for folks that hopefully you're not just going to class and that's it.
I think the experiences that I had out outside of the classroom were equally as valuable as what I got in the classroom. I joke my first job actually, when I got the job at Ogilvy, I was referred by another Z89 person who also made like a thousand dollars. And mind you, in 1998, a thousand dollars referral bonus is pretty freaking sweet.
So that happened. So that was my first job was through a connection from Z89. And it's always been about like, so most of the successful jobs that I've had have been a referral through somebody who I've known. I joke if someone refers me to a job, I do great. If I do it on my own, fails miserably. So I have to make sure I only take jobs where I'm referred. By someone that I know.
JAG: And that's just a valuable lesson. That's something they drill into our heads at Newhouse and at Syracuse. Mm-hmm. Network, network, network and I don't wanna give the station all the credit here, but having such a positive experience at Syracuse and at JPZ and you wanting to pay that forward so that students today have a, such a similar experience in higher education, that really says a lot about your time at the station.
Kafele: The station was like second home. So we didn't have cell phones. Or the cell phones the way we had them. We had cell phones, but they were the, the bricks, the Zach Morris brick. Yeah. Oh gosh. And you, the things that we had to do when we did a live broadcast, so we had two bricks.
So we had the brick phone and then we had this other it was in a crate, like a wooden crate. I forgot what it's called.
JAG: Was it a Marti?
Kafele: No, it was it. I don't think it was a Marti.
JAG: Comrex?
Kafele: I think it was a Comrex. Yep. Yeah. So we had to carry this and the cell phone to do a live broadcast. Which was awful. And you didn't have that. At one point we got pagers. So somebody had negotiated a pager contract and we got say, 10 pagers. And the finagling that people did to get a pager was outta control. And the shenanigans that we would do to get a pager.
JAG: Yeah. Somebody had a a certain number on a pager. Right? Somebody told me about it at one point. Who, do you remember who that was?
Kafele: AC Corrales. I don't remember what the, it was 315, whatever the three digits were, but then it was AC AC,
JAG: Okay. That's right.
Kafele: So he definitely put that out there all the time and love that. But I think I got the pager one summer when I was doing ops. And I was like, Ooh, I've got the pager. The pager's the worst cuz what are you gonna do? I don't have a phone. So like you're page me. Now I gotta go find a payphone. I'll see you when I get back to the station. But when you were looking for someone, you would call their room first. They weren't there, you'd check the station. They weren't at the station. You check Kimmel, right? They weren't at Kimmel. You're like, I'm not going any further than this. But most of us were in one of those three places, right? Or if you stayed around long enough, we would get there.
JAG: Any other funny stories from your time at the station, Kafele, that come to mind? Just moments you, you go back to a banquet and you're like, remember the time when?
Kafele: There were many times. I was the king of the crazy idea. So one year we were doing a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House. So we had done it in the previous year at Carousel and we raised a lot of money. It was great. It was called Coins for Kids, and we were gonna do it again. And I said I can't just go to one mall, I'm gonna go to three.
Cause this was the year that NBC had decided that they were going to broadcast the Olympics on like multiple venues. And I remember they called it the triple cast and so I had Coins for Kids, the triple cast. So we had so Neon Dion, flagship DJ at the time, was at Carousel.
So he was at the main mall. Chris Velardi, then known as Christian Quinn. I think I sent him to like Camillus. And I think Marvin, who was Big Daddy, or may have been one of the, it might have been one of the women, it might have been like a Gina Jones or Joanna, were at Shoppingtown. And so we had each of them at a different mall collecting the money.
Going back and forth through the different. Talks and talks up and we did pretty good. I don't even remember how much money we raised, but one of the venues gave us all the money from their fountain.
JAG: Oh, cool.
Kafele: Oh yeah, that's cool. Until you have to carry 17 of those little, like Home Depot buckets of coins back and then they're just sitting in the station.
Cuz I'm like, Are we gonna have to roll these? Like we have to convert these coins into cash. So I'm pretty sure I just gave them to the people at Ronald McDonald House and I was like, good luck. They figured it out with what they were going to do. But that was one of my favorites.
There was another time, one of the big things, a lot of the folks who were on air were also on air professionally. And so if you were lucky, you were in Syracuse. So a lot of people were like on Y94. Yeah. But then there were a couple of people who had to go to Utica. But they were on the air and they were really on the air. And we would go down to visit and I feel like we were visiting Damian at a station in Utica and there were too many of us in the car.
Cause it was me, Dion, Adam, Marvin, Melanie and Carrie. It's way too many people in not that big of a car. And mind you, one of the people in the car is called Big Daddy, right? So we're like squeezed into the back of Adam's car, which has tried to kill me on more than one occasion. And we were going somewhere, like we were trying to do a curve.
We hit the curve too hard, too fast, too fat, and we slid down into a ditch. And we're like, oh my God. Like how are we going to get out of this? Literally can't get out of this ditch. And it was one of those things where we're like, okay, we need to go get help. And so I was like, we could go to a house. And like me, Marvin and Dion are black. We're like, we're not doing it because we're not gonna get shot in the middle of Utica. So one of y'all's gonna have to go to the house and ask for some help for a tow truck. But eventually we did. We got a tow truck and got out of the ditch. Then drove silently home, having our life, having flashed before us at that time.
So that was fun. But we would do stupid things like that all the time. So you're always going to visit someone at a station, spending a lot of time there and together. So it really did forge a lot of relationships and a lot of closeness. During that time, it's one of my more valuable experiences from undergrad.
Again, why else would I ever, I live in Southern California. Why would I ever go back to Syracuse? Especially in the winter?
JAG: Because you're in San Diego now, the polar opposite weather-wise of Syracuse!
Kafele: Oh, yeah. So why would I ever I go back because of the station? Because of those connections. And to see those folks.
JAG: You may have more letters after your name than almost anybody there at this point with all the degrees and certifications you have.
Kafele: Yes. But you don't use them all. You know they're there, but you don't have to use them.
JAG: You've been a dean of students. You've got all these degrees. You've spent so much time in higher education helping future generations have the experience that you did, or something similar.
I do wanna ask you also about the adoption process. This is something you talked about on social media, and take us through that. That's something that we haven't really talked about in the podcast before.
Kafele: So I was in New York for a short period of time. I've been in California pretty much for the last 20 years, but there was a stint where I went back to New York for a job. And while I was there, my best friend's a social worker. She was on the train and she knows I wanna have kids, but biological kids are expensive for gay folk and gay men more specifically because I only have half the ingredients and not the useful one. Like I don't have the oven, I don't have the eggs. I got nothing. You know, they were talking about fostering and adoption through foster care. And she sent a sign that basically said, single, we don't care. Gay, we don't care. Serial killer. We kinda care a little bit. Don't kill the child.
But it was basically, we don't care who you are. As long as you can provide a loving home, we want you. So I've gone through this process of becoming a foster parent and was like, yay, let's do it. So went through this whole process in New York.
Great. Was ready to go. Then I got a job in San Diego and I was like, so I moved out here and I was like, hey, can I get transfer credits? And they were like, no. So I had to go through the whole process again here in San Diego. So I'm like a super certified foster parent. I finished my training and I wanna say it was like in July and I was home sick one day in August.
And I remember I was sick because I am the worst sick person. I'm useless. I wanna cry. I want my mother.
JAG: You have the man cold.
Kafele: I have a man cold. Don't talk to me. All I want is my orange juice, my ginger ale some crackers and soup. So I was in a delirium and they called and they said, hey, I think we have a match for you.
And I was like, okay. And they were like, he's a 15 year old who's eligible for adoption. So I knew this going in and I was like, okay. We were supposed to have a process I think this was a Thursday, Friday. they give you, I was gonna come in and they would give you like a history. And tell a little bit about him.
On Monday, we were supposed to meet, like him and I. Tuesday, I was going to meet the family that he was in. And then Wednesday we were like, gonna maybe have a one-on-one, go to dinner, do something like that, and then possibly he could move on Thursday. Or Friday of the following week.
JAG: Wow.
Kafele: And that's still a quick process. So on Monday I was like, ready to do the first meet and they were like, yeah things are moving a little bit faster than we need. We need him to move in today. And I was like, wait, what? Yeah. And I was like, I don't understand what is happening. So I meet him.
I don't know what he looks like. Anything, I have all these expectations. I think he'll probably be black, fine, whatever, 5'9", whatever. I don't know. All these images I haven't had, but what showed up was like a six three white boy with a Starbucks, which should have been my first clue that he was gonna be trouble.
Cause any kid that shows up with a Starbucks, no like that's gonna be a problem. And so he showed up and I was like, okay, hi. And he is hi. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. And like we go through all of this stuff. So luckily, I have a job with a very generous parental leave policy, so I was able to take some time off.
So I took about a month off before school started. So that we could get to know each other and get acclimated. And so we got to, spent a lot of time together, got to know each other, got 'em enrolled in school. And then I think in November I had to go back to the city for a wedding.
And I still wasn't, fully engaged in I'm like, I think I'm a parent. I might be a parent. I don't know what this is about. And we're walking through Times Square because clearly you have to take everyone through Times Square. He accidentally bumped into this guy and the guy was like, hey man, what's going on?
And he's oh, sorry, he was my bad, apologized. And this guy was still like coming at him. Now, mind you, he's six three. I'm not, I'm like six feet, but whatever. And. With the height, I think he looked older than he is.. So this man I think was ready to fight. And I'm stiting here thinking, do I know how to fight? I don't know how to fight.
But this man might attack my kid, so now I'm gonna have to fight this man in the middle of the city and I'm ready.
JAG: Oh, the adrenaline's going!
Kafele: Yeah. Yeah. The adrenaline's going. I've got like that, dad, like I could lift the car up off and throw it off and ah, and luckily the man went away.
But then I was like, oh. And it was that moment that I was like, okay, I'm a father. This is my kid. Like we're in it.
JAG: Wow.
Kafele: So yeah, thanks New York. So that was that situation where I was like, okay. And we he was with me for about a year. I was able to adopt him the following year.
And I always feel like it's only yesterday. But he is 23. So this has been, yeah, a long time of doing this. And it's been a fun journey. So it's weird, like you remember like the first time like calls you Dad. Or referred to you as dad and I'm like, yeah, cuz clearly, I was eavesdropping cause he was in the bathroom talking to his friends.
Cuz I'm always like, he was in the phone and I was like, anytime you're in the bathroom, I was like, don't be taking pictures of your junk in there. And he is oh my God, my Dad's "don't take pictures of your junk." and I was like it's all of those sort of little things. Like being able to get to celebrate Father's Day is super nice even though it really is me buying my own gifts. And just making him reimburse me for them. Hey,
JAG: that's efficient and that's smart. You don't want a bunch of ties. Who wears a tie anymore?
Kafele: I get what I want. And so it really works out that way. But it's been quite the journey and parenting is like a lot harder than what would think.
Way too hard. But also, I think when you see the fruits of your labor or they pick up something that you've done or read back something that you've taught them that they picked up has been nice. But I think I'm still in the fertile plane. Like I don't think I get the return on my investment till 25.
So I get little bits and pieces here and there, but it's still been a good thing. And when you're working with kids in the foster care system, it's always a hard thing because they're coming into your life with a lot of things you don't know. Because if you've raised your kid and you've been together, like the key points.
But you like drive around and you get like bombs dropped on you all the time. Like he was my first and adopted him, but I still foster. And so like with other kids, you'll be driving around and they'll be like, oh, I used to live there and they used to beat me. And I'm like, what? Or this is where I was when I was homeless.
It's like you get crazy like story that you just don't know. And they'll just drop a bomb on you. You'll be on the couch like watching a movie and you'll be like, yeah, this is when XYZ happened. And you're like calling your therapist because you like need to reprocess what you just heard. But most of the kids don't do anything to be put into foster care.
It's a circumstance of their life experience and you just gotta love them and try and do your best make them feel welcome. Cuz it was funny, like he used to wear a lot of college jerseys, so clearly I tried to sneak a Syracuse one in there and he would never wear it. And I was like, really?
I was like, you'll wear everything else but not that one. I see it. Okay. But it was hurtful, Jag.
JAG: Yeah, I can see how it would be. I can absolutely see how that would be. Look, you are somebody Kafele who is so widely and highly regarded amongst your peers and amongst the alumni association.
The fact that you've donated so much of your time and your professional life, both to students in the secondary space, but then also with adopting and fostering really speaks to you and your character and I can't thank you enough for coming on today and spending a few minutes with us.
Kafele: It has been my absolute pleasure.
JAG: Kafele, before I let you go, some of your classmates, Dion, Adam, and others, have talked about race at WJPZ. At the time you were there, I just wanted to ask you your perspective on things. Looking back years later.
Kafele: We were definitely moving in a more urban slant, so it was a little bit heavier R&B, a little bit heavier hip hop.
And again, the only folks who are really doing that. I think in our market, definitely on the FM side, and that's where the culture was going as well. Right now when I listen to some of the 90's stations, like that was all our playlist. . That was all Z89 at the time. So we were doing that and regardless of the music that we were playing there's always let's start with the thing.
That race, we're in the ISA, so race undercuts everything, so that's our original sin and that's gonna be something that's always going to play out. I think it played out in the station with preferences or what kind of music people would prefer to hear, but again, all of the folks who were programming at that time were within that vein and appreciated and were able to program us to the best of that because I think we went from Dion as music director and PD.
Then he swapped with Melanie and Melanie became PD and he became MD. And then the following year, I wanna say Jeff was the PD, but Monica was the music director. And throughout those years, I think we had built strong relationships with the record reps with that. So we were able, would've been able to continue that.
But then, midway through my senior year that's when we had The Pulse. So that sort of took everything in a totally different direction and I think that was some of the pushback. Because alternative, again, if you could go to the complete opposite side of a pendulum from urban, you would find yourself at alternative.
And that's I think what happened. Now, I also think we did lose, cuz when 95 left, that took a lot of people with them. So that was Dion, Marvin, Curtis, I think by the time we got to the fall, AC had left, like a bunch of folks had left the station and there was a cultural vacuum, I guess, that was left which probably could have been nurtured or developed in time, but I think, I don't know if we knew how to do that as well as we could have, because I think at that time, if you didn't have "experience" or you hadn't spent enough time in the station, or you weren't well enough known within the station or trusted by folks, even if you were known and trusted, sometimes people wouldn't get positions.
Whereas we're an educational, I can say this now, in hindsight, looking back and doing the work that I do. There were a lot of times that positions went unfilled that could have been filled by someone. Okay. And just because they didn't have all of the skills that were necessary didn't mean that they could not have learned that, or we couldn't have developed that.
Now sometimes we didn't have people to develop them. And I think, again, hindsight being 2020, that might have been a situation. Where we might have been able to lean on our alumni a little bit more to help out with that where we did have some of the deficiencies or to help train someone up into doing this work that we didn't necessarily do at that time. But again, this is all in hindsight.
JAG: And I wanted to ask you about it, given your current roles and everything you do in the DEI space. That's why I was curious for your perspective on it. Looking back years later.
Kafele: I think there was a lot of that, that we weren't looking or able to have those conversations about who was represented on staff.
What were the demographics of the station staff? Because I think at the time we would've said anybody who wants to come in, you just have to come in and put the time and put the effort in. But you also have to note that space has to be welcoming to folks and open for them to come into that space.
So for me, I know, like I had my letter from Kim, you had folks like BB in, in public relations. You had people who reached out and pulled you in. Like my first exec position, I didn't run for anything my second year. Cause I was like, eh, I got other stuff to do. I was like an RA that year and I was like, I need to focus on that.
Then I got pulled into, they didn't elect anyone for public service director. Because the joy of the election process which again, hindsight being 2020, was a process that I would probably needed to have looked at, where I really think that if someone's interested, even if they don't have.
Some of the skills you can develop them. Yeah. Or you put them in an interim position, give them the opportunity to do this work. And if it doesn't work, do you let them know, sorry, this isn't working. Because we sure enough had a way to get rid of someone. Cuz we had an impeachment my senior year, which was fantastic.
JAG: Oh geez.
Kafele: So of course you've gone through Z89 elections, right?
JAG: Yes.
Kafele: So it's supposed to be confidential and no one can say anything. We're trapped in this room all day. Basically airing out grievances. Yeah. About an individual candidate. And you have the people who love them and the people who hate them going at it for however long.
And God forbid if you're on the exec at the time because they send you out. And you're just sitting in the hallway or wherever waiting for your fate to be decided and then to come back in and be told. Oh, by the way, you got a position, great, happiest person in the world, or you did not get the position, or we have no confidence in you.
Yeah, and let's just say the amount of relationships that were damaged over that process over the time that I was there is definitely something that needed to be addressed. You had everything in there. You had racism, you had sexism, probably had some homophobia in there. You had. You name it, it went on with that process and it was just a tough sort of situation to be in and G-d forbid again, that you participated in and things didn't go the way that you were hoping or the way they should have gone for you.
Especially cuz you know, a lot of folks have given blood, sweat, tears to the station. Given up breaks, lost relationships, gained relationships, all of that time and energy that's spent in the station and just wanting to have your chance to give back to the station and not to be able to do that was always hard.
And there were a lot of people who could have been on, exec or senior staff who didn't get an opportunity. And a number of times folks got on who didn't need to or because they were the one who ran for a position that nobody else wanted and were sort of space fillers. So there was a lot of that.
But again, that's what happens in organizations and depending on how strong your bylaws or your structures or your other ways to intervene, which we didn't really have. Now, I think led to a lot of the trouble that we had both then and then later on with it. But really looking back now, it's give somebody a chance, train them, develop them.
That's what the station is for. We act like a professional station, but we're not there yet. This is the place for people to learn that. And really making sure that you give them that opportunity and to have someone who's in there to help them to do that would've been helpful. Although at that point you really couldn't tell us anything.
JAG: Yeah, we're 19, 20 years old. We know everything.
Kafele: We know everything. But I don't think we would've benefited from working with our student like with student organization training, with leadership development, all of those things that probably should have been a little bit more in place that never were, because again, we kept passing things down and we were doing well.
So nobody brings that stuff in until it becomes a problem. And I think a lot of that probably came to a head, and yeah. I think Dena got the short end of the stick on that one. So that sort of came to a head with her. So her and Harry, right?
JAG: Yeah. Dena and Harry.
Kafele: Yep. During Dena and Harry's term that, sort of one, to fall out from the pulse. And the rebuilding from there. Cuz then again, you lost a lot of history and a lot of things that were left exposed. And I think if there was a little bit more sensitivity to who's in our leadership, how is that reflected? I think up to that point we had only maybe had one female gm maybe one GM who had been of color.
Maybe. And not really being cognizant of those things at that time or what that means for the station. The importance of the specialty shows, like how do you keep those going? Like even when we were moving to the pulse, there were still blocks of time that had historically belonged to different genres of music.
And trying to keep those going and what happens if those are not there, even if that's not what your station is, all the rest of the time. For that experience for the students to be able to do that. You wanna make sure that you have those opportunities. You wanna make sure that we can grow.
Now, of course, you also have the opportunity to make the mistake and we had that and learn from that and then keep going.
JAG: Alright. We'll leave it there. Kafele Khalfani, Class of 96. Appreciate your insight and your time today.
Kafele: Excellent.