Liz Gupta (nee Doyon), always knew she wanted to be an attorney. And when she learned that an undergraduate degree in journalism would provide her a great foundation, she headed off to Syracuse. And while she knew what she wanted to do for a long-term career, she wouldn't have guessed she'd be a 19-year-old general manager of a radio station, asking the Chancellor for a million dollars, and working with general contractors on a massive rebuild.
After joining the station, Liz quickly became part of the morning show, then joining the exec staff as morning show director. By spring of her sophomore year, she had become a leading candidate to become the station's new general manager.
Liz's tenure as GM was unique in the half-century history of the radio station. Knowing that the station needed to be overhauled, she worked with Stephen Kurtz, Alex Silverman, and other alumni to put together a proposal. She and Alex walked in to Chancellor Nancy Cantor's office and asked for nearly a million dollars. And she said yes.
While this would turn out to be a pivotal moment for the long-term history of WJPZ, it did not come with some major issues in the short term. What was supposed to be a summer construction project dragged through the entire fall semester, necessitating the station to be voice-tracked from Newhouse studios. Liz and Alex had a number of meetings with contractors and others to try and push the project across the finish line. Finally, along with Rob Crandall, Stephen Kurtz, and Corey Crockett, the spend the week prior to Christmas 2012 installing the new equipment, sometimes while the construction continued. The new station went on the air, just in time for Liz's term as GM to wrap up as she headed to London for a semester.
If you missed it in Corey Crockett's episode, here's the video of when they put the new station on the air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE9wfQZ6TgQ
Liz returned from London, and spent her senior year as VP of Ops, and finally got to experience the new studio.
Following graduation, Liz worked as a victim advocate in her home state of Massachusetts. From there, she went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis, before returning home to Boston, where she's been ever since. And she got married in 2022, with a Z89 contingent of course.
WJPZ continues to be the world's greatest media classroom, and Liz learned some incredible lessons during her tenure. She talks about maintaining professional composure in high-stress situations (such as delayed construction). And the importance of relationships - she cites a number of friendships with both classmates and older alumni that she's formed over the years.
And we close with a great story that involves Liz and Rocket Ross.
Join Us in Syracuse for Banquet on March 4th: https://bit.ly/WJPZ50BanquetTickets
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast is produced by Jon Gay '02 and JAG in Detroit Podcasts
JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay. If you listen to any of the podcasts with the alumni from the decade of the 2010s, you've heard today's guest name pop up a number of times as somebody who has had just a tremendous influence on many of our alumni, on the radio station, did wonderful things while she was there.
You may know her as Liz Doyon. She's now recently married. Congratulations. And now she is Liz Gupta. Welcome to the podcast.
Liz: Thanks so much, Jag. Happy to be here. Thanks for doing this.
JAG: So congratulations, first of all in getting married. I was just looking on Facebook. You were a beautiful bride. Welcome to Married Life.
Liz: Thank you very much. And I couldn't do it without few JPZ members there, at least.
JAG: Who was in your wedding, real quick, from JPZ?
Liz: So we had a few people invited that couldn't make it, but TJ was there and TJ was alumni president when I was president and GM of the station. So we've remained friends since then.
Bonded over our love for soccer, all things sports-related, Syracuse, everything. He's such a great guy.
JAG: And he mentioned you in his episode of the podcast as well, so the love is mutual there. Let's go back to the beginning, Liz. How does a girl from our shared hometown of Boston end up at Syracuse and finding the radio station?
Liz: Yeah, absolutely. I was fortunate enough in high school to start a high school online newspaper called WSPN. No relation to ESPN. It didn't mean Sports. Wayland Student Press Network. And we started doing really well. Got some awards from Columbia. I really got into it. Was really enjoying journalism.
Always knew I wanted to be a lawyer in the back of my mind. But everyone had told me writing was so important. I love talking to people. I like to get to know people's stories. Journalism was just it for me. I loved it. And that of course, led me to look at Syracuse for obvious reasons. Even though my oldest brother went there, I'm the youngest of four.
He graduated class of 2006. Conveniently enough. Same year as TJ. So they do have some mutual friends. Being that I was always the one who wanted to be different in my family. I was like, no way. I'm going to Syracuse. My oldest brother went here. That's crazy. I can't go to the same place.
I gotta be different. We took that campus tour and something just clicked. It was, I knew I wanted to go to Newhouse anyways, but just getting on that campus, seeing the quad again, seeing the Dome. It just all came back and I just thought, this is where I need to be. This is home.
JAG: And how did you find the radio station when you got there, Liz?
Liz: So I was in Newhouse looking around for some things to do and growing up I had an Uncle Dave who told me that I had the face for radio in the most loving way possible, of course.
JAG: Yeah. We've all gotten that. I've also gotten voice for newspaper, by the way.
Liz: Yeah. Oh, I've heard that one too. Yeah. I was looking at citrus, AER, ERW. I know I didn't really wanna do something without structure. I'm a structured person so looking around, looked at Citrus, JPZ and I figured I didn't wanna compete with the pretty people on TV. And I just, I got lucky. I just stumbled upon JPZ. I got trained by Matt Dangelantonio, who was very committed, very talented, and continues to work in the news industry and everything today.
And I just fell in love. Really, it was the people, it was just the vibe in the station. I got adopted early on by Veronica "V" Ripson. And she just became like a mentor for me. And yeah, I don't know. It was just the feel of the station, if that makes sense. You go in and there's just something about it.
JAG: So you get trained, you're at the station. How did you rise through the ranks and eventually wanna become a general manager?
Liz: If you told me when I joined the station that was going to happen, I would've laughed at you. For those who know me well know that I tend to take on way more than any human probably should.
And, I was a freshman. I got into a morning show with Nephtaly Rivera. I really enjoyed that. You have to enjoy it to get up at 5:00 AM in the morning, as a college kid. Come stumble down from the Mount in the snow, in the rain, whatever it is you're there. It's funny.
I'm not sure I could pinpoint what happened or how it happened, but I loved the morning shows. I got onto exec staff second semester of my freshman year as morning show director, I believe. Immediately reached out to Peterman and Marty Dundics. Yeah. And I believe yourself as well. When I became morning show director, because I was looking for some advice, trying to figure out how to train people.
JAG: And I had done very little mornings in my career at that point. I'm not sure why you would've called me, but I appreciate it!
Liz: It was definitely, cuz we connected at that Banquet, my first Banquet freshman, year probably talking Boston Sports. We immediately had that Boston Sports connection, right? So got into the morning show stuff was really into that. Next year, sophomore year, Craig was looking for a GP president.
There wasn't someone who was vying for it and I was naturally moving my way up and Alex Brewer said, you know what? Why not Liz Doyon? And that was it. I was just super involved in the station. I had been morning show director. I was there all the time. I tend to be someone who wants to step up and, like I said, take on more than I should.
So I think I, I heard President GM and I thought, wow, that's incredible. I wanna do that. This is so cool. Like I said, after that first banquet, I just, that solidified everything for me.
JAG: It's funny to hear you talk and tell these stories and just the parallels between so many other people we've talked to on the podcast.
Many people did a high school newspaper or high school radio station. You did the high school online newsletter, which reveals your age compared to some of the other alumni, but I'll leave that one alone. But getting and falling in love with the station, falling in love with the culture, what can I do? How can I get more involved? As you came up and became GM, Liz, is there anything that the station did that specifically sticks out to you in memory that you're proud of?
Liz: Yeah, absolutely. So my president GM year was probably most well- known for the rebuild, the station rebuild. . While I was GM, I had a station for only a few months, frankly, because within a few months we got shut down.
We were starting, it was called Project Media Expand, and we were working with Citrus TV and Syracuse University. Working on blueprints, which I never would've expected to do as a 19 year old at a radio station in college. That was, yeah, that's a crazy experience. But, yeah, so probably what stands out to me is that, and frankly, I had a meeting with Alex Silverman, with the Chancellor of Syracuse University.
I believe I've heard some other people talk about the finances of JPZ throughout the years. And my years were student association funded. And we needed money to make a new radio station, to literally renovate the building, buy new boards, buy new materials. Gosh, we went from one studio, one recording studio to three, we had a lot to get first.
So we, Alex Silverman and I, and Tex was evolved as well. We got together. Figured out our plan made a meeting with the chancellor and effectively convinced her to give us an interest free loan for nearly a million dollars. Wow. And I will just never forget cuz I was 20, I went into her office with Alex Silverman.
We're dressed up. I'm nervous. I don't know what to say. And Alex is just a great advocate for our station. Has always been. Will always be. And yeah. I'll just never forget she said yes. I don't know if that's cuz she was on her way out or if we really were convincing.
She said yes. She gave us a million dollars essentially with the plan of paying the student association back over these years. And I have to ask, I actually don't know if we've paid it back yet,
JAG: But by the way, for those of you listening, she did use air quotes when she said paying the student association back for those on the podcast.
Liz: You're literally taking money from the university, not paying it back with interest.
JAG: So I would just like to assume that we, in the previous 10 or so years, we've paid that money back through tuition of all the students that have come through there with the tuition hikes. I'm gonna assume it's paid back that way.
Liz: Absolutely. And I will also never forget right after we had gotten that money, Alex and I were so excited. We went over to Fagan's for a beer and that wasn't my first beer in Fagans pre-21. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.
JAG: So when you said you had a radio station for only a few months, you had the old station and then it moved temporarily to a new house while you were gm. Do I have that right?
Liz: Yes, that's right. Yeah, it to some sort of degree. A lot of the rebuild started over the summer, the end of that spring semester. And as we were going into the summer, we had planned that everything was gonna be done by the first week of September. But as construction goes, it never runs on time.
Gosh, that summer I was actually, I was working in New York City with a bunch of JPZ'ers for the London Olympics. We were interns at NBCUniversal at 30 Rock. And that summer was really interesting. We also had an issue. We had a legal issue going on. We were having the station rebuild.
Everything was just, in my opinion, it felt like everything was just crumbling. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm gonna ruin this. We're gonna lose the station. It's gotta be a mess. I think the biggest stress coming back into the fall semester was we don't have a station. We don't have a studio.
What do we do? I was fortunate enough at the time that my VP was Rashaud Thomas. And he was quite familiar with pre-recording shows. And I believe that this has been talked about on the podcast before, the kind of controversy of pre-recording shows. And we were able to work with WAER and Newhouse and get us some recording studio time, some space.
Newhouse was, of course, very welcoming and very helpful for us, especially as we pushed to remind them that we are the greatest media classroom and that they need us as well. So yes, we had everyone going in to pre-record their shows. It was really difficult because we didn't know when we were getting a studio back, we didn't really have a recruiting tactic because how do you recruit people to a radio station when you don't have a station? And training was really difficult, so credit to all the staff at that time for keeping it going, keeping it moving, getting into the studio, pre-recording and frankly, pre-recording radio morning shows. I pre-recorded with Rashaud.
It was fun, but it's just not the same. It's really not sitting in the studio in the morning. Having that experience, talking to callers. It you really lose a lot, in my opinion. And I think we did all right. We made it through.
JAG: When did you get into the new studio?
Liz: Gosh, yeah. That was fun. That's like I said, we were supposed to get in somewhere around end of August, early September. That just kept on moving back all the way to the end of December. To the point where I was going abroad in January. So a little sad cuz I literally helped build the station and then moved across the pond.
But yeah, that December, after all the students had left, we were finally able to get into the studio. it was not done yet. We were literally fighting with these contractors, carpenters, everything just to get in there and get some stuff done. We got Tex up there. We had Rob Crandall and we had Alex Silverman and Corey Crockett, the incoming president and GM was there as well.
And we took I'm not sure how many days it was, four or five days together before Christmas. Brought everything into the station. I remember we had to have had at least a hundred boxes of different equipment and whatnot that we had picked up from student association, driven it up the Hill, unboxed it.
We even put together, Alex Silverman and I were screwing through tables to get all of our computers set up and everything. It was pretty insane. It was a marathon. We were in there among the sawdust, if you will. And I got to watch these three guys put together our two racks.
Put together an AV room and that was just an incredible experience to watch and not something I think a lot of people can say that I got to watch three very professional people put together a radio station, and I'm not gonna say that I was the one there putting it together because.
JAG: I'm sure you had more than a hand in it working with those guys.
Liz: I....maybe.
JAG: So then you're no longer GM cuz you're going abroad and you're watching the thing come back together and I gotta imagine the folks, Corey and the folks after you having to recruit almost from scratch cuz everybody was in tracked in the studios. And Corey talked about this on his episode of the podcast too. I'm sure you're keeping tabs on what's going on from five, six hours ahead.
Liz: I was, that was the saddest banquet for me. I'll admit too. But I was, and it admittedly it did suck. We made this brand-new station. We got on the air. I know there's still a video on Facebook of when we got back on the air because we did take the radio station off air for a little while in order to do the rebuild.
So when we came back on air, oh gosh, Tex played a good song from the eighties. I do believe her early nineties. I'm blanking on it right now, but it will come to me.
JAG: We do actually have the YouTube link, if you missed it in Cory Crockett's episode of the podcast. It's linked in the show notes here.
Liz: So we got the station back online and I essentially went home to Boston, outside of Boston the next day. And, I never got to get on the station on air.
JAG: That was your second semester, senior year you were abroad?
Liz: No, that was junior year. So I was GM my, I guess spring semester. Sophomore year and fall semester of junior year.
JAG: Okay. So you got to delayed gratification cuz you came back from being abroad and got to see it then.
Liz: I did. I got back from being abroad. I got in to the exec role of VP of ops, mostly because I was such good friends with Tex, and I knew that even if I didn't know how to fix it, I could speed dial him.
JAG: That's true. That's true of many alumni over the years. Indeed. Yep.
Liz: Absolutely. So yeah, I got to come back. I was definitely a bit rusty and I think Dena has said before. She loves the radio station, loved what she did with it, but she wasn't a radio person in the same way that a lot of our alumni are. And I relate to that. I haven't stuck with radio. Of course I wish I could, we have such talented alumni, I wouldn't count myself among those.
So getting back on air was a little rusty. But at the end of the day, so much fun to just be in that brand new studio. This studio was nicer than arguably probably 93Q at the time and arguably many radio stations around the US And this was a college radio station.
JAG: Nicer than any station I've been in, probably for sure.
So you mentioned not getting into radio professionally. From Syracuse, you went to law school, and take me through your adventures since graduation.
Liz: Yeah since Syracuse, I worked for a year at the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, which is a famous district around here for us in Massachusetts.
John Kerry worked there, Martha Coakley. And I got to work as a victim witness advocate, and I was working with victims of domestic violence and child abuse, which was, a really rewarding time. But I knew I was using it to go to law school. It was a difficult job, I will say, emotionally and
JAG: I can't imagine, Liz. Oof.
Liz: Absolutely. And, but it helped me get into law school. I ended up at Wash U out in St. Louis. Three years of law school, was so convinced I was gonna leave and never come back to the East Coast. . But something about Missouri just sparked me back. I got a job.
JAG: Has anybody here watched Ozark? Oh, sorry. Kidding.
Liz: And let me tell you, pretty realistic, okay? Been to the Ozarks a few times. But no I had, my first summer job was in Boston at the National Consumer Law Center. I get to work on some class actions of subprime mortgages out of Detroit. During the housing crisis. What led up to the housing crisis and I was in Boston that summer and I just went, yep, this is home.
That was it. I ended up back at a firm in Boston. I was there for four years and I've recently switched to a regional firm out of Hartford, Connecticut, but I'm still up here in Boston. This is still home. Found my spouse not long after graduating law school. Here we are now. We have a nice family. We got a cat, a dog, and a condo.
JAG: There you go. And your husband is also a Bostonian?
Liz: He is. He was originally born in India, but he moved here when he was eight. And he grew up not far away from where I grew up, and also went to college in upstate New York. So we have lots of similarities and things to make fun of each other.
JAG: Love it. Love it. Liz, you talked about a lot of stuff that you went through as GM of the radio station. What lessons do you feel you took from that, that you've been able to apply in your time since?
Liz: Absolutely. I have grown up a lot since that time. I will say that I even.
JAG: I think we all feel that way. Yeah.
Liz: I was, even when I was prepping for this, I was going through my email, some of the JPZ emails I sent out to exec staff and stuff and I just laugh at myself because, I appreciate anyone who was willing to work with me back then, cuz I was still figuring it out. Saw a few, like I am not your mother emails, about people cleaning up stuff at the station.
Oh gosh, I learned plenty I would say. But just even going through the construction meetings with Alex Silverman. Talking to the lead contractor, Carmen Lapino, trying to get all this stuff done when frankly, it's very high stress, high emotions, because we were angry.
We were angry that we didn't have our studio yet. We were angry that they told us August, September, October, November, then finally December. And I can tell you in December that they weren't ready for us yet, but Tex and I were just like, too bad. We're coming. It's time to finish. So I think frankly, what I learned from that really was composure and how to react and interact in those difficult meetings. I know that Alex was with me on South Campus at a meeting with a bunch of construction guys. It was literally, it had to have been 10 men in the room and me. And Alex, to his credit again, was pushing them, being like, why is this not done?
How do we get here? What do we do? And I think I learned a lot from him in that moment. Really how to handle yourself as a professional, composure, even when you are angry and receiving "nasty grams." Which you'll get from people you're working with. You know how to handle yourself, how to approach things.
I think being in radio just gifts you so much when it comes to everyday life, really. Being able to talk and entertain people on air when they can't see you is just such a skill and I think that you can bring that into networking, you can bring it into life. Not many people can do that, frankly. Not many people can paint a picture with just their words and those who can, they're epic and and you want to listen to them, so we have many of these people who are alumni. And here I am, I'm listening to the JPZ podcast cuz I want to listen to you guys.
JAG: Any other names that come to mind that you haven't mentioned yet, Liz, of just relationships, whether they were in school with you or older or younger than you that you've maintained over the years?
Liz: Yeah, absolutely. I'm definitely one of those weird ones that the majority of my, maybe not weird ones, but the majority of my friends and classmates from Syracuse that I am still in touch with this to this day did not actually physically go to Syracuse the same years as me. Matt Friedman certainly comes to mind.
Such a great guy. He actually was inducted into the Hall of Fame when I was president and GM. And we got close at the time because I was an RA. So I was big on making bulletin boards and we had a bulletin board in the station with the Banquet coming up. I wanted to put all of the Hall of Fame inductees up and their information, who they were, where they're from, what do they do now, because the banquet for a lot of people is networking or whatever.
It wasn't really for me, cuz I. That's not where I was headed, but that frankly took a lot of pressure off me. I think I got to make friends with people. Rather than worry about all of that other stuff. But Friedman, I had posted a picture of it on Twitter. He loved it instantly. We got close that year.
He was also invited to the wedding. Unfortunately, couldn't make it because he was celebrating his own 25th anniversary.
JAG: But talk about crossing generations at that point, right? He's celebrating his 25-year wedding anniversary, the year you're getting married and you're great friends. I love, this is what's so great with the alumni association, right?
Liz: Absolutely. I really do. Yeah, I said Rob Crandall, Alex Silverman, Stephen Kurtz, Tex of course. Corey Crockett. What a genuinely wonderful guy. Really, So happy that I could leave the station in his hands when I went abroad because I didn't have to worry, local guy. He knew what he was doing.
Sounded great on air. So passionate about the station and the city of Syracuse itself. So definitely, yeah, Corey as well. And Rashaud Thomas. I know I mentioned him. Now, I'm trying to think. Of course, you Jag.
JAG: I was waiting for that one. No, I'm kidding.
Liz: Hey, still one of my best memories. I wanna say maybe it was freshman year sitting in my dorm room for whatever reason, up super late watching the Red Sox, and you're the only other one up watching it.
And I think we were texting or messaging or something about the Sox, like you. You were graduated from college. I'm a freshman in college here. We are connected through this station. We met one time in person at banquet and just clicked.
JAG: Yeah, and that certainly is the power of the alumni association. My last question for you, Liz, tell me a funny story that sticks with you all these years later.
Liz: So this really wasn't that long ago, but I will forever, I think, harp on Larry Rocket Ross for this. We were at Banquet, pre partying, whatever you wanna call it, having some beers. A bunch of us all like to bring beers from our local hometown.
Let everyone else try it. He's giving me this beer from Rochester and I'm looking at it. Oh wow. Established in 1991 and I'm like, hey, same year as me. And he goes, get out. He doesn't wanna hear it. He is what are you talking about? 1991? You shouldn't be here.
JAG: That was like the year that he would've graduated. Roughly. So that's probably you. You hit him right in the fields with that one.
Liz: Yeah. He was not pleased. But I plan on doing it again next time I pick up a beer. Oh, what year is this one? Rocket?
JAG: Liz, I think it's a credit to you as a person and as a professional that you've got so many great alumni that are older than you saying a lot of things about you.
And throughout the podcast you've had so many of your classmates sing your praises and what a great leader you were of the radio station. So we really appreciate everything you've done as a student and as an alum and for coming on the podcast today. Thanks so much.
Liz: Thank you. And you too, JAG, really, I love that you're making this. This is going to be around forever. We have living history here and frankly, I can't wait to make my kids listen to it.
JAG: There you go. Take care, Liz.
Liz: Thanks Jag.