Today we sit down with Mitch Reiter, WJPZ Class of 1979, to go through his journey from AM 1200 in Syracuse to running Camp Towanda in the Poconos.
Mitch paints a picture of the old station inside of Spectrum Sundries, now the site of the Sheraton on campus. And we spend some time talking about the leadership of classmate and WJPZ Hall of Famer Mike Roberts. Mike recruited Mitch to the radio station, and empowered him to become promotions manager, then eventually station manager. It was on these classes from the late 70's to keep alive what the founders before them had built.
After graduating, Mitch worked at WPIX-TV in New York, doing everything from field producing to being their first ever satellite coordinator. He also worked on ABC's "After School Specials," before pivoting and following another true passion of his, summer camps.
Camp Towanda is a seven-week summer camp in the Poconos area of Pennsylvania. The kids are unplugged. No devices. They have to communicate face to face (imagine that?). But running the camp is a year-round job, doing corporate retreats in the fall, and of course planning the next year's events. Mitch does a great job explaining how his experience at WJPZ prepared him for this job. And yes, the camp has done television, radio, and even podcasts.
Mitch throws out the idea of a big WJPZ reunion, with all of our families, at his facility. This may be an idea to look into...
More:
Friday Night Flix, Camp Towanda's Highlight Reel: http://www.fridayniteflix.com/
Camp Towanda Website: https://www.camptowanda.com/
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 and one of the cool things about this podcast is I've been able to connect with alumni whose story I don't necessarily know. Maybe you don't necessarily know. We're bringing some back into the fold, and that is true of today's guest, Mitch Reiter from the class of 1979. Welcome to the podcast.
Mitch: Thanks Jon. Nice to be here.
JAG: Really appreciate you reaching out. When this thing first came out, I think it was when the trailer first came out with Rick Wright, and you sent me an email and said you wanted to be on the podcast. So happy to have you. Let's start by giving me a little bit of your personal history, how you ended up at Syracuse, and what you did at the radio station.
Mitch: I had some camp friends that went to Syracuse and back in those days you didn't really go touring too much on campus. And I really, really wanted Johnny Carson's job. So that brought me to broadcasting. And then of course, Newhouse. I didn't get into Newhouse initially, but after the first semester I took Com 101 with Marshall Matlock, who was incredible.
And there I was. So that's how I got to Syracuse.
JAG: So you get to Syracuse, like many of us wanting to be the next big name in show business. Some wanted to be Bob Costas, some wanted to be Johnny Carson, and the list goes on. How did you get involved with the radio station?
Mitch: Well, I was in Comm 101 class and Mike Roberts was in my class.
And Mike is, I believe, one of the founding fathers or initial saviors of WJPZ 1200 AM. The Rock of Syracuse. By the way, I think I donated my bumper sticker about 20 years ago. I hope it's still in the studios there. And WJPZ was in the basement of Spectrum Sundries, which was an old row house where the Sheraton is now.
And we were downstairs and it was pretty, it was a basement and I think it was known as an underground station. We didn't have funds from the student activity fee. We had to sell commercials locally. And our signal was terrible, and cable was just coming out. I forgot the name of the cable company, but we were on cable and you could hear us everywhere except on the University campus.
So we were basically a local rock top 40 station and Mike said, Mitch, you should come down. You got a great face for radio. And he pushed me cuz I was trying to balance schoolwork and everything else and fooling around. And he made a big impact. Mike Roberts is a star who saved WJPZ after the original founding fathers.
They were graduating as I was a freshman. That was really great, and I started as a DJ and then I became the promo director selling ads. And then eventually the station manager.
JAG: So what's cool about this is we're filling in a little bit of a gap in the history because we've got the original founding fathers. Put the station on the year in 72, graduated in 75.
So you were just past them in 79 here. He later seventies. Still on AM before they moved to FM obviously. Talk to me about, if you could paint the picture of what the station was like at that time. Obviously you're in the Spectrum records where the Sheraton is, now you're on AM, coming in through the cable stations and everywhere, but the campus, all the suburbs Rick Wright called it the high rent district, of Fayetteville Manlius, when you're coming through the cable system, tell me what it was like just, you know, in the building.
Mitch: Sure. But first you, you know, you mentioned Rick Wright's name and I could only hear him say, "Are there any serious broadcasters out there?" And that's how we would start the lecture. Did he do it when you were there?
JAG: He did. I was in his radio industry and TV and radio performance classes. Yep.
Mitch: Yeah. Oh, he was quite a guy. So downstairs, the basement, so Spectrum Sundries was the closest thing we had to a union building. We didn't have Schine. That was nonexistent. The bookstore was in a metal army barricade facility where the Schine is now. The hustle and bustle, the wood floor creaking above our head.
You go downstairs, basement steps. In an old building, there's litter and leaves. You walk down in two or three rooms. Hard to remember, but the studio, the board, it looked like a cockpit out of a World War II fighter plane. There were four pots, you know, two for the turntables. Real turntables.
Cause we'd spin 45's. And one for the mic, and either one or two pots for the cart machines, which played the commercials. They look like eight tracks. If anybody out there knows what an eight track tape looks like.
JAG: So I can tell you that I graduated in 2002 and I was there for the retirement of the cart machines.
So they lasted a good two decades after you graduated. So they were still there. They might have been original 1975 by the way they were performing, but they were still there.
Mitch: Yeah, absolutely. We had to put like a matchbook in it to level the tape so it wouldn't wobble as it played back. And I think I have some of those carts, those little gray and clear carts somewhere in a storage bin. When I find it, I'll bring it up to the station.
JAG: Oh, we'd love that. We'd absolutely love that.
Mitch: Also, if you stretched your legs out underneath the counter, the desk, you might accidentally take us off air. Because you would take the plug that was plugged in and kill electricity.
JAG: Very easy to just unplug the radio station in those days.
Mitch: Yeah, I might have been guilty of that a couple times.
JAG: So you mentioned Mike Roberts, but talk to me about some of the names and faces you remember and the camaraderie that you know has existed through 50 years of the radio station, and I'm sure it was true in the late seventies as well.
Tell me about some of the people and interactions you had there. Merry little band of, not quite a pirate radio station, but getting it on the air and being radio DJs in the late seventies.
Mitch: Yeah. Well, Mike Roberts again was brilliant in bringing everyone together and he's in Atlanta now, broadcasting there. I remember Nina Fenton, she was a DJ also, and I'm going blank. There's a gentleman who was very talented and he was blind. He was very impressive. I think my show followed him. I was Midday Mitch 12 to 2, and I followed him and he always impressed me, having been visually challenged and back in the day, you know, that wasn't easy.
JAG: Sure.
Mitch: I don't recall a lot of all staff meetings. You know, we were running in and out from class and everything and you did your part. I think Mike, as the general manager, would have meetings with whoever was there, and he would do it multiple times. There was no Zoom, there were no cell phones, there was no email.
The only computer was I think, was it Steele Hall on the quad? They had those big giant IBM machines with the tapes turning, and in one of my classes, they brought us down there and the cool thing was that the IBM machine punched out our name in a punch card. You see all the dots.
And it spelled out Mitch. And how cool was it that a machine did that. But other than that, everything was manual.
JAG: How did you end up coming into a leadership role at the station from, you're on the air, Midday, Mitch, noon to two. But how did you sort of climb up and decide to take on a leadership role?
Mitch: I don't think anybody else wanted the job. Mike Roberts, empowered everyone. He was a true leader, I thought, and I learned a lot from him, parlayed it into a different career. But he said, you know, Mitch, I want you to do this. You can do this thing. I'm Mike. I, I don't even know what promo, promo? What is that, promotional? Pomegranate juice, I mean, what is it?
And then there I am pedaling, you know, 30-second, 60-second spots. Acropolis Pizza, which was on Westcott Street, Burnett's Pharmacy, which I think is now the parking lot. Not M Street, but what is that, that the Varsity is on?
JAG: Oh south Crouse.
Mitch: Yep. Yeah. And I did it. And of course you learn. And at the same time I was working at not WSYR, the one in North Syracuse.
Oh my gosh. It was a beautiful music station. That's elevator music. And now that was the job. and I was doing news for them and he just gave me all this confidence. And then as my years went on by my junior or senior year, I was a station manager. I think it was junior year actually. It was great.
And then from there, I will say one of the jobs I got after graduating, I worked at WPIX-TV in New York. And when I went to try to get an interview, I went to NBC, CBS, you couldn't even get past the lobby security. Even then WPIX, the Daily News building. You can walk right in. No one stopped you.
I went up to the receptionist. Receptionist was in one of my TVR classes.
JAG: No kidding.
Mitch: Elise Dickman. And we chatted and she let me walk down the hall into the newsroom. Wow. And I did this for like five days. I paid my $25 toll from New Jersey, parking, whatever it was then. And I stood. there like a nerd in the newsroom, a whirlwind of activity.
All the IBM electric typewriters are going. And like on the third or fourth day, the guy who ended up being the executive producer, he says to me, who are you? I said, I don't know, but do you need any help ? And he goes, do you know how to rip scripts? I fricken had a little clue what that was from ,you know, we didn't have copier or a machine you would type out a script on 10 ply carbon paper and it was perforated so you would rip the carbon out and distribute to the talent and the producer and everyone, so that was a no-brainer. I went to college. I figured out how to rip a script. I did that for a couple weeks, and then I got another job.
I became a field producer there, and then two entities began. One was called CNN, and the other one was called INN. INN was owned by the Daily News Corp, which owned WPIX and the Chicago Tribune. So all these jobs opened. And at the time I remember this vividly, the producer was like, who wants to be the reporter who wants to do this?
And when it was, who wants to be the satellite coordinator, no one raised their hand. So I raised my hand. What was a satellite coordinator? At the time, there were two satellites. I was told COMSAT one and COMSAT two. So we had a red transponder space on it to beam up stories and I needed to coordinate that.
And it was on the job training cuz no one knew how to do it.. You know, now there's like 40,000, I don't think I'm exaggerating. 40,000 or maybe 14,000 satellites orbiting and everyone has their own. But it was a different time. And that was from my TVR experience at Syracuse. Boy, did I go off on a tangent.
JAG: No, I was gonna ask you about your career path and where you've been since Syracuse. And I think that's a through line we've seen throughout the podcast is you're in this basement of Spectrum trying to get by on duct tape and bubblegum, and now you're in this, Hey, who knows how to do this?
Well, nobody. But you know what? I figured out how to do it at WJPZ. I can probably figure it out now. I gotta imagine it served you well as you were starting out your career.
Mitch: Yeah. The only thing I had to concentrate on was not unplugging WPIX off the air with my foot
JAG: Again, things you learn at JPZ.
Mitch: Exactly, exactly.
JAG: So you go, you become the satellite coordinator. Where does your career take you after that, Mitch?
Mitch: I worked on some films. ABC after school specials production assistant. I worked at a radio station in Poughkeepsie at the same time. And I actually got fired because the movie I was working on had some night scenes in Staten Island.
We finished at 4:00 AM and I was going on the year at, I think 6:00 AM and from Staten Island to Poughkeepsie, you can't make it. And twice I did it. The guy fired me. I said, but I am working in broadcasting. He didn't give a.., And I worked local cable television news in my hometown in Englewood, New Jersey when cable came out. And we just did local news that I don't think anybody watched . And then I got the job at PIX, where I was for about five years. I could have gone on, but I did take a career path change, sort of. I went into the summer camp business, which was also a passion of mine. And I've been there for 34 years.
I own and direct Camp Towanda, which is in Pennsylvania, in the Poconos, about two and a half hours south of Syracuse. And I have my own radio station. I have my own TV show, podcast and everything I learned at Newhouse and here at WJPZ. I apply to my success because you know, when you're live, ready or not, you're on the air. And it's a production, so I have 450 kids and 300 staff. That's a lot. And ready or not, these people show up in June and it's live. And I would bet most alums of WJPZ. Are probably not still in broadcasting. I don't know if that's true or not.
JAG: No, that's absolutely true. Just from a cross section of those I've talked to. Absolutely.
Mitch: But what you learned from the experience here, you take with you as you do with all other experiences. But WJPZ was major impact cuz I was empowered to take on more responsibility and you gain confidence and wisdom. And I applied that to my career and then I was lucky to have a camp, radio station, and a podcast, and I do videos and all of that has given me an edge above my competition, and I've fortunately been very successful. And if you wanna watch Friday night flicks.com, check it out. That's me. I'm the producer.
JAG: We'll link it in the show notes. Absolutely.
So it's a summer camp, but you were, it's obviously a year round job, right?
Mitch: Yes. The kids are there for seven weeks. The staff training is about two or three weeks, and then I have a shoulder season that we do corporate retreats and private parties and weddings and bar mitzvahs and school groups. That gets me through mid September and then the rest of the year it's getting it together and I come to Syracuse almost every year to recruit staff to work on my media team.
JAG: Wow, okay.
Mitch: Or other positions at camp. And we have a very strong Syracuse population at camp and even the campers, I influence them. You know, I have everything orange. And a lot of kids end up coming to Syracuse. And I come up and catch a good basketball game.
JAG: Oh, absolutely. Why not? That's a great hook. Tell me about your passion for the camp. I think that's really fascinating that you've really fallen in love with this whole area.
Mitch: Yeah, it. I pinch myself that I got to do this and I feel blessed. And a camp for those of us who had the privilege of going to summer camp know how unique and special it is.
And in today's world, ironically, we're unplugged at camp. The kids do not have any electronics at camp and they have to have face-to-face communication with each other. And it's all land and water sports. And arts, drama, arts and crafts, and media. Our radio station has gone off the air.
We now do podcasts. Kids don't even have radios anymore. But we had an AM station which was 1200, which I did on purpose.
JAG: Oh, okay.
Mitch: Yeah. You know, an illegal bootleg station. It was great. And being able to do my own productions, audio and video productions, and even graphics, it's all from my experience at Syracuse and I've turned it into an incredible, meaningful career impacting so many kids and college kids who come work for me. And I would love to host a JPZ reunion at camp, a Great Weekend, in the late summer or September.
JAG: Oh wow.
Mitch: You know, the people can bring their families. We can have campfires tell these old stories. That would be really awesome. We gotta do it before I get too much older.
JAG: No, I love this. We got the virtual campfire going now with the podcast series, but I'd love the idea. I think we're gonna follow up with that for sure.
Mitch: Yeah, and Jon, we could do a podcast around the campfire.
JAG: Oh, I love it.
Mitch: I have done that.
JAG: That is really cool. The crackling in the background makes some smores. The whole thing, that's fantastic.
Mitch: Absolutely. Drip a little chocolate on the microphone, on the wind screen.
JAG: On the windscreen, not the microphone. We know that from experience.
Mitch: Yes. Yes.
JAG: Do you have any stories that stick out to you from just, you look back and say, remember the time when? Other than potentially unplugging the radio station with your foot. Any funny stories you think back to where you just laugh, these years later?
Mitch: Well, I do remember of course, having to go to the bathroom while you're on the air. And we're spinning 40 fives, so it's a three minute song maybe. And the bathroom was upstairs in Spectrum Sundries. And I just remember I had to go.
JAG: Sure. We've all been there.
Mitch: Yeah. And you know, I'm running, I felt like George on Seinfeld, pushing people outta the way. I gotta go, sorry, I'm on the air. I gotta go. I gotta go and I come back and the needle is, you know, spinning with the crackling noise. And then I said something goofy. I'm sure I hit the wrong cart.
You know, I think I did it. The emergency broadcast system cart by mistake or something. , because you're flustered at that point, right?
And of course, Mike Roberts, you know, is listening and he says, what is going on down there? When you gotta go, you gotta go, Mike . So that really stands out. And of course unplugging the station off the air.
JAG: One of the through lines of the podcast series and talking to alumni from, again, it's crazy to say it, but six different decades is just how similar these stories are. The location of the station may change. The equipment might change. The names of the people may change, but there's something at its core, at its essence, the JPZ people deep down. I feel like we're just all the same in so many ways, no matter what time we were there. So it's been really great talking to you today, Mitch.
Mitch: Yeah, thank you. It's great. And I'll say that is really significant, because the other alternative was WAER. At least in my day, that was the school station. And that one was prominent and all the fanfare if you were on that. And we were in the trenches making it happen. And that attracted a certain type of individual.
JAG: I hope I don't repeat myself too many times on the podcast. I don't think I've mentioned this yet in the podcast, but we've had so many people talk about WAER. When I got there in the fall of 98, it would've been like everybody I wanted to be the next, you know, Bob Costas, Mike Tirico, sportscaster.
So I applied and I got into WAER and at the same time I was kind of messing around, like, some friends of mine were JPZ,, so I was DJing that as well. I know you're a New Yorker. I grew up in Boston, so rivalry there, a big sports fan, but before it was even on the air at WAER. I was the chief announcer and in charge of all the DJs at JPZ.
Those are my people. I felt homesick when I was at Syracuse. For the first month or two at Syracuse until I discovered the radio station. And you know, 75% of the people I still talk to from Syracuse are JPZ people. Several of my groomsmen were JPZ people. I eventually bowed out of AER because. I didn't want sports to be work.
I like watching sports as a fan. I didn't want it to be work and I was having a blast at JPZ and I ended up being on the air as a music DJ for 15 years because of it. So there's something about the magic of JPZ and it's so cool to hear that it started in the seventies and it's gone on through the 2020s.
Mitch: It's really great. And you eloquently expressed it. I think we should all be proud that we had the opportunity to be a part of WJPZ, and apparently it's gonna stay around for a long time.
JAG: We can only hope So, Mitch Reiter, thank you so much for your time today.
Mitch: My pleasure. Great to be here.