NC
Natalie Costanza
  • Music Industry, Mass Communication
  • Class of 2020
  • Penfield, NY

Natalie Costanza visits New York City radio stations

2018 Apr 3

Natalie Costanza and 12 other members of WONY 90.9 FM, SUNY Oneonta's student-run radio station, took a field trip to New York City to visit major radio institutions and learn about the industry. There, they received private guided tours of New York Public Radio and iHeartMedia. It was a rare chance for students to get a behind-the-scenes peek at professional broadcasting studios, interact with veteran broadcasters and top industry executives, and learn about internship and career opportunities.

Costanza, of Penfield, NY, is studying Music Industry, Mass Communication at SUNY Oneonta.

Students were accompanied by Dr. Andrew Bottomley, WONY faculty adviser and Assistant Professor of Media Studies in SUNY Oneonta's Communication & Media Department.

Students visited New York Public Radio's offices in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Lower Manhattan for an eventful two hours. While receiving a full guided tour of NYPR's newsrooms and studios, students were able to observe the legendary Brian Lehrer hosting his live call-in talk show "The Brian Lehrer Show." Upon first arriving in the NYPR lobby, the WONY group ran into one of Lehrer's guests, the Public Advocate for the City of New York, Letitia Jones, who is the city's second highest-ranking elected official.

In addition to the studio tour, the students had meet-and-greets with three legends of public radio: Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich, local New York City host of "All Things Considered" Jami Floyd, and "On the Media" host Brooke Gladstone. Gladstone even invited the WONY group into On the Media's offices and pulled her entire production staff into a huddle to talk with the students. These enlightening conversations were followed by a highly informative discussion session with Vice President of Recruitment, Diversity and Inclusion Brenda Williams-Butts about internships and jobs. WONY's visit concluded with NYPR generously catering a pizza lunch for the students, followed by a visit to the stations' archives and a chat with the Director of Archives, Andy Lanset.

In the afternoon, the group ventured to iHeartMedia's headquarters in the historic AT&T Building in Tribeca. Promotions Director Danielle Dellilo gave the WONY students an extensive tour of the iHeartRadio Theater and all of iHeart's New York City-area radio stations, including the massively popular Top 40 station Z100 (flagship station for the syndicated weekday morning program Elvis Duran and The Morning Show), the hip-hop station Power 105.1, and the classic rock station Q104.3. The students were even invited into the Lite FM broadcast studio by midday DJ Helen Little for a spirited impromptu chat while she was airing a music block.

Following the tour, the students took in presentations about the state of the radio and music industries from Marc Anastasia, iHeartMedia's Integrated Media Sales Manager, and Scott Hopeck, iHeartMedia's President of the New York Region. Both Anastasia and Hopeck were incredibly generous with their time and eagerly fielded the students' enthusiastic questions.

All in all, the field trip was an enriching educational experience that the WONY student members will not soon forget.