 |
|
Isaiah Blakely (from left), Steve Wilt and Joe Ceraulo from
WSBU had a chance to meet with Bills Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas at last
year's Super Bowl in Atlanta.
|
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., Jan. 24, 2020 — The Buzz at the Super Bowl?
Yes. For the third year in a row.
Students from WSBU-FM, 88.3 The Buzz, St. Bonaventure University’s nationally ranked radio station, will have a spot on radio row at Super Bowl LIV in Miami next week. Click here to access the WSBU live stream, or paste http://player.listenlive.co/
“We’re one of the only college stations to have ever covered the Super Bowl,” said senior Steve Wilt, who went to Minneapolis two years ago and Atlanta last year with classmates Joe Ceraulo and Isaiah Blakely. Sports Business Journal reported that Columbia University will be attending for the first time, joining returning schools SBU, Syracuse and Fordham.
This year, the students will be joined by three more Buzz colleagues: graduate student Sarah Dezio, sophomore Nicolas Rohloff, and junior Chandler Poczciwinski, the new station manager.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m so excited to be going,” Poczciwinski said. “I’ve heard so much about the experience from Steve and Joe and Isaiah.”
Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School, said he pulled no strings to secure that many press credentials for a college radio station.
“That was all the initiative and persistence of the students, and they wouldn’t have been granted that many if they hadn’t developed a good reputation for their work the last two years,” Chimbel said.
The students will be broadcasting live from 2-4 p.m. Monday and 2-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday from radio row at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
The students already have 15 guests lined up, including former NFL quarterbacks Eric Hipple and Jeff Garcia and former Bears offensive lineman Jimbo Covert, who was just inducted last week into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of the NFL’s Centennial Class.
“And we’ll line up a lot more when we get down there,” Wilt said. “Last year, Terry Bradshaw just finished with an interview next to us, turned around, interrupted our show and came on with us.”
The guests aren’t limited to athletes. The Backstreet Boys, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dog have gone on the air with WSBU over the last two years.
The students will also be providing content for other campus media outlets, including SBU-TV, The BV, TAPinto Greater Olean and the Jandoli Institute. They’ll also be active on the station’s social media platforms: Instagram (@thebuzz_wsbu), Twitter (@wsbu), and Facebook (@wsbuthebuzz).
Chimbel said the scope of the opportunity for the students can’t be overstated.
“I’ve never been to radio row, but you can imagine the sheer force of media that’s in one place at one time,” he said. “Being exposed to that environment is unlike anything a student could imagine. To be able to interact and network with people from that many media organizations, not to mention all the Bonaventure alums in the sports media who they can make connections with, is fantastic.”
Despite having gone only twice to the Super Bowl, the students have made an impression.
“The first year people were telling us, ‘Just tell (prospective guests) you’re from Buffalo, not from a college,’” Wilt said. “Last year, people came up to us, remembered our names, and told us, ‘You tell people you’re from St. Bonaventure.’”
The Buzz has been ranked in the top 5 of Princeton Review’s best college radio station list for more than 20 years.
