WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO

0:01

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

For half a century, WJPZ Syracuse has been the greatest media classroom on the planet. We've trained students from the 1970s to the 2020s on how to run a professional radio station. But the lessons learned and relationships formed go far beyond studios and transmitters. Taking a look back through the eyes of those who experienced it. This is WJPZ at 50.

0:26

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am John Jagay. I'm joined today by a name who's come up in the podcast several times, and I'm excited to get to know him now. We're friends on LinkedIn, but actually really having a first in-depth conversation today. We've been yakking since before I hit the record button, so we're going to get into it. He is Tim Schwartz. He is from the class of 2009. If you are not watching the video on YouTube, he has his Z89 sweatshirt on and the Carmelo Anthony Sweet Victory Sports Illustrated behind him. Welcome to the show, Tim.

0:55

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Thank you. I mean, first of all, I'm scared that my names come up. That's usually not a good thing. I do too. Maybe I can get my wife to watch this because I have a box of old t-shirts and sweatshirts that I have never worn for like 15 years. I went through it the other day and then I was like, I saw a Z89 sweatshirt.

1:15

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

This is getting worn for the first time in like 15 years. And shout out to, I believe it was David Resnick that connected us, right? Yeah, shout out. David knows everybody. David is actually, shout out to my wife, married to one of my wives.

1:26

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

best friends they met at our wedding. Oh, wow. I don't know if he shared. Has he been a guest? He has, but it's been a couple of years since I interviewed him. I mean, he should have led with that, that he found his wife kind of through. It does sound familiar. Yeah. Well, today's about you, Tim. Tell me where you're a West Coast guy originally, how you ended up at Syracuse and then how you ended up at Z89. Yeah. You know, I grew up in San Mateo, which is a little bit south of San Francisco. Shout out, Tom Brady.

1:52

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

i was about to say that uh tom went to the private high school a couple blocks from my high school but um you know i wanted to go like into radio i loved radio growing up i did a little bit of radio in high school and i kind of

2:06

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Back then, I think it was Google. I'll maybe ask Jeeves. I don't know. I looked it up. The other thing is I grew up a huge sports fan. I was watching Syracuse on Big Monday. I'd see the Carrier Dome. I visited a couple of schools. I think Syracuse felt like it was the place I wanted to go to. The other thing I always tell people is I love my parents, but I was ready to get away from the Bay Area.

2:37

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, I love the Bay Area. I live here now still, but I was ready for something different. Okay, so you get to campus. So this would have been 2005. How did you end up finding the radio station? I don't really remember. I'm like a general, like I think I saw a flyer for like a general meeting in Shine and I went and the one thing I remember is they had all the speeches and, you know, no offense to you operations or music people, but I was kind of like...

3:00

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And the sports people came on and then I kind of perked up and I talked to the people that were in the sports department then. And, you know, I kind of felt a really good connection to them. And I came down and I kind of, that's how I got involved. Who were some of the people in the sports department that were there when you arrived on campus?

3:16

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Well, you know, I think for everyone, it is kind of crazy to look back at what some of the people are doing. Dan Duva, he is the announcer for the Vegas Knights. I remember him. I remember Nick Friedel. I was like a producer on his show and Nick's like on ESPN or he was on ESPN covering the Warriors. Now he does The Athletic. Andrew Gundling was the sports director. Todd Robbins was the sports director.

3:42

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Those are some of the guys that I remember. This guy I ran into a couple of years ago, he was broadcasting for Washington State, now he does NC State, Matt Chas now. So there was a lot of great sports people that I was pretty lucky to meet right when I got to school. Did you do any other AER and Citrus TV or just Z89? Where were you media-wise on campus? I did Citrus TV. I did not do AER. Somebody asked me about that. I don't know why I didn't do it. I think I just got so involved with Z89, I ended up not doing it.

4:11

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

But I did Citrus TV, which then and then still now, they're right next to each other. So it was convenient. I would go there and kind of go back and forth. By the way, on this podcast, Tim, you don't have to apologize for not doing AER. We're plenty good with that here. Yeah, I'm not apologizing. I'm just, I don't know why, but I was very happy. A little bit of a rivalry there. So you get to the station, you meet all these people who are destined to be in the major leagues of various sports and networks.

4:38

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Tell me about your involvement and what you started doing at the station. I think one of the things that's interesting about looking back at it, and I think people are so competitive there, is I don't think I was much involved my freshman year. And then my sophomore year, I kind of came along a lot more and became more involved. I was talking to some students. I kind of randomly went back there.

5:00

S… Speaker 3 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

recently and uh

5:02

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

you know what you do your freshman year doesn't really matter you know one of my best friends is my cousins oh yeah is you know was on espn full-time he was 24 25 and he didn't even he wasn't involved in any student as a freshman so i got involved as a sophomore the man in my sophomore year used to be like a senior would be the sports director but when i was there the sports department had become pretty thin and none of the seniors or none of the juniors that were going to come seniors were interested in becoming sports director we might have only had like one or two so um i was a sophomore

5:32

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And they always hire a new sports director when lacrosse season is going to start. And I ended up becoming a sports director when I was like 19 years old. So this is spring of your sophomore year? Yeah, spring of my sophomore year. I ended up doing it for two years, which was a lot, but it was a lot of fun.

5:45

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And we've had a handful of sports folks in the podcast, and I want to give sports guys their due, because as you alluded to earlier, we always have a running joke of a little bit of a, not only rivalry is too strong a word, but music and sports. Tell me about your tenure as sports director and some of the stuff that you were involved with doing. Well, first, I want to tell a quick story. We had a music versus sports football, flag football or touch football game. That seems unfair. And it was like at Thornden.

6:10

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Oh, yeah, Thornton Park, yeah. Right by Haven, yeah. It was, like, started pretty friendly and it got pretty, uh...

6:16

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

It wasn't heated, but the people were trying. It wasn't like people to jog. And I just remember, I'll never forget one of the seniors said to me or like one of the other younger guys, they were like, hey, block. They're like, hey, do you know what a chalk block is? And we didn't know no one was hurt. Yeah. So when I was sports director, I think a few things, you know, we had a really thin staff. So one of the things that I had to do was try to recruit people and kind of get more people involved. We got a couple of people from the Daily Orange, a couple people from AER.

6:43

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Because back then, you know, talking to students now, everybody does like multiple places. But back then, a lot of people were just, I was just AER. I was just Z89. And I think for my age, a lot of our people were AER and Z89 that were radio. You know, the first thing that I did is we kind of rebuilt the whole system. You know, things had kind of gotten a little loose in terms of our pregame, postgame halftime. So it is wild. We call it Orange Women's Warm-Up. I really worked a lot with...

7:12

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

especially my junior year with alex silverman who everybody everybody knows alex yeah david um and joel gadett and a couple other people we worked to build like a system of we would interview the the home coach syracuse coach the opposing coach um you'd have features um and we're kind of building things from the ground up the the thing i think that was pretty special was there really wasn't any type of format there was nothing um and we got to build something up and

7:41

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I could not believe it. I went back to the station when I was back at the station in January that a lot of the stuff that we had built was still being used. The other thing that was really important for me to do that I think we just didn't have an archive. We had nothing. We had some CDs that were laying around, some old mini discs. And now when I went back, I think they have pretty much every broadcast since 2007 when we started. Wow.

8:06

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So that was another thing that I thought was super important was building an archive for the history of the station for various events. You know, I think in athletics, men's sports had a really tough time. I mean, the football team won 10 games in four years I was there. The basketball team missed the tournament back-to-back years, which back then was unheard of. Now it's pretty normal. I believe the class of 26 never saw the men's team in an NCAA tournament in their four-year run. It's just sad.

8:35

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, it's too bad for them too because it's so much fun, the tournament, the men's tournament. And then lacrosse missed the tournament entirely. The first time I could 40 years my sophomore or junior year. Wow. Well, the men's sports were going down. We had a really incredible moment where, you know, 2007.

8:56

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

The women's lacrosse team won a NCAA tournament game. I think they were the first women's team to ever win a tournament game. 2008, women's lacrosse team went to the final four, first ever final four. Women's basketball team hired a new coach and they were ranked for the first time in 2008 and they went to the NCAA tournament that year. So, you know, for my time, you know, women's sports at Syracuse and really everything but football, men's basketball and lacrosse had been treated like third or fourth class citizens, almost like they didn't exist. Yeah. And Daryl Gross got a lot of flack.

9:26

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

um, when he was at Syracuse, but he did an incredible job of bringing up all these different sports where now Syracuse won national championship field hockey, men's soccer. Um, now I'm kind of ranting Raven, but, uh, I was one of the people that was critical of Daryl on, on Z89. And, uh, when I was at school, but looking back, I think he, he did a really good job.

9:47

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So a couple takeaways I have from the story you just told, Tim. So first off, in covering 55-ish years of this radio station, there are ebbs and flows where the staff is well-staffed and then it gets kind of thinned out.

10:00

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So there's an innate sense, I think, throughout the year as of when there's a thin staff, whether it's on the music side, the sports side, or the staff in general, that you've got to recruit. You've got to bring people and sort of keep that train rolling. So I think you spoke to that really well. And almost everybody listening knows Alex Silverman, knows him as having this incredible career in news. He's a really knowledgeable sports fan too. And I think probably having him in station leadership was a really good partnership for you as the sports director.

10:26

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, that's an incredible, great point. Alex started on the sports staff, which don't deny it, Alex, but he started on the sports staff. He mentioned it in his podcast. He did. And he was operations, right? He was operations. And that helped us because stuff was broken. Yeah.

10:45

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Constantly. And we had to cancel some broadcasts. The start of my junior year, I'm like all fired up. We're going to do Friday Night Football. And week one got canceled because the station wasn't ready. But when Alex, especially as you mentioned, he became general manager, it was a game changer for us because at least in my knowledge, maybe there had been way a year before me, but recently it had all been kind of music people as general managers. And Alex and then even the mic, back-to-back sports.

11:11

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

general managers, I'm sure, uh, there's still, you know, their efforts are probably still being felt today because to have that was a really big help. Um, when I started, Sean Scott was the general manager. He was great. He was, he was awesome to me. Um, but it was just different having a sports guy in charge. You mentioned Mike Cousins earlier as well. He and I, I believe we overlapped for a year or two in Vermont. So shout out to Mike, if you're listening. That's right. When he started. Yeah. And you know, what's crazy is Mike, um, I think worked at like a call center.

11:39

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

When he was in Vermont, too, he was doing women's basketball. I wonder if he worked in Vermont Teddy Bear, because I did that when I was working in radio in Vermont. I worked in their call center. I'll have to ask Mike about that. Shout out to Pajamagram, Calix Flowers, and Vermont Teddy Bear. Okay. Now, back to you, Tim. You've had a really interesting career and a lot of different stops since graduation. So tell me about your time post-graduation.

12:03

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, I always like to tell people this and it's not bragging in any shape and form and maybe making fun of myself, but there's probably no one else that has done what I've done, not from like a height level, just from like a weird, like different things I've done. I graduated and I got lucky. So I broadcasted high school sports when I was in high school and I had met the sports director at this little tiny radio station in high school.

12:32

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

hooked me up with a kid who was still in high school and he was broadcasting for Stanford. This was at the very beginning of streaming. So I remember when I was in Syracuse, we would stream a few things and that was like none heard of.

12:48

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

But Stanford was like the first school to broadcast everything. Stanford still has 35 varsity sports. So right out of college, I was broadcasting for Stanford. I was actually working in a mall. I was a videographer. And then over the years, broadcasted all different types of sports, all different types of places, minor league baseball. The things I've done that have been...

13:07

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

a little bit different than, you know, if you're watching this and you know, play by play, you're kind of like, well, yeah, whatever, um, is I've done a lot of stats. So I do stats for, for ESPN. I worked a lot with Dave Fleming, who was the broadcaster at Stanford. So when I started working at Stanford, I worked on a football crew. I would do mostly stats every now and then I do an interview or do sidelines. And then, um, so talent stats for ESPN, for Dave and all the broadcasters, including Mike, um, shout out to Mike again. Uh, I swear I'm, he didn't pay me per, per, per shout out. Per mention.

13:35

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

for mention but um i taught a class at academy of art so in 2011 i started broadcasting for them this division t school they just cut sports which thanks because i had a lot of friends there but i started teaching there uh and then the thing my full-time job now is i work for mba 2k which is um it's not really a broadcast job it's it's not really a sports job it's a video game job that happens to deal with sports and broadcasting um but i've done just so many different things that you know i'm the type of person that

14:04

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I probably have some sort of undiagnosed something in my brain and I need to do different things. I would get bored if I did the same thing every day. So it's been a lot of fun to do different things and kind of have a different background where I've been on air a ton, but I've also been behind the scenes and then writing and then just like different ways to think about how to disseminate information is the best way to put it.

14:26

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Another recurring theme that's come up in the podcast, Tim, is be willing to do any job. You talked about doing sports, and the next thing you do in your interview is you're doing play-by-play. You're doing streaming for Stanford, basically out of school because streaming was in its infancy 20 years ago. So I love that. Okay, I'm dying to ask you about NBA 2K. I've fallen off my video game playing days a little bit. Every once in a while, I bust out the old school Super Nintendo for a mental health day. But tell me, first off, how you ended up in this gig and what your role is and what you do.

14:56

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Well, it is the ultimate.

15:00

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

uh what the heck story i i've i've totally i actually told you yesterday somebody you know beyond the play-by-play i would do stats and do just like different odd jobs um and i was working at a gymnastics event

15:15

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And I was like doing stats. This was in 16 or 17. And I was working on my chart. So for Stanford, I broadcast women's basketball, which has been really special for me. I got to do a national championship game. Yeah. Cut the net at the final four or cut the net to get to the final four. They let me go up there and cut the net. That was like an all time. The play by play guy cut a piece of the net. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, I missed. So what happened was before I get into this other story, Stanford played in Las Vegas and they played in the Pac-12 championship.

15:43

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

The team was way back on a charter. I had a commercial flight, so I had to run up back to my room and I was in a change and shower. A couple people texted me, including one of my buddies, his name is Savino. He's an engineer, Savino Rubacaba, and he's an engineer in the Bay Area for sports. He texted me like, where the bleak are you? I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like, they called you up over to the PA to cut the net. I was like, what?

16:09

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

they called me up so i missed it and it was embarrassing because i'm on the floor with all the team and the coaches and i like come out of it and the players and the coaches like where were tim i'm like so stanford wolves is 2022 they won the pac-12 uh

16:25

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

That was a conference, right? Yeah. It's a sports fan joke. Oh, right. Yeah. It's so hard to keep up with it now. You need a PhD and it's bizarre now. Stanford and Syracuse are in the same league. So Spokane, they won the regional, got to go to the final four and I got to go up and cut the net. So anyways, I was working this gymnastics event. I was working on my chart for Stanford women's basketball and a guy came next to me.

16:52

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And he's like, oh, you know, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, this is, you know, I'm working on a truck for basketball. And he goes, oh, I work for NBA 2K. And, you know, we got to add a new crew, a new announcing crew for the G League. And, you know, essentially, I think they didn't want to pay. They wanted to kind of have like a lesser people than Kevin Harland and Brian Anderson, because those guys are so busy. I don't think they have the time. So I ended up sending in my clips and I ended up doing voiceover for the video game.

17:22

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And then this is me being, you know, if you know me at all, you kind of know that I can kind of say things before I think or just kind of I'm totally unedited. I'll just kind of sometimes I get to stop myself, but I was reading the copy. Right. So if you're recording for a video game, people think you're kind of calling the action on a screen, but you're really just reading off of there's different scripts with, you know, assigned.

17:46

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

meanings and you're kind of just reading a teleprompter and there was some writing in there and i was like i don't get this like a play-by-play guy wouldn't say this so they go and i was trying to be nice about it and um they said well you know would you ever want to write for us i'm like yeah sure so i started writing for them part-time and um they brought me on full-time a couple years ago so you know essentially people understand the voiceover part but that's about

18:11

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

five to 10 hours a year. Um, most of what I do is writing, um, kind of some quality control stuff with talent, you know, kind of picking, helping pick new talent, helping cultivate talent, sitting on sessions with talent, seeing what they like, um, kind of from a bunch of different perspectives, a formatting perspective or writing they like, or we start writing like this or, or not, um, writing games. You know, we had the Jordan mode, the Kobe mode where we recreated some of their.

18:39

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

biggest moments in games for for my mj it was so cool watching so part of my research was watching those games back okay and um i gotta say syracuse guy i'm uh and marv albert right yeah yeah yeah um

18:56

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I was watching him call Jordan finals games in the mid nineties. I've never heard a better broadcaster in my life. So a lot of different things, mostly I'm in the audio department. So anything, if you play the game and you hear anything, that's our department and that's what I do. And it's a lot of fun, a lot of problem solving, which I appreciate. And it's a great company to work for. I really love working there.

19:22

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So I want to dig a little bit deeper on this because I'm fascinated by this. And I'm sure a lot of our sports folks and gamers and both are too. So first off, when you're reading the copy, when you're starting off, does it get monotonous? Because it's like eight different intonations of the same thing. And then I guess the question extends to the writing too.

19:41

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, that is a great question. We have a bunch of different systems that we use. And when we're recording, they try to kind of mix it up a little bit. So you got to be careful because a lot of the stuff we have is proprietary. Sure. And I think we mix it up. That's part of why.

20:00

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

it in with um because you've seen the other side of it yeah because i've i'm one of the we only have like maybe two or three people on our crew that have seen the recording side and then the writing side so those sides kind of work together it is a challenge though you know how do you mix it up and not make it monotonous um you know recording for two hours most of our sessions are two three hours that is a very long time um to sit down and record we'll have breaks when do we take breaks um how do how do we have the high energy stuff the low energy stuff

20:28

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Um, it's a great question because we, uh, perfected it. Um, not perfected it, but we're trying to perfect it. And I think, um, my boss who, um, is been one of the kind of the pioneers in, in, in video game audio. Um, it's a big point, uh, that we've, we've tried to try to do the best we can on because.

20:50

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

The other thing too is, you know, for me, getting my time is not that big of a deal. I'm a full-time employee, but for, you know, Brian Anderson, Kevin Harlan, Greg, Greg Anthony, all of our Doris Burr, Stan Van Gundy, these people are super busy and getting two hours is a long time. So we have to be about to be as efficient as we can and not waste a second of their time.

21:11

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So those are the folks that you're doing the writing for. And it helps that you've been behind the mic and you can say, okay, this is how they would say it. And probably I'd imagine you're watching their games and knowing some of their cadence and the way they speak and call a game too. Absolutely. You have to write differently for different people. And I think that's one of the challenges that is with my job. You can't write the same for everyone and you have to kind of...

21:36

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I like to, to, to in my head or out loud to read every, every line that I do. The other thing that I, I've noticed that can help people at home that are not necessarily, you know, writing voiceover, but writing in general is I love to write stuff. It's almost as fast as I can and come to my head and put it, I guess, like I say, put it on ice, save it, close the document, go do something else and then come back a few hours or the next day.

22:02

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I think for me, for writing, that has been the number one thing that's helped me is writing almost stream of consciousness, writing creatively, and then getting into the editing, making two separate processes and not doing it all at once. You're the Taylor Swift of NBA 2K. I wish I was.

22:22

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I think even back to college, I think about having to write a paper and writing it the night before and then coming back to it to read it and revise it the next morning if I wasn't pulling an all-nighter after Fagan's to get it written.

22:35

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Okay. Thankfully, Fagin's is still open. That was, uh, I was, when I was back there, I was definitely on Marshall street and it was sad to see just Fagin's alive of everything that was there. But, um, you know, that's a great point too. Cause I was not, I, I was to look back and I prioritize radio and Z89 and Citrus TV, um, just kind of ahead of schoolwork so much, um, that a lot of times I was writing stuff. A lot of times I was on the road. I, I was, there was one point between Citrus and Z, um,

23:03

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

where we call it crossover season so like in march you have lacrosse and basketball going on yeah i was gone my junior year i remember once five straight weekends calling games for lacrosse or basketball um so yeah it's kind of funny looking back

23:16

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So you went back to campus and it was pretty much the first time since you graduated. You've been back in January? I think that a couple of times I'd been, when I graduated, the year after I graduated, I went once when I was living here. Then I was broadcasting baseball in Virginia and I drove up once. I went for a bachelor party. That was really fun in 2014. And then I went with Stanford. They played Syracuse mid to late January. And it was pretty amazing. I walked just all around. I went to Z89.

23:45

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Shout out to the sports director, Adam. Adam Hipsky was the sports director. I got hooked up with him through various people, and he was able to show me around the sports department. I got to meet tons and tons of students. I walked over to Citrus. It was open. I talked to a bunch of students there at the game. I talked to some students.

24:06

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

It was pretty amazing. It was really sad to see Kimmel had closed. And that whole block is like raced. Yeah, it's going to be, I think it's going to be dorms now, I think, which is just wild. I mean, because Kimmel kept us all alive when it was across the street, whether you graduated in 85 or 2009. Yeah, Kimmel was amazing. So that was sad to see that's gone. It was very different, you know, I think.

24:30

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I don't know if I'm saying this right, but it felt very much more commercialized. You know, Marshall Street, not that many of those mom and pop places like Chicago. That's just kind of reality. I was telling people it's almost like a metaphor for society, what's happening all around us. But it was pretty special to go back, you know. I just shudder at the fact that students will not go to Acropolis at 3 a.m. in here. You want Slice? Yeah. Or, yeah, any of those places. I guess Cosmos closed.

25:00

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

A long time ago, I loved Cosmos. Yeah, me too. Best Wings.

25:03

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I went to practice and then the team was going to go to the athletics department. I just wanted to walk back to the hotel and I went to Fagan's. I was like, oh, maybe I'll have a beer or two or maybe more than that at Fagan's. And it wasn't even open at like 730 and it didn't open till late. So I guess, you know, it's different now with the Uber. The Uber, I sound so old. The Lyft, the social. If you are drinking, which I don't think students drink as much as we did back in the day. But if you are drinking, you can Uber down to Armbergen. There's a million bars down there.

25:32

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, I went to Armory when school was out. I would stay a little bit later to cover sports or come early. I mean, Marshall Street was shut down. I miss, I mean, everyone says Chucks. I miss Chucks. And I wore a Chucks t-shirt.

25:44

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So I have my, my, my short, my, my, my, the yellow touch Chuck's t-shirt. I was debating between that and this. I thought this was a little bit more appropriate, but I wore it to the bar and I had like three or four people come up to me and be like, Hey, how can I buy it? Like, where can I buy it? How can I get this shirt? I'm like, you gotta go into a time machine and go back to 2009.

26:03

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And the guys at Fagans loved it. But it's just kind of different. But it was really cool to see the station was the same and talking to students that it is kind of the same vibes. And that part kind of seems like it stayed kind of the same. As a play-by-play man and storyteller, you have weaved this together wonderfully. Before we start to wrap up, I'll ask you.

26:26

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

lessons that you learned at JPZ? Obviously, you had a lot of time, a lot of hours as the sports director on the road doing play-by-play. What are some of the things you learned at JPZ that have served you well in your career to this point, Tim? There's so many things. I had never really thought about it until recently. When I was 19, I was in charge of it.

26:45

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

12 14 15 like i was like wow i can't believe i can't even do i have two kids i'm not really struggling being in charge of them um but i think that that um that was was one thing you know the normal play-by-play being on the air i think everyone kind of if you're listening to this you kind of understand that the one thing that i really learned that i didn't think about was how to act around a team so yeah the main things that i did

27:15

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

was um we had kind of we did a little bit of women's lacrosse maybe my freshman year did like select games we went back to a full schedule and uh there was a coach lisa miller and i got to know her and um she first was kind of pissed that we weren't doing their games as much anymore um but eventually when i talked her down we they the athletics department let us travel with the team which is a very big deal um

27:39

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

So my sophomore year, we got to travel around a team. So how do you talk to coaches? How do you interact with players? How do you build relationships? I love to talk to coaches. That's one of my favorite things about play-by-play, maybe my favorite, because I'll talk to a coach, especially at Stanford. I know a lot of the coaches really well, and then I've gotten to know different coaches. But I'll talk to a coach for half an hour, and like five minutes of it will be forever. 25 minutes of it will be off the record. But you're building relationships too.

28:06

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, you build relationships. One of my favorite stories was we did a game at Colgate. We did it with a shout out to Joel, Joel Gaudette, who was my year, who was a longtime Division One broadcaster. We came back, we were on a bus with the players and we got to become friends with a lot of lacrosse players, similar age. And I was traveling with the team and randomly, like they had the house across the street from the house that I lived in. But we went to this pizza place and

28:36

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Lisa was really funny. She was an older woman. Maybe not older. I don't know. The team had just won. They're in a good mood. Everyone's eating pizza. The place was called Ye Olde Pizza Pub. It's between Hamilton and Syracuse. I bet you it's still there. It was straight out of the 1960s or somewhere like when we were kids, we would go to a pizza party. He goes, congrats on the win. Everybody, we're going to get some pictures.

29:02

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

the women are like yeah and she goes of water and then uh she was like but we and like at the table with me her the assistant coaches and like the the women's administrator will be having pitchers of beer

29:15

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And she just brought a couple of pictures of beer for us. So traveling with the team and then Gary Gate, who's the men's lacrosse coach, she got hired. You know, I got to know the women's basketball staff really well when I was there, especially the head coach, Quentin. And, you know, just getting to know relationships, I think that really helped me. Being around so many different people, it's crazy. Like, I'm not, if you know, like I'm not, there's a lot of people that are like in sports broadcasting, Syracuse people have this reputation.

29:44

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

um because there's so many of us and it could be a little um you know cheer rah rah or just like hey i went to circus and i usually don't tell people that unless they ask me um or i'll bring it up like because it's just i understand our reputation but when i was a senior our sophomore class

30:00

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

At Z89, we had Mike, who's on ESPN. Kevin Brown, who's on ESPN. Baltimore Orioles, really, really, really good. Alex Perlman, who's on ESPN, really great announcer. Andrew Allegretta is the Vanderbilt announcer. He's an awesome announcer. He's a year younger than me. I feel bad because I'm forgetting people. My year, Danny Parkins did a little bit of play-by-play, did mostly talk.

30:24

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

He's on Fox Sports 1. Nick Wright did a bunch of stuff at Z89. He's on Fox Sports 1. He had his own talk show in the summer and then I think during the weekends. John Jastrzemski, great guy. He was with the Ringer forever. So it is wild looking back how many people are on national TV.

30:43

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

just how many high level talents you know it's i had a guy who was in the same uh minor league league as i was in and he's now a major league baseball announcer was asking me about syracuse like how are there so many people from syracuse that are in broad like what is going on at these stations i said well i got a bunch of great guidance from people and by the time and and then i was you know giving hopefully okay guidance to people or you know staring right not scoring up their careers but um

31:12

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

by the time you're out you're like it's beyond professional like when i was first broadcasting stuff i was like damn when i was in school it was a lot more professional and i think you know iron sharpens iron or whatever you want to say i think um i think that's the biggest thing i got from z89 was beyond how to build relationships and be a broadcast was kind of how to uh

31:37

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

be around people that were really good and be competitive in a friendly way though, too. I think when I was sports director, one of the things that I really tried to do was make things friendly and not competitive because things can get really competitive and nasty and not friendly in that place. The other thing that I really liked to do was do things that were different. So I broadcast the first ever ice hockey game at Syracuse. Oh, wow.

32:02

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Yeah, it was, we were at the top. So there's, you know, ice hockey rink. I'm not a huge ice hockey guy. I just know a little bit about it. I've always been told, it seems to me that of the four major sports that hockey is the hardest to call because it's so fast. By far, because it's fast and they're changing people constantly. Yeah, you got a minute of ice time and you're off to the next line. Yeah. And it's hard to identify them. So it's the first ever game that the jerseys are supposed to have numbers on the sides in the front. They don't like the jerseys are just like.

32:31

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

everything was coming together really late for them um and they're they're skating towards us so i had no idea i've never seen this team before never called a hockey thing before a hockey game before and somebody comes down they score seven seconds into the game and i'm just like

32:48

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

And, um, I think I identified the person correctly, but I said like ball instead of puck, um, just like things like that. And you were going to happen. Um, but just doing things differently and kind of trying to think outside the box and how can you, that's the thing I loved about C89 is that we were kind of left our own devices and you could do what you want it to do. And, um, that's kind of what was most fun for me. Before we wrap up, Tim, is there anything you wanted to talk about that I have not asked you about? You know, one thing.

33:17

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

um, that I always thought was, was pretty, pretty amazing was just how much pride everyone took and everything. And, um, you know, the title together, you know, there are different people that have been involved with the station, not involved. You know, for me, I had not been involved. I had no idea what's going on with the C89. Um, and not because I don't like C89 because I love the place, but I'm out here on the West coast. I always wish I could go to the banquet, but I just, I never can. It's so far. Yeah.

33:44

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

One of my best friends, Matt Zalsignor, who just is a Hall of Famer, he lives in San Francisco and he actually told me he can get to Tokyo faster than Syracuse. It's like 11 hours to Tokyo. And yeah, there's a stop. But just going back there, I would suggest if anybody there at home is thinking you can or can't go, I would suggest going back because it really felt like home. You know, I tell people like I grew up in San Mateo.

34:10

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I live in Oakland. I love living in Oakland. My wife and I picked to live in Oakland. I went to Syracuse and I've worked so much at Stanford. Those are the places that feel like home to me. And when I went back to Syracuse, it felt really like home. I saw some people at the Dome I hadn't seen in a long time. Up in the rafters, I saw some names of people that I covered when I was friends with in college who now got their names up there. The fact that I got to have time with head coaches and...

34:38

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

You know, I, I really hope I talking to, I talked to a lot of students there and I was curious about things that were going on. And the one thing that was kind of sad to me is almost like the NIL and rev sharing is kind of put like almost like a wall between the students and the athletes. I was there, the students and the athletes, like, you know, like the, some athletes might've been in my house for like a party a few times, like things like that would, would happen.

35:00

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

Whereas now with the transfer portal, people constantly in and out. It's kind of sad for me that you can't build the relationships that you could before. But anyways, to get to my point, I was making before, sorry. I would suggest making it there because it was really special for me. And to do a game in the Carrier Dome, or pardon me, the JMA Wireless Dome. It's the Carrier Dome. The Carrier Dome. It's the Carrier Dome. And by the way, it's still Twitter. Yeah, it's still Twitter. Yeah, Elon. I'm in Elon country. Tesla's everywhere. Yeah, I bet. That's a story for another day.

35:28

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

That'll be on the GD9 politics podcast. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, that's why I'm in sports, politics, news. I can't, my brain can't handle that stuff. But it was really special to go back and look at all my, I sat there for like an hour because a lot of the games I did, stuff I've never listened, I haven't listened to or maybe never listened to was still there. And I was like trying to get it back to me on Dropbox. So definitely make it out if you can.

35:54

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

It was pretty amazing to see what they've done. And it is pretty special that, you know, that it's a radio station that's running that is, as far as I know, when I was in school, we might have had an advisor or a teacher. I don't know. I never met them. It's not being like shade on those people, but it is entirely run by students. And it's a pretty special thing working with students I have and seeing students in different places, getting to know students in different places. Like it is a very Syracuse thing that.

36:22

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

You can have an entire station that's the hardest station to program, and it's hard to broadcast live events that is just run by students. So that was pretty cool for me to see.

36:34

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

You know, one funny story I'll tell real quick is I went on a road trip with a couple of friends to see the NCAA tournament in Memphis, Tennessee. And then we drove back. So Syracuse in the Sweet 16, they played Oklahoma and Bray Griffin was there and just got their behinds kicked. But we were driving back. One of my favorite things when I used to work there, I probably wasn't supposed to do this, was there were songs I liked. And I would...

37:01

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

put it in next gen. So when I was like getting in my car or leaving station, I could listen to the, listen to the, um, we won't tell your program director or pass statute of limitations. Well, so what I did was, um, I called the station and pretending like I was Alex Silverman.

37:17

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

and lied to whoever the poor DJ was and say, I love the song Poker Face. Yeah. So I said, hey, this is Alex Silverman. You got to put, this is Poker Face. It's like the biggest song in the world. Got to put on Poker Face. Get on Poker Face. So then they put on Poker Face. So that was a funny, funny, one of many stories that were from my time there. Does Alex know this story? I don't know if he does. He does now.

37:43

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

yeah i saw him at a wedding yeah i saw him at a wedding a few years ago that was cool to see him and um you know the sorry i keep on saying the last thing i'll say too is it is kind of incredible too

37:54

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

I've made a lot of friends in broadcasting. I've worked at Stanford. I have great friends there. ESPN have some really close friends. There is nothing like being in college and getting to broadcast with all your friends and work with your friends. That was pretty special, and I do miss that. There's a certain camaraderie. I don't know about you. I wasn't in a frat at Syracuse. I had JPC. That's all I needed. Those are my people. Yeah, I had Z, and then right next door was Citrus. It was fun to go into Citrus.

38:20

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

They're doing all-nighters and see what they're doing. I was not in a fret.

38:25

S… Speaker 1 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

either. That would, that would have been bad for me on multiple fronts. I had less time to go out and travel and call games. Tim Schwartz, class of 2009, been an absolute pleasure sitting down and getting to hear your story and thank you for being part of the podcast. Thanks. Yeah, this is really awesome. A lot of things I haven't thought about in a while and it was great. I was on the air. They interviewed me at Z89 when I was there a couple, a couple months ago. So pretty fun to get back to this in the same year. So thanks so much, guys. All right.

38:52

S… Speaker 2 (WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO)

The WJPZ at 50 podcast is created entirely by the staff and alumni of the world's greatest media classroom. It's hosted by John Jagay, class of 2002. Imaging by Maureen Cooper, class of 1999. And Ed LaCombe, class of 1985. Podcast artwork by Marty Dundix, class of 2001. Follow WJPZ at 50 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening right now.

WJPZ at 50 - Tim Swartz VIDEO

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