Park Students Take on the Super Bowl’s Radio Row

By Emily Hung ’23, February 27, 2023

Dream becomes reality for seniors.

Students got the opportunity to connect with alumni (clockwise from top left) Andrew Marchand ’96, Jennifer Sabatelle ’94, Scott Leightman ’92, and Erin Schaffner ’11.

(Photos Submitted)

For four seniors in the Roy H. Park School of Communications, a dream became a reality when they landed in Phoenix, Arizona, site of Super Bowl LVII, in preparation for broadcasting from the National Football League’s Super Bowl media center, also known as “radio row.” The students talked to professional athletes and sports radio hosts, some of whom they had grown up listening to.

Television-radio major Dane Richardson and sports media majors Matthew Sosler, Jayden Becker, and Nicholas Lubrano spent a week in Phoenix, where they put together five episodes of Radio Row Review, a sports-magazine-style show that aired on IC's student-run radio station, WICB, throughout the week of February 6–10. The show included game discussions, analysis, and interviews of former football players, coaches, and media personalities, as well as their experiences on radio row leading up to the Super Bowl. In addition, WICB aired Big Game Update sportscasts twice every day.

A typical day on the Super Bowl’s radio row at the Phoenix Convention Center was a busy one. The students scheduled and conducted as many interviews as they could at their table, walked around the building with handheld recorders, and participated in media conferences with the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs players and coaches. They also recorded their sportscast, put it together, and sent it back to WICB in Ithaca for air daily.

“I was honestly amazed at how many Park alumni the four of us got to interact with. It opened my eyes to how many IC alums are out there and how Bombers are always supporting other Bombers. This was the greatest media experience of my college career.”

Dane Richardson ’23

“I learned that many of your best opportunities come from the ones that you create yourself,” Richardson said. “I remember bringing this up to Matt Sosler briefly during our freshman year and a lot last year. If anything, getting to experience this only motivates me to want to get back there working in a professional market.”

Richardson was able to interview a variety of people, including Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, on opening night.

“I somehow managed to get up front to be able to ask the best player in football a few questions,” he said.

Sosler said that, on the first day he was there, he had the chance to interview Jarrett Payton, the son of the late Chicago Bears and Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton.

The students had the chance to interview sports media personalities like FanDuel TV's Kay Adams throughout the week.

(Photo submitted)

“As a native Chicagoan, it was awesome to get to speak to him about the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, as well as the big game,” Sosler said. “We were doing similar work to some of the top outlets in the world and working basically from sunrise to well beyond sunset putting together content and attending media availabilities.”

Jeremy Menard, television and radio operations manager, said the whole idea was student initiated. The four students stopped by his office one day in the fall semester and asked if they could represent WICB at radio row. Menard encouraged them to apply for credentials, and they were ultimately approved.

“This is an experience I’m sure the students will not soon forget,” Menard said. “To be a college student, to be able to go to the Super Bowl, and to be able to cover it with the biggest names in sports media—that’s unbelievably special. And to be one of a handful of colleges represented I think also speaks to what we do here in the Park School and how seriously we take broadcasting, sports media, and radio and television.”

The opportunity to interview current NFL players, such as defensive tackle Michael Brockers, was a highlight for the students.

(Photo submitted)

The students credit Chris Fickes ’80, who graduated with a degree in television-radio, for helping kick-start the process to assist in funding the trip. Fickes reached out to alumni through the WICB and ICTV Facebook pages, and with the help of Ed Alpern ’78, also a television-radio major, they raised enough money to help with some of the expenses.

“The Park alumni seem enthusiastic about being there for IC when there is a specific need, something experiential, something they can say, ‘I want to be part of this,’” Fickes said.

“I was honestly amazed at how many Park alumni the four of us got to interact with,” Richardson said of his experience at radio row. “It opened my eyes to how many IC alums are out there and how Bombers are always supporting other Bombers. This was the greatest media experience of my college career.”

“This is the culmination of four years of hard work by these students, in and outside the classroom, who also took to heart the ‘day one, you’re on’ promise that Park makes to incoming students.”

Amy Falkner, dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications

Amy Falkner, dean of the Park School, said that only a very select group of colleges get invited every year.

“This is the culmination of four years of hard work by these students, in and outside the classroom, who also took to heart the ‘day one, you’re on’ promise that Park makes to incoming students,” Falkner said. “These four young men have been covering big-deal sporting events during their entire time here, Cortaca at Yankee Stadium being the latest example. They definitely earned their invitation to radio row.”

Bryan Roberts, associate dean of the Park School, echoes Falkner’s sentiment.

“The hallmark of a good education is being able to take this accrued body of knowledge and apply it in real-world scenarios,” Roberts said. “It’s more than just knowledge for knowledge’s sake—it’s an education that has a practical component. The success that these individuals had shows me that they were well-educated at Park and ready to engage in the communications industry.”