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Most Successful Binghamton Alums

A

AlexBrowne

Who would you say is the most successful broadcaster, going on to national success, who had his or her roots in Binghamton? I can think of a few, but I'm sure I'm missing a bunch:

The Greaseman (Doug Tracht) (WENE)
John Bartholomew Tucker (WNBF)
Liane Hansen (WSKG; longtime NPR host)
Susan Candiotti (Susan Jo Candiotti during her days at WBNG; longtime CNN correspondent)
Pete Van Wieren (WINR-TV; longtime Atlanta Braves announcer)

Others?
 
John Kennelly, who was the sports guy at WNBF AM/TV in the 60's, had a long career at WNEW in New York City.

On the engineering side, Jesse Rineer who was a Master Control Operator/Engineer at WNBF in the 60's ended up as Engineering Manager for the CBS operation in New York, and Hank Wolf, also Master Control Operator/Engineer at WNBF back went to CBS as a Videotape editor (which back then involved cutting the 2 inch tape at the exact spots, under a microscope, and taping the sections back together).
 
How about Tom Birch, who founded Birch Scarborough Ratings. He played the hits on WENE in the mid-70's.

Another is Jim Scott, who was one of the early jocks on WENE, who went on to be the morning guy at WLW in Cincinnati for the past 25 years.

And don't forget Dick Biondi, an Endicott native, who worked at WINR and WKOP in the real early days. Dick became a big time jock at WKBW, Chicago, and the west coast. Dick just celebrated his 50th year of broadcasting, and currently does nights (live) Monday through Friday, playing the oldies on WLS-FM in Chicago.
 
Looked them up... here they are...

  • Karl Ravech (WBNG Sports Director) has been hosting Sports Center & Baseball Tonight on ESPN since 1993.
  • Bill Pidto (WBNG Sports Director) went on to more than 15 years at ESPN.
  • Trey Wingo (served time as both the WICZ & WMGC Sports Director) is the co-host of NFL Live on ESPN and has been part of the Sports Center team since 1997.
 
How about Jim Elliott who was Barry Dukes at WENE back in the early 70s. Jim Elliott went on to success as the cohost of the #1 morning show in Washington on WPGC as "Elliott and Woodside" in the late 70s and early 80s. He also worked at Z100, Arista Records and now owns a company that is an airplay consultancy for the record labels.
 
This is really testing my memory -- arriving as a freshman at SUNY-B in fall 1970 -- but I think Barry Dukes may have been on WKOP-FM then, before it became WAAL. As a New Yorker, I was amazed in those days that most of the Binghamton stations signed off at midnight or 1 am. However, we were still able to listen all night to WKOP-FM and WHRW in the dorms.
 
I don't dispute Barry Dukes was on WENE in the late '60s. I arrived in Bingo in fall 1970, and I'm fairly certain he was with 'KOP-FM in the early '70s.
 
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