WRSU announces ten-member class to be inducted into station’s Hall of Fame, including first woman

The WRSU Hall of Fame will grow by ten members this fall.

Play-by-play men Neil Solondz of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays and Rich DeMarco of Army football, nationally syndicated morning show host Gordon Deal, and Fox News Chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel are among the headliners to be included, along with the first woman to join the Hall of Fame, current New 12 consumer reporter Janice Lieberman.

WRSU inducted its first Hall of Fame Class in 2023, featuring many of the founding members and the team that transitioned the station from carrier-current AM to FM in the early 1970s, and household names such as Matt Pinfield and Mark Chernoff, among others.

The Class of 2026 includes 10 members, and will be inducted at a ceremony on May 2, 2026 in New Brunswick.

Neil Solondz (RC ’92): Current serving as a radio-play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, Neil is the only WRSU alum to regularly call play-by-play for any one of the four major American professional sports leagues.  Solondz spent time as a news and sports reporter at WCTC 1450 AM in New Brunswick, where he became the first play-by-play man for the new Somerset Patriots baseball club, then a member of the independent Atlantic League, now an affiliate of the New York Yankees.  Solondz also called minor league games for the Lakewood Blue Claws, in Quad Cities, IA, and of the Triple-A Durham Bulls.

Rich DeMarco (RC ’98): The radio play-by-play voice for Army Black Knights football, Rich also is the Associate Athletics Director for Broadcasting and Licensing at Army up at West Point.  The only WRSU alum to call play-by-play professionally for a major college football team, DeMarco spent two season as a producer at all-sports WFAN 660 AM in New York, then spent several years as an award-winning news and sports reporter – and as Associate Sports Director – at WCTC-New Brunswick, where he was the sideline football reporter on the Rutgers Radio Network, and called women’s basketball as well.  He recently starred as the “public address announcer” voice of EA Sports’ College Football video game series, released in 2024 after an eleven-year hiatus.  At WRSU, he called many big games, including the Rutgers women’s basketball team’s upset win over nationally-ranked Connecticut in February of 1998.

Mike Emanuel (RC ‘90):  While Mike got his start broadcasting play-by-play of sports like basketball, football and soccer on WRSU, he made the transition after graduation to the news business, where he worked in Texas and Los Angeles, before moving on to Fox News in 1997.  He’s a former White House correspondent, and now is the Chief Washington Correspondent for the network, while also hosting Fox News Live Sundays.  He’s also a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the most prestigious honor for University alums.

Gordon Deal (RC ‘89): Also a member of the Sports department as an undergrad, “Gordy” did play-by-play of various sports, while also serving as a sportscast anchor, then spent several years at WCTC in the Sports and News departments as a reporter and anchor.   Later, he worked at all-news 1010 WINS and WCBS 880 in New York City, and was also bureau chief for Metro Networks in the New York Metropolitan area.  Currently, in addition to being the public address announcer for the NFL’s New York Giants and Army football at West Point, Gordon has been hosting since 2005 the nationally-syndicated morning this “This Morning: America’s First News,” which is heard on over 300 radio stations cross the country, and available on all the major podcast platforms. 

Jim Berman (RC ‘82): Jim served as General Manager during his senior year of 1981-1982, and also was a key member of the Sports Department, who was at the mic for the Rutgers women’s basketball team’s 1982 AIAW National Championship, as the Lady Knights defeated highly-favored Texas at The Palestra in Philadelphia.  Years later, in 2017, Berman was part of a group of alums who coordinated with WRSU on an audio documentary on that team, which later turned into the “Forgotten Champions” documentary film that premiered in 2022 and aired on the Big Ten Network.  Berman got his professional start while still in college at Sports Phone, a groundbreaking, pre-internet era service providing fans with sports news and scores, which launched the careers of many broadcasters, including Howie Rose, Kenny Albert and Michael Kay.  He eventually worked as a media research analyst for various firms, then became a TV executive.  For the last 15 years, he has been the General Manager of “Dakota News Now” on a pair of television stations in South Dakota.

Dan Schleck (Engineering ’70, UC ‘90): Dan first arrived at WRSU shortly after the station began broadcasting on the FM dial, and got involved almost immediately with the Tech Department.  Nearly everyone who came through WRSU’s doors for four decades from the late 1970s on had interactions with Dan, “the wizard,”  who had a reputation for figuring out how to make anything work, often on a limited budget, whether it was a tricky phone or a troublesome remote broadcast.  He knew where all the wires were buried.  He even installed a door card entry system that was ahead of its time, long before Rutgers developed its own.  He oversaw the DIY-era of WRSU, renovating its original 1969 studios in the College Avenue Student Center over the years, one studio at a time.  In the late 1990s, he helped oversee the next generation of remotes for the Sports Department, bringing WRSU from the era of “POTS” phone lines into the digital age, and eventually into the world of IP devices, now the broadcast standard, and still being used by WRSU today.  In his “retirement,” Dan keeps busy running his WRSU memories website, wrsufm.com, which features rare personal photos, videos, and – of course – airchecks of some of the great moments in WRSU history over its many decades. 

Ed Wong (RC ’89, Engineering ’89, SCILS MCIS ‘93): Ed still hasn’t left WRSU after arriving as an undergraduate in 1983.  He quickly joined WRSU both on the air and off, as a DJ and also as a member of the Tech Department with fellow inductee Dan Schleck.  Ed eventually became Chief Engineer and worked on many renovation projects in the 1980s and 1990s.  He was also prominent in the burgeoning New Brunswick music scene, where he would open for fellow WRSU Hall of Famer Matt Pinfield at the legendary Melody Bar.  Professionally, he did side work at WCTC AM and sister station WMGQ (Magic 98.3) on the engineering side.  Now retired from work in the pharmaceutical industry and IT fields, Ed still spins mostly ‘80s and ‘90s alternative tracks on his show, “El Hombre Solo,” airing Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm on WRSU.

Dave Joshi: A WRSU-FM “original,” Dave has been a “Community Affairs” DJ at the station since shortly after its sign-on at 88.7 FM in 1974, hosting the “Glimpses of India” radio program that continues to this day, airing Sundays from 4-6 pm.  The show debuted at a time when the Indian population was beginning to grow in New Jersey, and in the pre-Internet era it was the place to hear traditional and modern Indian music, and also news and events from back home.  On the very first show, Joshi read stories he gathered from the New York Times.  He still gathers news, and often has musical guests and Bollywood figures on his show.

Janice Lieberman (RC ’82): A Communications and English major, Janice is the first female to be inducted into the WRSU Hall of Fame.  As an undergrad, she was a key member of the WRSU News Department, and also contributed as a reporter to the “Film & Theater” Department at the station.  Post-graduation, she was a news anchor in Buffalo before gaining national acclaim on NBC’s “Today” show, and was a local anchor on WNBC-TV Channel 4 in New York.  She later hosted “Steals and Deals” on CNBC, worked on “Good Morning America,” on ABC, and now is a consumer reporter covering the tri-state area for News 12, with her “Real Deal” segment.  She’s also the author of several books, is a public speaker, and often returns to Rutgers to meet the current crop of communications students.

Bob Lazarczyk (RC ’78): Bob not only was a four-year member of the WRSU Sports Department, but also was highly involved in Athletics, even playing baseball for the Scarlet Knights for two season.  But perhaps his biggest achievement “On the Banks” was his work as the primary producer on “Run, Rutgers Run!”  A  year-in-review vinyl record, the program recaps what remains to this day as the greatest basketball season in school history, the 1976 season, in which the Knights – led by Eddie Jordan, James Bailey, Hollis Copeland and a host of others – went undefeated in the regular season and reached the NCAA Final Four.  Bob went on to an illustrious four-decade career at ABC news – including as an associate director on ABC’s “Good Morning, America,” where he was honored with five Emmys, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody, and more.

“Our first Hall of Fame class in 2023 was just the start of honoring so many people who’ve come through these doors and gone on to great success in the media field, said current Broadcast Administrator and WRSU alum Mike Pavlichko (RC ’00).  “Rich DeMarco was my Sports Director my sophomore year at WRSU.  I’ve known Neil Solondz and Gordon Deal for years thanks to my work in radio.  I learned a lot from Dan Schleck as an undergrad, and Ed Wong is a mainstay on the air.”

“Others, I only know through legend, like Bob Lazarczyk from his work on ‘Run, Rutgers Run!’ or Janice Leiberman from her work on News 12.  I’m looking forward to meeting them at the induction ceremony, and also excited for the opportunity for our student staff to meet these greats, who sat in the same radio booth and broadcast sports from the same venues that our current students do now.”