A half-century of Hofstra radio

From breaking news updates on 1010 WINS, to traffic reports on Z100, to sports recaps on WCBS 880, to political debates on national television, the alumni of Hofstra University’s radio station can be heard across the metropolitan area and around the country.

A number of media stars who kicked off their broadcasting careers at Hofstra will be celebrated on Nov. 6-8, when the university’s award-winning WRHU commemorates 50 years of operations. The celebration, hosted by the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association, will include a variety of events and activities including a silent auction and an alumni brunch, and it will be capped by a Nov. 7 gala at the Huntington Hilton in Melville.

“I feel very proud to be part of a station that has produced so many big media people,” said East Meadow resident Les Bayer, who was a part of Hofstra radio in the mid- to late 1960s. “It’s an amazing list of people that have passed through the Hofstra radio station.”

WRHU — Radio Hofstra University — is Long Island’s oldest non-commercial radio station, broadcasting in a 30-mile radius across Nassau County on 88.7 FM and online at www.wrhu.org. The station was initially known as WHCH (Hofstra College Hempstead), and later WVHC (the Voice of Hofstra College) before expanding its broadcast range in 1983 and changing its call letters once more. Once headquartered in the basements of the campus’s Little Theater and Memorial Hall, it now has state-of-the art facilities in Dempster Hall.

In recent years, WRHU has garnered numerous national awards including a 2008 Hearst journalism award presented to Clarke High School graduate Lauren Brookmeyer.

In honor of the many successful broadcasters who got their start at the station, the HRAA will induct the charter members of the Hofstra Radio Hall of Fame at the Nov. 7 gala. The inductees will include Oceanside native Dan Ingram, who was an on-air personality at WABC for 21 years; Lynbrook High School graduate Alan Colmes, who co-hosted the hit Fox News Channel television show “Hannity & Colmes” from 1996 to 2009; and ABC Sports Radio Network anchor Todd Ant, a West Hempstead native.