It’s 1974. “Hooked on a Feeling” sits in the top spot on WJPZ-FM’s rotation; the “B” playlist is anchored by Mike Oldfield’s “Exorcist” theme. Greg Hernandez DJs Friday and Saturday nights until the early hours of morning for the station — 1200 on the AM dial, broadcasting live from Syracuse University.

It’s 40 years later, and Hernandez now only DJs what he jokingly calls the “rolling party” in his car. He hasn’t endured a Syracuse winter in 18 years, but the WJPZ co-founder is making the trek back to frigid Upstate New York on Saturday as an inductee to the WJPZ Alumni Association Hall of Fame.

“You don’t think of it as a legacy when you’re still at school,” Hernandez said, “Back then, we did it for the passion and enjoyment. We didn’t think it would outlast us.”

From Hernandez’s recollections, it’s not all that difficult to see why. WJPZ was built on spare parts from WAER and signal strength with less power than a light bulb. But the station and its mission, offering alternative radio opportunities from WAER, have soldiered on over a storied 40 years.

It’s that scope that alumnus Scott MacFarlane tried to capture in “Greatest Media Classroom,” a documentary spanning the four decades of WJPZ, colloquially christened Z89 since making the leap to the FM dial in 1985. Commissioned by WJPZ’s Alumni Association and set to premiere Saturday at the Sheraton University Hotel and Conference Center, MacFarlane spearheaded the project to chronicle each era of WJPZ history.

“Working on the documentary was enlightening and jaw-dropping,” MacFarlane, a 1998 SU alum, said. “It showed a pattern of ambitious projects over time, like getting a frequency and building the tower. Students always pulled it off. They’re things professionals would struggle with.”

MacFarlane’s own story intersects closely with the station’s story. He arrived at WJPZ on his first day on campus, and spent all four years of his collegiate life working for the station. He bounced between WAER and WJPZ, but said that while he enjoyed working with WAER, it was WJPZ that left him with a stronger emotional attachment.

“Students run the place and built the place, and it’s self-reliant,” MacFarlane said. “It’s contagious to watch and learn and work with talented, hungry people.”

Though MacFarlane made a point to leave no era of WJPZ uncovered, he mentioned how moved he felt by a few moments of “Greatest Media Classroom.” One of those was the four minutes spent dedicated to the station’s coverage of the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy in 1988, when WJPZ’s phone lines flooded with student calls.

But not every emotional clip unearthed by MacFarlane for the documentary is a tragic one; there are, according to MacFarlane, as many triumphs in the documentary as there are near misses.

“Some years just struck me as incredible,” he said. “Like 1985, when students got the station on the FM dial. Or just 1973, and starting the thing.”

Scott Meach, a 1990 alum whose WJPZ narrative parallels MacFarlane’s — starting right away at both stations before being drawn more closely to WJPZ’s magnetic pull — said the documentary is a testament to the vision of not just the station’s founders, but the students who kept the station both running and growing.

“The number of people touched by WJPZ is a lot,” Meach said. “The documentary touches on all the different eras and the impact the station’s had, and I was in tears after watching it.”

MacFarlane estimates some 100 alumni will brave the second coming of the polar vortex this weekend for the screening, and he jokes that getting alumni to come out on a 5-degree day in the dead of Syracuse winter is no easy feat.

And, though he’s keeping his fingers crossed for slightly warmer winter weather come Saturday afternoon, Hernandez said he’s looking forward to reflecting back on his WJPZ days.

Said Hernandez: “That what I helped start in 1973 is still there is so gratifying.”

Published on February 26, 2014 at 1:00 am

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman