Charles Reichblum ’48: Original Voice of the Orange and Co-Founder of WAER

Syracuse University has a long, storied history of producing talented sports broadcasters.

Names like Marv Albert ’63, Bob Costas ’74 and Mike Tirico ’88, decorated members of the sports broadcasting industry, honed their crafts and developed their radio voices as student broadcasters with WAER-FM.

As members of the WAER Hall of Fame, Albert, Costas and Tirico certainly paved the way for future generations of sports radio play-by-play voices. But before WAER, which stands for Always Excellent Radio, became a world-renowned 50,000-watt blowtorch and powerful on-campus radio station, it was an ambitious project that required the hard work and dedication of five student broadcasters and a faculty advisor to get off the ground.

Starting in 1930, the Radio Workshop allowed students to produce on-air programs for local radio stations. Thanks to new radio technology, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the University to conduct experimental broadcasts in the Fall 1946 semester.

Under the watchful direction of faculty advisor Lawrence Myers Jr., five students—program director Gerald Adler ’48, G’54, news and sports director Charles Reichblum ’48, music director Ehrla Niman Lapinsky ’48, continuity director James Cohan ’48 and production director John Kurtz ’48—helped usher in a golden era of radio on campus.