Rider alumni and students help make one of the nation's most-listened-to Top 40 syndicated radio shows tick
There is no such thing as a typical day at The Elvis Duran Show. It is the most-listened-to Top 40 syndicated radio morning show in the U.S., drawing in listeners who want to hear celebrity interviews and exclusive live performances and see other fun original content on elvisduran.com. Host Elvis Duran and his on-air crew broadcast live every weekday from New York’s Z100. For years, they have welcomed Rider students into the process of creating the show, providing rich, hands-on experiences that allow undergraduates to apply the knowledge they’re acquiring in the classroom to real-world situations. Student interns, as well as two full-time Rider alumni employees, help the show deliver its signature headlines, phone taps and video segments — and much more.
DJ Garrett Vogel ’06 (GV), producer Jake Tuff ’15 (JT) and student intern Bella Azar (BA) explain their daily routines at the show:
4:45 a.m.
JT: Wake up and question why I do this every day. It takes a few minutes for me to remember I love my job, so it’s worth it.
GV: Arrive at the studio
5 a.m.
GV: Start on air with Greg T for a pre warm up show
5:30 a.m. (Hosts arrive)
BA: Arrive at work and set up the phones, print out horoscopes and stories to be read on the air and find the first caller of the day for Elvis to speak to. The first caller of the day is found at 5:50, and ready to speak with Elvis after the first song of the day is played.
6 a.m. (Show intro begins)
JT: Arrive at work. I am one of the last to arrive. My first task is usually to finish editing video from the day before.
BA: Work the phones
7:15 a.m.
JT: Set up cameras, lighting and microphones for celebrity interview
7:20 a.m.
GV: Introduce phone tap (daily prank call segment)
8 a.m.
JT: Record celebrity interview. Once the interview is over, it takes me about 90 minutes to finish editing the video. BA: My task for the next two hours is to keep a log of the show, including every single segment, conversation, topic or sponsor covered during the show. This is one of the most important parts of the job because the executive producers receive copies of these logs for their records.
10 a.m. (Show ends)
JT: Record different members of the show in the green screen studio for original content videos.
BA: After the show ends for the day, I go into the open studios and record the top of the charts, which is an on-air segment, to be played on Thursday’s show. The top of the charts includes all of the hottest songs in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere across the globe. My final duty of the day would often be to send T-shirts to the loyal listeners who call in and win prizes.
11 a.m.
JT: Post all interviews on ElvisDuran.com (shameless plug) for the world to see.
GV: Record new “Phone Taps” for future segments
2 p.m.
JT: Go home!