As a young man, growing up music wasn’t that important to him. In his teenage years is when radio and music changed Rick Roberts’ life.  

 

Roberts is a radio personality at 93Q, a local station here in Syracuse, New York. Recently Roberts has joined Le Moyne’s staff to be the faculty advisor for WLMU, the school’s radio station.

 

Roberts started in radio right out of his own home at the age of 15, built it himself and was broadcasting from his bedroom and creating his station WLIV Liverpool. Using a transistor radio set that he set up with the help of his dad, he was broadcasting live every day after school. At the same time, he worked as an intern at 93Q gaining real-world experience with broadcasting. Then, later on, he took on the challenge of working for WJPZ, the Syracuse University college radio station, over the summer to provide summer broadcasting as the summer program director.

 

Later on, he became an intern at 93Q at the age of 16. He started with CD management and music organizing. Later, Roberts got asked to fill in on-air, and since then he’s been a staple of the 93Q family. In his senior year of high school, he was promoted to the night jock position (6-11pm) and stayed there until the mid-2000s. After that, he was promoted to the afternoon drive shift (2-6pm) and went on air for the midday shift (12-5pm) later on. Now he is doing the evening shift broadcast (3-7pm).

 

Roberts provides a direction for students to follow by revamping the radio station and bringing it back to a true radio station setup. With his experience, the students are “amped and excited for the future,” according to Roberts.

 

Working in the radio business according to Roberts has improved his life due to the habits formed by working in broadcast. Such as becoming more punctual due to the strict nature of scheduling broadcasts as well as being able to give back to the community. Such as brightening up a person’s day by playing their favorite song to giving a heads up to the community about a nearby accident. Even something as simple as letting the community know about the weather update allows Roberts to keep the community posted on what’s going on.

 

For Roberts, working in radio has lead to an interesting day to day life, such as meetings with recording companies to play new music or meeting celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Fergie, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Beiber.

 

Rick Roberts is married to Katie Roberts, the enrollment and scheduling coordinator here at Le Moyne College. They met via AIM and according to Katie, “the rest was history!” They have two kids, a ten-year-old daughter Kylie and a five-year-old son Kayden.

 

Rick Roberts brings a refreshing change to WLMU with new insights with years experience with radio and broadcasting.