Alumni Profiles

Dan Levy is a 2004 graduate of the Radio Department at Columbia College Chicago. He made a mark for himself with great opportunities in radio while in school. Since graduating, he has worked full-time in the Chicagoland area. Dan was kind enough to spend some time speaking about his career thus far.

1. The radio story of Dan Levy is, to say the least, quite interesting thus far. You have been involved with sports radio, a morning show, and now, traffic. Growing up, when did you first think that this could turn into a career for you?
 
I actually didn't even think about doing radio until I got my first job in telemarketing when I was in high school. A lot of people who I've met in radio always say they wanted to do this since they could crawl or that WLS started it all. Not me. I got a job in telemarketing when I was a junior in high school, because it was the only job in high school you can get paid almost 10 bucks an hour. One night I was bored selling credit cards and started doing fake voices and purely making people around me laugh. I was then called in by my boss who was listening in to my phone calls in his office, I thought I was about to be written up and to my surprise he said; "Have you ever thought about doing radio?" I said, "Ah, no...I am in trouble?" He then replied by saying; " You have a great voice and you like to have fun.  I've done radio before and you have a great personality that would be perfect for the air waves."  That's when I started thinking about pursuing the business.

2. Finding out the story behind why one chooses a college is always fascinating. How did you learn about Columbia College, and what clinched your decision to come to Columbia?

We moved around a lot when I was a kid. I ended up going to high school in Omaha, Nebraska. When it came time for graduation, my parents were going to move back to upstate New York and my brother was in Chicago. I knew that wherever I was, I wanted to explore radio and that's when my brother told me about Columbia College Chicago and that they had a highly respected broadcasting department, plus, living in Chicago and already knowing my brother was in the city made it all too perfect.

3. Your first internship was with WSCR- 670 AM. How did that position come about?

Well I was really uncertain about where I wanted to begin an internship and one night I went to the local bar by my apartment and as I was talking it over with my friends, our waitress overheard the conversation and told me that her other job was at WSCR doing production and asked me if I wanted contact information for the station. Again, it almost seemed too perfect.

4. How long did it take you to feel a connection with the show you worked on at WSCR-670 AM?

I have a very strong passion for sports and I still do. I interned for the Jiggets and Buffone show, and since I wasn't from Chicago and had no idea who any of them were in terms of their past professional football careers, I was able to not get tied up with who they were. That led me to getting my first paid job in radio when I was hired as a part-time producer for the Score on the weekends when I was just a sophomore at Columbia.

5. After WSCR, you spent a considerable amount of time with "The Sludge Nation" on Q101.1 FM. How did that come about and how well prepared were you for that internship?

Well, when my time at WSCR began to wind down, I attended Q101's Twisted Christmas concert with a buddy of mine who was interning for Q101 at the time. He was working the event so, I found myself in the VIP area where all of the Q101 staff was at. So, I went to the bar to order a drink and standing next to me was my radio sales teacher who also happened to be the National Sales Manager for Q101. He and I got to talking and he asked me what I wanted to do in the field. He then introduced me to "Sludge", who then asked if I wanted to come in and intern for a couple of days a week. At that time, I was in sports and hosted a sports show on WCRX 88.1 FM. Alternative rock was almost a foreign language to me. My first day was on Valentines Day. Sludge informed me that I would be Barry White for the day and then Ryan Manno who is now an evening host at Q101.1 FM, had me voicing intros as Barry White for his show that was going to air later that evening. It was the most fun I had in radio.

6. When you took the Practicum course at WCRX 88.1 FM, you had a good deal of experience going in. What elements from your internship were you able to showcase on your own show?

Well, I started out doing a sports show midway into my internship at WSCR. At the time, I was trying to emulate what I was exposed to and delivered a very watered down show. However I kept the show when I made the move to Q101, I was able to apply what I learned on how to make a show more entertaining no matter what the subject or factor was. I learned how to go outside the regular shows that were on WCRX 88.1 FM at the time and began to use my skill by booking guests and actually was able to get some very famous people.

7. At WCRX 88.1 FM, you had a great deal of responsibilities thrown your way. What would you say was the most interesting aspect of your position?

At one point, I was hosting two morning shows a week and also, I became a permanent fill in for a guy who was doing an afternoon shift on Wednesdays that had died in a car accident. For some people to do all that and still hold down an internship would be too much, but I thrived on it. In fact my grades went up. I was learning so much and absorbing so much, school just became easier and my passion for radio just kept growing.

8. Before graduating, you became a regular on Mancow's Morning Madhouse. Can you explain how networking helped with the process?

At Q101, Sludge was also using me for sports stuff. By doing that, I met Ken Smith, aka "Al Roker Jr." He was the Sports Director for "Mancow's Morning Madhouse." He asked me what school I was attending, turns out he also graduated from Columbia. He asked me if I'd like to help him by covering the White Sox and Cubs, in exchange, that would help me get my foot in the door and be able to get credibility in the sports world before I graduated from Columbia. As a result of that, I met Mancow and later was hired to do the phones, producing, voicing bits, helping out with phone scams, booking athletes and anything else that he needed me to do for the show.

9. Currently you are a Traffic Reporter for Metro/Shadow Traffic. Not having a course specifically in Traffic Reporting, how were you able to prepare yourself for such a position?

Well, it was even harder to do traffic especially since I had only lived in Chicago for 4 years and never driven a lick. I had no car and used the CTA Blue Line to go everywhere. The job started off more than rocky. On top of splitting my time at Mancow in the Mornings and heading over to Shadow Traffic in the afternoons, I was already spent. Since I didn't know the roads, my job for the first year and a half was to edit traffic, listen to scanners and just flat out learn the roads. I was doing nothing but eating, sleeping and breathing traffic. Before you know it, I got it down and started doing traffic for Sirius. Once I got that down, I moved on to a permanent shift on WIND-AM. Then added WBBM-AM and WGN-AM to the list of stations that I still do on a consistent basis.

10. Looking back at your time spent at the school radio station, WCRX 88.1 FM, what part of your experience brings a smile to your face?

I remember begging Cheryl Morton-Langston(WCRX G.M.) and Operations Manager Tony Kwiecinski to give me more things to give away because at one point, that was the only time I was able to get consistent callers. Their collective response was, "do a better show." Instead of getting mad and discouraged, I did just that. My co-host and I, started doing tons of production work and scheduling the strangest most bizarre guests. At one point, I booked a Playmate to be live in studio... that helped matters a lot!

11. What courses made you the On-Air Talent you are today?

Actually, each course provided a new teacher who gave such good advice and tips on how to keep delivering and putting brand new spins on everything. Everyone from Tony Kwiecinski, Marssie Mencotti, Domingo Castillo, Jim Mitchem, Cheryl Raye Stout, Sue Smiley and the late Red Mottlow and the late Alan Stagg taught things that I still use today.

12. What advice would you have for aspiring radio talent?

Radio is a hard business to be in. The money is not always going to be there...same with the gig. This is an industry you have to want to be in. If you go to Columbia College Chicago, make sure you do as many internships that you can. If I could do it all over again, I would have done about six more internships! Each internship allows someone to get a foot into a station and start to make connections right then and there. It may start off with very simple responsibilities like getting coffee or in the case of Dan Jiggets(former WSCR Personality), going to a grocery store in the middle of his shift and getting him a whole rotisserie chicken. Also, knock off any kind of attitude or giving the impression that you are owed something. Take every opportunity you can to be on-air and take full advantage of "finding your voice" on the school station, WCRX 88.1 FM.