1. ROBERT S. CIULLA
hildhood dreams do come true in so many ways. Growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s, I was fascinated by Top 40 radio
and the diversity of music and information available to listeners in the days prior to niche programming. I also had an
interest in journalism and an equal fascination with newspapers. But it was music that I wanted to be near the most and
pursued this interest in high school in the Southeast Bronx studying French Horn and Oboe. In the late 70’s at Bronx
Community College as a music major and realizing limited opportunities awaited me, I decided to pursue my radio and
print interests. Simultaneously, I ran the student radio station, WBCC, and the student newspaper, The
Communicator. I was the media man on campus. WBCC was an incubator of the Rap culture that grew out of the 70’s
Disco music scene. Hank Jackson of The Sugar Hill Gang was part of the on-air staff and the group’s recording,
Rapper’s Delight, debuted on WBCC and became an “underground” classic until Top 40 radio picked it up and it became
the first No. 1 Rap record. Later, with broadcast media relations experience to my credit, I would return to the Bronx
Community campus in the mid-1990’s working in a grant funded position out of the college’s public relations office.
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n 1979 I began a tenure as a producer at the legendary New York-Metro talk station WOR 710 AM. Most significantly, I
was the station’s producer for Joe Franklin’s six nights a week Memory Lane broadcasts and rotated as producer for
The Garden Hotline, and The Fitzgeralds. Henry Morgan, a noted radio and tv personality (“What’s My Line”) returned
to WOR in 1982 with a weekly show which I also produced. While there I worked with Barney Beck, a sound man during
the early days of talking motion pictures who created many sound effects techniques that are now taken for granted. Barney
was then in his 70’s and we would spend hours talking about his experiences with Abbott and Costello, The Three
Stooges, Jack Benny and his countless other work. But real experience and knowledge was gained by working on the
morning drive program hosted by John A. Gambling, one of the most respected men in broadcasting. His show,
Rambling with Gambling, dates to 1922 when it was created by his father, John B.
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s producer for The Bill Bresnan Show (WEVD 1050 AM, New York City and syndicated nationally by Starr
Communications), I was able to demonstrate abilities that included a successful media relations campaign in print
media and I received praise for introducing theme weeks with an entertainment angle into this daily afternoon drive financial
and business series, which I was appointed to following Bill’s nine year run at WABC 770 AM. The two most acclaimed
efforts were Tax Week, in which financial analysts and a panel of IRS representatives participated in discussions in
anticipation of the coming April 15
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tax filing deadline. Included in this series and as a regular guest was attorney Marvin
Witofsky, the legendary lawyer who handled country singer Willie Nelson’s settlement with the IRS and worked with
other major celebrities. Financial Planning for the Elderly was another publicly praised effort. Then Social Security
Commissioner Dorcas P. Hardy and leaders from various New York City hospitals were among the participants. My
personal favorite was a weeklong series I put together that took a look at New York City twenty years from 1992 ahead to
2012 and beyond. The City was coming out of its 1970’s – 80’s downturn and the programs were designed to foresee the
future based on where the city had been, where it was then, and where it was going. Representatives from the business and
financial world, as well as local elected officials participated. At the time many on this panel feared the city would move too
fast on redevelopment and it is interesting for me to see how some of their concerns seem to be playing out. At WEVD I
created the weekly financial series The Zoch Brother’s Money Management Program.
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s Promotions Director for WWRL 1600 AM, I was able to achieve new media publicity opportunities for the station,
most notably with the regular placement of hard to get last minute program listings and features in The New York
Times. The New York Daily News provided extensive coverage of the station based on my outreach work. Vince
Sanders, a veteran NBC news Washington-based correspondent was the Vice President and General Manager – and
mentor. He would frequently call me into his office following the broadcast of the morning series DriveTime Dialog to
discuss the day’s program and share his journalistic experience. “When Del Shields (show co-host) asked (guest) this
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2. question, and (the guest) responded, what should have been Del’s follow up,” he would ask. At the station’s annual Family
Festival in Queens in 1995, then City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, an honoree, praised my efforts on behalf of the
station which was located in a house in Woodside, Queens that had been the location of some of the earliest commercial
radio test transmissions.
y other radio tenures include New York’s public radio stations WNYC AM and FM as a Sales Assistant in the
Corporate Underwriting Department and as a board operator during the transition of WOR’s sister station, WXLO-
FM to WRKS-FM which was best known as KISS FM.
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enures as a legal editor and proofreader at major New York law firms supplemented the periods where I did not work in
radio. I joined the firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz and Mendelsohn working their concurrently while I was at
WOR. Fearing that I would leave the station, my supervisor, Jack Stewart, said “Bob, what the hell are we gonna do
about Joe Franklin? You’re the only one that can work with him!” Of course, I remained with Joe. Sinatra, Crosby . . . they
were fading from the radio then and wanted to see this tradition continue.
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Robertc10461@gmail.com