To celebrate 25 years as Buffalo’s Original Alternative, Buffalo State College’s WBNY-FM 91.3 is finalizing plans for New Media Weekend: An Interactive Look at 21st Century Communication. The three-day event, which is sponsored by WBNY, the WBNY Alumni Chapter, the Buffalo State College Alumni Association, the Faculty Student Association, VH1 and VH1.com, takes place Oct. 25-27.

The weekend will feature national and local media experts who will explore and discuss the future of media through panels and speaking engagements, as well as a concert by The English Beat on Saturday, Oct. 27. Events will be open to Buffalo State students, faculty, staff and the general public.

On Friday, Oct. 26, publisher Judith Regan will moderate a panel entitled The Multi-Platform World: Information 24/7 starting at 3:30 p.m. in the Bulger Communication Center. Regan, who is a veteran of print, radio and television, is widely known for publishing celebrity autobiographies such as Private Parts (Howard Stern), Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big (Jose Canseco), The Way Things Ought to Be (Rush Limbaugh) and Little Girl Lost (Drew Barrymore). She has made headlines in the last year for her role in O.J. Simpson’s controversial book, If I Did It.

“We felt Judith Regan was a perfect fit to lead a discussion on how our culture is affected by the popularity, presence and proliferation of media 24/7,” said Tina Peel, award-winning on-air personality of The Lake 107.7 FM and chair of WBNY’s 25th Anniversary Committee. “Her experience of not only presenting the news, but being a part of the news, should make for an intriguing dialogue.”

Regan’s television experience includes Judith Regan Tonight on Fox News Channel, while she still hosts The Judith Regan Show on Sirius Satellite Radio every Wednesday. She will be joined on the panel by Ralph Cipolla (Consultant, Jacobs Media), Jonathan Cohen (Overnight Assignment Editor, FOX 5 WNYW-TV), Kimberly Evering (Web Content Manager, Northern Virginia Community College; formerly with AOL), Denise Oliver (Founder, Oliver Media; formerly Senior Vice President for Programming, Westwood One) and John Rosso (Senior Vice President, Citadel Interactive Division, in charge of all interactive platforms including those of ABC Radio Networks).

Saturday’s panel discussions will cover the topics of what consumers want, the future of traditional media and the future of new media. Local media members scheduled to participate include WBEN news reporter Dave Debo and Buffalo News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski, who also serves as president of the National Press Club.

New Media Weekend activities will culminate on Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall, as WBNY brings back the first band it ever presented on campus, The English Beat. The English Beat, which headlined the first WBNY sponsored show in April 1983, is considered one of the most popular and influential bands of the British ska movement. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show, which features local opening act Lazlo Hollyfeld, are $20 and may be purchased at the Rockwell Hall box office, by phone at (716) 878-3005 or online at www.buffalostate.edu/pac.

For more information on New Media Weekend, please contact the Alumni Affairs office at (716) 878-6001 or via e-mail at alumni@buffalostate.edu. WBNY’s Alumni Chapter will also be posting regular updates about the weekend’s events on its Web site, www.wbnyalumni.com.


About WBNY-FM 91.3
Buffalo State College’s WBNY-FM 91.3 has been Buffalo’s Original Alternativefor25 years. WBNY is completely student-run and funded solely by Buffalo State’s student activity fee. The station’s 60-member student staff, all of which are unpaid, determines programming on a daily basis. A source for local and underground music since its inception, WBNY also airs home-grown talk shows, artist interviews, coverage of special on-campus events and Buffalo State football, basketball and hockey games.