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"I do what I love."

January 26, 2015

When Dan Zangrilli (’07) reflects on his favorite part of his job, covering the Pittsburgh Pirates as their pre-game and post-game host for CBS radio and KDKA’s 93.7 The Fan, he has a bit of difficulty narrowing it down to one aspect:

“There’s so much – the fact that I get to come to a place like PNC Park every day and follow a team that’s on the rise. It’s a good time to be associated with the Pirates. For so long the team struggled, and now the city has rebounded with the team. To be on the radio before and after every game, to live and breathe with Pirates fans and the day-in, day-out ebbs and flows. To interact with the players and be on the beat. It’s a unique position. It allows me to do what I love – broadcasting and reporting – and on a sport I love – baseball.”

Zangrilli decided in his freshman or sophomore year at Keystone Oaks High School that he wanted to be a broadcaster. He was a junior who didn’t yet have his driver’s license and had to ride the bus with the football team when he called his first game. When it came time to look at colleges, the Pittsburgh native looked to the north.

“Clarion’s reputation as a broadcasting powerhouse preceded it. Once you looked into it further, you find out it’s all that and then some,” Zangrilli said.  He also liked that it was close enough to home that he could continue to broadcast high school football games on Friday nights, and later, Clarion University’s football games on Saturday afternoons.

Zangrilli got involved immediately.

“On day one at Clarion, I was working at TV 5,” he said. He later became sports director of WCUC, then general manager of the station for two years. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had in my life.” He announced football and basketball games for the university, and he said it’s why he’s able to do what he does now.

“The hands-on experience I got, and what I was able to do on a daily basis, especially at WCUC, is why I’m able to do what I’m doing,” he said. “I lived at the radio station, learned editing, engineering, sales and marketing, how to be an on-air personality – it’s doing it and getting the experience.”

In trying to elevate the product (the radio station), he was building his resume.

“You’re in the trenches, working hard and making yourself more marketable. You don’t understand the value at that moment, but it was extremely valuable,” he said.

Two of his most influential professors were Bill Adams and Bruce Exley. “Bill Adams was monumental. Bruce Exley was the engineer at the station. He taught me the technical side of radio – it’s an important skill set I have that others may not, because of what they taught me.”

His mentors, he said, are Rich Herman and Chris Rossetti, Clarion’s sports information director and assistant sports information director, respectively.

“I didn’t work in their office, but I worked closely with them. They were so supportive,” Zangrilli said. “They’re university employees, but they might as well be professors. Their impact was substantial. My friendships with them are ongoing, seven years after I graduated.”

He is thankful for how Clarion helped him reach his goals, and to give back, he recently became a member of the university’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

“Everything I’ve done in my career I can directly link back to the university. I feel I’m in debt to them, in a sense,” he said. “I want to make sure Clarion is as good a place for other students as it was for me.”

Zangrilli said he feels a bit greedy thinking about what he might do beyond his current gig with KDKA.

“This is a field that is so cyclical and volatile. When you’re here, you have to enjoy the moment,” he said. “There are aspirations to take the next step, sure, but I’m so happy doing what I do.”

 

Last Updated 1/11/21