Chances are, Chris Godsick has been chewed out by more Hollywood A-listers than you've met in your lifetime. But we'll get to that.
As a member of the Class of 1987, Chris was a sophomore when WJPZ moved to the FM dial. He really captures the enthusiasm and excitement of that moment. The radio station's passionate staffers could now be heard in the market, and soon they were pulling ratings away from 93Q, "The Bagel Station."
During this episode, we also remember the late Larry Barron, and what an influence he had on the radio station at that time. Chris tells us about the year that WJPZ was able to secure the exclusive announcement of when to buy SU Basketball tickets, and the entire campus was listening, waiting for Larry to make the announcement. Then, if you know Chris, he follows that story with one that Larry would probably rather forget, may he rest in peace.
Following his time at Syracuse, Godsick went out to LA, where he started in the mailroom at William Morris, working his way up to messenger, dealing with everyone from Bea Arthur to Richard Simmons. Eventually he was at one of the premiere desks for the co-head of the motion picture department. He was yelled at by Si Maslow (Tom Hanks' agent), Sir Sean Connery, and Mel Brooks. But let's be honest, who among us wouldn't want to be roasted by Mel?
When he became an agent, Chris went after some untapped markets. He found Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean) in the UK, and eventually formed a company with a man he met in Asia. That would be director John Wu. He and Chris did Face Off and Broken Arrow together, along with (Chris's words) "some really horrible" stuff. We press him on that.
Throughout his career, Godsick spent time behind the scenes with the US Military and other organizations, and it was an invitation to shadow the US Marshals that spawned the idea for his latest project, a true crime podcast called Chasing Evil, which we highly recommend.
https://www.chasingevilpodcast.com/
We wrap up talking about Chris's time working on HBO's Veep. He tells us about Julia Louis-Dreyfus nailing her audition, and we hear about Chris's invitation to then-Vice President Biden's home that the writers were able to turn into this scene in the show. Oh yeah, and he won some Emmys too.
https://youtu.be/DU-0Xi6aafo
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The WJPZ at 50 Podcast is produced by Jon Gay '02 and JAG in Detroit Podcasts
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