Broadcaster calls Bloomfield home

This is news: James Flippin, the 77 WABC New Radio broadcaster is a local guy who resided in Bloomfield.

A 2003 Glen Ridge High School 2003 graduate, Flippin attended the University of Delaware where he majored in political science. He had designed to go into law and real estate, working for a while for Bank of America. But as he said last week to The Independent Press, no one was doing any deals.

So he became a business broker and consequently began to do a lot of driving — with the radio on. Funny thing, but he said all this listening rekindled his love for radio. There were plenty of ads about the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. A ton of them, he said. So he enrolled.

“I attended their location in New Jersey,’ he said. “It was an aggressive night course for about two months.”

Thanks to a friend and instructor at CSB, he landed an internship with Sirius FM. His friend worked there.

“I was a sound board operator,” Flippin said. “Then I was hired at WOR as a board operator and producer. I wasn’t doing anything on-air. That came a few years into my career. But it was a period of turnovers at the station. I noticed that and made a demo tape for WOR News. I was looking for any way to get into on-air work and this news radio opportunity presented itself.”

He sent the demo to several people he knew, they liked it and asked him in.

“My demo was basically a newscast from that night,” he said. “I got the sound clips and reenacted the report. To my surprise, they wanted me to do it. I started at 77-WABC in January, 2023, and now I’m the news director. At first, I was a news anchor and they promoted me last year. I’m more managerial now, but I’m still on the air.”

Flippin said he has always been well-informed and never lacked confidence in his understanding of issues. And he likes being front and center.

“I suppose I always wanted to do this, but didn’t know,” he said.

The broadcast news a listener hears, he said, comes from varied sources and from writers. There are also a lot of sound bites from social media. It was surprising, Flippin said, how much the news sources had changed since he started in radio.

“And we work with a computer screen in front of us,” he said. “Sometimes you trip over a word, but people understand.”

Flippin does six-minute newscasts at the top of the hour, noon to 5 p.m. and occasionally a talk show host will have him on. There is also a Saturday, 3 p.m. show which he co-hosts, “The Left versus the Right.”

“People do hear me on that show a bit,” he said.

For leisure, he and his husband enjoy travel.

“I’m a big Jersey shore guy,” he said. “We go to Stone Harbor. And we have a cat, Beans, who’s a great source of relaxation. I’m also a die-hard Mets and Giants fan.”

To any aspiring on-air radio speaker, Flippin said he would tell them to learn their passions, listen as much as they can and learn the vocation so they can be confident doing it. Behind-the-scenes work? All the technology is available on a personal cell phone, he said.

“The barrier to entry is so much lower and there’s so much content,” he said. “But there’s less local news. It’s a double-edged sword. There are options, but it may not be the right path for you.”

He also does a personal podcast, “Flippin Out on the Radio.”

“I talk a lot about my time on the radio,” he said. “It’s sort of like an on-air diary.”