WSOU 89.5 FM Alumna Named 2024 MIW NABLF Launch Mentee

Rachel Haggerty at an event for WKTU-FM

It has been an impressive start to the career of Rachel Haggerty '19, a broadcast engineer working at Premier Networks. This year, Haggerty was chosen to be the 2024 Mentoring and Inspiring Women and the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation Launch Program mentee. This is one of her biggest achievements that she has already gotten in her young career and it's crazy to think that the radio industry was not even her initial focus when she began her collegiate career. Haggerty comes from a family of Seton Hall graduates, as both her father and grandfather are alumni, so it was an easy decision to follow in their footsteps. At first, Haggerty studied physics and biomedical engineering, but everything changed when she stopped by an involvement fair during her freshman year. WSOU 89.5 FM was at the event, and she immediately became interested in Pirate Radio right away when she stopped by their table. "I was just immediately hooked and wanted to learn more." Haggerty said. It was soon after that she was on WSOU's staff, and her major was changed to broadcasting and visual media.

During her time at WSOU 89.5 FM, she was a DJ, newscaster and assistant technical operations director before becoming the technical operations director in her senior year. Haggerty was one of the students that attended the College Broadcasters, Inc. National Student Media Convention in Seattle during her senior year and shared it was one of her favorite memories being a part of the station. "It was my first time over on the West Coast," Haggerty said. "Just to be hanging out with aspiring radio broadcasters from across the country was so cool." Haggerty landed an internship at WDHA, a rock station located in Morristown, while in college, and she helped the promotions team and the station's engineer during her time there. She graduated in 2019 and, not long after graduation, she was able to get a job at iHeartMedia with the help of an apprenticeship program.

Soon after, she landed a position at WABC AM as an assistant chief engineer before heading to Premier Networks, her current position, where she focuses on syndicated programming which includes talk shows. Haggerty's rise in the radio industry in New York City helped her get nominated for the WSOU Distinguished Young Alumnus award in 2024 as she was selected by fellow WSOU alumni. "It was really great to win the award because I went to Seton Hall not really sure what I was going to do, and I just feel like I learned so much there," Haggerty said. A couple of her roommates attended the ceremony, who were both at WSOU with her in college, and they all still live together to this day which has shown Haggerty how much WSOU has impacted her life. "It was a great place to hang out and make friends but also learn and get first-hand experience in radio," Haggerty said.

Rachel Haggerty at WSOU in the DJ Booth before her graduation

Last month, Haggerty was announced as the 2024 Mentoring and Inspiring Women and the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation Launch Program mentee. It is the second year of the launch program and Haggerty was selected through an application process. In the program, Haggerty networks with fellow women that are engineers in the radio industry, and this is another impressive accolade that she has added to her resume in her young career. Haggerty ties it all back to her days at Seton Hall and WSOU as she said her time there really set her up for success. She gave a shout out to Frank Scafidi, Mark Maben, and Jen Kajzer, who were three people at WSOU that really helped her out in her career. "It's really awesome to see recognition from WSOU and Seton Hall," Haggerty said. "My path was very unexpected; I did not think I would be here but here we are. It is really exciting, and I am really grateful for all the support."

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