Business Radio officially opens new broadcast studio in Huntsman Hall

It’s Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., and MoneyBall, a radio show hosted by expert statisticians and Wharton faculty Eric Bradlow, Shane Jensen, Cade Massey and Adi Wyner, is on air. Wyner is interviewing Vice President of Baseball Info Solutions Ben Jedlovec. The hosts go back and forth, discussing how defensive performance metrics might influence Mike Trout’s selection as American League MVP in Major League Baseball.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Business Radio, the channel that broadcasts MoneyBall, Wyner recounted a recent night in Chicago, when he had to tell his friends, “Guys, I really have to watch the end of the Eagles game — it’s my job.” Running a radio show with his colleagues is an “enormous amount of fun,” he said. Dean of the Wharton School Geoffrey Garrett and SiriusXM President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein led the ceremony, which took place in Huntsman Hall.

Business Radio, which launched in January 2014, currently features 18 different shows and close to 40 hours of unique content every week. The shows include conversations between the hosts, distinguished guests and callers. So far, 15-20 CEOs have called in to get advice from the Wharton professors whose radio shows address topics ranging from innovation to personal finance, real estate and workplace conflicts.

At the ceremony, Garret and Greenstein addressed the crowd. Garrett talked about getting Wharton “out into the world,” noting the advantage of the new, public location of the radio station at the entrance to Huntsman Hall. Greenstein talked about the importance of giving the public access to the wisdom and knowledge of the Wharton faculty. 

According to Greenstein, a substantial number of outsiders have requested to do shows, with New York Times best-selling author Randi Zuckerberg — Mark Zuckerberg’s sister — recently joining the San Francisco studio. Her show is called “Dot Complicated.”

The purpose of Thursday's event was to inaugurate the new studio, a substantial upgrade from the old one, which was a small room in the basement of Vance Hall. The new studio was funded by a $300,000 donation from 1997 Wharton graduate Bill Connor and the Schwab family, who are all Wharton alumni. Although the studio officially opened Thursday, the show has been broadcast there since mid-August.

In two months, Business Radio will be launching a website for students, alumni and faculty members to hear 30 minute highlights from the shows for free, according to Senior Project Director of the Wharton Innovation Group Brandon Lodriguss. 

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