After I became News Director in early 2013, our newsroom went through a raft of other unexpected changes. The Assistant News Director left for Florida, the weekend host left for Florida, and the Berkshire Bureau Chief left the Berkshires. That chain of events led to WAMC hiring a boyish talent, fresh out of Syracuse University who already had a strong reputation. Well, Jim Levulis went on to a rewarding tenure as Berkshire Bureau Chief, before joining our Albany newsroom as Assistant News Director and later our afternoon host. Unfortunately for us, that run is coming to an end now as Jim prepares for a career change, but first he's agreed to sit down and look back on some memorable moments on the airwaves and behind the scenes.
Hey, Ian, hopefully I've maintained a little bit of talent. Maybe not so much the boyishness.
So I remember right when you got started, we hit you with a doozy in your first couple of days out in Pittsfield.
Yes, it was very interesting in the sense that Lucas Willard was there as the Berkshire Bureau Chief, and I think the first or the second day Governor Deval Patrick was coming to town. And I thought, 'Oh, this is probably pretty normal.' It really wasn't that normal, but he rode in on a train to promote the expansion of passenger rail. And Berkshire County, which, again, if you've been listening, say over the past two weeks, those discussions still under way. So again, that was 2013, and we're still discussing the expansion of a passenger rail. And another topic that has maintained the entire time when I was researching to take over the Berkshire Bureau, I was looking at Lucas Willard's stories on the Housatonic River cleanup. And again, if you've been listening over the past month or so, that process is still under way. So it kind of puts things in perspective a little bit that time may have been more than a decade, but those issues are still there.
Now, you're originally from the Buffalo area. Unlike our current Berkshires reporter, a Pittsfield native, Josh Landes, you really had to learn the area, learn the people from the ground up. How'd you do it?
Yeah, a lot of it was just driving around and learning the little towns. And it really- I will say reporting is a great way to get to know a place I would have family and friends come visit after I'd been there a year, and they'd say, 'you're like a tour guide.' And I think probably Josh Landes is like that to a certain extent. But yeah, it was really just, you know, anytime there was an event or a town meeting or, you know, a council meeting in a different community, go to it, and you really got a flavor of the place, you know, all the way from places like Clarksburg on down to Sandisfield. That was one of my favorite places to cover town meetings.
I remember one time talking to you, and I could hear the excitement in your voice when Dolly Parton was coming to Tanglewood, and you got to ask Miss Dolly a question ahead of time. So a lot of arts coverage factored into your coverage.
Yeah, which I'm not a very artsy guy, but it really, really, really was cool to check out Tanglewood and MASS MoCA. I have an appreciation for that. But yeah, the Dolly Parton press conference call, she came on and said, 'Hey everybody, it's Dolly.' You know, I think we could have ascertained that. But that was, yeah, that was a particular highlight, especially for, you know, it was just a press call. I was sitting in my office, but, you know, had a big smile on my face.
So you brought up MASS MoCA in North Adams. I remember another huge story, which dropped in March of 2014; I'll never forget it. We got almost no notice that North Adams Regional Hospital would be closing. And you talk about a story that continues to develop, literally up until the time of this conversation.
Yeah, absolutely. And that one, I mean, it truly came as a shock. And what was, you know, interesting for me, from a reporter's standpoint, is, you know, it was a shock to the community. And then I realized, everybody I'm talking to at the hospital, they're losing their jobs at the same moment that I'm talking to them, especially some of the communication staff, you know, and kudos to the staff there. They, you know, they- they were open about the closure and whatnot there. But yeah, it happened so quickly, this hospital shutting down, a loss of about 500 jobs in that community. And again, those ripple effects still exist. But yeah, then you had, you know, the cascade of political leaders, Governor Deval Patrick coming in, setting up a small clinic at MCLA, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. So once that major story happened, it opened up all these other stories that are, you know, the healthcare impacts, the financial impacts, et cetera, the impacts to people's lives. And as, you know, we've continued our coverage there, we have, you know, people who were born in that hospital, and then they went to work in that hospital, and now the hospital's back open. And it just got critical asset access designation again. Again, really puts things in perspective how long these- you know, something happens and it can continue to have a mark on a community for decades and beyond.
Another one that comes to mind is the Greylock Glen redevelopment. Talk about a long-running story.
Yeah, absolutely, that had been under discussion, and then there really wasn't any plans, and then all of a sudden, I'm sure, a lot of folks just started rolling. And you go there and you're like, 'oh my gosh, yeah, they're, they've kind of cleared out the area. They're building a structure here, and it's underway.'
So eventually, and I'm glad you did, you made the move over here to Albany, and you and I began working together on a different plane. And you know, you and I were at Brian Shields' retirement party after I did an exit interview with him in December of 2019 and boy, oh boy. We had no idea what was coming.
I think Brian did. I always joke with Brian, I think he got a really early edition of the newspaper that he knew what was coming down. But yeah, obviously, you know, the COVID-19 pandemic really upended, I mean, all aspects of life, reporting too. I mean, it was our top story at times; some shows our only story, and it was simply what was happening in each region that our bureau chiefs cover. And yeah, it was all-encompassing. It really was.
What were those years like from your perspective? You and I were in the newsroom every day. I mean, we had our masks on eventually, and we were, I know, keeping our fingers crossed to make sure the virus didn't come through the newsroom and decimate our ability to actually get this critical information out. For me, that period of time seems like a blur of just, kind of, special coverage, you know, between calls in from Andrew Cuomo, Red Room press conferences from Andrew Cuomo, Fauci, Trump, so on and so forth. What about your perspective in the role of the afternoon host?
Yeah, it was tough to keep everything up to date. Yeah, you're right, because one person would have a press conference, and whether it be in, you know, a new set of rules, or a new set of guidelines, or new data coming in that would wipe out something that occurred the day before or even hours before, and yeah, after a while it just kind of- it did become the norm of every newscast essentially had, unfortunately, some of the COVID death numbers for the States or the county, et cetera, and maybe some exposures that happened at a public event. As we got years later on into the- or months or years later on into the pandemic, when things did start to open back up, but then maybe they would shut back down. And yeah, it really was kind of, just kind of an all-encompassing experience, and you're right. Here in the newsroom, it just became the norm that, you wore a mask in the newsroom. You went in to the studio, you took your mask off to deliver the news, and you put it back on to go out and collect the news once again.
A lot of people obviously know your voice and a glimpse maybe of your personality from the afternoon news. But are there any memories that you'll take from your time at the station that aren't, you know, news stories or things like that?
Oh, gosh. Well, I mean, this was a news story, but it also involved a lot of, I guess my personal time was, and I think you know what I'm getting to, is this bus trip I took with a semi-pro, I say, I think semi-pro hockey team in North Adams, the Berkshire Battalion, no longer exists, as far as I'm aware, but they took a bus trip to Watertown, New York. I think I left, four o'clock in the morning, and I asked you, 'Hey, can I do a story on this team?' And you're like, 'Yeah, sure. Why not? You know if you're willing to do it on the weekend.' And yea h, it was an eclectic mix of players who were essentially living in one or two houses making barely anything, and they just wanted a shot, potentially, at getting picked up by a minor league team, a more minor league team. It was a mix of Americans, Canadians, Russians, et cetera, and they barely knew each other, started playing together, started living together. And it really was interesting to ingrain myself in them on this again, bus trip from North Adams up to Watertown, New York, played the game and then drove immediately right back.
A 24-hour reporting trip.
Yes and kudos to them. They had to play a game in between. I just had to record the sounds of it.
Well, I'm really sad to be doing this interview. Jim, as you know, I've said all this to you off the air too, but you've brought so much humanity and grace to our airwaves, not to mention smoothness under an immense amount of pressure every day, a perspective that was really valuable for our listeners and just someone, I think our whole department has leaned on, has counted on; you've given it 100 percent every single day, and our listeners, they don't even realize how lucky they are to have had you take the torch from Brian and to keep it going. We're really going to miss you; they're big shoes to fill- or cowboy boots, if you will. We wish you nothing but the best. Don't be a stranger.
No, thank you. And again, appreciate your guidance of this department, and in terms of Brian's guidance in the months leading up to his retirement and learning from him and everybody here in the newsroom, it's really been gratifying to experience that and then to see the young blood come in too, it's been fun to shift into a little bit more of a senior role here, and I'll always appreciate my time here at WAMC.
