Bernie Wagenblast, Seton Hall alumna, voiceover actor, reporter, and radio personality, said that the decision to come to SHU and join WSOU has been one of the key moments of her life. Since then, her broadcasting career has flourished, and she strives to raise awareness for transgender people such as herself.
Wagenblast, who is known as “The Voice of the Subway” in New York City, transitioned in January 2023 and has publicly shared her story in publications like The New York Times and television shows like CBS Mornings. In the CBS feature, titled “Note to Self,” she wrote a letter to a younger version of herself and read it to viewers watching from home.
“It was basically a note telling that version of Bernie, who was growing up in the mid-1970s, where [being] trans was not at all visible that it will become more visible,” Wagenblast said. “You will have opportunities to be yourself in the future. Things are going to get better and the world is going to become more accepting in many ways.”
Wagenblast is one of the voices of the NYC subway system, in addition to the voice of Newark Liberty International Airport’s AirTrain and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, just to name a few examples of her voiceover work according to her LinkedIn. She is also the owner of Transportation Radio and Cranford Radio and the editor of the Transportation Communications Newsletter.
But Wagenblast’s media career first started at WSOU, where she served as news director from 1976-1977 and station manager from 1977-1978.
“You know, with a radio station that covers a good section of Northern and Central New Jersey down the shore and a good part of New York City, [it’s] a great opportunity to be on the air in the biggest market in the country,” Wagenblast said.
When reflecting on her time at SHU, Wagenblast talked about her particular interest in news and the opportunities she was presented with while at WSOU.
“A lot of kids were more involved with music, so news was not something that a lot of other students were interested in,” Wagenblast said. “[WSOU] had an advisory board that selected the student managers, and in my junior year I was selected as the news director.”
During the 1976 presidential election, Republican candidate and incumbent president Gerald Ford hosted a “media day” at the White House for N.J.-based newspapers and television and radio stations for a day of briefings and a press conference in the East Room at the White House. Wagenblast offered to cover the event, both for WSOU and another part-time job at a radio station, and met the president.
“I was working as an afternoon newscaster at a radio station in Elizabeth, N.J. and a telegram came into the radio station from the White House,” Wagenblast said. “My boss read it and she said, ‘We can’t send anybody to Washington; we don’t have the money for that.’ I said, ‘I will pay my own way, give me the day off so I can go down there,’ and so I flew down to Washington and covered it.”
Around noon, Wagenblast and other reporters had tea and coffee in the Blue Room at the White House when all of a sudden, the president walked in and shook hands with everyone, Wagenblast said.
The year she was news director, Wagenblast also covered the Democratic National Convention taking place at Madison Square Garden, the U.S. Bicentennial at New York Harbor, and more, she said. She would sign up for events using WSOU press credentials which also allowed her to meet then-president Ford’s vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, and the then-governor of New Jersey, Brendan Byrne.
Wagenblast stayed involved with WSOU after graduation by creating a Facebook page for SHU alumni to build connections. In 2016, she was inducted into the WSOU Hall of Fame.
Later in her career, Wagenblast worked with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s communications center called TRANSCOM.
TRANSCOM is used by transportation agencies as a platform to share information with other agencies specifically in the regions of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Wagenblast was the operations manager for about ten years but left in 1996. But, in 2009, a representative from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) at TRANSCOM reached out to see if she would be interested in a new project called countdown clocks.
“The idea behind countdown clocks was that there were signs and audio announcements that would tell passengers basic information like how long it would be before the train was arriving,” Wagenblast said. “I went to a recording studio in Rutherford and spent about two days recording approximately one thousand different statements. Most of them were just individual words or short phrases.”
Wagenblast’s voiceover career helped her land an opportunity to be a part of the “Warriors” concept album by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, which is inspired by the 1979 action film “The Warriors.”
“I got a call in early June from a sound engineer in Toronto, and he said ‘I’m involved with doing an album and we’d like to have your voice on the album, would you be interested?’” Wagenblast said.
Wagenblast affirmed her interest but did not find out any further details about the project until she signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“So, I signed it and sent it back, and then [the sound engineer] called me back and said that ‘This is an album…based on “The Warriors,” and we would like you to be the voice of the train conductor. Lin is a big fan of yours,’” Wagenblast said.
Wagenblast said that Miranda “even knowing” who she was was “amazing.”
“Lin is so much of a New Yorker, so he’s on the subway,” Wagenblast said. “I’m sure he’s heard my voice countless times.”
With such an expansive resume, Wagenblast does not have any specific projects for this year, but she said she wants to focus on her efforts to continue raising awareness for transgender visibility.
“It’s not a specific plan per se, it’s not anything with particular goals, but we’ll see where this goes,” Wagenblast said.
Andrew Palma is a writer for The Setonian’s News section. He can be reached at andrew.palma@student.shu.edu.
