Finding His Voice

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Finding His Voice

Neruda Perdomo '26

A deep-rooted passion for storytelling puts Communication and Media major Neruda Perdomo ’26 behind the microphone

The moment, which may one day mark the breakthrough in Neruda Perdomo’s podcasting and sports media career, was inspired by an unlikely source: a basketball rival.

During the fall semester of his junior year, Perdomo caught an episode of a start-up podcast focusing on Division III basketball. Perdomo’s Pioneers men’s basketball teammate, Darius Hopkins ’22, was a guest on Not Even D2, prompting Perdomo to tune in. The show’s creator and host, KJ Allison, had played basketball against Perdomo and Hopkins while at Empire 8 conference foe Alfred University.

“I listened to the interview, and I was like, this is a great idea,” recalls Perdomo, who recently completed his degree in communication and media.

Allison was a one-person production team on a podcast averaging two to three hundred views per episode. Perdomo had been considering starting his own podcast, but suddenly pivoted.

“I just thought, this is a great podcast, and I feel like I can add a lot to it,” he says. “If I hop on and help him out, we can take this thing and go.”

While they had competed on the hardwood, Perdomo had never met Allison. However, they shared a love for Division III basketball and a mutual connection in Marcus Gentile. Gentile knew Allison from playing together in the Albany area growing up and played two seasons with Perdomo at Utica. On Gentile’s introduction, Perdomo reached out to Allison, and before long, the two were recording demo podcasts.

“He liked the vibe we had, and felt, like I did, that it could be a really good pairing,” he says. “We just found this incredible chemistry.”

Not Even D2 has cultivated a growing following, particularly among the Division III college basketball community. Undoubtedly, the most notable episode in the podcast’s three season run was when Perdomo and Allison interviewed former D3 player turned NBA star Duncan Robinson in the Robinson’s living room.

Perdomo met Robinson, a fellow New Hampshirite, through their mutual friendship with Robinson’s offseason trainer, Mitch Kirsch. “I would help out guarding him in his workouts over the summer,” Perdomo says. “We got close, and I just asked him one day during a workout if he would come on the pod and he said yes. That was really awesome, and an experience I won’t forget.”

Creative roots

Expressing ideas, thoughts, and opinions comes naturally to Perdomo. It’s a product of his DNA and upbringing. His mother, Sandra Guzman, is an award-winning journalist, author, and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. His father, Willie, is a former New York State Poet Laureate and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Neruda, who got his name from the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda, moved from New York City to New Hampshire when he was 11 years old after Willie accepted a teaching position at the prestigious boarding school Phillips Exeter Academy.

“I come from creatives,” he says proudly.

"Just being in the studio, I instantly liked this whole mic thing going on. I was like, ‘Alright, what else can I do with this?’”

Perdomo’s passion for broadcasting, while born out of his parents’ shared love for storytelling and connecting with audiences, was nurtured at Utica University. In particular, it was Communication and Media faculty member and WPNR radio station advisor Doug Croft who cultivated his love for being on air and encouraged him to push boundaries – but always with an eye to professionalism.

“He gave me my first opportunity to experience hearing my voice on the airwaves, and gave me creative autonomy to do, really, whatever I wanted, but at the same time held me to a high standard,” Perdomo says. “Just being in the studio, I instantly liked this whole mic thing going on. I was like, ‘Alright, what else can I do with this?’”

When he approached Croft about doing the podcast, Croft’s answer was as simple as it was sincere: “Whatever you need.”

“He put that battery in my back and told me to go for it,” Perdomo says. “He gave me the (key) code, and when I couldn’t sleep at 2 a.m., I would walk over to the studio, and be in there until 4 a.m. editing. That was my happy space, and Professor Croft created that space for me.”

Perdomo stands in a long lineage of media professionals who cut their teeth in the WPNR studio – often times through a healthy dose of experimentation and chance-taking.

Neruda Perdomo at the mic — Neruda at the mic

“That’s the idea,” Croft says. “Students come here with so much ambition. Neruda was no different. In his freshman year, you could already see the energy he had. He was great on the airwaves, and he sounded great. I got the sense that he was going to be a little chaotic, but in a good way. He’s the kind of student who’s got this energy and who’s going to do something, we just need to give him the opportunity and space to do it in his own way.”

At the same time, Croft sees in Perdomo broadcast and storytelling attributes that are uncommon, if not exceptional, in a young, aspiring media professional.

“What makes him a little different is Neruda always felt like, to me, something of a throwback,” he says. “He leaned early on into wanting to talk to people and bring them in. He wanted to develop relationships through that interactive process of broadcast.

“It’s very slight, but when you talk to him in person, some of his disarming nature, he ties together his ideas of openness and how to look past the things that he sees on the surface and look for the story.”

“He just empowered me.”

At Utica, Perdomo found in Croft and professors like Paul MacArthur a faculty fully committed to making every opportunity he had to advance his podcasting pursuits happen – and happen well.

Professor Croft and Neruda — Professor Croft with Neruda at Commencement

As a case in point, two summers ago he and Allison got invited to Dayton, OH as credentialed press to The Basketball Tournament, an annual nationally-televised, 64-team, $1 million winner-take-all competition featuring many former NBA players. The event attracts a who’s who among the basketball and sports media worlds, and thus is a destination for developing media talent.

Perdomo had lined up a series of prominent interviews. However, save for his iPhone, he didn’t own any production equipment. Croft learned of his predicament eight hours before Perdomo was scheduled to get board a plane to Dayton. He quickly packaged together a collection of professional-caliber lapel and wireless mics capable of capturing high-fidelity audio, a compact audio mixer, and assorted cabling – all tagged WPNR.

The gesture caught Perdomo off guard – and it meant a lot.

“It was surprising to Neruda that someone was going to trust him to take the station’s equipment and use it for his own purpose,” Croft remembers. “I didn’t think of it as his own purposes. I thought of it as, he’s a student who pays tuition here and he has this great opportunity in front of him.

“That to me was the turning point where he just sort of trusted me a little bit more. It wasn’t that it wasn’t already there, but it was sort of like he came to me for help for this thing that he really wanted to do, wondered if I could do it, and the answer was, ‘Sure. Let’s make it happen.’”

“Without Professor Croft I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Perdomo says. “He just empowered me.”

Catching up with the president

Perdomo’s most recent podcast venture expanded his focus beyond sports. This spring he launched a podcast with University President Stephanie Nesbitt called Campus Catch-Up.

In addition to enjoying sitting shoulder to shoulder as co-host with the University president, he’s appreciated having an opportunity to contribute to building community on campus through his love for media.

Campus Catchup podcast — Campus Catch-Up

“When I was offered the opportunity, honestly I was taken aback,” he says. “To have other people on campus talk about something that I’m involved in, and to have people reach out or to read comments on social media from people who have enjoyed watching or listening to the podcast, that’s brought a lot of pride.

“I’m definitely grateful,” he continues. “I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect way to end my time at Utica.”

His next step is graduate school in Sports Communication and Media at Iona University, where he is anxious to study under, among others, longtime New York City sports commentator Bruce Beck, an executive-in-residence in the program.

Perdomo lists among his professional role models prominent sports podcasters Bill Simmons and former NBA champions Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. He aspires to one day make his mark on a competitive industry, either behind the mic or on the production side.

“I’m just going to keep working hard and trusting the process and believing the right opportunity will present itself,” he says.