Bernie Wagenblast
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Bernhard Robert Wagenblast (born September 1, 1956 in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is the founder and editor of the Transportation Communications Newsletter (ISSN number 1529-1057), an e-mail publication with over 5,800 subscribers as of early 2007 which is distributed via Yahoo Groups and Google Groups Monday through Friday. The newsletter originated as a discussion group in June 1998, evolving into its current format shortly thereafter. It is currently the top Yahoo Group in the transportation category, based on group membership numbers. He is also the editor for of the AASHTO Daily Transportation Update, published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
He also serves as the voice for various transportation facilities including AirTrain Newark, AirTrain JFK and the customer phone system and highway advisory radio system at Newark Liberty International Airport. On July 4, 2004 he was the announcer during the laying of the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site.
Wagenblast also is the Operations Manager for Shadow Traffic/Metro Networks (a Westwood One company), where he began his career in the transportation field in 1979 as one of that company's original on-air reporters.[1] Through his work for Shadow, he appeared on several New York City radio stations over a five year period, including WINS and WABC. On WABC he used the name Jack Packard which was given to him by legendary Top 40 DJ Dan Ingram. The name was based on a character from the old time radio program "I Love a Mystery").[2] In addition to the New York City stations, Wagenblast also appeared on WBAB (Babylon, NY), WMTR (Morristown, NJ), WVIP-FM (Mt. Kisco, NY), WWDJ (Hackensack, NJ), WNAB-AM (Bridgeport, CT) and WERA (Plainfield, NJ).
Other broadcast experience included positions at WHN (New York City), WJDM (Elizabeth, NJ), WDGS (New Albany, IN) and WRNJ (Hackettstown, NJ).
After working for Shadow Traffic the first time, Wagenblast joined the New York City Department of Transportation, where he helped to establish the city's first transportation communications center. Afterward, he moved to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and was operations manager at TRANSCOM, a coalition of transportation agencies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He also was involved in the start of the I-95 Corridor Coalition, serving as co-chair of the Highway Operations Group.
Following over a decade of work in government, Bernie rejoined the private sector serving as the NYC Director of Operations for SmartRoute Systems, a Senior Associate for TransCore and working with SmartRoute Systems to help grow their public sector Intelligent Transportation Systems business.
He is a graduate of Seton Hall University where he was active in the college's radio station, WSOU-FM (South Orange, NJ), serving as the News Director there in 1976-1977, and Station Manager in 1977-1978.
