Adam Berardo

W hen Adam Berardo ‘92 listened to WLFR 91.7 Lake Fred Radio as a high school student, he never imagined he’d end up working in the college radio station as a student, or years later, tuning in to catch a song by Te Vista, a South Jersey rock band that his sons Nikola and Desi belong to.  

Berardo, who was born in New Jersey and raised in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, distinctly remembers wanting to go to college, but not knowing what major to choose or what career path to pursue.  

He moved back to New Jersey during high school, and Stockton was the local college. “I knew the radio station and remember it always had the best music. I was a fan,” he said. 

Looking back retrospectively, “it's probably even the allure of the radio station that brought me to Stockton,” he added.  

The non-commercial, alternative radio that connected him to the dynamic of punk, new wave and alternative music from the 80s and 90s drew him in. He found community, camaraderie and a creative outlet that helped him thrive. 

He jokes that he is a professional loiterer at the station. “I can't get away from the place,” he said. 

He’s continued to host WLFR radio shows off and on ever since he graduated. He’s also passed the baton to his son, Nikola Berardo, who works in Stockton Production Services and hosts the Bodkin Chronicles. 

Radio Station Inspires Lifetime of Music

He describes his discovery of the station as “a moth to a flame.” 

He first stepped foot in the studio after meeting fellow student Paul Glaser, who gave him the introduction to a space that changed his life.

Glaser became his songwriting partner, and they honed their skills together playing music at the Port House, off campus housing, and started a group called Noise Museum. 

“My initial Stockton thrust was really with the radio station and riding my skateboard around campus,” he recalled. 

He also took advantage of the proximity to the ocean and surfed. 

Up until then, he was “a really good air guitar player,” he admitted.  

Berardo always had an interest in poetry, so his discovery of songwriting was his invitation to become a musician. 

For him, songwriting “was an opportunity for lightning to strike itself by combining lyrics, melody and the physicality of playing guitar,” he said. 

Although he doesn’t perform as often, he made one of his greatest music memories this fall. 

“One of the highlights of my life was playing the first annual Cape May Folk Festival. Te Vista invited me up on stage to play percussion, so I'm sitting alongside Desi, my youngest on the drums, and I'm sitting right behind my son Niko on guitar and singing. Being part of the rhythm section on the train that that band is—that was a highlight of my life just chugging along,” he said.  

He’s entered his “Beatle’s phase” where he records music at home. His music is available on Bandcamp and Spotify as 1Adam12.

“My involvement with music is like breathing,” he said. 

Finding a Major that Encompasses Diverse Interests

When it came time to declare a major, he settled on History. “I chose History because it seemed to encompass all the subjects. There is a history of science, a history of math, a history of politics and so forth,” he said.

Music would always remain much more than a major, career or interest in his life. He described music and creative outlets as his “survival mechanisms of making sense of chaos and processing the abnormal events that have happened in my life.” 

He looked back on his early years when his parents’ divorce disrupted life as he knew it. He was constantly moving around during those unsettling times. 

“As an 11-year-old, I got kicked out of school. Radical things happen you know, but Stockton prepared me intellectually and analytically to approach anything with grace,” he said.  

A Class that Mapped Out How to Navigate Life 

It only takes one class taught by an exceptional professor to thoughtfully guide someone in the direction they were meant to find. 

“I discovered the most profound characters, not only fellow students, but the professors that I had, and I think I can really illustrate my college experience with one professor named Bill Daly,” he said. 

The class was “Politics in the 80s,” and he said, “it completely changed my existence.” 

Bill Daly taught liberal democratic and conservative republican politics with equal gravity.  

The class and how it was taught “really opened up my mind.” 

“It helped me read people, helped me navigate people, helped me love people. It was what I really needed and set the stage for all my other classes. It was profound,” he said. 

He began to create his own value system. 

A Campus That Connects People

Looking back, Berardo noted how Stockton was designed to help people connect. 

“You know everything from its logo to the way the doors were designed between the buildings for people to meet each other and hold the door for one another that's intrinsic in the design,” he said. 

Lake Fred and the natural landscape surrounding the buildings encouraged students to be active.

“Being outside was just a given. There was a lot of walking through the woods and hiking, going to the cedar bog, playing guitar outside with friends and singing in the hallways. We would go to the school late at night and go into a stairwell where the reverb and echo is just amazing. The acoustics in these stairwells made them the best place to practice and rehearse,” he said.

Outdoor classes were also a norm.

He revealed the acoustic secret of the half-moon outdoor seating areas in K- and D-wings. 

“There is a magical little spot in the center of the arc of that letter C where you can stand there and your voice could be at a whisper and every person in that seating arrangement can hear you because of the design,” he explained. 

Every Opportunity is a Step in Life’s Journey 

After graduating, Berardo worked at many different jobs, but in 2001, after a hiring freeze was lifted, he got a position in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families’ Child Protection and Permanency agency. He currently works in the litigation unit.

“It’s been a wild ride because you’re investigating and interacting with the underbody politics of our species. Things happen to children that are atrocious and unmentionable and other times families make honest mistakes, and they just need help,” he explained.

He described some days as feeling like you’re in a surrealist Salvador Dali painting of human existence.

In helping to protect children from the worst of situations, he’s met people who he calls “the giants, who are some of the smartest, kindest and most giving workforce one could ever be a part of.”

They inspire him to be the best version of himself.

Just Try It 

Berardo’s advice is simple, but powerful: Try it. 

If you have an interest, start exploring it now. 

He also noted that humor is essential in life.

“Your quality of life will be dependent on the exhaustion of your five senses and developing the sixth,” he said.

Story by Susan Allen