Paul J. Battaglia, 22, a 2000 graduate of BU's School of Management, was working on the 100th floor of 1 World Trade Center, the first building struck by a jetliner, according to a statement from WHRW. Battaglia's family has not heard from him since Tuesday's horror.
Battaglia, a native of Brooklyn, was employed as a consultant at the risk management firm Marsh & McLennan Cos. Friends at BU describe him as an outgoing, brilliant, politically conservative management student dedicated to his friends and to improving the radio station.
"Paul had a knack for just lighting up a room -- by cracking a joke or just smiling," said Brian Napolitano, a former WHRW disc jockey who calls Battaglia his best friend. "I don't know how I would have made it through my four years at Binghamton without him."
Jeffrey Goldberger, a BU management professor, said Battaglia organized barbecues for the honors program and was eager to applaud other students' work.
"Paul was always the first guy to stand up and clap. He thought we should all clap and we should all be friends and we should all enjoy life together," Goldberger said. "He was the kind of guy who would raise the level of discourse and raise the spirits of a room, just by being there and smiling."
Battaglia was general manager at WHRW from 1998 to 2000. Colleagues said his dedication and competence helped the station improve its fund-raising and computer system, and ushered in regular coverage of women's basketball games.
Battaglia was a jazz DJ on Sunday evenings and would chat with his own grandfather on the air, said fellow deejay Gregory "The Gregger" Levine. It was during those years that Levine announced he is gay. Levine said the conservative Battaglia was rattled by that news but remained Levine's true friend.
"He was everybody's friend," said Levine, of Binghamton. "Something special to me was that I was really Paul's first gay friend. He definitely didn't shy away from that, and that was very supportive for me."
Napolitano, of Endicott, last spoke with Battaglia Sept. 8. Napolitano, who works in the radiation/oncology department at Lourdes Hospital, said Battaglia had a successful career and a girlfriend and was thinking about pursuing a master's degree.
"He and I kidded ... that we really had done well and that both of us one day would grow old together," Napolitano said. "I really feel like I've lost somebody who was as close to me as anybody has ever been."
Napolitano will host a special tribute show dedicated to Battaglia on WHRW from 7 to 10 tonight.
Also missing
Five other people with Southern Tier ties are believed missing in Tuesday's deadly attacks:
* Navy Lt. Cmdr. Robert Randolph Elseth, 37, a 1982 Vestal High School graduate, has not been seen since a hijacked jetliner slammed into the Pentagon on Tuesday, the Department of Defense said.
* Rob Peraza, a Norwich High School graduate who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of one of the towers, has been missing since the attack in New York. He is the son of Robert and Susan Peraza of Mason, Ohio, formerly of Norwich.
* Michele Reed, a Norwich High School graduate in her late 20s, was reported to have been working in one of the Trade Center towers near where it was struck.
* Joseph Sisolak, a Maine-Endwell High School graduate, is reported missing by his New York City employer, J&H Marsh & McLennan, which had offices at the World Trade Center.
* Brian J. Terrenzi, a Susquehanna Valley High School graduate who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 101st floor of the North Tower, is missing. The 28-year-old leaves behind his pregnant wife, Jane, as well as parents Betty and John Terrenzi, who are Town of Binghamton residents.
In addition, several Binghamton University students are believed to have lost relatives in the attacks.