Five Jobs That Led Simon To WRRV

Here's a look at five jobs I had (that I can remember) leading up to getting hired at WRRV. Thank you to everyone who has supported along the way.

It all started in a hot sweaty Friendly's kitchen, it was my first job at 16 and I had no idea what to expect. I worked my way up from dishwasher to grill cook and became known for my specialty hot beef quesadillas (not on the menu). I'll never forget this experience because the guy who hired me left his wife, ran off with one of the waitresses, and quit within my first three weeks there. The guy who replaced him was pretty cool, and he didn't even cheat on his wife with any of my coworkers. I worked there for about a year before moving on to retail.

From there it was a strategic cross-town move to the hot retail location in town, Caldor. I was destined for a bright future in the sporting goods department. Plus the girl I liked at the time worked there. I spent the days riding skateboards in the aisle and making sure the basketballs were properly inflated (and organizing shelves). But a brighter opportunity presented itself and it was onto the local golf course in town.

We were brought in as painters, there were a number of projects to be done on this temporary position. We successfully turned a four-week project into seven and spent mornings doing donuts in our assigned golf cart on the wet early morning grass. From there it was off to college.

I was fortunate to land a job in the Marist College Media Center as a freshman and thankfully decided to take this opportunity a little more seriously than previous work experiences. I had a chance to learn a lot about the ins and outs of all things media. The biggest change between now and then, we used to have to deliver multimedia equipment to the classrooms when professors requested it. Now each classroom is outfitted with all the equipment needed, no delivery necessary. I still had no idea I wanted to get into media and wish I'd had the opportunity to do college radio.

Summers off from Marist it was working for the town mowing lawns, prepping and lining ball fields, and whatever other tasks needed to be done that the full-timers didn't feel like doing at the time. But the money was good and you got to spend the summer outside.

So schooling ended up not panning out exactly the way I had planned. I got a part-time job with this radio station on Pendell Road through a friend at Marist who had been interning with the Coop & Tobin show. From there a mixture of hard work, being in the right place at the right time, only crashing the radio station van once and not always sucking have led us here.

Someday I hope to open my own White Castle Restaurant in the Hudson Valley but until then I'll be with you weekdays 3-7 on WRRV and streaming live through our mobile app.

What was your first job?

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