It’s The Kielbasa Kid…

…thinking about Labor Day and the jobs I had before starting a career in radio which except for 2 months in 1975 and 6 months in 2013 has been going strong for 43 years. My first job was cutting grass for the friend of my dad’s in Weirton, West Virginia and saving enough money to buy a turntable to finally play the first album I ever bought “More of the Monkees”. Yeah I actually bought an album before I had something to play it on. My second job was sweeping and mopping the floor at a local pizza joint called Orwaskys Chicken and Pizza, good Italian name but they made great pizza and pressure cooked chicken and got to take home a free pizza every now and then. I also had to burn the trash and one day it was real windy and couldn’t get it lit so I dumped some gas in the container. Not only did it ignite but I wound up running around the back alley putting out little fires from the trash that shot out of the container. I also worked at a gas station for about a week. My dad found out that I let the owner take my car while I was working. Well, it wasn’t my car it was my dad’s and let’s just say he wasn’t too happy to hear about that. The last job I had before getting my first job in radio was as a cook in a restaurant called 1776. It used to be a Pizza Inn located in the Weirton Heights Shopping center. I started out making pizzas, busing tables and washing dishes. One night the cook got sick and a waitress asked if anyone knew how to cook. I didn’t but said I did and Joanne the lady who got sick sat in a chair and told me what to do. That impressed the boss and the next thing I know I’m a cook and  got the perks of not having to wash dishes, bus tables and being allowed to eat what ever I wanted. So except for that 6 month period in 2013 where I found myself selling cars at Day Ford in Monroeville its been nothing but radio and a journey that’s taken me to Logan, West Virginia, Steubenville, Ohio, Wheeling, West Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, Hartford, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and now Uniontown, Pa. References available upon request.