Few college grads manage to score their dream job. Steve Tripi is one of the lucky few who has, and he did it by losing a contest for a talent he didn't even know he had.
Tripi, a 24-year-old alumnus and political science major, is a regular morning sports talk show producer for 97 Rock. Being a political science major, Tripi didn't know of his distinctive vocal talents. The Kenmore West graduate is an ideal example of a college graduate finding a job not pertaining to his or her major. It is possible. Treat Steve Tripi's story as evidence.
Almost immediately after completing high school, Tripi and his band, Speakerfire, toured on the road nonstop. It was this that caused him to save college for a few years. Ironically, it was touring on the road with his band that transformed Tripi's scholarly experience.
"We would be in the van a lot on the road," explained Tripi. "I started listening to WGR because it was the cool thing to do because the Sabres were winning every week. [WGR] had a rookie contest. It was like an American Idol for sports talk radio guys. Everyone was like ‘Steve, you should do this.' And I had no experience whatsoever on the radio. I was so raw I literally had no experience."
That rawness might have been an advantage. Tripi surprised even himself by passing a few rounds in the contest. Although he wasn't victorious, that didn't stop the wheels from turning. He recognized his knack for conversing about a topic, and this ability did not go unnoticed.
"I didn't win," said Tripi. "But the program director of the station Andy Roth told me that I had a raw talent, but just to hone it and get back to him in a little while to see what happens."
This lit the fuse for Tripi's future. In the fall of 2008, he discovered WRUB, a typical place for any new broadcasting talent to start out. The spring of 2009 was the launch of his work. With the aid from broadcasting colleagues, Tripi got off to a worthy start.
"I just started developing my own thing, and since I had such a huge music background I wanted to do like a music show," Tripi said. "But I kind of evolved into this all-around variety talk show. And it was a lot of fun because I had a lot of contacts with musicians, so a lot of local bands would come on and we would do a local show."
Eventually, Tripi progressively widened his angle to sports, covering the Bulls football and basketball games for WRUB. His scene soon changed once again in the summer of 2010. Tripi was offered a part-time position at the station that started it all: WRG. While there, Tripi quickly became an important figure on the staff. From covering Sabres practices to producing a ‘Best-Of' piece.
This was Tripi's favorite employment opportunity yet, and still remains so today.
"I miss WGR, to be perfectly honest," Tripi said. "I was working part-time at WGR, my favorite radio station. I listened to it everyday, then I started working there; it was so weird. So I just kept on getting better and better and so all of a sudden I was in this broadcasting thing. I never took a class in broadcasting, I had no experience in [broadcasting], but I got thrown to the wolves and I took to it."
That's why Tripi's case is so special: he boldly decided to stick with his band instead of attending college, and through all of the struggle managed to earn a legitimate job not even pertaining to his major. He now works at Cumulus, which carries radio stations like The Edge, 97 Rock, and 104.1.
"That's the gig, it's a about knowing people," Tripi said. "You have to find your niche, what you like to do, and go for it and you'll get there. For me, I graduated and I already had work. I feel like people amongst our generation feel this pressure to have it all figured out. It can happen, I guess my story is an example of that."
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
