Weathering Changes of Life

10/26/2020

As I enter my fourth week back on the air after a 2.5 year hiatus, I thought it was time to both reflect a little and look forward as well. Despite some confusion, it was not my choice to leave my past employer. I don't want to waste any more time on that. It's over. It's what happens in the business I've chosen to make a career.

That being said, it was also a much needed break to reevaluate things. With the pandemic hitting just a few months after my 24 year career ended, it created an assortment of perspective and possible career changes. The list kept growing. I registered to substitute teach, to be certified as a private online tutor, studied for, and achieved my NY State Real Estate License and finally, became a background person for various TV shows and films. In addition, I worked on several personal projects ranging from a podcast to cooking, travel and personal healing online shows.

After a year or so of being on the sidelines, I would occasionally throw my hat in the ring for some weather openings. I won't go into specifics about the who, what, when and where of the job opportunities. I will say, I was often left with little to no response. A part-time position was offered, but it just didn't fit my life at that point. Others showed interest and then ghosted me. I truly was about to accept the fact that a return to TV weather was not going to happen.

I had signed up for several online job listing websites and constantly would receive emails for various jobs. In the meantime, I was trying to launch my real estate career. I soon realized, while I really enjoyed the real estate industry and showing homes, as well as trying to find the right fit for clients, it takes quite some time to build a list of clientele. At my age, I started to feel that by the time I got it rolling, I would be ready to retire. So I turned to other sources of possible income.

That's where the background acting jobs came in. Without revealing any details, I worked on shows for Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon as well as movies, HBO, Showtime and Starz. I had the great privilege of working with Morgan Freeman and Paul Giamatti to name a couple. That being said, this was just another interesting experience, but primarily a placeholder.

As I live more of my life, I tend to believe what's meant to happen will happen. I often think the script is already written and I might be one of the only people who doesn't have a copy. So how did I end up at WPIX and back in the weather seat?

I was sifting through job openings and randomly saw a meteorologist opening from Nexstar in New York City. I knew nothing about the job or what it really entailed, but I just hit the send resume button with very little thought behind it. Lo and behold, less than 10 minutes later, I received a response requesting an interview. For the sake of privacy on both sides, I won't get into details about how we came to our agreement, suffice to say at least to this point all parties are very happy.

The feeling of being wanted and respected again in a career in which I've spent nearly 40 years was both overwhelming and reinvigorating. For that, I cannot thank the management at Nexstar and WPIX-TV enough for giving me this opportunity.

My regular duties started out delivering the weather 4-6AM, Monday to Friday, every 10 minutes. In addition, in June of 2022, I began co-hosting a daily one hour lifestyle show with Marysol Castro from 10-11AM. That was great fun to stretch out and try something new on a daily basis. I got to meet some amazing people through interviews, shoot some fun pieces in the field, and make a new friend in Marysol Castro. I don't know what it is with me and the Boriquas.

So upon the update to the original post on my previous website/blog, I have moved to a new shift at PIX11 News. I now deliver the weather from 4-5PM & 6-7PM. I'm sort of a Mr. G sandwich, as he delivers the weather from 5-6PM and again 10-11PM. I'm rapidly coming upon my 2 year anniversary at PIX. It truly is amazing how quickly time goes by. I am enjoying the sleep and no alarm clock schedule for the first time in my 30 year plus TV career, let alone prior early morning radio work.

Last but not least, I have to take a moment to thank all of you. Family, friends, viewers, social media kinships etc. Without your constant support and encouragement I clearly wouldn't be here today. You got me through some very dark times and you helped me weather the storms both meteorologically and emotionally. I will never ever forget that, and would only hope to have the chance to thank many of you individually. It's a long list and I often feel I'm not deserving.

However, I am truly blessed and fortunate to have your love and support and I intend to honor that by doing the best I can as I finish out my career over the next (hopefully) several years to come.

In the coming weeks and months I will also begin working on some special projects at PIX11 and will keep you posted as things progress.

See you on the screen. Sunshine Always!!!

This post is both an old repost from when I started my new job at WPIX-11 in New York, as well as an update to today and what might be beyond.

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