Steve Jones ’89

Steve Jones is the vice president and general manager at ABC Radio, where he has worked mostly in radio and audio for the last 30 years. There, he began as a freelance news writer and was given room to evolve into the roles of producer, senior producer, director, executive director and vice president. He began working at ABC in 1986, and for the first three years there, he was also a member of the Adelphi student body.

He graduated in the Adelphi Class of 1989, but according to Jones, the road to graduation was “not simple and straightforward” since he left the university twice to pursue full-time positions in radio, delaying his graduation by six years.

After his freshman year, he was hired at WPIX FM, where he had been working freelance. After a year, he returned to Adelphi, but only for one semester because he was then hired at WLIR – a local Long Island radio station. After this job, Jones was never a full-time student again, but while at Adelphi, he was a staff writer for The Delphian temporarily, avidly reviewing new music releases.

Since then, Jones has been a mentor to younger Adelphi students and has organized visits to ABC for finance and human resources majors. He anticipated more involvement in the near future.

Jones’s Advice on Patience and Reputation in the Professional World:

1. “Now so more than ever, with the staff we have here and my engagement with younger staff, there is an anxiety over achievement and am I actually moving ahead and as concretely as I should be. That is one thing that I would encourage anyone who is in school is to not be so hurried in getting to the goal line because there is really no goal line. It’s just a continuing evolution for all of us, including me today at this point in my career. Every day, it’s something new I’m learning and some new challenge that I’m given the opportunity here to tackle.”
2. “We all know that an angry tweet or a poorly thought out Instagram photo can cause damage that we can’t anticipate and can’t necessarily undo. I think the most important thing we have is reputation, and all of us get judged on that in ways that aren’t always obvious to us.
3. “For younger people, I think it’s incredibly important that they have an  awareness of that and don’t take for granted that they’re at a point in their lives where it’s probably going to be the most uncomfortable for them and also the most important. Things that they did or said may come back to work against them.”

Originally published in the Delphian Vol.73 Issue 7 – With updates made by Alumni Relations