Sunday, September 18th, 2016 was my first time at the anchor desk for WOBM News. It was a big day for me because when I finish college I want to be a Journalist -- so I was already nervous when I got the gig a month prior.

On Saturday morning I remember being bombarded with a bunch of notifications and text messages on my phone that there was a bombing at a race in Seaside Heights. I found out moments later that the race was at the Seaside Semper 5k, a race that my friends where participating in and an event that our sister station, 105.7 The Hawk was covering.

I remember moments later getting a call from our then news director, Tom Mongelli, running through what needed to be done when I got into the newsroom tomorrow morning.  I remember him telling me to be calm and just stick to the facts. I’ll be honest, I was really nervous.

That night, I didn’t sleep – which was probably a good thing. I say that because the copycat bombing in Manhattan happened late that night even though officials at the time were not drawing any relation to the two events.

It was my first day as a news anchor… so I had no idea what I was doing, so I am really lucky to have some of the best people in news around me guiding me. I still remember to this day who helped me on that day… so a huge thanks to Tom Mongelli, Dan Alexander, Justin Louis, and Brad Burascano.

This just goes to show the power of local radio. While everyone was looking to the events that were unfolding in Elizabeth and Manhattan, 92.7 WOBM stayed with Seaside Heights with constant updates, on air and online, about the investigation that was being headed up by multiple outlets.

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