Back in August, WGR morning co-host Howard Simon announced that he was going to cut back to a reduced work schedule. Instead of co-hosting Howard and Jeremy with Jeremy White five days a week, Simon has only been doing the show on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Friday with producer Joe DiBiase handling the co-hosting duties on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
After 30 years of talking sports in Buffalo, the reduced schedule has worked out nicely for him.
“It was definitely the right decision to make,” said Simon. “I don’t know about refreshed but two days off makes a big difference. I’m not sure I would have made it through the whole (football) season if I had to work a full-time schedule. The reduced work load was great.”
Simon has been with WGR since 2004 after working previously for WJJL (which would eventually become WEBR), WBEN, and Empire Sports Network. Of all the years that he has been working in Buffalo, this has been one of the best years and its not because of the reduced work load.
The Bills have been good for a few years now and after Sunday’s Wild Card win over the Dolphins, they are through to the divisional round of the playoffs. As far as the NHL’s Sabres are concerned, they are having a terrific season and they are competing for a Eastern Conference playoff spot.
“That’s been fun,” said Simon. “It has made the job easier. We went 17 football seasons without a playoff and now the Sabres are in an 11-year drought. It’s not fun. It’s just talking about sports…it’s not life and death…but it’s still not fun when the teams are bad. The Sabres kicking it a little bit this year has really kind of brought us back to the way it used to be when both teams are really good. Knock on wood, God willing, there will be a Super Bowl in around a month for Bills fans to celebrate. They’ve certainly earned it.”
So why cut back now when the Bills and Sabres are fun to watch?
Simon read a story about Dale Hansen, a former long-time sportscaster in Dallas who had made the decision to leave the business when he knew it was time. Talking about sports, in any market, five days a week and having to follow the sports scene seven days a week is not easy…it can be a grind.
So, Simon was inspired by Hansen to start thinking about how much longer he really wants to do this.
“He talked about the kind of job we have requires passion, requires energy…you’ve got to really bring it,” said Simon. “And when you don’t, it’s really hard to do that. I saw that and I thought the last couple of years I have felt that way. For me, that’s what it really gets down to…this is not a job…talking about sports, watching the games, giving your opinions…this is not a job you just kind of half-ass.”
Not giving his all is not in Simon’s DNA.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years up here,” said Simon. “I’m not going to lie. It’s hard somedays for me to bring that passion and energy and when you get to the point where you don’t have it every day, to me that’s a sign that you’ve done your time, you’ve put in your work and it’s time to go do something else.”
Simon, now 60 years old, is originally from downstate New York.
Born in Brooklyn, Simon’s family moved out to Lynbrook on Long Island when he was three years old.
When it was time to select a college, Simon took a look at Syracuse but decided on Buffalo State College, a state school located right in the heart of Buffalo. Unlike other colleges that offer broadcasting as a major, Buffalo State provided Simon the opportunity to get right on the air at the college radio station.
“It was huge,” said Simon who graduated from Buffalo State in 1984. “I loved it because I walked in as a freshman and I was on the air right away. I’m going to guess if I had (gone to Syracuse), I’m not on the air as a freshman. I’m not running the sports department as a sophomore. I’m not doing basketball play-by-play. I’m not doing all of the stuff that I did. At WSCB and then WBNY, I was. I was on the air right away. It was just do whatever you want to do and it was the most enjoyable four years. I’m so glad I picked Buffalo State.”
As a fellow graduate of Buffalo State College, I agree with Howard!
Simon graduated from Buffalo State in 1984 and went right to work professionally in Buffalo. What happens quite frequently in broadcasting is that you start in a small market and look to move to bigger markets as your career evolves.
But Simon has remained in Buffalo all these years.
Was that the plan?
“Not really,” said Simon. “When I was here for a little while, I was looking at other opportunities. When I was at Empire Sports, I definitely looked at some things to move.”
But then Simon married a girl from Buffalo and they had a son. All of a sudden, moving to a bigger market was no longer the plan.
Buffalo became his forever home.
“My wife is here,” said Simon. “Her family is here. My son is here. His friends are here. Everybody is happy here. Somewhere in there, it’s like yeah…I’m going to stop looking for other jobs. This is it. This is where I’m staying.”
And Buffalo is where he has stayed, worked, and raised a family for three decades. Simon, already with a reduced work schedule, will eventually have to decide when it’s time to walk away from WGR completely.
And when that happens, will he continue to work in sports broadcasting in some capacity?
“No, not really,” said Simon. “Whenever I decide to be done, I’m done. That’s it. I just want to be a fan again. I don’t want to have to worry about taking notes and having opinions and living on Twitter and what’s going on and booking guests. I don’t want to do any of that. Whenever the day is that is my final show, I’m 100% telling you I’m done. It’s been great. I’m moving on to something else.”
So, there would be no chance of a return, kind of like when Mike Francesa returned to WFAN in New York not long after retiring?
“I obviously could never say never but I’m telling you I do not envision the day…once I’m done, I’m not going to come back and do sports talk,” said Simon. “I’ve had it. It’s been a great run. I love it. It was my dream job. It’s all I ever wanted to do, but 30 years is plenty and that’s enough and it’s time to do something else. I’m not retiring…I’m still working…I’m just not doing this.”
Howard Simon has been a broadcasting institution in Buffalo and in Western New York but all good things do eventually come to an end.
What if the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl this season? What if the Buffalo Sabres continue their surprising play and make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
These are good times for sports in Buffalo and it would be hard to imagine future good times without Howard Simon talking sports.
