For 21/2 decades, Bill Young’s workday has been spent behind a radio microphone. His scenery will change next month, when he begins work behind a pharmacy counter.
Young, 45, will earn a pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.) this weekend from the UNMC College of Pharmacy. Once he passes a board certification examination early next month, he’ll begin work at Albertson’s pharmacies in Omaha.
“I realize that I didn’t take the most traditional route to become a pharmacist, but I look forward to starting a new career,” Young said. “Certainly, the opportunity that I will have to help people as a pharmacist appeals to me.”
Young’s first career — in radio broadcasting — will end at the same station that it began. KIOS 91.5 FM, Omaha’s public radio station, was located at Omaha Central High School when Young was a student there in the 1970s. After he graduated from Central, Young took classes for a year at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, but soon thereafter went to work full time in radio.
His career in broadcasting included stints at Green River, Wyo., Las Vegas, Nev., Sioux City, Iowa, and at several stations in Omaha. He tried stand-up comedy in Vegas, but he tired of going on stage at 3 a.m., just to have one or two intoxicated people in the audience who didn’t respond to his jokes.
At an Omaha station, he once had a mythical pet as a co-host, a belching dog named “Hank.”
“Hank, all he did was belch,” Young said. “I dubbed 20 different styles of belches to use with those skits.”
Young began to mull a career change more than seven years ago. His wife, Linde, suggested that he would be good at pharmacy, and a career placement test indicated strengths in pharmacy and law. So he went back to UNO for 31/2 years of prerequisite courses, and since then has spent the past four years going to pharmacy school at UNMC. All the while, he’s worked as the morning show host at KIOS, waking at 3:30 a.m. most mornings to be at the station by 4:30 a.m., when his on-air shift began. When that was done at 8 a.m., he would head to classes.
Young said he usually studied about four hours a day, sometimes arriving at the KIOS studio at 1 a.m. to study before going on the air. The staff at KIOS and Young’s wife, a licensed mental health professional, deserve tremendous credit for supporting Young through school, he said.
“There were times when I would have to work a split shift at the station, and they were completely OK with that,” Young said. “My wife has just been a source of tremendous strength, support and stability. I owe a lot to her.”
Young said he’s not sure if he’d recommend waiting until 37 to begin a post-secondary education, but said he doesn’t regret his early-in-life decisions or his career in radio. He does look forward to his new career, however.
“I think it will be a lot of fun,” Young said. “I’m looking forward to helping people with their medications and talking to them about any problems they may be having. It’s been a long 71/2 years, but having the degree and being able to put it to use will make it all worth it.”