Few college students can bear waking up before the sun rises once a year. Adam Jones tolerated it for an entire school year, knowing one day it would pay off.
 
It did.
 
While the rest of the Northeastern campus slept, there was Jones, a senior communications major in 2007-08, walking across campus to the Orange Line under the still-dark Boston sky. Every day he rode the T to Sullivan Square, walked to the 890 ESPN radio studio and began his day.
 
At the time he was only an intern, balancing his work on 890's street team and helping cover Boston sports with full-time classes and his position with WRBB, Northeastern's student radio station – but that was only the beginning.
 
Jones's work with 890 eventually propelled him into a career as one of the premier young broadcasters in New England, working at 98.5 The Sports Hub – CBS Radio's Boston affiliate – ESPNBoston.com and ESPN Radio before being named 98.5 The Sports Hub's new evening host Jan. 2.
 
“I've been relatively lucky with how things have worked out: I was on the air in a top-10 market in Boston before I was out of college,” Jones said in a phone interview Feb. 6. “I didn't have a car my senior year, so I had to get up every morning at 4/4:30 and take the train over to Sullivan Square, not something most seniors in college want to do. I think it was a sacrifice but a sacrifice most radio people are willing to make.”
 
Jones's opportunity came when Damon Amendolara, the evening show's host since 2009, announced last November he was leaving the station to begin a national overnight broadcast of his show for CBS Sports Radio Network in 2013.
 
From the start, Jones knew he had large shoes to fill and even larger expectations.
 
“D.A. [Amendolara] carved out such a following and made such a name for himself in Boston, which I don't think is easy to do, especially for someone who is from New York and had to immerse himself in a new city and new teams. I'm completely conscious of that,” Jones said. “I think I have a different style and I go about things different than D. A., but I hope people have a similar reaction.”
 
Jones turns 29 this month – a relatively young age for an evening show host – but what he may lack in age he makes up for with experience.
 
His broadcasting career began while he was still in college, hosting a weekly radio show – “Dog Pound Sports Sound” on Friday nights – and doing play-by-play for Northeastern football and basketball games for WRBB.  Jones spent his first co-op rotation working for the university's Sports Information Department, which helped build an array of professional contacts within the local media.
 
He also did play-by-play for Northeastern's on-demand basketball broadcasts, GoNUxstream, from his time as a student until last winter.  
 
Jones said his college experiences were vital to his eventual success as a full-time radio broadcaster.
 
“The environment and atmosphere of student radio helped me to turn into a host and get used to interviewing players and coaches and that sort of back-and-forth,” Jones said. “I think just from a preparation standpoint you learn how to prepare for a radio show or a radio broadcast, and all those things are things I learned while at Northeastern as an intern or working at the student radio station.”
 
From there Jones went on to intern at 890 ESPN, where he was eventually hired full-time out of college and given an opportunity to do behind-the-scenes work, production and some on-air broadcasting. That was also where Jones met who proved to be one of the most valuable professional contacts of his young career – Mike Felger.
 
Felger was hosting The Mike Felger Show when Jones started as an intern at 890 and admitted – despite mistakenly calling Jones “Drew” for roughly a year – Jones's budding talent was immediately evident.
 
“It's not a stretch to say that Adam was as qualified to do that job as I was, he was just younger and starting out,” Felger said in an email. “He always stood out.”
 
Felger joined 98.5 The Sports Hub when it launched in the summer of 2009, and Jones wasn't far behind, moving to The Sports Hub as a fill-in host before earning a weekend show with Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy.
 
Jones credited Felger for helping him get his first gig at 98.5, but Felger maintained “[Jones's] hiring at 98.5 was based totally on his own abilities.”
 
From there his career blossomed. After two years with The Sports Hub Jones moved onto ESPNBoston.com, where he hosted “The Adam Jones Show,” and then ESPN Radio in Bristol, Conn., before returning to his old stomping grounds at 98.5 as the new evening host last month.
 
It's been less than five years since Jones was still roaming the Northeastern campus and calling games for WRBB and GoNUxstream, but that hasn't stopped him from ascending through the ranks of New England radio. He's now a month into his new gig at 98.5 The Sports Hub, and he claims success doesn't come instantaneously – but if his career path to this point is any indication, that may not be the case.
 
“It took a few years to break through and do it every day, but that's a logical progression that everyone's gonna go through. You can't go from student radio to hosting a national radio show overnight,” Jones said. “It's still early but it seems like the feedback and call volume [from the evening show] has been pretty positive – but it's going to take more than a month to establish that.”