jim started his career, in 1964, at age sixteen, in fall river, massachusetts, on radio station wale, co-hosting a weekly radio program called "youth keeps in touch" in the summer of 1967 he landed his first paying radio job on wcod-fm in hyannis massachusetts consisting, mainly, of running tapes and doing short newscasts. in 1968 jim did his first disc jockey show on wkfd, a 500 watt daytime radio station, in wickford rhode island. later that year he was hired to do afternoons on wsar, a 5000 watt suburban providence radio station. in 1969, harrington was hired to do weekends and fill-in programs on wice in providence and in 1970, legendary radio programmer charlie parker, hired jim to work full-time on wdrc am & fm in hartford connecticut. in late spring of 1973, he moved on, temporarily, to wmex in boston. he stayed with that station for just that summer. the daily commute to boston from hartford proved to be too much and he returned to wdrc in early fall. he moved crosstown to wrcq in late 1974 and did mornings for a year. while at wrcq, he was hired to do fill-in and weekends on one of the largest radio stations in the country, wbz in boston. he worked both stations until he was hired in 1976 to work on new york city's oldies giant, wcbs-fm, where he did the 6pm to 10pm monday through friday program.