Radio station starts off college tour
The popular radio show Radio from Hell, on X96 out of Salt Lake City, kicked off their College Campus Tour at Utah State Monday morning. The tour will visit every college in the state.
Kerry Jackson, Bill Allred and Gina Barberi, the show’s hosts, set up in the Taggart Student Center hallway for their live broadcast. Throughout the morning, they interviewed Coach Gary Anderson, President Stan Albrecht, Bill Sproat and Troy Oldham, temporary executive director of marketing and branding for the school of business.
Allred said the College Campus Tour idea came from Richie T. Steadman, the X96 Marketing Director and Radio from Hell producer. They wanted to find a way to connect with their audience, and even though Cache Valley doesn’t get a very strong signal for the show, Barberi said it was a way for those students who grew up listening to Radio from Hell and X96 in high school to get involved again now that they are away at college.
“We are always looking for ways to get free food and T-shirts, although it is great to get a chance to reconnect with our audience too,” Allred said.
The hosts also said that Steadman is looking for students interested in interning for the show.
Trent Hunsaker, recruitment specialist for the admissions office, said he is a longtime fan of the program and was happy to jump on the opportunity to help out.
“Everyone from Radio from Hell are very easy to work with, very amicable people and we were happy to have them come to Utah State,” he said.
Hunsaker said one of the main reasons for agreeing to have the show on campus is because all of the other universities, with the exception of Brigham Young University, were going to be participating in the tour and they wanted Utah State to be a part of it.
“We pride ourselves on our relationship with the other recruitment and admissions offices throughout the state and we wanted our school to continue to be well represented,” Hunsaker said.
Hunsaker also said events like these are often used as a recruitment tool so people listening to the program elsewhere will be able to see what Utah State has to offer.
All three of the hosts have been to the Utah State Campus before and said they love Cache Valley and find it a beautiful place.
“Driving down to the valley is beautiful,” Barberi said. “I wanted to go into the Sherwood Forest and find Robin Hood.”
She also said her favorite sign she has seen so far in the valley is the one located at the Y intersection on the south end of town, which reads, “Yes, we still sell propane.”
Allred said he came up on Sunday and was amazed to see “the flock of well dressed students roaming around on the streets.”
Jackson continued to say Cache Valley is a very clean place, with clean streets as well as clean people.
Allred said Utah State University is his favorite school, at least until they go to Salt Lake Community College, their next tour location. He also said they have a least favorite school –BYU– and that won’t be changing from day to day.
“BYU is the only school in the state that isn’t allowing us to come,” Allred said. “We even offered to change the name of our show to Radio from Heck.”
Steadman said BYU responded to the invitation by saying they are a private institution so they can choose to not participate in the tour.
“They basically had the ‘we don’t have to’ attitude,” Jackson said.
The Radio from Hell DJs have each been in the radio industry for over 15 years. Jackson started in 1982, Allred in 1980, and Barberi in 1995. Despite being in radio for so long, Jackson and Allred said they wouldn’t recommend it, and Barberi was torn on the issue.
“It is a great job but I wouldn’t want my daughter to do it,” she said.
When asked if they have any advice to aspiring students who want to go into broadcasting or radio, Allred had a very quick response.
“Don’t do it,” he said.
Jackson said it took him a long time to actually start making money and if you are in the business, you need to be in it for the long haul.
“It will hurt your marriage and your finances,” Jackson said.
Allred said it is more difficult than ever to get a job in broadcasting, and radio specifically but that is actually good for them at X96.
“There aren’t a lot of people trying to get a job in radio because it is so difficult, but that actually makes it better for us because it guarantees our job,” Allred said.
Jackson, Allred and Barberi all said they felt welcome as visitors to Logan.
“I love Logan,” Allred said. “We have had a great time up here, it has been a great start to our tour.”
–megan.b@aggiemail.usu.edu
