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SPORTS
| UPDATED April 23
Rare Air
Students bring unique campus flavor
to sports broadcasting on their top-rated UTA Radio show.
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| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
| Broadcast senior Branden Helms, right,
puckers up to kiss his co-host Alan Young, a broadcast
junior, in the UTA Radio broadcast studio Tuesday afternoon.
Alan introduced himself to Helms last summer in the parking
lot behind the Fine Arts Building and asked if he could
be on his show the “UTA Sports Authority.” Ever
since, they have been partners trading off as play-by-play
and color-commentary announcers. Helms said that working
on the radio has been a lot of fun and he will miss it
when he graduates in May. |
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By R.C.
Wendler
The Shorthorn sports editor
It was a warm June day in 2002 when Alan Young approached Branden
Helms in a parking lot and asked him if he could appear on a radio
show. The answer was “sure.”
Since then, the duo that fills the radio waves with sports opinions
has become a mainstay at UTA Radio.
Young and Helms team up from 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays to host “The
UTA Sports Authority,” a two-hour show featuring mostly UTA
athletics, with a side dish of national sports and a dash of humor
thrown in for good measure. Listeners can tune in at http://radio.uta.edu.
The pair also teams up to do play-by-play and color commentary for
UTA sporting events, including baseball, softball and basketball.
“There is not a marketplace anywhere for anyone to talk sports
about this university,” said Helms, a broadcast communication
senior. “You can go to ESPN, The Ticket and Fox Sports, and
they’re not talking UTA. We’ve developed a pretty good
listenership based on that.”
“The UTA Sports Authority,” has been around since February
2001, when the show was known as “The Sultans of Sport.”
That name was eventually changed to “The Trifecta,” before
four people started participating, leading to the final name change.
It’s currently the highest-rated show on UTA Radio.
Both Helms and Young hold jobs at TCK 1310-AM, an off-the-wall,
all-sports talk radio station. Their employment there and status
as “P1’s,” — dedicated Ticket listeners —
has definitely affected their show. Listeners tuning in to “The
UTA Sports Authority” won’t be bored.
“It’s a mix between ESPN and The Ticket,” Helms said.
“We don’t have near as much ‘shtick’ as the
Ticket, but we try to be funny. Last week we had Alan getting spanked
by his dad when he was in his 15-year-old rebellious stage. We’ve
had Eric Cartman on the show before.”
Young, a broadcast communications junior, said he has been interested
in radio since attending Irving’s MacArthur High School. When
he was 14, he would watch Rangers and Mavericks games with the sound
muted and provide his own play-by-play and color commentary.
The junior took a radio production class in the fall of 2001, which
launched his radio career at UTA. He started out doing statistical
work during high school football games at Maverick Stadium with
Helms and former UTA Radio Sports Director Chris Moore.
Helms’ journey was a little different. The 23-year old was
born in Milwaukee before moving to and growing up in Midland. He
majored in journalism and worked on the campus newspaper at his
junior college before finally deciding he couldn’t put up with
deadlines. He didn’t get into radio until he got to UTA, but
like his counterpart, Helms was a complete sports addict as a kid.
“My parents called me ‘stat-man’ for the inane ability
that I have to remember obscure numbers,” he said. “I
could tell you how many carries and yards Emmitt Smith had in his
rookie year.”
It hasn’t been a completely smooth ride for the two, however.
Helms and Young had an on-air “blow-up” over a disagreement
about the show in September of 2002. Helms was also suspended from
UTA Radio for two weeks in March 2001 after some controversial comments
about the softball team, among other things.
“I was real wet behind the ears,” Helms said. “I
thought I was the man and the ‘shiznit’, not realizing
that I was just beginning my broadcasting career and was actually
a lowly piece of poo.”
Ever since the infamous “blow-up,” though, the pair have
become good friends. They often workout together and go to restaurants
after broadcasting games or the show. Young said he and Helms have
chemistry on the air.
“Now I understand where he’s coming from and he understands
where I’m coming from, so we stay pretty much on course,”
Young said.
Both said they will pursue a career in broadcasting. For Helms,
that will come at the end of this semester. He said one day he’d
like to have the job of Rangers play-by-play announcer Josh Lewin.
Candice Huckeba, UTA Radio production manager, said the only place
to go for UTA sports talk is “The UTA Sports Authority.”
“It brings a student edge to local sports,” she said.
“They’re kind of professionals but they’re still
students, so it’s kind of UTA’s little Ticket hour. They’ve
got it down packed with what’s going on in every sport.”
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