Difficult Day On-Air

I came to the radio station this morning expecting a normal day announcing. I opened up the newspaper to put together my news stories and saw something that brought me to tears. A friend of mine from my early years of college died yesterday. He was a Sigma Chi when I was a Kappa Delta and we were in the same social circles and often hung out at the same parties and with the same people. I lost touch with him in the past year... but today he has been at the front of my thoughts all day.

Though Utah Pubic Radio broadcasts throughout Utah and parts of Idaho... the majority of our listeners are in Cache Valley. I was always taught that when reporting news the most important thing is to report items that directly effect your listeners... basically what is local. I had to read it.

This is what I drafted up and read on-air about my dear friend Trent Walker, "T-Walk" as we called him...

"24-YEAR OLD TRENT WALKER PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY DRIVING THROUGH SPANISH FORK.

WALKER PULLED HIS CAR INTO THE SOUTHBOUND LANE ON ROUTE 89 TO PASS ANOTHER VEHICLE. HE COLLIDED INTO A SEMITRAILER HEAD-ON. WALKER DIED ON THE SCENE AND THE SEMITRAILERS DRIVER, 45-YEAR-OLD SLOBODAN (SLO-BO-DAN) SPANOVIC (SPAN-O-VIC) WAS FLOWN BY HELICOPTER TO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN CRITICAL CONDITION.

WALKER WAS FROM BRIGHAM CITY AND WAS DRIVING HOME TO HIS RESIDENCE IN LOGAN."

It was emotional to report this... and difficult to give the station ID right after... but I got through professionally. Though I'm sure my emotion came through when I said his name.

Rest in peace T-Walk. We'll miss you.

Here is the Deseret News article....

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700014568/Man-killed-in-head-on-collision-in-Spanish-Fork.html