Andrea Diaz
Staff Writer
Two ISU students by the names of Justin Prax and Richard Colapietro host a weekly radio show that is broadcasted to Valdez, Alaska. The full title of the show is “Justin and Ricky’s Random Radio Show.”
There is not a very clear way to know how many listeners the show attracts, but on average they get around 300 listeners. Most people listen directly from their radios and another smaller portion of listeners livestream. The show has more listeners in the summer than in the winter due to people being out of school.
The two are originally from Alaska and have carried their passion with them across state lines. They currently host their show here at ISU in their dorm room, but in the summer they go back to Alaska to do their radio show. The show is a fun filled hour that consists of classic rock music, dad jokes, local news, trivia and sponsored local ads.
“We try and stay away from politics, we aren’t pushing any agenda. This is a time when people can get away from all of that,” Prax said.
When asked about why and how they got into radio, Justin detailed that a woman had quit the local radio show, so he applied and was able to replace her. This was about five years ago, and he has been with the station ever since.
After a couple years of being with the radio station, Richard was looking for a job, so Justin invited him to join and they have now been doing the show together for eleven months.
To begin their show, they play their intro and then talk about whatever they like. Sometimes they will even throw a joke in the mix before they play a song.
After the song, they come back and talk about local news and Ricky will say an interesting fact or any random interesting thing, before they play another song. On average, they play about seven to eight songs every show, and listeners can request a song. Another segment they incorporate into their show is giving birthday shoutouts to people.
Justin and Ricky have been in the radio business for a long time and show no signs of stopping. Some new things that they have been working on is being able to archive live streams. Right now, the only way you can listen to their show is if you listen live. If they were able to archive live streams, then listeners can go back and listen to their show whenever they would like.
The radio station they are employed at is also working on an app that listeners can download. The app would have multiple buttons to direct the user to what show they would like to listen to. One of the buttons would be specifically for the “Justin and Ricky Random Radio Show.”
Overall, if you are wanting to be entertained by two business majors that crack jokes, inform you on the news and play classic rock, this is the show for you. Possible listeners can find the show at https://bit.ly/2uznF3z and follow their Instagram, @kvakradio.
