Farewell to the "Tuner"

I was a BYU student in April of 1989, and a wannabe sportscaster. I had done a few years' worth of work at KBYU, but really didn't have any firm professional plans set for my life post-graduation in 1990.

While on my way to one class or another in the HFAC (the old Comms/broadcasting building at BYU), I saw a posting for an internship at KSL Radio. Not only that, it was in the Sports Department, which meant that the successful applicant would be working with Chris Tunis--KSL Radio's Sports Director and host of the pioneering nightly sports talk show, "Sportscentral."

I remember taking the bus to Salt Lake City to interview with Chris, and within a few days, I was chosen to be his first-ever intern. Just like that, I had my foot in the door at KSL, and would be learning from a sportscaster who while slight in stature was a true giant in the business. I could not have been more fortunate.

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I would make the UTA trek from my off-campus apartment in Provo to Broadcast House, where I would sit with Chris and go through the newspapers with scissors in hand--clipping and taping articles for him to review and hopefully, utilize in his sportscasts or talk show. I would record audio feeds, help him book guests for his show, cover the occasional game, and on a few rare opportunities, get behind the microphone. I could not have been happier.

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I would see how hard Chris worked and how no task was too menial. I was happy to help him in whatever job was assigned, but I always knew that the things he was asking me to do, he had done and would happily do himself. He was a one-man band, and played every instrument well. I could not have been more impressed.

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My internship ended and I left KSL, returned to school, got married, and got back to the business of trying to graduate. Before long, KSL called and asked if I would like to try out for a weekend radio news anchor gig, and I jumped at the chance for a paying job at the best station in town.

Long story short, I got that job, and then another job at KSL, and then another job, and before long I found myself on the BYU Broadcast crew, manning the sidelines for Paul James while Chris Tunis held down the fort in the studio.

Within a couple of short years, Tunis was approached about starting Salt Lake City's first all-sports radio station. He was a natural choice for that responsibility, and left KSL for this exciting new challenge.

In time, as the local sports talk radio format blossomed, Tunis expanded his own horizons into the business publication sector (with "The Enterprise"), all the while keeping a few irons in the sportscasting fire, calling games and hosting studio shows for Utah State and the University of Utah.

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The man who essentially helped make sports talk radio viable in Salt Lake City may never have received the credit he deserved for elevating the format to prominence.

Yet, for a gentleman broadcaster who embodied the notion of "substance over style," it was almost appropriate that this radio pioneer watched from the sidelines as others followed his lead and capitalized on the increasing local appetite for sports conversation.

He was one of the very first sports talk radio hosts in the entire country, but few of the literally thousands to have come after him can claim to have done it any better than Chris Tunis.

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I saw him infrequently in recent years, but when we would meet up, invariably at a sporting event, I would remind him of the "good old days," and how he gave me my start in this town (other Chris Tunis interns would follow at KSL, and some still work in the business to this day).

On the occasion of Chris' passing, I applaud his life and influence, and express gratitude that I could learn from him how to use the tools of the trade--scissors and Scotch tape-- in April of 1989.

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