At one point or another, most of us adopted the ritual of radio. We drove to school listening to the Top 40 of the time as part of our morning routine. We laughed along to the prank calls performed during on-air morning shows, in some cases fueling them. We chased that coveted caller No. 10 for the big ticket giveaway—even if it meant hogging the house phone all day.
The ubiquitous nature of radio, that trusty medium with round-the-clock comfort, was a cultural lifeline. And then streaming arrived. And then podcasts. And then TikTok algorithms that could influence your tastes more efficiently than any disc jockey could.
Radio, it seemed, had lost its place in the conversation. But it never left.
“I feel like there’s a stigma that radio is dead, and it’s not. … The radio was a part of every person’s life every day. It was the original podcast. Radio DJs were like the original influencers,” says Heather Collins, an afternoon host at Mix 94.1. “People don’t give radio as much credit as they should. It’s still very much a part of a lot of people’s lives.”
The staying power of radio stems from the people behind the mics. They’re the voices of our Valley who never tuned out. Still to this day, they show up, ready to make memories through the medium, and remind us why radio is as essential to the community as ever.
THE BAND WHISPERER
Heather Collins afternoon host at Mix 94.1 FM
While her 250,000 Instagram followers know her as the content creator @RaisedinVegas, the rest of the Las Vegas Valley recognizes Heather Collins as the lively host of one of the leading local pop variety stations.
“I joke around that it’s my Hannah Montana life, and that I’m a radio DJ in the morning and an influencer at night,” she says.
Now in her 16th year at Mix, it still doesn’t feel like a job to Collins. It’s more akin to a dream. Since the age of 12, she’s been immersed in the world of radio, attending annual events like Bite of Las Vegas and unknowingly laying the groundwork for what came next.
“I loved those concerts growing up because they were very much in our backyard at Desert Breeze Park, and they were so fun and exciting,” Collins says. “I remember going every year and being like, I want to be one of those radio DJs. I want to be a part of this one day because I love music.”
Collins got her start in audio engineering, where she worked with live bands. But after taking radio courses at the Art Institute, she fell in love with what would become her life. Mix initially brought her on as a concert photography intern, and that quickly snowballed into a job with the opportunity to go on air.
“The week before I went on the air for the first time live, I went to the Stratosphere for the first time ever and went to the top,” she remembers. “All I could think of looking over the Valley was at any moment, all these people could turn on the radio and hear me. Don’t mess up next weekend.”
She might’ve stumbled that first break—“It was the worst break ever,” she laughs—but if that 12-year-old girl could see Collins now, she’d be in awe of the signed band posters on her office walls, the selfies with Ed Sheeran and 30 Seconds to Mars, and every fangirling account of meeting her favorite band, Matchbox Twenty. The bands she grew up idolizing now come to her. And in a full circle moment, she gets to pass that excitement down.
“That’s something I think people forget,” Collins says. “Not only do we give away prizes and create events for listeners, but we also create moments where you can meet your band. That’s the best part about my job.”
As Collins continues, she’s noticed Gen Z becoming interested in radio again thanks to social media and on-air personalities like 98.5 KLUC’s Josh “Bru” Brubaker showcasing how cool the medium can be. But in the age of short attention spans and fleeting trends, the longevity of radio—a free, wifi-less medium—can’t be contested.
“If an apocalypse comes, radio is still going to be kicking it,” she says. “If this building blows up, the radio will still play because this is all playing on towers. If the internet goes down tomorrow, radio would be the way that you would find out information. It’s very primal, but it’s still very much there.”
THE MORNING SHOW QUEEN
Mercedes Martinez morning show host at Mix 94. 1 FM
Mercedes Martinez
For more than 25 years, Las Vegas has been waking up with Mercedes in the Morning. As host of Mix 94.1’s long-running weekday morning show, Mercedes Martinez is comfortable saying she’s a staple of our daily routine—because we won’t let her forget it.
“I’ll meet someone who’s 30 now, and they’re like, I listened to you in elementary school, and I’m like, what? You were part of the fabric of their lives, and that’s where it really hits me that this is important,” she says. “This is important to a lot of people, and it’s so cool.”
Martinez has called Las Vegas home since 1997, but radio took up residence in her life much earlier than that.
“I was pretty obsessed with the radio growing up,” she says. “I used to call in and request songs. The funny thing is … I didn’t know it was a real job. I thought you were assigned to be on the radio. I did not know how it worked.”
While at the University of Colorado studying to become a pharmacist, Martinez discovered a love for public speaking and, through internships, radio. Before she knew it, she had a job offer at Mix and a lot of convincing to do with her dad.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. I was a kid moving out here. I’d never lived far from home,” Martinez says. “He really did let me take this leap of faith. And I think back—if he would have said no, where would I be? It’s one of those sliding-doors moments. One thing changed everything.”
A lot’s changed about radio since Martinez got started almost 30 years ago.
“Radio isn’t just radio anymore. It’s media, and if we want to stay relevant you have to integrate with the way that people live now, and that’s with their phones,” Martinez says. “You’re not just competing with other radio stations. You’re competing for attention in general.”
There are now more ways than ever to access radio outside of our cars. Every station has an app and Mercedes in the Morning even has a podcast platform. Stations are meeting their audiences where they’re at, but Martinez affirms one of the most important places to do that is still in person.
“When you go out and you’re a part of the community, I feel like people know you’re real. You’re not just a voice,” she says. “There’s a lot of mediums where it is just a voice, and you probably won’t ever meet that person, but if you go out, you show that you care about this community. That’s why I do a lot of things here in charitable events, because this city has given me everything.”
When Martinez reflects on her favorite moments in radio, she cites the surreal moments, like a charming interview with Lady Gaga, but also the times she’s gotten to hear the stories of her community firsthand.
“It’s a listener coming up to you at an event and saying, you got me through the hardest year of my life. Or it’s a woman who tells you that she listened every morning while she was getting chemo and that we were the only thing that made her smile,” Martinez says. “Those are the biggest standout moments for me.”
THE ON-AIR INNOVATOR
Shawn Tempesta formerly 96.3 KKLZ, 102.7 VGS, The Morning Blend and more
Shawn Tempesta
Shawn Tempesta has had a hell of a radio career and a hell of a week. When we reach the former 96.3 KKLZ morning host by Zoom, he’s well into his first week as a free agent after being let go by the classic hits station. But he’s never believed in the medium of radio more than right now.
“There’s something about radio, when it’s done correctly, that is so powerful,” says Tempesta. “It’s engaging. It can get an entire community to step up and go to one purpose.
“I believe in podcasting. I believe in streaming. I’m one of the earliest people in radio to put cameras in the studio. …But podcasts are a one-way conversation. Streaming is fun, but it doesn’t necessarily have, in 99.8% of cases, the ability to create huge change.”
If anyone can make these claims, it’s Tempesta. The seasoned host has worked across markets and every medium imaginable. Since age 8, he’s worked in public access TV, working both on and off camera, and he’s brought that Renaissance-man mentality to local stations as well.
“When the cameras entered my studio at Mix [94.1] … I spent $14,000 building out my own studio, breaking it down and setting it up every day, and kind of paving the way,” Tempesta says. “Since then, I’ve just been an evangelist for the industry to try to get these cameras and install them all around the country.”
In 2019, Tempesta introduced the daily digital talk show Free4All on Mix 94.1, where he invited listeners to participate in games, outlandish competitions and to raise thousands for charity. That content alone helped Tempesta build real relationships with his listeners.
That said, nothing tested that sense of community, or radio’s role in it, like the October 1 mass shooting. Tempesta recalls just leaving a Vegas Golden Knights game at T-Mobile Arena when he saw an alert about UMC being at full capacity.
“I contacted my program director and I’m like, I’m going in. I went in from midnight to six until Mercedes got in, went live, fielded calls, gave the latest updates and put the press conferences on the air. That’s where radio shines, in moments like that,” he says.
As Tempesta puts it, “we’re just varying levels of a digital entity at this point” and hosts must be willing to do it all.
“Radio used to be the thing that people go to, and so people would fish for us. Now the reel’s in our hands and we’re fishing for them because there’s a lot of places for attention,” he says. “What I found success in is being unabashedly—and this is the truth for anything social media—being unabashedly real.
“No one’s in love with Mix because they play Taylor Swift. No one’s in love with KKLZ because they play Foreigner. They are going to have some sort of emotional connection if that station and the people on it make an emotional connection with them, not by swinging records.”
As he looks toward what’s next, Tempesta says he has no intention of leaving Las Vegas or radio.
“I know I can do other things essentially,” he says. “But it will never be as rewarding as this has been, as positively affecting a community as this has been.”
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