What seemed like a simple fascination with entertainment, news and pop culture has now become one Kennesaw State senior’s reality as he lives out his dream of becoming an on-air personality while interning with Q100’s “The Bert Show.”
Blake Eason, a senior journalism major at KSU, has had the opportunity to speak numerous times on live radio throughout his fall internship this semester with “The Bert Show,” a nationally syndicated morning radio show hosted by Bert Weiss in Atlanta.
Eason interns at the show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. His duties as intern consist of preparing the studio before the cast arrives, printing the entertainment and local news reports, crafting promotional tweets and posts about the show and indexing the show, or taking notes about what’s happening on the show hour-by-hour.
“Aside from duties alone, just being able to sit in the same room with some of the most talented on-air personalities is … a privilege in itself,” Eason said.
“Even if I go in and do nothing at all, just being able to sit there and see how they think through things and how they respond to things — it’s so cool to just see how fast-paced it moves with everything going on around them.”
During his time with the show, Eason has had the chance to speak on live radio segments, sharing stories about his life, playing games and competing in rap battles with other interns and cast members. He has also shared his personal rap songs “Georgia State” and “Every Night” on air.
“You never know who could be listening and you never know who you could be impacting, whether that’s just making them laugh on the way to work or inspiring them to keep going in whatever they have going on,” Eason said.
On-air and off-air, Eason has grown a love for Weiss, noting that Weiss is his favorite cast member.
“He is one of the kindest, thoughtful, considerate and nice people I’ve ever met,” Eason said.
Eason said he feels like he feeds off of Weiss’ personality and wit on the show. When the cameras and microphones shut off, Weiss and Eason still have a strong relationship, with Weiss offering Eason advice and guidance.
After his internship ends this December, Eason hopes to work more internships until his graduation in spring 2019, though he says he would love to find a way to intern again with “The Bert Show.” Aside from his internship, Eason has been involved with KSU Miracle since his freshman year and he currently serves as the operations director.
Growing up in Warner Robins, Georgia, Eason lived with his mom for the majority of his life. During this time, he grew to admire American radio personality and KSU alumnus Ryan Seacrest because of Seacrest’s ability to remain grounded despite his immense success.
When Eason was a teenager, he started mixing in with the wrong friend groups and frequenting his high school principal’s office.
After an eye-opening conversation with his mom about his decisions, Eason said that he grew morally and academically. He carried this progress into his college career at KSU when he made it onto the Dean’s List in fall 2017 and President’s List in spring 2018.
When the time came in his college career to search for an internship, Eason was drawn to “The Bert Show” because of its connections with pop culture and entertainment news.
Months later, after Eason had shared his love for Ryan Seacrest and his dream to become an entertainment news anchor, Weiss gave him the opportunity of organizing and presenting the show’s “E-Buzz” segment. Eason said that this was an opportunity no other intern had ever had, and “E-Buzz” quickly became his most memorable segment yet.
“The Bert Show” airs Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. To find out more about the show and its internship opportunities, visit its website at thebertshow.com.
