By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 October 2003, c1

CEDAR CITY -- It sounds like a morning-DJ prank. But employees at KSUB say a technical glitch caused the radio station to air LDS Church Apostle M. Russell Ballard repeating the word "sex" over and over during a speech at the church's General Conference two weeks ago.

Ballard, whose Oct. 4 address was broadcast live by the AM news-talk station, was warning listeners about the "pernicious evil" permeating the entertainment media when the incident occurred, said morning show co-hosts Steve Miner and Dale Nelson.

The two hosts said an overload of data streaming into KSUB jammed the station's buffer system, which allows KSUB to air conference coverage on a 24-second delay. The overload jammed the audio feed -- akin to a record skipping -- just as Ballard reached the word "sex" in his speech. The station's lone employee that Saturday had left the control booth for a drink of water.

"It was 'sex, sex, sex, sex, sex . . .' for 24 seconds," Nelson said Wednesday, two days after joking about the incident on the air during the pair's weekday morning drive-time program.

Nelson was not laughing immediately after the episode, however.

He was listening at home and called the station in a panic.

"I believe Ballard made his point," chuckled Miner from the control room of the 5,000-watt station, on the outskirts of Cedar City. "I hope [he] allows us to continue broadcasting conference."

The station -- the first between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City when it went on the air in 1937 -- received no complaints from listeners. Nor has KSUB heard from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about the incident.

The glitch was an honest mistake, said Jerold Johnson, general manager of MB Media Group in St. George, which owns KSUB.

Although Nelson and Miner proclaim their innocence in the Ballard "sex" episode, they do enjoy occasional on-air mischief. To make a point last week about the lazy use of turn signals by Cedar City drivers, the pair blamed the problem on motorists not changing their vehicles' "blinker fluid." Apparently many listeners believed them. The station received reports that people showed up to automobile parts stores to inquire about the bogus repair procedure.

Cedar City jeweler Byron Linford heard the piece on the radio and thought it funny.

"Being a car guy, I knew there was no such thing [as blinker fluid]," said Linford. "But I enjoy them making fun of St. George. It's my favorite part [of the show]."

Nelson recalls another time when Doug Miller, a Salt Lake City TV reporter who covers outdoor recreation, was scheduled to address students at Southern Utah University. Nelson did a credible on-air impression of Miller's voice, encouraging listeners to show up wearing their fishing waders, camouflage clothes or blaze-orange hunting vests.

Many students came in the attire, to Miller's chagrin.

"This station allows you to make radio fun again," said Nelson, a veteran of KSL Radio. "You can't take things too seriously."