“We don’t make mistakes … we just have happy accidents.” – TV painter Bob Ross
Jerry Valeri could be considered local broadcasting’s “happy accident.” As the 20-year radio veteran explains, he’s not supposed to be here.
“I can condense my career to one word—accidental,” Valeri says with his signature laugh. “I feel that a lot of people are radio guys. They chase radio and they love radio and they feel like radio is going to be their dream. I eventually got there and the hook is in. I’m a radio guy now.”
But it wasn’t always that way. Growing up in Bellwood, a small town just outside Altoona, he enjoyed making people laugh. Whether the audience was a friend or a family member, Valeri was always looking for that chuckle.
“I always wanted to be a stand-up comedian. I always wanted to make people laugh, tell jokes and see how that worked,” Valeri recalls. “But growing up in Bellwood, Altoona was the biggest city near me. There really wasn’t an opportunity to hone that craft.”
Like many who grew up in central Pennsylvania, he eventually made his way to Penn State University, but broadcasting wasn’t his major of choice.
“It was not on my radar at all,” Valeri says.
In fact, he majored in administration of justice with a minor in psychology. Not exactly Penn State’s esteemed College of Communications. However, during his senior year in 2001, he landed an internship with the “Chris and Jim Show” on Qwik Rock in State College.
“I may have fibbed a little bit to get that,” Valeri says. “I never took a communications class. I’ve been a guest in more communications classes at Penn State than I ever took!”
During the internship, Valeri really hit his sweet spot. The self-described “idiot intern who will do anything” was a big hit on the airwaves.
Valeri would do anything and everything on the air. During a production meeting, they were trying to come up with an inventive way for listeners to win concert tickets.
“I said, ‘What if you have them fire water balloons filled with nacho cheese at me with a three-man slingshot?’ All of a sudden, Chris [Prospero] looks at me and says, ‘What’s your name again?’ From there on in, I was “Intern Jerry” and I was doing the dumbest things ever you could imagine on the air,” Valeri says.
By being “Intern Jerry,” Valeri made a name for himself in local radio. Nationally, Howard Stern was the biggest name in radio. He made a living by doing wild stunts on air. Valeri thought, “why not?” He did wild and crazy things, just on a local level.
“It was a big position to have,” Valeri says of the internship with Qwik Rock. “Radio was a little crazy and going in that direction. I just wanted an in.”
He got that in. All of a sudden, radio was in his blood. Just like “Intern Jerry,” full-time Jerry would do anything to be on the airwaves.
“I got my own show, then we were bought and I was doing anything that I could. I’d do overnights, I’d do afternoons, I’d do [remote] broadcasts,” Valeri recalls.
But it wasn’t easy, he says.
Qwik Rock eventually “went away,” Valeri says. However, he got a job offer from another station.
“It wasn’t rock. I was terrified. But my Mom said, ‘You’ve been charming older ladies your entire life.’ She told me I’d be fine. People listened. People liked it. We grew that radio station, Majic [99], at the time. People kept listening. I kept winning [awards] that I shouldn’t have been winning. I still can’t figure it out,” Valeri says.
The formats changed, but Valeri did not. He went from rock to adult contemporary to country and back to adult contemporary.
“A lot of people said, ‘This dude does not have it.’ I get it. I’m not your typical radio guy. I don’t have that big voice. I’m like a male Fran Drescher; my voice is really annoying,” Valeri laughs.
He left radio for a short period of time, about a year.
“The radio that I thought I knew, I no longer had a love for it. I was worn out and burned out. I kept hearing how all of these things were going to kill radio, but it was radio that was killing radio. There are a lot of radio stations that outsource their programming and outsource their talent. You’re listening to people who aren’t even in this time zone. I didn’t like what it was anymore,” Valeri explains.
So, he joined the staff at the Bryce Jordan Center as part of their marketing team.
“I had an incredible time with them and it was great,” Valeri says.
However, radio came calling once again. He left the BJC after less than a year to return to radio. He started doing the morning drive at 3WZ. He was, well, home.
“They told me, ‘What you don’t like about radio, we don’t either.’ And boy oh boy did they keep their promise. I have had a re-invigorated love of my craft and what I do,” Valeri says.
He picked up right where he left off, getting laughs—and listeners. People can relate to what he has to say.
“People say, ‘You always say what other people are thinking.’ I don’t. I say what I’m thinking. I’m just lucking out that you thought the same crazy thing that I did,” Valeri says.
He has gone from “Intern Jerry” to management. In addition to being the morning show host on 95.3 3WZ, he picked up the title of operations manager for Seven Mountains Media in State College. Recently, he earned a promotion to programming and talent development specialist for all of Seven Mountains Media in Pennsylvania and New York.
“Now I’m studying analytics and why people are listening at certain times. I’m doing programming and taking care of four different radio stations. It’s really filling my bucket,” Valeri says.
He recently lost one of his best friends, Prospero, who was the program director at Forever Broadcasting in State College. Prospero died at 52 after a battle with COVID-19.
“Without Chris Prospero, God rest his soul, I’m not here. He believed in me … the next 19 years, he guided me, he mentored me,” Valeri says. “Even when we were competing operations managers here in town, we would still talk every week. We were such great friends. I miss him.”
In addition to mornings on 3WZ, you can hear Valeri most summer nights helping with the in-game entertainment for the State College Spikes. He keeps the crowd involved from first pitch to final out. He may work up a sweat while he does it, but he has a lot of fun in the process.
When he’s not behind the mic at 3WZ or keeping the Spikes crowd engaged, he’s spending time with his family. He and his wife, Kelly, have two children—Allison, 14, and Evan, 11.
He loves being a dad.
“My family has always been supportive of me,” Valeri says. “Allison is a competitive dancer and she and Kelly travel a lot to do that. We have a lot of guy weekends. Evan plays travel baseball, we collect baseball cards and football cards. We’re a bunch of happy campers.”
While he never got to fulfill his dream of being a stand-up comedian, he knows he has an audience whenever he wants it—every morning.“That dream has evolved. I like being able to not hear people boo me. That’s the best part of radio. I can’t hear people not laugh at my jokes,” Valeri says with a laugh. T&G
Chris Morelli, a resident of Pleasant Gap, is a staff reporter at The Express in Lock Haven and a freelance writer. This story appears in the April 2022 issue of Town&Gown.
