ST. GEORGE — Longtime Utah sportscaster Rod Zundel has been named as the director of broadcasting and multimedia content for Trailblazer Athletics and will be the new radio voice for football and men’s basketball.
Monday’s announcement by Utah Tech Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Ken Beazer coincides with UT Athletics announcing its five-year multimedia partnership with Canyon Media Corporation last month. Beginning this fall through the 2026-27 season, all Trailblazer football and men’s basketball games, including comprehensive pregame and postgame coverage, will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Southern Utah, with Zundel providing the primary play-by-play announcing.
Along with complete radio coverage, Zundel will host a live 30-minute weekly coaches show that will air on Fox Sports Southern Utah. He will also oversee the production of several weekly Trailblazer student-athlete, coach and team online video feature stories, along with other digital content throughout the year.
“We are very excited to welcome Rod to Trailblazer Nation,” Beazer said. “Rod has been a well-known and well-respected sportscaster and journalist in Utah for decades, and he brings instant name recognition and credibility to our program. The addition of Rod to UT Athletics is another step as we continue to evolve into an NCAA Division I program.”
Zundel was a fixture on Utah television screens for more than 35 years, with nearly 24 of those years spent at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, where he was both an anchor and reporter for Eyewitness News Sports and served has host of both the SportsBeat Saturday and Sunday programs from 1995-to-2019. He also hosted KSL 5 Golf Utah show during the summers and was host of KSL 5 Outdoor Adventures.
The 2007 Utah Sportscaster of the Year honoree also worked at KUTV in Salt Lake City and KIFI-TV in Idaho Falls, Idaho. In addition, Zundel has provided play-by-play commentary for then-Dixie State football and Southern Utah University football or KCSG-TV in St. George, and most recently he was the play-by-play voice for Bear River High School athletics on local radio and live stream, as well as providing radio game calls for several Cache Valley prep sports programs.
A native of Tremonton, Utah, Zundel graduated from Weber State University with a bachelor’s degree in public relations in 1990. He has also been the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalist Award for excellence in the journalistic field.
“I am honored and blessed to be a part of Utah Tech Athletics,” said Zundel, who appeared on Fox Sports Southern Utah’s afternoon radio show From the Bleachers Monday afternoon . “I am very fortunate to have had two dreams jobs in my life, both with my career as a television sportscaster and now the as the new voice of the Trailblazers. I am so excited to be part of the herd.”
Utah Tech University, which is home to 15 intercollegiate athletic programs, will begin the third year of its transition to NCAA Division I status this fall and is a competing member of the Western Athletic Conference. This past June, the WAC’s Board of Directors voted to allow UT to participate in all conference championships, beginning with the upcoming 2022-23 competition season.
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