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What's different in the "Radio From Hell" studio this Friday morning, as host Bill Allred points out just after the show goes live at 6 a.m., is that co-host and program foil Gina Barberi is wearing "whore makeup." There's a newspaper photographer coming today and she wants to look good, Barberi responds, ridiculing Allred's logo-adorned X96 T-shirt and matching socks.

The fashion commentary segues to the taste of Fiji water, an advertiser, and then talk quickly turns to the news. Over the course of the four-hour program, the hosts will discuss reports of possible violations by the campaign of LDS politician and expected presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as well as quirky "boner of the day" stories, such as "I'm too sexy for Target," the retail giant's decision to stop selling sexy Halloween costumes to teenage girls, and a recent field trip to Red Butte's "Garden After Dark" event.

Seven-year-old Little Bill, who is frequently mentioned on the show, enjoyed the trip, "but then bitched about it afterwards," Allred announces.

"Like father, like son," quips Jackson, the exchange an example of the combustible humor that marks his freewheeling partnership with Allred. The pair have sat across a radio control board for most of the past two decades, since they teamed up on Ogden's tiny KJQ in 1986 to create "The Fun Pigs." Over the years, the team adopted the name "Radio From Hell," switched stations to Salt Lake's KXRK X96, added Barberi, and since 9/11, dropped music from its format.

"Radio From Hell," Salt Lake's longest-running morning-drive team, claimed the market's top spot among 18-to-34-year-old listeners in the summer 2006 Arbitron ratings, released Monday. The station ranked second in many demographic categories to KSL Newsradio, the market's top morning-drive station, and ranks third overall in the 25-to-54 category, which is "incredible for a rock station," says Alan Hague, vice president of operations and programming of the station's owner, Simmons Media Group.

This summer, KXRK was noted as one of the country's top five music stations in a Rolling Stone story headlined "Rock Radio's Last Stand," which lauded the station for "mocking the Mormons, but keeping it friendly." "This station has broken all the rules and mores of that city," the story continued, quoting radio analyst Fred Jacobs. "By going against the grain of the community - certainly the stereotype of the community - the station has actually thrived."

One way the rock station breaks rules is that its popular morning show doesn't even even play much music. Despite the station's music format, "Radio From Hell" features only one song, during a 9 a.m. potty break. That decision, adopted after the hosts opened phone lines to listeners following the Sept. 11 bombings, could be considered arrogant, Allred admits. "We're presuming people are more interested in what we have to say than the latest song from Lit."

"I don't think there is a latest song from Lit," Barberi says.

Last outpost of zaniness: Ask the hosts to explain the show's appeal, and they confess they're stumped, preferring to throw the question out to listeners. "It could be said our lack of chemistry is our chemistry," Jackson offers.

"Everything you hear on the show is us, amplified," Barberi says. "We don't go in here to make listeners laugh, we try to make each other laugh."

"Most people who run radio shows, who make the big decisions, don't want to offend people," Allred says. "For some reason, we've been allowed to offend people, if we wanted to."

Even for morning radio, the last outpost of zaniness on the broadcast dial where offending people has always been, well, somewhat predictable, "Radio From Hell" has enjoyed an unusually long run in Utah's conservative market.

Regular guests at the Trolley Corners studio, which is decorated with a red plastic devil's head posted on a computer pole, include love psychic Margaret Ruth, who answers listeners' relationship questions by dealing tarot cards, and "Boner of the Week" judge Dave Matson.

Listeners, via calls and e-mails, are quick to comment about what they love and hate about it.

As caller Dawn says during Friday's show: "Sometimes, Kerry, you can get on your high horse."

"I built it myself," Jackson responds on air.

"Bill, sometimes you can be a bit pretentious," the listener continues. "And Gina, sometimes that Ogden ditziness drives me crazy."

"That's Roy ditziness," Allred says.

Local, local, local: In the past decade, the national radio landscape has changed dramatically. After the Federal Communications Commission loosened rules about multiple-station ownership, corporations went on buying sprees.

In some markets, consolidation led to more syndicated shows and less locally flavored programming. Yet despite such massive industrywide shifts, Utah's market seems committed to the "local, local, local" programming mantra, as evidenced by the variety of long-running, name-brand personalities who can be heard mornings across the radio dial, from KKAT's "Country Joe" Flint to KSL's team of Grant Nielsen and Amanda Dickson. In the past year, Utah's morning drive audience has increased 5 percent, according to Jessica Benbow, press spokeswoman for Arbitron.

More than 50 radio stations broadcast in the greater metro area, which ranks as only the nation's 31st largest market, yet claims more stations per capita than just about any other city in the country. That number compares to 80 stations in the greater Los Angeles urban area, with a population 10 times larger, according to Hague, who has worked in Utah radio for 40 years.

Homegrown: All three "Radio From Hell" hosts are Utah natives. Allred's the news junkie and "opinnuendo" spinner who likes to announce that he reads the morning papers so listeners don't have to get their fingers dirty. Jackson runs the board and plays a steady stream of sound clips and comedy bits. He's a sci-fi aficionado and toy collector who happily geeks out while discussing zombie literature. He brags that he and his wife are "child-free by choice," while showing off pictures posted on the station's Web site of himself with a cardboard baby photographed on a recent Disneyland excursion.

Then there's Barberi, the daughter of Utah Hall of Fame broadcaster Tom Barberi, who says she worked at just about every job at the station before joining the "Radio From Hell" team 10 years ago. She offers clipped weather and sports updates ("The U. blew it. Weather? Sometimes showery, sometimes sunny, 58 degrees.") and bits of celebrity gossip and updates about her children, "Festus" and "Jonesie."

In some markets, radio programming decisions are based on trends and demographics, made by people juggling spreadsheets and sitting in meetings. Here, as the hosts will happily tell you, nearly anything goes, including complaints about Barberi's voice.

"Gina's voice isn't nasally, it's whiny," Allred tells a listener near the end of Friday's program.

"And that's a whole other thing," Barberi adds.

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* ELLEN FAGG can be reached at ellenf@sltrib.com or 801-257-8621. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

"Hell" in radio heaven

* AMERICA'S RADIO LANDSCAPE has changed dramatically in the past decade, with corporate ownership leading to less local programming. But in Utah, which has more radio stations per capita than just about any other market in the country, long-time morning drive teams like KXRK 96.3's "Radio From Hell" trio - Bill Allred, Kerry Jackson and Gina Barberi - still fill the radio dial.

* THE "HELL" TEAM is Salt Lake's longest-running show, and earned the market's top spot among 18-34-year-old listeners in the summer 2006 Arbitron ratings, released Monday.

* KSL-AM 1160, a news radio format, holds the top spot because it was tops in the most demographic categories.

* IN THE GREATER Salt Lake metro area, the top five stations for the morning drive-time slot, 6 to 10 a.m., are:

1. KSL-AM 1160; 2. KXRK-FM 96.3; 3. KSFI-FM 100.3; 4. KODJ-FM 94.1 (tie); 4. KUBL-FM 93