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by Sean Stockburger
features associate

Five mornings a week UM-St. Louis senior Tom O'Keefe is up at 4:30 in the morning at a computer, surfing the Web for obnoxious news stories and reading the latest celebrity gossip. In a room not far away, three people are cracking jokes and playing music loudly. What is going on? Insomnia? A typical night in University Meadows? Would you believe it is an internship?

Internship? It does not sound like clerking at a law firm or filing papers in an office full of CPAs. In fact it is far from it. It's about hot coffee, the latest in music, making people laugh and making deals with Hollywood's finest. Welcome to the wonderful world of the internship in radio…KPNT 105.7 (The Point) to be exact.

O'Keefe did not land this exciting job the usual way. Instead of applying through the usual resume and recommendation process, he made radio station connections while booking guest speakers at UM-St. Louis. "When I was on the program board last semester we got ("Late Night with David Letterman director") Hal Gurney to speak on campus and I called a bunch of radio stations to ask if they wanted to interview him," O'Keefe said. "The Point was the first station that called me back, so they got the interview."

An appreciative KPNT disc jockey by the name of Jeff “Just Jeff” Burton asked O'Keefe if he could do anything for him in return. O'Keefe said, "Well, I could use an internship."

In May O'Keefe began working on the Point's morning show with DJs Jeff Burton, Trish Gazall and Tim Christian. Although he is mostly behind the scenes, O'Keefe's ideas can be heard. After every news break there is a "kicker" of comedy. It is usually a brief "News of the Weird" type story. O'Keefe is responsible for finding material for the kickers, as well as gossip for Trish's celebrity trash stories. After surfing the World Wide Web for the news, O'Keefe prints it and puts it into packets for each DJ. Some of them have a few special requests, that O'Keefe of course accommodates. "For (British DJ) Les Aaron I always print out the cricket and soccer scores."

O'Keefe also books celebrity guests for the morning show.

"On one of my first tries at booking I got the morning show a phone interview with Jeff Goldblum on the opening day of Independence Day," O'Keefe said. That interview was exclusive for the St. Louis market.

O'Keefe also meets a few celebrities in person. Comedians Bobcat Goldthwait and Judy Tenuda have both done interviews in the studio. "Bobcat was really nice. Completely out of character when he was off the air," O'Keefe said. "It seems like the more abrasive the comedian, the nicer they are in person. Judy Tenuda was the same way."

O'Keefe's confident and outgoing personality has helped him earn privileges few interns would be trusted with. "I get to talk on the air sometimes, like when Jeff went out of town for a week," O'Keefe said. "I got to fill in for the first hour of every day until Dan (The Movie Man) Graney showed up."

His brief on-the-air moment have not gone unnoticed. At this summer's "Pointfest" he was approached by several young morning show fans who were looking for DJ autographs. O'Keefe humbly informed them, "Look, I'm not a DJ. I'm just an intern." They replied, "Are you intern Tom? Will you sign my T-shirt?"

Besides the fun and occasional moments of fame, working closely with the DJs gives O'Keefe an edge over other students who would like to work behind the microphone. "I'm getting valuable experience at KPNT," O'Keefe said. "If I was an intern at another station I don't think I'd be getting to do this stuff. If anybody at another station goes on vacation, the intern doesn't usually get to fill in."

O'Keefe hopes to keep working at KPNT after his internship expires. He has one more semester as a mass communications major at UM-St. Louis and is a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity.