Bob Kesling never thought he would end up where he is today. Kesling, the "Voice of the Vols" who calls the radio play-by-play for football and basketball, graduated from the University of Tennessee as a public relations major who was just trying to help boost the attendance of the Knoxville Sox baseball team.

"I just started writing thirty-second voicers, and I would call every radio station in town that would answer the phone after midnight," Kesling said to a group of broadcast students in The Volunteer Channel studio.

WIVK-FM was one of the stations that answered, and they offered him a job splitting shifts as the sports broadcaster. Kesling accepted, and the rest is history.

"I thought I was going to work for a baseball team," Kesling said. But by the time he graduated, WIVK-FM offered him a full-time position as sports director. Shortly after, the Vol Network offered him a position.

I would call every radio station in town that would answer the phone after midnight-Bob Kesling on how he got started in broadcasting

At 25, Kesling was in New York filming promotion commercials for CBS with NFL broadcasters John Madden and Pat Summerall. Kesling impressed the people at CBS by being such a young man who was still new to broadcasting. When one woman asked Kesling how long he'd been in the business, he responded, "About 35 minutes."

Kesling's story may sound unusual, but that's the nature of the field, he said.

"Each broadcaster will have a different story of how they got there," he said.

Kesling had a lot of advice for the broadcast students. He told them to persevere when they first start out because they will likely start out at the bottom, but he reminded them that you can work your way up.

"The harder you work, the easier it gets," he said.

He also told them to expect the unexpected. When he prepared for the UT vs. UCLA game he never thought he would need a clip of information on Tennessee's record in overtime. He included it in his spot list anyway and it ended up being useful when UT tied the game in the final seconds.

Kesling will cover the UT vs. UAB game this Saturday, Sept. 13, at 12:30 p.m., but he decided not to project the score after last week's upset. However, he said he is optimistic about the team's chances.