For the past 17 years, Curt Hylton has been able to call the radio booth at Stony Brook University home. Hylton is part of the college broadcast team that covers football, baseball and men's lacrosse and men's basketball.

"I got involved as a student by accident," said Hylton, who graduated from Stony Brook University in 1991 and now works on campus in administration. "One of the people who was producing a discussion show on the radio thought I had a good voice," he said. Hylton was not interested at first, until someone mentioned sports. Soon after, he auditioned and was on the air the same night doing The Sports Section, a roundtable discussion show that still airs each Sunday evening on 90.1 FM WUSB, the university's public radio station.

Formed in 1977, WUSB is run mainly by students, faculty and alumni. Aside from school sports, the station is as diverse as the campus itself, playing many types of music day and night.

Hylton has watched the university and its athletic program mature over the past 20 years and is proud of the strides made. "I think it is terrific watching the university grow," he said.

Broadcaster Jeff Bernstein may not have quite as many years behind the microphone as Hylton. Still, Bernstein — a member of the Class of '92 — has been a part of the broadcast team at Stony Brook for 13 years; while a student, he volunteered as an assistant basketball coach.

Since joining the team in 1996 and working alongside Hylton, Bernstein, too, has seen the sports program develop. "When I started at the school, we were a D2 school," Bernstein said. "It's really grown so much. The talent level just gets better and better every year." SBU is now a NCAA Division 1A school.

Broadcasting a game on radio is quite different from broadcasting on television. The broadcasters have to make their listeners feel the game is unfolding right before their eyes. Bernstein said the team "makes sure that we tell the story of what is going on — on the court or field — with as much description as possible."

Another longtime member of the team is Dave Vallone, who has been at WUSB since the fall of 1983, when he was just out of high school and in his freshman year at Stony Brook University. The following year he joined the sports department and has been there ever since.

According to Vallone, the volunteers who donate their time at the station are what makes it so great. "The most rewarding part of working with the people at WUSB is seeing the amazing dedication of the volunteers, not only in the sports department but in the entire radio station staff," Vallone said.

Even more so than his friends and colleagues, Vallone has witnessed the changes in the university and its sports programs. "When I enrolled at Stony Brook, football was a club sport, not even part of the NCAA," Vallone said. "In 1983, I could never have imagined the vast improvements in the appearance of the campus, along with the 8,000-seat stadium, the fan interest and attendance, the atmosphere at the games."

With college football over except for the bowl season, Seawolves basketball games are now the focus of the radio broadcasters. "There's not one team in the league we can't compete with, which isn't something you could have said years ago," Hylton said, perhaps auguring an exciting season.

The members of the sports broadcasting team take pride in the fact that the announcers who laid the foundation for the sports coverage that is in place today are still there to enjoy it.

"The thing I'm most proud of is that the guys who broke me in are still around," Hylton said. "The fact that we're all still products of the university and still working with the school is the best part. We're still a team and we're all still close. That's what makes it fun."