”Alvine with a big-time, big-time block on that punt return!”

That may not have been exactly how the announcer said it, but it’s close to the call that inspired a young Jason Alvine to become a sports broadcaster.

The broadcaster was describing Alvine executing a terrific crackback block for one of his high school teammates in Colorado many years ago.

“Just his excitement and his passion in calling that play set the tone for me at a young age,” recalled Alvine, who has returned to Idaho State to be the radio voice of Idaho State volleyball, women’s basketball and softball. “I thought, ‘This is kind of what I want to do.’”

And for the past quarter century, that’s pretty much what Alvine has been doing, broadcasting high school football, and college sports at Northern Colorado, Idaho State and Montana State.

When Mark Liptak, the longtime voice of the Idaho State women’s basketball team, retired after last season and took his patented “kaboom” call for three-point field goals with him, Alvine got back in line for the opportunity to broadcast college sports.

“Those are some big shoes to fill for Mark,” said Alvine in a recent interview. “I think he broadcast for 18 years, if I remember correctly. Mark had his own distinct style. I may have to retire the ‘kaboom’ lexicon, let that die with Mark and his retirement. But it’s going to be fun, it’s a great opportunity to get back to doing what I really love to do in calling games and being on the airwaves.”

Growing up in Colorado, Alvine’s initial goal was to become a college football player — but at 145 pounds, his gridiron career came to an end after high school. So, when Northern Colorado, where he was going to school, had an opening for a color announcer to join their football broadcasts during his junior year, he jumped at the chance.

Even though he was still very green as far as experience in the booth, a man named Scott French with Comcast decided to give Alvine a chance to serve as the color commentator in return for internship credit.

After graduating from UNC, he worked in both the local television and radio markets, broadcasting local high school football among other assignments. Then in 2009, his alma mater gave him the opportunity to broadcast Northern Colorado women’s basketball. He did that and other UNC sports for six years.

If you are at all familiar with small-market broadcasting careers, you won’t be surprised to learn that Alvine’s career has taken a lot of twists and turns over the years. In 2015-16, he came to Pocatello, getting his master’s degree at Idaho State while working on the coaching staff of Seton Sobolewski and the ISU women’s basketball program.

Then it was off to Bozeman, where he worked as the director of operations for Tricia Binford’s Montana State women’s basketball program, while also serving as the play-by-play voice for the Bobcats. He also moved into the football booth for the Bobcats during his time in Bozeman.

From 2020 to 2024, he was back at UNC, where he called football and men’s basketball. Then there was another season of coaching on the women’s basketball staff at Idaho State, followed by taking a season off from athletics this last year to help his mom take care of his dad.

“I was 21 when I got my first broadcasting gig,” said Alvine. “So, the last 25 years, I’ve been in and out of broadcasting. I think only two of those years I haven’t had my foot in the door in some way in calling games in some way, shape or form.”

Alvine will make his return to the airwaves when the ISU volleyball team hosts the Orange and Black Classic featuring Wyoming, Boise State and Pacific Sept. 17-19. He took a turn broadcasting ISU volleyball during his last stint on the women’s basketball coaching staff here. He also got a thorough education in the sport while at Northern Colorado.

“The first time I did volleyball at UNC, it was a little bit of a shock,” Alvine recalls. “I got called on a Friday, asking if I could be the play-by-play broadcaster for the season — not knowing the season started on Monday.”

UNC’s sports information director, Heather Kennedy, spent a volleyball practice with Alvine, introducing him to the rules and terminology of the sport. When he broadcast his first game, he thought he should use all the knowledge Kennedy imparted to him. But what he found out was that the speed of the game goes much faster than the average broadcaster can talk.

“I got a very quick lesson in the pace of volleyball,” he said. “But man, it’s exciting.”

The first tournament he broadcast, UNC hosted power-conference school Georgia, and beat the Bulldogs in five sets. One game ended 38-36.

“That game was so intense, so fun — it was point, point, point,” recalled Alvine.

Alvine’s ready to tell the world about Sean Carter’s volleyball team once the Bengals return to Reed Gym in a few weeks. But his headline responsibilities are being the voice of the women’s basketball team — a job for which he is uniquely qualified having coached on Sobolewski’s staff.

“You understand, especially having worked for Seton two different times now, you understand how he operates,” said Alvine. “How he works and what his thought processes are. There is a fine line between using what you know from coaching with him, and putting that out in the broadcast lexicon on the airwaves. I know I’m going to have to toe that line. I know that very well … I balanced it pretty well at Montana State for four years. I was the director of operations for Trish and her staff (while also broadcasting the MSU games). I feel I know that line pretty well — it’s just a matter of refining what it is with coach Sobolewski again.”

Alvine knows how special the ISU women’s program is, having not only coached here, but also being on the other side of the competition while broadcasting the 2012 Big Sky Conference championship game in Reed Gym. The Bengals edged Alvine’s Bears, 49-46, in that game.

“It was a low-scoring affair, but absolutely intense,” said Alvine. “It was a packed house that night at Reed. You get something special here that you don’t get a lot of other places. The community does come out.”

With the football team getting votes in the preseason top 25 polls, the volleyball team making the Big Sky championship game last year, the women’s basketball team’s recent conference titles and the women’s softball team winning the Big Sky last year, Alvine sees a parallel between where Idaho State is now athletically with where Montana State was when he was first involved in the Bobcat program 10 years ago.

“This all ties into the leadership of (athletic director) Pauline Thiros and what she’s done and the kind of vision she has,” said Alvine. “To try to take this thing to the next level. You see it happen in places like this. I spent four years in Bozeman … To see where they were when I started to where they are now, you can see how a place like this can get there. It just comes down to getting the right pieces together.”

Like many small-market broadcasters, Alvine has to have another source of income outside his radio and television work.

“You can find me from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Home Depot five days a week,” said Alvine, who was able to transfer with the home improvement company from one of their Colorado stores to the Chubbuck branch this summer. “Home Depot’s been great to work with as a company. When I was calling Northern Colorado football and men’s basketball, they worked with me on scheduling and all that kind of stuff. It pays the bills. It’s the primary breadwinner job for me. I’m fortunate to have a job that’s allowed me to do this for so long.”