Dailon Huskey has spent most of his adult life listening to music for a living.

He’s been a DJ and a program director for three of Vicksburg’s radio stations. He hosts a weekend country music program that is broadcast in France, which airs around the same time he’s DJing weddings in Mississippi.

The 44-year-old reached a point, though, where it was time to give up one of his many gigs and listen to his favorite band.

Huskey recently announced he is stepping down as the radio voice of St. Aloysius High School football on 101.3 FM. His daughter, Darcy, is a sophomore at Warren Central and plays clarinet in its Big Blue marching band.

Huskey said he wants to go to games as a parent for a while instead of calling games on the radio on Friday nights.

Huskey will be replaced on St. Al games by Ryne McCallum. McCallum has previously been part of the broadcast team for Porter’s Chapel Academy games, along with his father Walter.

“After doing it for so long, I have a whole routine around it, and not having that is going to be weird,” Huskey said.

Vicksburg is blessed to have a unique set-up for high school football. There are four high schools in town, and four radio stations that broadcast their games — 101.3 for St. Al, 104.5 for Porter’s Chapel, 105.5 for Warren Central and 107.7 for Vicksburg.

It’s something many towns its size can only dream of, especially since it takes some dedicated folks to call the action. Huskey and his fellow broadcasters have other jobs and spending several hours at the stadium on Friday is another.

It’s not just a job, though. It’s also an adventure.

Over the years Huskey has accumulated plenty of road stories. He’s scrambled to protect his equipment from rain, muscled for space in the press box, and even watched an angry parent damage his gear.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen and you have to react to it live on the radio,” he said. “I had one lady get mad because her kid got kicked out of the game and she came up and broke my computer.”

Huskey started working in radio in Vicksburg in the early 2000s. Longtime radio personality Ron Anderson helped him get his start at River 101.3 FM, and a couple of decades later Huskey has followed in his mentor’s footsteps.

Huskey is now the program director at FM stations 101.3, 104.5 and 92.7 in Vicksburg. He hosts a weekday morning show on KHits 104.5.

“It was Ron Anderson that believed in me and gave me that shot,” Huskey said.

It wasn’t long before Huskey went from manning the control board in the station, to being an on-air talent, and then branching out to live events like football play-by-play.

He spent a few years working Warren Central’s games, then moved to Vicksburg High, and then to St. Al. He’s been the voice of St. Al football for eight seasons.

“I got to call guys like Malcolm Butler and Cam Akers and Gardner Minshew,” he said, referring to several of the NFL stars he saw during their high school days. “If kid me knew I got to do this I’d be thrilled as hell. I would listen real intently and call games I was watching on TV.”

As with any veteran broadcaster, Huskey has seen his share of good football and bad. While he’d much rather see the former, the latter has helped influence his broadcast style.

“The way I have always done it, and I think is important for anybody that’s doing it, is to remember these are kids. It’s really not that serious,” he said. “They’re not pros. You don’t want to be down on them.”

Huskey’s voice is not going silent. He’s only taking Friday nights off, not dropping the numerous other gigs that he has the rest of the week.

He said it might also be just a sabbatical, not a retirement, from football.

“This may not be goodbye forever,” he said. “Three years from now I might come back to it.”

In the meantime, he can simply enjoy the sights and sounds of Friday night instead of describing them. Especially that halftime show he’s been waiting years to listen to.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com