Spreading a message of faith, 12-year-old Sean Skottey takes to the LV airwaves

Several things set Sean Skottey apart from his co-workers.

For starters, he's 12 -- which also explains why the pint-sized disc jockey's feet don't touch the floor when he sits behind the microphone at Las Vegas Christian radio station KKVV 1060-AM.

He's also still learning -- about his job producing and hosting a weekly program, "Music for the Walk," which airs Sundays from 1-2 p.m.; about the radio business; about his faith.

"God has blessed me with this opportunity," the Henderson youngster says. "I just want to follow what he wants me to do and he's directed me into praising him on the radio."

How Sean landed the program -- which has aired live for 14 weeks, and features contemporary Christian music hits and "just a little bit of Bible commentary" courtesy of the blue-eyed lad -- is something of a miraculous tale.

During a family vacation last year to the Disney Institute in Florida, he participated in a radio broadcasting workshop, which prompted him upon returning home to begin producing in his bedroom -- using CD and cassette players -- his own religious-themed "radio shows" for his family's amusement.

His mother, Barbara, a craps dealer at the Las Vegas Hilton, listened to them in the car on her way to and from work.

"If I was having a bad day, (the tapes) would put me in the right frame of mind," she says. "It encouraged me and helped me keep focused; it put me in a good mood to go to work." She began sharing them with about 20 of her co-workers. "They loved them."

Earlier this year, a Community College of Southern Nevada course catalog arrived at the family's home. Among the classes offered were a pair in radio broadcasting. After convincing the school to waive its age requirement, the family got Sean admitted -- the only child in a classroom full of adults.

"It was certainly different, but I learned so much," he says. "I learned a lot (about) the equipment and basically how radio works. It was fascinating."

Sean gave one of his homemade tapes to his college professor, who turned it over to KKVV station manager Bill Ball in hopes of aiding his search for student interns to staff the small Highland Drive station.

"I was extremely impressed with his delivery and the quality of the tape that I got," Ball says, explaining that he receives similar tapes from people throughout the country. "Of all of the ones that I've gotten, this was one of the better ones that I've heard."

Shortly after, Ball invited Sean in for a chance to co-host his daily afternoon program, "Homeward Bound." "He, out of the box, impressed me," and Ball offered him the "Music for the Walk" position shortly after.

"I'm thinking, '12 years old, 12 years old, 12 years old,' " the precocious Sean recalls of accepting the offer. He says he was "shocked that they would even allow a kid on the radio. It was a shock that I could even come down here, then to go on to being a co-host on a program, to having my own program."

Though the deal initially was for Sean to host 13 shows, Ball recently presented him with a set of keys to the station and expects he will sign a year-long contract soon.

"It's just so much fun," the Courtney Middle School eighth-grader says of his on-air gig. "I love the fact that I'm doing what God wants me to do, but I also love the fact that I love what I'm doing. I can talk and people can hear me and understand."

Christianity plays a big role in Sean's life -- both on and off the air.

Besides being active in his church, in preparing for his radio show he spends several hours each week reading Scripture, searching for passages that complement the music he plays on the program -- popular tunes by Christian artists including Stephen Curtis Chapman and the bands Anointed and Avalon.

"I've heard some of the (traditional) hymns" that have long been a staple of religious radio, he says. "But now we've got this contemporary Christian music and it sounds like a regular (pop) song, it's upbeat. It's still having the same message but I think it's having a bigger impact."

He also themes each program around a spiritual subject (a recent program was about religious beliefs), which he chooses from his small library of reference books, and sprinkles breaks between songs with Bible verses and other words of wisdom, which he pens himself.

Sean's mission, he says, is "just to encourage and inspire, to teach. Just to make sure that the people who are listening realize that what happened 2,000 years ago and what I'm talking about is still relevant today."

While his target audience is teens, he knows his voice is reaching people of all ages. No matter -- the message applies to everyone.

"Just that they can talk to God and they can rely and trust upon him," he says, "and he is not just a person that you go and learn about on Sunday; that you need to learn and study all throughout the week."

"To me, he's been anointed by God for this," Ball says. "He not only has a sweet delivery on air, he's pleasant to listen to, he also has a communication in the word of God that impresses me. He always comes prepared" for the show with a script, which he writes and his mother proofreads.

So far, Sean has only experienced a few on-air bloopers, such as the time he said "relative humility" instead of humidity during a weather report, and accidentally turned off the microphone before he'd finished speaking. He's also lost a couple of callers to the show.

"I've made a million mistakes," he humbly admits. "I haven't had a perfect show yet, and I don't plan to."

He has thought about format changes he'd like to make, though. "Maybe having (in-studio) guests, something more personal, maybe like contests and things. You just have to build up your audience and you have to talk about the show."

But the preteen says it's not likely that he'll strive for the celebrity status enjoyed by other radio personalities: Another Howard Stern he doesn't want to be.

"He gets so obscene and he makes fun of other people of faith. When anyone tries to stand up for their faith, they get knocked down by Howard Stern," he says.

Nor is Sean in any hurry to get in on the radio ratings game.

"I don't want to get so big it's like, 'Oh, we've got to have this many people listening,' " he says. "You've got to do the best show you can; you've got to make it interesting. I'm doing it for God and for the fun."

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