AJ Mansour uses lessons learned at Bethel in his job with Twin Cities’ most popular radio station.

by Rachel Olson 

AJ Mansour chucks a pen across the room. Work is getting heated. Mansour is a multimedia journalist for KFAN sports radio , which has the No.1 morning show in Minnesota, in addition to top ratings throughout the day. Mansour spent all four years at Bethel University, where he met his wife.

“I went to Gadkin with her too, but I was more sure of her than she was of me,” he said.

Mansour’s job at KFAN is anything but typical as he recalls visiting airports large and small across the metro in attempt to be the first to cover Brett Favre’s arrival in Minnesota.

As if tracking down Favre wasn’t enough, Mansour also partakes in a Minnesota Vikings postgame radio show and a morning radio show called the Powertrip . Fans call the post-game show to voice their opinions.

“Things can get interesting (on the show), especially if the Vikings lose,” Mansour said.

Mansour’s co-host, Paul ‘Meatsauce’ Lambert, had similar thoughts about the unpredictability of the show, calling it “organized chaos.”

A pen is chucked across the room, “AJ!” screams Mansour, jumping like a human rocketship. Meatsauce starts to cover his eyes, paces, then starts complaining about AJ’s right answer.

Mansour plays a part in one of the most popular bits of the morning show, titled “The Name Game”. One host reads off initials.

“MH,” he says.

The other four and that morning’s guest write it down. A total of five clues are revealed to assist them each in guessing the name behind the initials, which is an athlete or figure in pop culture. Mansour is currently a host for the Name Game, Powertrip’s most popular bit, but it wasn’t always that way.

Mansour has bounced around to a few different roles within the station, currently holding his fourth position at KFAN. At one point, he held a job outside of the station, but that didn’t last long. Three weeks into a new gig, he knew it wasn’t a good fit for his personality.

He’s quick to say that his role at KFAN is a good fit, but with a newborn son at home, Mansour would love to have something more stable with more structured hours.

Even interns, who come and go with the seasons, have noticed that Mansour’s family means more to him than sports.

“He has a young son who he spends a lot of time with,” former KFAN intern Ryan Williamson said. “You can tell family means a lot to him.” Not only his family key to maintaining a healthy perspective, Mansour says that his faith plays a big role as well.

“I’m really grounded.,” he said. “If it weren’t for my faith and family, I’d be lost and caught up in this business.”

For now, though, Mansour is chucking pens, screaming initials into a microphone, working six to seven days a week on the radio and balancing his family life.