29 years, countless calls: Lehigh’s longest running voice of Matt Kerr

It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday, five hours before his broadcast begins, and Matthew Korp has already started his day. 

He’s holding a manila folder in one hand and a red marker in the other. Inside the folder are what will become his position spotting chart and game notes, which will serve as an aid for the day’s football broadcast.

He’s familiar with this process. After all, he’s done this more than 300 times. 

In his 29 years at Lehigh, Korp has only missed four games: three for family weddings and one for his son’s football senior day. 

He starts his game prep on Monday, but he still has some last-minute notes to add before he leaves his house for Lehigh’s Goodman Stadium. 

He’ll be at the field by 10 a.m., and by 11 a.m., with his headset in place, he’ll transport into a rhythm he’s lived through hundreds of times before — shedding Matthew Korp to become the on-air voice of Matt Kerr. 

Kerr has been a radio broadcaster for Lehigh football since 1997. He remembers growing up listening to Lehigh, Lafayette and local high school games on the radio. It fascinated him.

The real spark, he said, came in middle school when his brother won a radio contest that included a tour of a local station in Easton. Kerr and his father came along.

After seeing the station and meeting the sports broadcaster who led the tour, Kerr said he knew it was what he wanted to do.

A few years later at his Catholic high school, Kerr remembers guidance counselor Sister Mary Carmel asking him a question many teenagers dread: “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

“I knew I wasn’t good enough to play (football), but I liked it,” Kerr said. “I liked to watch it and listen to it, so I thought this is what I should do.” 

Carmel had attended Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. She told Kerr the school had a great radio station and encouraged him to apply.

He committed before he even toured the school.

Not long after, he was on the air at WSOU, Seton Hall’s station. 

“For Seton Hall, I did the College World Series out in Omaha, Nebraska,” Kerr said. “Even as a kid, I thought (announcing) was the neatest part. I liked to listen to it, and so I thought this is what I should do.” 

Kerr said 29-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Bob Costas served as a big influence.

Although Costas was early in his career at the time, Kerr said he could tell how smart and prepared he was. 

“I just liked the way he talked,” Kerr said. “You knew that he did a lot of work before the day of the broadcast. So I thought, ‘That’s the way it should be done.’ And so I do a lot of work before the games, too.”

When Kerr graduated in 1976, he continued down the radio broadcasting path to work for WBRW in Somerville, New Jersey, where he broadcast news and sports for two years. 

He eventually moved to Catasauqua and started working for WAEB in Allentown, where he stayed for 20 years.

This job led him to be discovered by the Lehigh Athletics Department. 

Kerr was calling high school football games on WAEB for four years when he was approached by Glenn Hoffman, an athletic administrator at Lehigh, who asked if he would like to broadcast for Lehigh following the previous announcer’s departure.

“I still remember the very first game I did for them,” he said. “We lost, but it was at Fordham, and we lost in overtime. There’s so many great games.” 

This game would mark the start of his 29-year passion — not “job” — of broadcasting at Lehigh. 

In 2000, Kerr was asked if he wanted to be an announcer for basketball. He accepted, but only if he was also able to continue with football. 

He ended up broadcasting both football and basketball for 13 years before he stopped basketball in 2013. Kerr still participates in men’s and women’s basketball at Lehigh as the public address announcer in Stabler Arena. 

Steve Lomangino, the director of sports communications for Lehigh Athletics, said Kerr has been nothing but dedicated for the past 29 years. 

“He’s always enjoyed being around our team, doing the games, getting to know our coaches and student-athletes, and using his position as a radio broadcaster to tell stories,” Lomangino said. 

When Kerr was broadcasting both football and basketball, he was also working a full-time job during the week as the director of communications for the Diocese of Allentown. 

He retired from his position at the Diocese after 20 years. He said he continues his work at Lehigh because it’s something he looks forward to.

“I just turned 71 years old, and I’m still doing what I’ve always wanted to do,” Kerr said. 

Mike Yadush, ‘93, who works closely with Kerr as the TV color commentator, described him as professional and a great human being. 

“He’s that voice now for almost 30 years that people associate a big play with,” Yadush said. “He has his own style.” 

Kerr found his style at Lehigh, but said he’s noticed fewer schools are doing radio broadcasts. Of the eight football schools in the Patriot League, he said only four — Lehigh, Bucknell, Fordham and Richmond — are still doing radio. 

Regardless, Kerr encourages students interested in broadcast to pursue it. 

He said opportunities still exist through the Lehigh Sports Broadcasting Club, which Kerr noticed was in attendance at women’s basketball games last year. 

Kerr also said the beginning is the most difficult part, but once one gets started, it’s difficult to give up. 

Kerr said he’s looking forward to the future. He’s been to 31 states and wants to continue checking new ones off his list. 

“I think in 2027, they’re going to play Montana,” Kerr said. “I’ve never been to Montana, so maybe I want to at least stay around to go to Montana.”

And he said he can’t wait for his 30th year.