From the moment she walked the stage as a member of the Shaler Area Class of 2002 and received her diploma, everyone knew that the name Abby Krizner would be huge.

Krizner, whose voice you may hear on your way to school or work while listening to the DVE Morning Show, is a prominent Shaler Area alumna whose career has been built on her musicality. Krizner had always been interested in music which she traces back to her childhood.

Krizner grew up in Fayette County before moving to Shaler. Throughout her childhood, she explained that she had a major influence which eventually brought her to where she is now.

“I listened to DVE with my dad whenever I was little. It was classic rock, and that kind of went into how much I loved music, and it was such an important part, and I realized it more,” Krizner said. “That was a really big part about my relationship with my dad. It was just so much of  how we connected with each other, and so it’s something that I really hang on to, very close in my heart.”

During her time in this very high school, Krizner was in a band entitled “Pulse”, along with Shaler Area teachers Mr. Scott Krenn and Mr. Jim McDermott. Though this started out as just a fun extracurricular, it truly helped to set up her future career, even if she had to learn a lot of lessons.

“My parents would film, and then they’d be like, “Do you see how you look down a lot? You look like you’re really embarrassed, you look like you’re really shy, you don’t look  like you’re having fun,” Krizner said. “And it did help inform me as a performer. Like, that’s the kind of stuff where it’s just all of those experiences, they’re half humiliating. How do you get better unless you have to sit there and look at yourself?”

So much inspiration came from within her family, her bandmates, her love for musical theater, and the music itself, but all started with a little Abby and access to instruments. Krizner learned to play piano before learning her signature guitar.

“I started playing piano when I was a little kid, and I didn’t learn how to read music, so I learned to play by ear, which I also brought into my guitar playing as well. Elton John taught me how to play piano and Kiss taught me how to play guitar, ” Krizner said. 

After graduating from Shaler Area, Krizner went to Duquesne University. It was a difficult decision as to what to major in, due to her passion for music but also checking in with reality. 

“I had a lot of academic advisors telling me going into radio was just such a bad idea, that it was volatile, a low-paying industry that wasn’t really realistic,” Krizner said. “I’d go in a different direction, and it scared the crap out of me, and I ended up graduating with a psychology degree with a minor in communications.”

She studied psychology after her graduation, and worked as a drug counselor in a clinic. However, after two or three years, she realized that path was not her path to take.

“I just knew in every bone in my body it was the wrong thing. I was trying to figure out ways to make it work, like squeezing in nursing school on the side to see if I could turn it into something more, and it just didn’t fit. It was taking all of these parts of my personality and trying to basically put a blanket over top of it,” Krizner said.

There was a big break that soon presented itself. After she had left Duquesne, the student-run radio station had fallen off. It desperately needed an academic advisor, and one of Krizner’s old professors offered her the job.

“One of them was very helpful in saying, “If you come back for grad school, we could get you an assistantship. You’re going to have to teach classes, but you could go to school for free. And you have to find a way to make that radio station alive again,” Krizner said.

Jumping in the world of radio pushed Krizner right back to her roots. She was able to revive the student radio station, and make it the best it could be. Right before graduation, she was offered an internship for a professional radio station. This internship meant so much to her, that she stayed with it long past her graduation just to pursue this dream.

“This is the other funny part of the story. I got that internship, and I was so excited to be in that building that at one point my mentor said, ‘This is the longest internship I have ever had with any student, when are you graduating?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I graduated last April,’” Krizner said.

After working that internship, a position opened up at 105.9 The X. With her skills and determination, Krizner was able to rise right to that position. While she loved that experience, it led her to her current position with the DVE Morning Show. A spot she has no interest in giving up. 

“I’ve been in radio for seventeen years. and most of them have been with 105.9 The X. It took a really long time to get on (the DVE Morning Show) the one I always wanted to be on, but it finally happened,” Krizner said. “And now, they’ll have to take that from my cold, dead hands because I love it. If it’s up to me, it’ll be the last radio station I ever work for.”

Radio has evolved over time, and many things have changed and shaped the industry. Unfortunately, many radio stations are refusing to play songs by women because listeners may get “bored” or “annoyed.” A study had been released recently, stating that radio shows who play songs by women twice in a row are seen to have a fall off of listeners. Many misogynistic radios have laughed over this, stating they would not want to play a woman’s music twice either for fear of losing their listeners. As ridiculous as it sounds, this is happening, and many people are fed up.

“Yeah. That’s insane and true. When I was working for The X, I was a music director and the program director, and it’s shocking how  research does back that up,” Krizner said. “And it’s just something that I’ve had to reckon with too, is that radio stations pay a ton of money for research.”

Women like Krizner have been taking the music industry by storm, whether it be through a radio microphone or a stage microphone. It was very important to Krizner to chase dreams, even if some people say that it may be difficult to achieve. 

“I have a psych degree and I use it every single day. I get to walk in in the morning, I work with my friends, I get to be myself,” Krizner said. “I could not have imagined that was a real thing you actually get to do. I get to just be myself, and that’s really fun.”