NATCHEZ &045;&045; For Glen Moyer of Texas, it might be hard to decide which is the greater high &045;&045; announcing at balloon races or flying his own balloon in the competitions.

But at the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race, he gets the best of both worlds.

On Friday night, he announces the Balloon Glow event, telling spectators about the different balloons and letting pilots know when to turn crank up the gas, creating glow that can be seen from both sides of river.

Then on Saturday, he jumps into his balloon &045;&045; the yellow-and-blue Coyote Moon &045;&045; to fly competitively.

When it comes to announcing and flying, &uot;people have asked me why I don’t do them at the same time,&uot; Moyer said, laughing. &uot;But it takes your whole brain just to do one or the other, much less both.&uot;

Moyer, who for 20 years has announced seven to 18 races nationwide during each year’s May-to-November race season, has a background as a disc jockey and a radio and television reporter. And he’s been involved in ballooning himself since 1981.

Moyer, speaking by telephone from a recent balloon race in Albuquerque, N.M., said having both backgrounds gives him the combination of knowledge and skill needed for announcing balloon races.

That’s a weekend job he said, despite his full-time job as editor of publications for the Balloon Federation of America, has become &uot;my job and my hobby, my vocation and my avocation.&uot;

The job involves more roles than one might think, Moyer said. At a football game, for example, one commentator will give the play-by-play while another gives the back stories of the teams and players to add &uot;color&uot; to the dialogue. Moyer has to do both.

Despite the side income, what’s so fun about announcing that Moyer is willing to trek across the country many weekends during the season to take part?

&uot;You become an insider,&uot; Moyer said. &uot;I got to know the crews and pilots, even at a time when I couldn’t afford a balloon and didn’t know how to fly one.&uot;

Moyer said he feels he’s providing a service for spectators, teaching them a little something about ballooning and its participants.

The hardest part, he said, is explaining weather conditions and keeping the crowd entertained when conditions such as high winds don’t allow the pilots to fly.

Even at such times, though, Moyer said he loves both ballooning and the announcing of it.

&uot;I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy communicating with people, so this is a natural outflow of that,&uot; he said. &uot;The day it quits becoming fun, … I’ll give it up and do something else.&uot;