Distinguished Lexington sports anchor leaves TV for communications role at KHSAA
Longtime WKYT sports director Brian Milam was announced Monday as the new communications and media director for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, ending a 27-year career in Lexington and Eastern Kentucky broadcasting as one of its best-known sports anchors.
“We are extremely pleased to add Brian to our communication team. His passion for high school athletics and athletes is well known and has been shown in his decades-long work with two Kentucky CBS affiliate stations,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said in a press release. “Brian has worked with many of our member schools, athletic directors, coaches, athletes, our staff and various media across the state.”
Milam, a Louisville native and Butler Traditional High School alumnus, played baseball for Morehead State ahead of a sports broadcasting career that began at CBS affiliate WYMT in Hazard in 1998 before he moved up to sister station WKYT in Lexington in 2010. He’s been WKYT’s sports director and principal sports anchor since 2017, a role that included shouldering a camera on countless evenings under the Friday night lights of high school football and prep gyms across Central Kentucky for basketball each winter.
“To say this opportunity to cast a brighter light and serve as support for others to also promote Kentucky high school athletics and athletes is a dream might not completely cover my excitement about joining the KHSAA staff’s communication team,” Milam said. “I’ve loved all my time at WYMT and WKYT, and the great folks at Gray Communications. Both places have allowed me to be the best version of a reporter and historian for athletics, which has led to this next step.”
As host of high school-centric programming during the nightly news such as “Game Time” at WKYT and “Sports Overtime” at WYMT, Milam became a household name among Kentucky sports fans. The KHSAA highlighted WKYT Sports’ 2021 Emmy for its coverage of University of Kentucky football as one of Milam’s greatest professional accomplishments.
For the last several years, Milam has helped host the KHSAA’s draw shows for its Boys’ and Girls’ Sweet 16 state tournaments alongside longtime WKYT colleague Dave Baker. Milam also did KHSAA TV play-by-play for its football state finals from 2006 to 2008 and in 2013 was KHSAA TV color analyst at the Sweet 16 finals.
Milam fills the vacancy held by Connor Link, who departed this summer. He officially takes on his new role Sept. 8.
“Taking this step for him and KHSAA comes at a great time, and working with our publications and event services director, Jenny Elder, will give us a tremendous communications team,” Tackett said. “Both have extensive backgrounds in our state and allow for continued growth in the vital communications parts that surround not only our events, but also our year-round efforts.”
