By Gil Pound

V oice of the Bobcats Scott MacLeod reached rarified air as a radio broadcaster this year.

With over 50 years in the industry, the WMVG/WKZR sports director and voice behind the online Bobcat Broadcast Network was inducted into the Friends of Georgia Radio Hall of Fame Saturday.

“It means a lot to me,” said MacLeod, also a 2011 Georgia College Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. “Being recognized by your peers is indescribable.”

MacLeod has endeared himself to listening audiences with his consistency, trustworthiness, knowledge of local sports history and a descriptive approach. While visual artists use colors and shapes to create their works, words are MacLeod’s medium. He paints a picture by digging down into details like uniform color combinations and the compass direction of play. His clear, made-for-radio voice occasionally elevates into an excited growl when game-changing moments occur.

Those are the things people hear. What they aren’t privy to are the off-air conversations where MacLeod deftly coordinates commercial breaks with co-workers back at the radio station. Audiences also don’t see him, at 71 years old, standing on a press box table to open an upper window to mount a microphone that captures crowd noise, adding another element to broadcasts. It’s all done out of love, both for the game and for radio.

Michigan Beginnings

Raised in Plainwell, Michigan, just north of Kalamazoo, MacLeod grew up listening to Ernie Harwell, longtime radio voice of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers. Harwell’s storytelling, style and smooth play-by-play were what drew in listeners like MacLeod, who first nestled up to a microphone as public address announcer for his high school’s marching band and basketball teams. Those opportunities opened a door into the industry in 1973 when he was hired to deliver a morning sportscast at a Kalamazoo Top 40 station, WKMI.

MacLeod honed his craft there while attending college at Western Michigan University and eventually became a weekend DJ. Marriage to wife Susi and graduation followed, which meant he needed to find a full-time career. In a bit of irony, MacLeod’s path would run opposite to that of Tigers’ voice Harwell, who had come to Michigan from Georgia in 1960.

Move to Milledgeville

“I found a tiny classified ad in Broadcasting Magazine,” MacLeod said. “WXLX, the daytime radio station in Milledgeville, needed a sports guy to take over John Milledge and Georgia College baseball.”

That move began a long, still-standing relationship between MacLeod and the Milledgeville community. He started calling high school football action midseason in fall 1977 then set up shop at GCSU’s John Kurtz Field for baseball in spring 1978.

“I’ve seen the evolution of Kurtz Field,” said MacLeod. “When I first started, I was broadcasting from behind the backstop just like a high school game because that’s where they had the phone line. I think I got a little too loud a few times. John Kurtz decided he was going to build me a little platform up on the hill before the bleachers were there.”

The hillside platform was traded for a seat atop the Kurtz Field bleachers once those were constructed. The press box was built later and became a second home for the radio veteran.

Mr. Dependable

While MacLeod’s radio call letters changed – from WXLX to WMVG/WKZR in 1981 – Milledgeville remained his home.

From Colonials of different colors to blue-and-green Bobcats, MacLeod over nearly five decades has called many groundbreaking Georgia College & State University sports moments. Highlights include the baseball team making the NCAA Division II College World Series finals in 1995 against Florida Southern. MacLeod remembers that Colonials squad under then-head coach Steve Mrowka as a group of overachievers. The Bobcats’ radio voice also had a front-row seat to the greatest season in GCSU men’s basketball history. The 2000 Peach Belt Conference champs under Terry Sellers made the Elite Eight, the program’s high mark that still stands.

Wherever the Bobcats go, MacLeod follows.

“Scott is the consummate professional and has been an invaluable member of our team for half a century,” said GCSU Director of Athletics Wendell Staton. “He is always prepared, always early and does whatever it takes to get the job done.  He knows the coaches and players and gets behind-the-scenes insight that allows him to tell an even better story.”

“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more deserving of this Hall of Fame honor than Scott,” said Al Weston, former GCSU sports information director and MacLeod’s often radio broadcast partner for high school football games. “He is extremely invested in GCSU athletics, and Baldwin County athletics in general. I’m proud to call him a friend. His work ethic is amazing, and every broadcast I get to do with him is just pure fun.”

Header Images: MacLeod has been on the Milledgeville radio airwaves since arriving in 1977, first at WXLX and now at WMVG/WKZR. MacLeod gives his acceptance speech at the Friends of Georgia Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony held at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center Saturday. (Photos: Gil Pound)