From one small ad sprouted a lifetime of memories

Published 7:00 am Sunday, July 27, 2025

In his own words, Scott MacLeod has that face for radio. That’s OK, for it’s the voice that’s been a constant over the Milledgeville airwaves since the late 1970s.

For calling the athletic moments of Georgia College & State University, Georgia Military College and the high schools of Baldwin County, MacLeod, sports director for WMVG/WKZR, is among the eight new inductees for the Friends of Georgia Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Induction takes place Aug. 23 at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center.

A lifelong career for MacLeod blossomed out of the smallest of ads in a trade publication. Since the age of 10, MacLeod dreamed of being in the radio broadcasting business. The dream began in his native Michigan, and as a college student at Western Michigan University he was a sports reporter at WKMI in Kalamazoo.

“I had to get a full-time job because I was married,” he said from his WMVG/WKZR office on W. Charlton Street. “There were no prospects where I grew up. There was an advertisement in one of our periodicals, Broadcasting magazine. Real tiny little thing in the classifieds. They were looking for a play-by-play guy and additional duties. This was from a radio station no longer in business, WXLX.”

That was a daytime AM (1060) station, one that’s on when the sun rises, but when it’s dark the signal goes off.

“I did tape-delayed high school football of John Milledge,” said MacLeod. The year was 1977, and the season was already half over. “That was my first taste of play-by-play. I was pretty terrible. I don’t know why they took a chance on me.”

In 1981, MacLeod joined WMVG/WKZR doing a morning shift on MVG for five to six years. He was already connected with Georgia College calling baseball games since the 1978 season.

“They had me calling the games from right behind the backstop,” said MacLeod. This was at the same field that is John Kurtz Stadium today. John Kurtz was, in fact, the head coach at that time. “I was torn. I had to do my job talking about the game, but I didn’t want to interrupt the batter. I was within 20 feet of the guy. I think I toned my delivery down a little bit.

“Then coach Kurtz took care of me. He developed a platform midway up the bank. There were no bleachers at the time. We had a wide-open bank. Then they put in the bleachers, and I broadcasted from the top of the bleachers. Eventually, they built the pressbox.

“(Kurtz Field) has gone through so many wonderful changes.”

GC baseball as a program was not that old when MacLeod arrived, but he recalls stories of Kurtz and how every day before batting practice they had to pick up stones in the infield. The field had not been graded well, and even when BP started they were still throwing stones to the side.

And it wasn’t Bobcat baseball; it was Colonial baseball.

“It started blue and white,” MacLeod said about the school colors. “Then they changed to brown and gold, originally the colors of Georgia College way back in the day. Now it’s blue and green. I have bled many different colors.”

MacLeod does a high school football game of the week that can be either Baldwin High School, John Milledge or Georgia Military College Prep. He also has a deep history with Georgia Military College football.

“I was very proud to be a part of the national championship game and team in 2001,” said MacLeod. “My daughter was the board operator for that game. She helped us during her high school days. She was in charge of the broadcast back here.”

This was not a playoff final but a bowl game, the Golden Isles Bowl in Brunswick that was a de facto championship game for NJCAA Division I. MacLeod called two other ‘title’ games involving the GMC Bulldogs.

“They were tremendous to me,” he said. “I had a complete two-seat seat on the bus. Most football players are 350-pound guys who had to have one seat. The old man got two seats thanks to Bert Williams, and Rob Manchester continued it as well. I would go on the road with them, and they put me up. That was very kind of them.”

So MacLeod has seen coaches come and go year after year it seems at both the high school and college level.

“It’s amazing how articulate these folks are,” he said. “And how available they are. They are always willing to talk about their program. Folks I have interviewed, they are great. Very concise and precise.”

And big names? Just from Baldwin High, there’s Earnest Byner to Javon Bullard. He was there when Baldwin beat Warner Robins at McConnell-Talbert Stadium for a region championship in the early 1980s and a 2005 semifinal game at the Georgia Dome.

WXLX was on Lake Laurel Road, and that is now 97 Big FM. That, plus WMVG/WKZR, are part of the Oconee Radio Group.

“It’s a great company,” said MacLeod. “K.J. Allen’s put together a great bunch of professional folks.”

Now, about the changes in the radio industry from 1977 to 2025.

“We were playing commercials on reel-to-reel,” said MacLeod. “You removed the cartridges. Now, everything is computerized. I’m still doing a morning show on WMVG 104.5, but it’s voice-tracked. You record the segment you want to put into the program. I don’t have to get up at 4 a.m. to come in and get ready for a morning show. I record them in advance.

“(High school games) are about the only time we are live. Even when we do remote broadcasts for customers and clients, segments are recorded in advance.”

MacLeod is also involved in sales (“Never thought I would be a salesman”) or as he calls it an “order-taker.” He will do community calendars, giving him a full day’s work.

“Small-market radio station, you have to do a lot of things,” he said. “You can’t hone in on one specific area. So much has to be done, and your staff isn’t big.”

His GCSU basketball and baseball broadcasts are now streamed over the college’s website, the Bobcat Broadcast Network. He said the Peach Belt Conference mandated schools stream their home games.

“I’ve been fortunate to keep my hand in it with that,” said MacLeod, who was inducted into the GCSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011. He is also a three-time Georgia Sportscaster of the Year.

“In mass communications, things change quickly. AI generated commercials. Technology’s amazing in the 50 years I’ve been in the business. Totally blows my mind how far we’ve come.”

More than five decades in, MacLeod gets asked how much longer he wants to go. As long as he can get up, even if it’s not at 4 a.m. 

“I’m still having fun,” he said. “Like every job, there are times you don’t have fun. Fortunately I was able to make a career out of it. You give thanks to the Big Man for allowing you to have another day.”