Carl Nathe is now in his 25th year as the public address voice of Commonwealth Stadium/Kroger Field. His booming call of “First DOWN, KENTUCKY” often has close to 60,000 UK football fans joining in. But his career includes a wide range of experience in radio and television and a 32-year tenure as a public relations officer at UK, a position from which he recently retired.
Carl worked closely with UK presidents, administrators, faculty and students as he covered news from every corner of the university. He also served as the host for the UK women’s basketball coaches shows on television, served as a sideline reporter for women’s basketball on television and continues today in his role as public address announcer for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association football championship games, and as a sideline reporter for radio on the KHSAA boys and girls’ state basketball tournaments. He was honored in 2012 with the Al Temple Award from the Kentucky Broadcasters Association for his service to that organization. The Pleasantville, New York native grew up hearing the voices of Mel Allen on New York Yankees radio broadcasts and Bob Sheppard, the PA voice of Yankee Stadium for 57 years. In this conversation, we talked about those early influences, as well as his UK PA career, other broadcasting assignments and his longtime work with the university’s PR office.
