Mike Keith on Tennessee baseball broadcaster John Wilkerson: 'I mean, he’s the best'
Thursday was an exciting day for Tennessee fans as the announcement was made that Mike Keith would replace soon-to-be retired Bob Kesling as the Voice of the Vols beginning next fall.
Kesling will finish UT men’s basketball campaign before officially retiring. Keith will assume play-by-play responsibilities on the Vol Radio Network for football and men’s basketball while also adding additional programming that will announced at a later date.
For Keith, it’s a special appointment.
“It’s other worldly almost,” Keith told Volquest in an exclusive interview. “To think that only four other people have had the job and I respect the four of them so much. To be in that classification now is almost other worldly.”
Football and men’s basketball broadcasts were a given, but many fans also wondered if Keith would play a role in Tennessee baseball radio productions. The UTK graduate and former Vol Radio Network employee was the Voice of the Tennessee baseball team from 1992-1998, calling games involving several dynamic players and coaches – such as Todd Helton and Rod Delmonico – along with the 1995 College World Series appearance.
That won’t be a part of the deal for Keith, at least not on the radio side of things for now. Why? Well, the baseball team has a legend of their own as a broadcaster.
“Nothing changes. John Wilkerson is Vol Baseball. Nothing changes,” Keith said of Wilkerson. “I mean, he’s the best. And so, there’s no way that I get in his way in any way, shape or form.”
The two worked many baseball broadcasts together as a team in the 90s and spent time together hosting Sports Talk, that is still on the air today via The Sports Animal. Keith and Wilkerson are friends and have a longstanding working relationship. Keith joins Sports Talk weekly – which is still hosted by Wilkerson – for a hit on the NFL and the Tennessee Titans.
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Could Keith be involved in Tennessee baseball in other areas? Sure, and that is likely to be in the cards.
“I think probably at some point I’ll be involved somehow with the SEC (Network) Plus games that we produce, and I look forward to that,” the new Voice said. “But I’m not going near anything John Wilkerson’s got. I have way too much respect for what he does.”
Keith spent the past 27 years with the Tennessee Titans and has acted as the longtime play-by-play radio broadcaster for the final 26 years. He’s the only voice Tennessee Titans fans have ever known while in Nashville. Still, the call to ‘come home’ was an easy one to make.
It will be Mike Keith – and whoever he appoints to join him as color commentator – in the radio booth next fall at Neyland Stadium. It will be Mike Keith – and whoever he appoints to join him as color commentator – courtside next basketball season at the Food City Center. The Vol Radio Network is changing but some things are staying the same.
“I know how the Tennessee fans feel about him,” Keith concluded on Wilkerson. “And you know, one of the things that you learn very quickly in any situation is if you have something that really, really works, you just go do that, you know? And he’ll do that. Well.”
