Jim Mashek

FORMER WBKO-TV SPORTSCASTER BRINGS A PERSONABLE TOUCH TO A PROMISING CAREER

There was a groundswell of public support to keep him in town.

Former WBKO-TV sportscaster Kaden Gaylord-Day was the first guy to tell you he loved his job, and when you’d run into him, nine times out of 10, he was wearing a wide smile.

He always seemed to have one in the station’s studio. He completed a three-year stint as a reporter, anchor and producer at WBKO last month.

Gaylord-Day quickly became a popular TV news figure in Bowling Green, and he had a dynamic perspective that brought him admiration from athletes, from coaches, from parents and from fellow journalists. He’s had an eye on returning to Lexington, his hometown, and he’s using the summer months to explore his options.

My guess is there will be plenty of opportunities for him.

“It’s really kind of bittersweet,” Gaylord-Day said of his departure from WBKO.

Gaylord-Day commemorated his final days at the station on social media, thanking his co-workers, expressing his appreciation for all the kind words he’d received from viewers. At the tender age of 25 years old, he certainly understands the value of a positive attitude in just about any profession.

But particularly television journalism.

“I’m really going to miss it here,” he said.

Gaylord-Day, or KGD, as he is also known, got the journalism bug as a kid. He was involved in all sorts of extracurricular activities at Dunbar High School, in Lexington, including football, baseball, drama and the student newspaper. He’s a little on the small side, of course, but he has a warm, personable demeanor. Viewers, and especially high school athletes, seem to be drawn to him. After all, he’s not THAT much older than they are.

“Being multi-dimensional really helped me,” Gaylord-Day said. “I did three musicals in high school, ‘Bring it On,’ The Sweeney Todd slasher story, and ‘Beauty and the Beast.’

“I was Gaston … Doing the school plays, it helped me overcome ‘stage fright.'”

Kaden was inspired by sports, as a kid, and he adopted the Philadelphia Phillies as his favorite MLB team, in large part because he played for a Lexington youth squad known as the Phillies. He pulls for the New York Giants, when autumn arrives, but he has a special affinity for the Los Angeles Lakers, with their colorful history, multiple eras of greatness and 17 NBA championships.

“I’d really like to be an NBA reporter someday,” KGD said.

Gaylord-Day had some sobering experiences, too, while growing up in Lexington. While in high school, he recalls that there were a “string of teenage deaths, due to gun violence” in his hometown, in 2017.

“It took a toll, on the city as a whole,” he said.

He also witnessed the death of high school basketball player Star Ifeacho, after a workout at Dunbar High School in April, 2017. Ifeacho “collapsed in the trainer’s room,” Gaylord-Day said, and died from a heart condition at the tender age of 15.

“After that, I became a lot more open to trying new things,” he said.

Gaylord-Day played baseball, through middle school, but really felt at home on the football field. It made no difference, that he was undersized, because he enjoyed the preparation that goes into football, the camaraderie with his teammates, and the opportunity to pursue a common goal. He was a defensive back for Lexington’s Dunbar High School.

Kaden brought the same enthusiasm when he enrolled at Western Kentucky University, too, working for multiple media outlets over the years, including the College Heights Herald, 91.7 FM ‘Red Zone Radio’ and the WKU sports TV sportscast ‘Extra Point.’

“I started as a journalism major and switched to broadcasting,” KGD said. “I learned how to write scripts, that sort of thing. Being multi-dimensional really helped me. My Mom always wanted me to focus on my education.”

Gaylord-Day started his TV news career at WBKO in the summer of 2022, and he was able to chronicle Bowling Green High School football’s back-to-back KHSAA Class 5A state championships, Warren Central’s amazing 2022-23 team that won the state title at Lexington’s famed Rupp Arena and the Purples’ runner-up finish in boys basketball earlier this year.

Most recently, KGD followed South Warren High School simultaneously sending its baseball and fast-pitch softball teams to the state tournament, at the University of Kentucky, and as his time at WBKO was winding down, he realized how much he was appreciated by his audience. One fan even made a collection of bow ties for him to wear on the air, as that’s his signature look when doing a sportscast.

“I really didn’t realize the impact we had until my last few months I was here,” Gaylord-Day said. “The parents and the athletic community here have been really supportive.”

One of his immediate goals, he admits, would be getting the opportunity for his maternal grandmother, 87-year-old Ruth Ann Gaylord, to watch him on television in his hometown of Lexington.

“That would mean so much to me,” KGD said. “Over the years, so many people have had my back … Whatever happens, I’m really going to miss it here.”

Suffice it to say that’ll be a two-way street.