By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Once a Panther, always a Panther. Brant Daughty graduated from Perry High School in central Georgia in 2017. Nearly 1,200 miles later, he's the new sports director for Eagle Media and the program director for 1590 KVGB/95.5 FM. Along with some play-by-play duties for the upcoming high school sports season, Daughtry will replace Steve Webster as host of KVGB's Sports Day program.
"What Webby has done for the past several years has been really successful, and I don't want to mess with a really good thing," Daughtry said. "We're going to bring in some stuff that's a little more nationally focused, but at the same time, we understand the focus is hyper-local, and that's how we're going to stay."
After graduating from Perry High School, with an enrollment of nearly 1,600 students, Daughtry attended Middle Georgia State in Macon, Ga. until his graduation in 2021.
"The whole time, I was doing high school sports, calling football, basketball, baseball, softball, and pretty much anything they'd let me call with a local company called the Middle Georgia Sports Network."
After earning his degree, Daughtry moved deeper into SEC country to earn a master's degree at Auburn University in Alabama. He remained on the airwaves calling high school sports, and also co-hosted an award-winning, three-hour daily call-in show that focused on Auburn athletics.
"I'm looking forward to taking a lot of what I learned on that show to become the main host of Sports Day," he said. "I think that's going to help me a lot. I have a lot of experience in co-hosting and I'm looking forward to becoming the main host of a beloved show around here."
Sports Day will remain locally focused with weekly appearances from various Great Bend High School and Barton Community College coaches and athletes. Daughtry also wants to emphasize area programs with weekly appearances from other area coaches and athletes, and beyond.
"I want to go out and talk about the Chiefs and Royals, K-State and KU," he said. "They're super-exciting programs for a number of reasons. I feel like people around here would be really interested in hearing thoughts on that."
Along with his duties at the station, Daughtry will replace Cole Reif as "Voice of the Hoisington Cardinals" during the football season and "Voice of the Cougars" during the basketball season. He also plans to cover various area teams during the spring.
Sports Day airs daily, Monday through Friday, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on 1590 KVGB/95.5 FM. The show also streams live on the Eagle Communications YouTube channel.