Franklin-native Mike Keith, the reigning Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year, begins his 14th year as the “Voice of the Titans” in 2012.
The NFL’s second-youngest play-by-play announcer was actually the first ever associated with Tennessee’s NFL team. In 1996, while the team was in Houston, Keith hosted a pre-game show for Tennessee stations who carried the Oilers games. The Franklin-native served as the network’s scoreboard host in 1997 before moving into the booth as color analyst in 1998 and then assuming the play-by-play duties in 1999.
In addition to his play-by-play duties, Keith hosts Titans Tonight, Tuesday night at 6pm central on Titans Radio. He also contributes many of the interviews and features for Titans Countdown, the network’s pregame show.
Keith also hosts the weekly television show, Titans All Access, on television stations across the region every weekend.
On May 26, 1998, Keith joined the Titans full-time as Director of Broadcasting. He came to the Titans after becoming one of Tennessee’s most honored sportscasters while working in Knoxville for WIVK/WNOX Radio and the Vol Radio Network. From 1989-98, the AP State broadcasters five times named Keith’s play-by-play work and his daily sports talk show as the best in Tennessee. Among his other awards, Keith won a 1997 RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for nationwide excellence in sports reporting.
From 1987-98, Keith was a Vol Radio Network stalwart, working with Vol football, basketball, baseball and Lady Vol basketball broadcasts and coaches’ shows on radio and television.
In 1999, Keith joined former University of Tennessee quarterback Pat Ryan and Titans Radio executive producer Larry Stone as the Titans’ broadcast team that called Tennessee’s Super Bowl run. That run included the now-famous “Miracle Play,” a special teams touchdown that give the Titans a wild card playoff round win over Buffalo. Keith and Ryan’s description of the play has been featured on numerous national programs.
Four straight times, the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters has named Keith Tennessee’s Sportscaster of the Year. Keith received the away from his peers eight of the past ten years, including this past May at its annual convention in Salisbury, NC.
Keith, a nine-time Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year winner, is a member of both the University of Tennessee Baseball Hall of Fame and the Battle Ground Academy Hall of Fame.