Lemond living his dream at Kentucky Sports Radio

Taylor Doherty

Ryan Lemond always had a passion for the TV world, using persistence and his passion for sports to get his foot in the door.

Although Lemond pursued TV, he wound up hosting a radio show on Kentucky Sports Radio with Matt Jones. Their radio show is the number one streaming show in the country. Lemond said he has been blessed and loves his job at KSR, but it has not always been an easy road.

“It’s tough. It is just tough. There are 50,000 people just like you that want that job at Channel 18,” Lemond said.

When Lemond got the job at WLEX 18, news director Chris McDaniels told him that he had received 225 resume tapes in a week. Lemond said he got lucky because he was in the right place at the right time.

Lemond emphasized how important it is for a journalist to broaden their scope of what they do. Learning how to write is key and is something that Lemond continues to practice every day, even for his radio show.

“It has to be quick. Boom, boom, boom. In and out. Go to the next story,” Lemond said.

Lemond said he is grateful for the writing he did at Kentucky Wesleyan College because it has helped his career today.

Even though Lemond started in TV, his dream was to be a professional baseball player. Lemond was always involved in sports growing up, due in large part to his father Gary, who coached high school basketball in Indiana for more than 20 years, occasionally coaching baseball and track as well.

“There was no doubt in my mind. I was going to be playing in the World Series,” Lemond said.

Lemond’s baseball career did not work out, but he found a different love while in college ­— working at the campus radio station. Lemond took broadcast and journalism classes from then on out, and developed a passion for it.

Lemond realized that this kind of career was one that he could have while staying close to the world he grew up in.

Lemond worked in Evansville in TV for six years and was the weekend sports reporter. He said he does not know how he survived because he was not making much money. He loved what he was doing and thought that was more important to him than the money.

Great things were headed in Lemond’s direction when he got his big break at WLEX 18 in Lexington January 1996. He was the main sports reporter during a glory run for UK athletics, highlighted by the men’s basketball program’s championships under head coach Rick Pitino in 1996 and Tubby Smith in 1998.

Lemond was the main sports reporter at WLEX for 12 years and loved it, but there was one stretch where he worked 47 days in a row. It was a tiresome job, and he knew that if he wanted to be a dad he could not be the one he wanted to be with such a time-consuming career.

Now Lemond is a real estate agent, but still makes time for his passion.