On the air from the Holmes County Fair: New to WKLM radio is Jake Sidle
MILLERSBURG − For Triway High School graduate Jake Sidle, the opportunity to broadcast the Titans softball state championship victory over the airwaves for Holmes County radio station WKLM, it was one of the more memorable moments in his budding broadcasting career.
Sidle earned his diploma in 2016, then attended Bowling Green State University where he discovered his passion for being a sports announcer. Before graduating, he landed a radio job at a country music station in Jamestown, North Dakota, where he worked for almost a year before getting an opportunity to return to his roots.
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His fiance is from Medina and he is from the Shreve area. They were both a little homesick after a tough winter out west and were glad to return to his hometown.
"I thought I could deal with the snow and cold, having grown up here in Ohio, but the snow was a lot worse in North Dakota," he said. "And it's cold."
Sidle said it was easy coming home to WKLM, because he knew the current hits format music much more than he did country. He also got to call a couple of state championship football games while in Jamestown.
"It was really neat calling a game in the Fargo Dome, the home of the storied North Dakota State football program," he said. "But calling the Triway state championship game even surpassed that. We were always so good in so many sports when I was in high school, but we could never get over that hump. To be an alumni and getting to call the second state championship in Triway history was really something special for me."
Jake Sidle uses his 'sports knowledge and nonstop talking' to the fullest
Sidle said it is nice to rekindle the connections of family and friends back in Wayne and Holmes counties.
"A lot of the people I went to college with are settling down in this area now, so it's a reunion of sorts," he said. "My fiance is getting used to this area. She grew up in Medina and went to school at BG, so she was used to the cornfields," though Sidle figures she's still adjusting to life in the rural Holmes and Wayne area.
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He originally wanted to be a meteorologist, but realized he didn't have the right mindset for the science and math involved.
"I realized I was pretty good at explaining sports to people who don't really know a lot about sports, and I always wanted to do some sort of work in media," Sidle said. "That's when I thought I might be able to be a play-by-play broadcaster and work in radio. That way I could take advantage of my sports knowledge and nonstop talking."
Sidle has worked well with WKLM Sports Director Matt Croy, and is feeling more and more comfortable calling games on the radio.
"I got to call some important games throughout the regular season and post season this past spring," he said. "I got to call some West Holmes, Hiland and Triway games, and I got to call the Waynedale state championship game. That was quite an honor as well."
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Another Triway alum, Melissa Patrick, is also an on-air personality for WKLM. She graduated from Triway in 2003, but entered the workforce doing different jobs before landing a job behind the mic at WKLM nearly four years ago.
"People who know me now don't believe I used to be shy, quiet and introverted," she said. "It's getting easier. I'm much more relaxed this year. I'm a talker. I just have to let my natural talk come out."
Patrick points out that the WKLM radio staff had a busy week at the fair, broadcasting results and airing live reports throughout the week.
Sidle said he has enjoyed his first experience on-air from the fair. It is only the second time he's been to the new fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge.
"It's been pretty cool to see the amount of people out here at the fair and how excited the kids are out here," Sidle said. "I showed animals at the Wayne County Fair, and I love the Wayne County Fair, but there's something about these Holmes County kids that are a little different."
Reach Kevin at 234-249-5294 or klynch@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: WKLM personalities broadcast live from the Holmes County Fair
