Great Scott
Guerry Clegg
Columbus Ledger- Enquirer
June 22, 2002
Miller Tells Columbus State fans to “Grab a lucky spot.”
Scott Miller's voice might best be described as vanilla. Bland? Heavens no. Rather, rich with flavor and void of additives. Smooth to the point of soothing. Pleasantly familiar. For more than two decades, Miller's voice has flowed over Columbus radio airwaves like a mountain spring. He has done a little of everything — morning disc jockey, hard news, sports talk, but his passion and his strength have always been play-by-play broadcasting of Columbus State basketball and baseball.
His listeners have long known his talent far exceeds his market size. For the most part, his audience has been small. But two weeks ago, when the Cougars journeyed to their first national championship in baseball. Miller found himself with an audience literally halfway around the world. Justin Demant's mother listened to every nail-biting pitch from Australia via the Internet. Miller confessed that his palms were sweating so much in the late innings of the championship game that he couldn't hold his pen. But, like the players themselves, Miller delivered his best performance in the clutch. “That was his place and his time," said Herbert Greene, CU's athletic director and one of Miller's closest friends. "And he rose to the occasion." We're at a little disadvantage here. For all the advances in newspapers, we still haven’t figured out how to get sound into print.
Miller grew up in Atlanta listening to Larry Munson doing Georgia football and Milo Hamilton and Skip Caray calling Atlanta Braves games. Their influences are evident in his style. His unabashed love of Columbus State — he once volunteered as the Cougars' part-time sports information director — is much like Munson's passion for the Bulldogs. While Munson implores the Dogs to hunker down, Miller asks fans to "grab yourself a lucky spot." The catch-phrase was born years ago out of some anxious moment in a basketball game, to the best of his memory. During the Cougars' World Series run this year, a woman called him and said she went out to her car and listened to the final innings of the game, because that's where she was the day before during a rally. "The greatest compliment anyone can pay me," he said, Is when they say, 'You made me feel like I was there.'
From Hamilton, he learned the value of being solid technically. From Caray, he realized the importance of well-placed humor. He modestly claims he's not their equal. But he will say — only with some prodding ---- that he's confident he could work in a large market as a big-league announcer. Calling Braves games alongside Caray is still a dream of mine." A dream but not a goal. Miller never has been given to wanderlust. At 47, he's more content than ever living in Columbus. It's here where he met his wife, the former Peggy Henson. He has found a love greater than broadcasting — coaching his daughter Lauren's softball teams. One of the few times he has struggled with his composure on the air was this past basketball season when Lauren sang the national anthem. She will start high school in August.
Being program director WDAK requires more paperwork and administrative duties than he'd like. But his morning show satisfies his love of being on the air. "I stop and realize," he said, "there are probably a lot of other people in this business who'd love to be on this level doing what I do.”