WQXE's Greg Milby is not a normal morning show host

Greg Milby starts his day earlier than some — 3:30 a.m. to be exact.

Jill Pickett

Greg Milby and Hollie Sexton host the WQXE morning show recently at the station's studio in Elizabethtown.

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Jill Pickett

Greg Milby looks over to co-host Hollie Sexton as they converse about a topic recently during their morning show on WQXE in Elizabethtown.

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Early in the morning, Milby commutes from Corydon, Ind., to Elizabethtown to co-host the WQXE morning show “Greg and Hollie in the Morning.”

He’s been making the drive for 10 years but will move to Elizabethtown soon. It will give him more opportunities to serve in Hardin County and shortening the drive gives him more time with his wife, Jennifer, and their two sons.

Milby first became interested in radio in the fourth grade, when he met Dickie Braun of WAMZ in Louisville. At that point in his life, he knew he either wanted to be a firefighter or in radio.

“I’m scared of heights, so the firefighter thing went out the window pretty quick,” Milby said.

But radio is a tough job to get into. When people ask how to get a job in radio, he said the answer always is experience. When they ask how to get experience, the answer always is to have a job in radio.

Milby lucked out and went though a broadcast training school. After a week of training in Brandenburg, he was hired at a radio station there.

Later, he worked part time at popular country station in Louisville, and the day before his wedding, the station asked him to be on air full time in the mornings in a top 50 market.

He got tired of the “new wave of radio” that had less personality, less focus on serving the community and was corporate instead of family-owned stations. He soon got the call to come to Elizabethtown.

He loves radio in Elizabethtown and that his morning show is live instead of prerecorded. The team also has freedom to interview who they want and can get involved in the community.

He’s been doing the morning show with Hollie Sexton since 2003.
Milby doesn’t feel he fits the typical morning show host stereotype. People usually think of crazy party guys, he said.

“I’m a really boring person, believe it or not,” Milby said. “You’d think a morning radio guy would have more excitement.”

He realizes on-air personalities in some markets party late at night. He knows those people and did a little of that early on in his career with concerts and backstage access, but he hasn’t attended a concert in several years. He thinks the last one he went to was “Sesame Street Live.”

“How sad is that when the ‘Sesame Street Live’ world tour is the highlight of your year?” he said.

When he’s off the air, he’s not done for the day. There’s a business side to radio and Milby also does programming at the station.

He loves the 6-to-10 a.m. time on the radio because he can to communicate with community members, have fun and make a difference.

Milby describes the show as “Seinfeld” meets “Shrek.” He believes they have adult humor that is clean so kids can listen in.

“My kids listen, my preacher listens,” he said.

He works with KLUE at Morningside Elementary School and teaches children and teens at his church.

“If I’m going to teach them about integrity, I need to have some, too,” he said. “We are on the air who we are off the air.”

One of his greatest memories of the show is being embedded with the 3rd Sustainment Command from Fort Knox on a deployment to Haiti for 11 days and broadcasting from that location. The unit was doing relief work in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

“It is amazing how much it opened my eyes,” Milby said.

With no military experience, he was in the middle of a field eating MREs for 11 days and going out on missions. Broadcasting the morning show from such a location hadn’t really been done before and he had a lot of channels to go through to broadcast from the devastated country.

He developed close friendships with the soldiers, many of whom went on to Iraq. He came back with a new perspective and a renewed passion to do even more for the military through his work at WQXE.

Helping the military and others in the community is part of what Milby thinks the morning show is for. When he and Sexton were hired, they wanted to make sure the local morning show cared about the community and wasn’t just about playing music.

Milby also supports Relay for Life, Kosair Children’s Charities, Crusade for Children and the Duke Brigade memorial.

But it was a challenge to find a way he can get away from radio to spend time with his family. Radio always is around — if he’s not listening to his product, he’s hearing someone else’s product.

To get away from radio, the Milby family bought a camper and spends many weekends camping. They start camping when it’s warm enough and continue until it gets too cold. It’s a great opportunity to spend time with his wife and their 10- and 6-year-old boys.

“We’ve become camper addicts,” he said.

Becca Owsley can be reached at (270) 505-1741.

Getting to know Greg Milby:
Favorite Movie: “Forrest Gump”
Favorite TV shows: “Unwrapped,” “Pawn Stars,” “Dirty Jobs” and any college basketball game. His wife, Jennifer, played basketball in school and they watch games together.
Favorite team: University of Louisville
Favorite music: “I’m like a jukebox,” he said. Milby loves the variety format played at WQXE but also likes bluegrass and old school rap. John Conlee is his favorite artist, but he also likes Lady Antebellum and AC/DC.
Favorite book: The Bible and books by former Florida Sate University coach Bobby Bowden.
Advice: Enjoy life. “Laughter will cure anything and it’s a whole lot cheaper than an HMO.”
Favorite radio memory: Eleven days in Haiti.
Favorite foods: Nachos, fajitas and hot fudge cake. In case his trainer reads this, he added a protein shake and an apple to his list of favorites.

From the interview:
The News-Enterprise: What do you like about being in radio?
Milby: Getting up at 3:30 in the morning.
The News-Enterprise: Really?
Milby: No.