W’burg native moving up to WKYT evening anchor

One of Williamsburg’s favorite sons is moving up in the television news business.

Longtime anchor Bill Bryant has been named to succeed Sam Dick on WKYT’s award-winning evening anchor team.

“This is a tremendous honor. I grew up watching WKYT and walked through the door here and went to work when I was 21 and I’ve really never looked back,” Bryant said during the June 17 announcement on WKYT.

“I’ve covered about everything and worked every shift over the years and they’ve all been fun and challenging in their own way. I’m well aware that not everybody gets the chance to do what they always wanted to do in their home state, and I’m grateful that the opportunities have kept coming including this one.”

Dick announced on May 25 that he planned to retire after 34 years at the helm of WKYT’s evening newscast.

In December, Bryant will join the evening anchor team of Amber Philpot, Chris Bailey and Brian Milam.

“As with many of our viewers, I have admired and respected Bill’s work at WKYT over the years,” said WKYT Vice President and General Manager Jeff Anderson. “He’s a privilege to work with each day, and by adding him to our evening team, we know our success will continue to be in good hands.”

Bryant attended Cumberland College, which is now the University of the Cumberlands, from 1981-1983, and Eastern Kentucky University from 1983-1985 where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and political science.

In 2000, Eastern Kentucky University named Bryant as a “distinguished Alumni.”

Bryant got his start in broadcasting on hometown radio station WEZJ and TV-3, a cable news channel in Williamsburg, where from April 1978 – August 1983, he oversaw and executed local newsgathering, was an anchor on the hour-long “Live Wire” newscast in the morning, and was an announcer on various other live and pre-recorded programs.

Bryant was then an announcer/news anchor on WEKC radio in Williamsburg until August 1984 when he went to WKYT as an intern and never left.

Since 2006, he’s anchored WKYT’s weekday morning newscasts in addition to newscasts at 10 a.m. and noon.

Bryant also hosts the state’s longest running weekly public affairs program, “Kentucky Newsmakers,” and was named host of Kentucky Education Television’s “Comment on Kentucky” in 2015.