Fred Kalil, BA’04, became an Atlanta icon over the course of the 31 years he spent as a sports broadcaster in the nation’s 10th-largest market, thanks to his affable personality and encyclopedic sports knowledge.
An Indiana native, Kalil began his sports broadcast career reporting on basketball games for WNDU radio in South Bend, Indiana. He walked onto the football team at IU, playing for two seasons in 1977 and 1978. He left the team when he landed a job hosting the weekly football show “Big Red Football.” His coach Lee Corso was supportive of his decision and encouraged him to keep reporting.
While at IU, he also worked on local radio station WTTS hosting sportscasts, and was later hired to be the color analyst on IU football telecasts originated by WTTV, broadcast throughout the Midwest. He later worked as the weekend sports anchor at WTTV in 1980 and 1981.
At the age of 22, he became a sports reporter in Huntington, West Virginia, later working at stations in Cincinnati and Phoenix. In 1989, Kalil moved to WISH-TV in Indianapolis, where his work as a sports broadcaster attracted the attention of news directors across the country.
In 1992 he became the sports director of the NBC affiliate WXIA-TV 11Alive News in Atlanta. He reported on every major sporting event in the region, including leading the coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He also pioneered, in the Atlanta market, coverage of multiple Friday night high school football games at once, now a staple of local television news departments nationwide.
After spending 23 years at 11Alive, Kalil was named the sports director at CBS46, the Atlanta CBS affiliate, in 2015. His command of the beat, his respect for the fans, and his love of amateur and professional athletics resonated on-air as one of the city’s and the nation’s best sports journalists.
Kalil has won 14 Southeast Emmys for Best Sportscaster during his 31 years in Atlanta and was named Georgia Sportscaster of the Year four times. He was inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame in 2017.
Kalil retired in April 2023 after a 44-year career in sports broadcasting.
He now resides in Arizona with his wife Carla.