Featured Alum: Matt Miller

Matt Miller graduated from the what was then known as the Broadcasting Division in  1990.  He has been working his way up in the TV news business and is now News Director for WMBF News, an NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“I run the news department. Hiring and firing staff. Schedules. Budgets. Plan special coverage for the sweeps periods. All long range planning on news content,” says Matt.

Being a student here in the late 1980s, Matt remembers when Dr. Manfred Wolfram arrived as head of the Division.  Matt was honored at the first annual Frederic W. Ziv Awards Dinner as recipient of the Rosemary Hanlon Scholarship in recognition of his abilities in the performing arts.  

He says he got the award because of his work in community theatre. While Matt was studying in Cincinnati he performed with the Cincinnati Young People’s Theatre (CYPT), a summer teen theater program.  

During his years at UC, Matt worked at Forest Park Time Warner Cable and at WKRC Channel 12 as a production assistant. After graduating then he landed a job as a production assistant at WMAZ in Macon, Georgia.

While at WMAZ from 1990-1994, he worked as a production assistant, moved up to master control, news photographer and then he filled in for sports anchors. Soon he was the weekend sports anchor.

When WLWT Channel 5 had an opening for a sports producer he decided it was time to move back to Cincinnati. Matt married his high school girlfriend Julia, whom he met at CYPT. They now have three children, Quinten, Gillian and Cameron.

In 2000, he moved back to Macon, GA as WGXA-TV’s Anchor/News Director.

He stayed there for five years then moved back to Cincinnati as the Assistant News Director for WCPO Channel 9.

Professor Marjorie Fox said “Matt was a wonderful resource for our students during his years as Channel 9's Assistant News Director. He took our students on tours through Channel 9 and gave excellent presentations in our media ethics class on the issues he and his news colleagues face.”

While he was back in Cincinnati, he thought he might as well audition for the company that let him perform all those years ago. Although Cincinnati Young Peoples Theater wasn’t for his age, he won a role in the company’s mainstage production of 1776.

In 2008, he got, what he called “the chance of a lifetime” to become the news director of a newly created NBC station (WMBF). With the success of the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC created new stations with the money they profited from the coverage of the games. He helped build all of the staff and the news plan.

And the interest in musical theater continues. Matt just finished playing the male lead in the musical Mame at the Theatre of the Republic in Conway, SC.

Written by Joe Witterstaetter, April 2009.   Joe met Matt several years ago at the CYPT.