Channel 36 is hiring an ex-Kentucky Wildcats athlete as its new sports anchor

Jeff Piecoro is coming back to Lexington television.

The former Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver and current color analyst on the UK football radio network said Wednesday he has accepted a job as the new sports director and sports anchor at WTVQ-TV.

Piecoro, who also formerly worked for WLEX-TV in Lexington as well as a long run as a pre- and post-game host on television broadcasts of Cincinnati Reds games, started his media career working at Channel 36 in 1985.

“I’m coming home,” Piecoro said Wednesday afternoon. “I’m very excited to be coming back to Channel 36. (Former Channel 36 sports director and current NBC Sports reporter) Kenny Rice hired me in my first job out of college at ‘TVQ. He’s kind of been my guide through all of this.”

Piecoro said he will start working at WTVQ on Monday, and make his first appearance on air next Wednesday.

Since signing on as WTVQ’s news director in March, former Lexington TV investigative reporter Miranda Combs has presided over a major revamping of the station’s on-air talent.

Elizabethtown native Paxton Boyd was hired to work on the news anchor desk with Erica Bivens. Channel 36 has brought veteran weatherman T.G. Shuck back to the Lexington market from Louisville. WTVQ also has a new noon news anchor team in the husband-wife duo of Doug and Lyssa High.

“Excited to announce Nationally-Known Kentucky Sportscaster JeffPiecoro has joined ABC 36 News as sports director!” Combs Tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Piecoro, who will turn 60 in October, will join a sports department that also includes anchors/reporters Chris Bolton and Sara Cardona.

A former football player at Tates Creek High School, Piecoro walked on to the UK football team under Fran Curci in 1980. As a senior in 1984, he earned a varsity letter for Jerry Claiborne’s 9-3, Hall of Fame Bowl championship team.

One big factor in his accepting the new position, Piecoro says, was that WTVQ will allow him to continue to work on the UK football radio network, as well as to call games for the SEC Network and its streaming service.

At Channel 36, Piecoro says he envisions enhancing its coverage of horse racing at Keeneland and Eastern Kentucky University and Morehead State athletics, in addition to providing UK coverage.

““I think people obviously know me primarily from UK,” Piecoro said. “But I’m a big believer that there are a lot of good stories available in the secondary markets, too.”