This year’s East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Manchester will honor longtime former News Journal Publisher Don Estep and local broadcasting icon Neil Middleton, who are among a group of Appalachian Kentucky leaders nominated by their peers.
Each year the East Kentucky Leadership Conference recognizes exceptional achievements and contributions by individuals and institutions across the region. This year the award ceremonies will take place on the evening of April 24 in the Manchester campus auditorium of Eastern Kentucky University.
Don Estep
Estep, who retired as News Journal Publisher at the end of 2024, will win the Media and Technology Award.
Estep has had a long career in both broadcasting and print journalism. He served as a student intern at WHAS-TV prior to his senior year at the University of Kentucky more than 60 years ago. In 1960, as a senior at UK he was asked to cover for legendary UK announcer Cawood Ledford who was stranded and couldn’t make it to the game. He jumped at the chance. That game was the only Ledford missed while broadcasting UK games.
He had the opportunity to be groomed to replace Claude Sullivan at Kincaid Broadcasting but made the decision to come back to Corbin and follow his beloved Corbin High School Redhounds. He was known as the voice of the Redhounds for 30 years. His last local broadcast was in 1991.
Estep began his career in newspapers in 1980 when Al Smith, who was the founder of Kentucky Education Television’s “Comment on Kentucky,” reached out to him after purchasing the Sentinel-Echo newspaper in London about becoming his advertising director. At the time, Smith was Director of the Appalachian Regional Commission in Washington, D.C.
Estep met with Smith and initially turned down the job offer.
Then Smith contacted him again a couple of weeks later.
“I had never worked at a weekly newspaper and I wasn’t sure about working at one. But Al convinced me that weekly newspapers were at the heart of journalism,” Estep wrote in a 2021 column where he recounted his start in community journalism.
In June 1987, Estep took over the helm of The Whitley Republican newspaper, which would later become the News Journal.
Estep manned the News Journal as publisher until he stepped down in 2015 and became publisher emeritus. He remained in that role until 2020, when his replacement as publisher decided to pursue other career prospects. Estep then stepped back into the role of publisher without taking any pay increase despite the additional duties that come with being an active publisher. His reason being he wanted the paper to continue to succeed despite the economic conditions that every newspaper was experiencing.
Throughout Estep’s tenure, the newspaper has won numerous awards through the Kentucky Press Association’s Excellence in Kentucky Newspaper Awards contest, including multiple General Excellence Awards for being the best large weekly newspaper in Kentucky.
In addition to Estep’s journalism career, he also found time to raise three daughters and do community service work.
Estep is a past president of the Corbin Lion’s Club, which gives out Christmas baskets with food and other items to less fortunate families in addition to other charitable work. During the 1970s and 1980s, Estep helped video the Corbin Lion’s Club Christmas Basket Appeal Auction, which was broadcast over the local cable access channel.
He has also served on the Greater Corbin Chamber of Commerce on multiple occasions. Knowing the importance of regional cooperation, Estep was one of the people in 2009, who helped spearhead a merger between the Corbin and Williamsburg chambers of commerce. This resulted in the creation of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Estep was one of the first board members of that group.
In addition, Estep served for several years on the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission, including being chairman of that group during a time when Corbin had no full-time tourism director. Estep helped lead efforts to improve tourism in the area.
Estep also previously served on the Cumberland College Board of Trustees and later the University of the Cumberlands’ Board of Trustees after the school changed its name.
He is also a member of the Corbin Redhound Varsity Club.
Neil Middleton
Middleton, a businessman and long-time broadcaster with WYMT-TV will receive the Tony Turner Award, which is a special honor for enduring efforts on behalf of the region.
Middleton started his career in broadcasting in his native Harlan working in several roles for two local radio stations. He spent 38 years in a variety of roles in management and news with WYMT-TV and its sister station in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Middleton then spent the last 12 years as vice-president and general manager of WYMT-TV in Hazard before retiring last year.
Last December he was named Forcht Broadcasting Radio and Digital President and CEO.
Other award winners
Other 2025 East Kentucky leadership awards will be presented to:
- QuintissaPeake of Fleming-Neon,a member of the Alumni Board of the University of Kentucky, who has also served as the state spokesperson for Sickle Cell Disease, will win the Carolyn Sunday Award. It is given to an East Kentuckian who has made an extraordinary contribution to understanding, inclusion, and social justice in the region.
- Bill Richardson, filmmaker, founder ofAppalshop, architect, and former Trustee of Berea College, will receive the Arts and Culture Award.
- Aaron Thompson, a Clay County native and President of the Council on Post-Secondary Education,will win the Public Individual Award.
- Vanda Rice, co-founder of the Stay in Clay-ProjectHope,will win the Private Individual Award.
- Jackson Walters from Bell County High will win the Youth Leadership Award.
- The Clay County Historical Society will win the Organization Award.
To attend this year’s April 24th and 25th East Kentucky Leadership Conference go to EKLF.org to register.
