Ronald Reagan was wrapping up his first term as President, George Wallace was Alabama’s governor once again, the stock market closed at 1,115.28, and Apple Computer was about to introduce the Macintosh 512K, complete with an 8 MHz 68000 processor, and 512 kB of RAM for $3,200.

That was 25 years ago, August 1, 1984, the date I started at WALA-TV.

At the time, our studios were at 210 Government Street in Mobile, across the street from the old Giddens and Rester Theater and the Greyhound station, where Mobile’s Government Plaza now stands.  Based on today’s standards, the setup was primitive. I used an IBM Selectric typewriter instead of a computer to write stories on forms that included carbon paper to make multiple copies. Reporters banged out stories on manual typewriters with huge type fonts. There were two noisy teletype machines, constantly tapping out news from the Associated Press and United Press International. You learned to listen for the bells that would sound when urgent news came down the wire. “Urgents” merited only a few bells, a “Bulletin” a few more.  A big, world shaking story called a “Flash”, would set the bells clanging for a long time.  Combine that with the sound of multiple police radios and telephones and the smell of cigarette smoke, it wasn’t the most pleasant environment, especially when the old plumbing backed up and the toilets overflowed. So much for the glamourous world of television!

News stories were still being shot on three-quarter inch tape.  It was a bulky, fragile format that allowed you to record only 20 minutes on a cassette.  The cameras of the day, including the RCA TK-76 with its cast iron case that could probably also be used to drive nails, still required a crew to carry, set up and use extra lights to produce acceptable video indoors.  Wireless microphones were still a dream.

The news studio, at the other end of the building, was air conditioned to the point of refrigeration, all in an effort to reduce the heat generated by the powerful studio lights. The teleprompter we used was a combination conveyor-belt and camera contraption that required the pages of a script to be taped together and manually run by an operator.  Occasionally, during a heavy rain, the ceiling would leak; you quickly learned not to touch the metal frame of the teleprompter and the ancient lighting board, seemingly left over from the days of silent movies unless you wanted a perm.

The old building was an incredibly inefficient design.  Tapes were edited on the second floor above the newsroom.  When a story was finished (often at the last minute), the story tape would have to be physically run down the stairs, across the building, around a corner, up a spiral staircase and shoved into a playback machine.  If you have ever seen the movie, “Broadcast News”, you have a good idea of what the process looked like.

In 1984, I solo anchored two half hour newscasts a day, at 6 and 10 p.m.  Eventually, I was joined by co-anchors, starting with Nancy Pierce and followed by Deiah Riley/Foster, Anissa Centers and Lenise Ligon.

In those twenty five years, I was lucky enough to travel on the station’s dime to New York, Washington, Rome, Paris, Madrid and Kuwait City.  I met many people along the way, including a Pope and some Presidents.  I’ve also anchored more than 12,000 newscasts and more hours of hurricane coverage than I care to remember.

The past 25 years have also given me the chance to promote educational excellence by serving as the master of ceremonies for the HiQ academic quiz program first sponsored by Scott Paper Company.  It has allowed me to appear in person before tens of thousands of young people, and to meet hundreds of outstanding scholars.  Outside of the usual greeting, “I’ve seen you on TV”, the next most common greeting I receive is, “I remember when you came to my school for HiQ”.

15 years ago, I started producing a weekly series which started as FBI Files and grew to be known as Fugitive Files. More than 400 fugitives have been arrested as a direct result of a program that offered no other incentive other than making neighborhoods safer.

It has also been a wonderful time watching my daughters grow up, go to college and get married. I did not want to periodically uproot my family and become a broadcast nomad, having seen the effect on marriages and families.  My wife Marie deserves an enormous amount of credit for being there to assist with homework, provide carpooling and navigate those early morning rides to school.  She was always there when the girls came home from school and I know they were better off because of it.

The way we bring you the news has changed radically, especially in the past few years with the internet expanding our reach, challenges and possibilities.  The bottom line, though still comes down to good storytelling. And to borrow a line from the late Walter Cronkite, that’s the way it is.

I was fortunate enough to meet and actually interview Walter Cronkite in the late 1970s.  My co-anchor Glenda Webb and I traveled to New York City to record promotions for the CBS Evening News (as if he needed promotion!), and for our program.

We arrived at his studio on West 57th Street and were warned by a member of his staff that he wasn’t in the best of moods, because of chronic back pain.  To his credit, we could never tell.  He was charming, helpful and above all, professional.  You could tell by the way everyone acted in the studio that he was “Mr. Cronkite”.  He commanded respect and he got it.

After the promotional shoot was over, I had the chance to interview him about current trends in local news.  He wasn’t fond of many of them.  Even at that time, he thought stations spent too little time covering the local school board or city hall because they were “dull”.  He had particular distain for news consultants, whom he felt were ruining local news by depending too heavily on market research rather than the judgment of people who had roots in their community, and whose job it was to gather the news on a day-by-day basis.

If you look back at some of his old newscasts and judge them by contemporary standards, they do look old fashioned.  He favored content over form; there were no flashy graphics or quick sound bites.  His writing was tight and focused, and he demanded the same from his correspondents and reporters.   With the exception of Charles Kuralt’s weekly features from around the country, his newscasts were focused on hard news that occurred in the Washington to New York corridor.

He had the luxury of working in a television universe that involved only 2 other competitors, NBC and to a much lesser extent, ABC.  Families would gather around their television sets and watch, really watch the network evening news.   And when they did sit down, they watched Walter Cronkite more than anyone else.

So my Friday started off with a bang… literally.  I was live from Pensacola Beach for the Blue Angels dress rehearsal.

Sure, I was warned about how loud the jets were.  But clearly I didn’t completely grasp how “loud” they would actually be.  I quickly realized when I felt my entire body shake each time the jets came whizzing by, seemingly at warp speeds. I’m talking a shake that went right down to the core; my lungs were vibrating!  It was my first time seeing the Blue Angels perform and even if it was just the dress rehearsal, this was an experience I’ll not soon forget.

Saturday was also pretty cool, and another day for firsts.  My family and I spent much of the day at Waterville USA in Gulf Shores.  My husband’s company rented out the park for its employees. I’d never been to the water park before.  I was psyched about going, that is until I realized I needed a new bathing suit.  It took four trips to four different stores before I finally found something to wear.  But that’s an entirely different blog

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am truly a kid at heart.  And I must say the park was so much fun!

Perhaps the best part was seeing my son Sidney trying to swim for the first time.  He had a bit of false sense of security because he was wearing a life jacket.  But each time he dove into the wave pool, mind you with three-foot waves coming at him, he would just laugh and laugh.  He would even laugh when his head would dip into the water because he couldn’t quite figure out how to balance his body.

We left the park with less of a farmer’s tan and not being able to wait until the next trip back.

When folks outside Alabama hear about our state, they often think about names like George Wallace or Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Conner.

Maybe, just maybe, when they think about Alabama now, they will think instead about people like Dr. Regina Benjamin.

The country doctor from Bayou La Batre won unanimous approval from the Governor, our Senators and Representatives, not to mention her patients when President Obama nominated her to become the nation’s Surgeon General.

Just read the summary of her career from the MacArthur Foundation, which awarded her $500,000 in one of its “Genius” grants:

Regina Benjamin is a rural family physician forging an inspiring model of compassionate and effective medical care in one of the most underserved regions of the United States. In 1990, she founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic to serve the Gulf Coast fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a village of approximately 2,500 residents devastated twice in the past decade by Hurricanes Georges, in 1998, and Katrina, in 2005. Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites. She has established a family practice that allows her to treat all incoming patients, many of whom are uninsured, and frequently travels by pickup truck to care for the most isolated and immobile in her region. Benjamin is skilled, as well, in translating research on preventive health measures into accessible, community-based interventions to decrease the disease burdens of her diverse patient base, which includes immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, who comprise a third of Bayou La Batre’s population. A committed local physician, she also plays key roles statewide and nationally, helping others establish clinics in remote areas of the country and serving in leadership positions in such health-related organizations as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians. With a deep, firsthand knowledge of the pressing needs and health disparities afflicting rural, high-poverty communities, Benjamin is ensuring that the most vulnerable among us have access to high-quality care.

Regina Benjamin received a B.S. (1979) from Xavier University of Louisiana, attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982, and received an M.D. (1984) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; she also holds an M.B.A. (1991) from Tulane University. She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia (1987). The CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic since its founding in 1990, Benjamin has also served as the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine and as president of the State of Alabama Medical Association (2002-2003).

Dr. Benjamin represents the Alabama of today.  I hope those inside and outside of the state think of her when they think of Alabama.

Temperatures for rodeo weekend are usually very warm. However , strong thunderstorms can develop on rodeo weekend.

 In 1997 Hurricane Danny suspended the rodeo. Once the coast guard left the island, the rodeo officials pushed the date back to September.

Severe Thunderstorms in 2000 brought waterspouts, lightning strikes, and extremely rough seas. A number of boats were badly damaged.

The tent at the rodeo site blew down in a severe thunderstorm with winds over 40 mph in 2001. People at the rodeo site had to seek shelter in the cinderblock building on Saturday evening.

Lightning

Lightning is the leading cause of weather related deaths in the United States. More deaths are attributed to lightning than tornadoes, floods, or hurricanes. July is the leading month in the number of lightning strikes reported. Water related activities result in the second leading number of lighting strike incidents that are reported each year.

Lightning strikes the tallest object, so boats are very vulnerable in the open water.  When thunderstorms are present, small boats should return to port immediately. Larger boats in the Gulf should try to avoid intense storms. If the storm is unavoidable, the safest place to go is down to the cabin or state room below.

Hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend!

The highlight for my family was our outing to Hank Aaron Stadium, to enjoy some hot dogs, baseball and fireworks with a group of friends. It was the perfect way to celebrate an All-American holiday.

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It has also been a tradition for us to watch the Fourth of July spectacular from the Hatch Shell along the Charles River, featuring the Boston Pops.  A&E used to do a tremendous job with the broadcast, and it just hasn’t been the same since it moved to CBS.  Its broadcast begins with, what is actually, the end of the live performance—the last few measures of the 1812 Overture.  It’s just not the same.