September 8, 1979 was a Saturday, and a busy one for me. It was moving day; I was moving from Montgomery to an apartment off Valley Avenue in Birmingham, in preparation for a new job. Lots of emotions; sad over leaving Montgomery, where life was simple and easy, excitement about working as a lead weather anchor at the NBC affiliate at the largest city in Alabama, and fear knowing I was really not qualified for the job. You see, I was 23 years old, with a formal education background mostly in electrical engineering. But, I had a real passion for weather. And, a child of the 70s, one of the wildest weather decades in American history. The good news was that my first week was a time of learning the system and meeting my new colleagues. My first night to be on the air was scheduled for Monday, September 17.
Turns out I would be on the air sooner than expected.
Reporting to work that first day, Monday September 10, I went to WAPI-TV (Channel 13) News Director Wendell Harris to let him know it was my opinion that the storm in the Gulf, Hurricane Frederic, sure looked like a big deal for the Alabama coast. Without hesitation, Wendell sent me and photographer Dwayne Syltie to cover the arrival of the big storm early Wednesday morning, September 12. We arrived by mid-day, and by nightfall it was clear that the hurricane was coming right up Mobile Bay. There were no satellite trucks in 1979, so our live reports on Channel 13 were done via telephone; I reported from an evacuation center in Mobile County during the 10:00 news, within an hour or two of landfall. I was amazed the phone lines still were in working order. We stayed up all night, and at the first light of day shot several hours of video. Then, we drove that video all the way back to Birmingham so it could be on the early evening newscast on September 13. The next day, I went back to the coast, this time in a helicopter, the first TV chopper news mission in Birmingham.
Talk about a wild way to begin a career. I have seen so much over the last 30 years covering Alabama weather, but that first week in September 1979 will always be the one I really remember with awe and wonder.
