When you look at a man whose livelihood creates a way to amplify his passion – you’re looking at a lucky man. Paul Slatton’s 64 years in broadcasting satisfied his enthusiasm for radio. And it was radio that allowed him to communicate what was most important in his life; his faith. For using broadcasting to bring his spirituality to a community and for never straying from his sacred purpose which touched so many lives, the Alabama Broadcasters Association inducts Paul Slatton into the Hall of Fame.

“He would be honored and humbled,” says Chuck Bradford, current owner and general manager of WBTG, about the ABA induction. “ But I think he would want to deflect the attention to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s all he ever wanted to do. I feel like he would certainly appreciate the attention, but he’d be quick to give glory to the Lord.”

Broadcasting was a part of Slatton’s life from the very start according to his son, Victor Slatton.

“His family was in broadcasting before him, so it sort of seems like it was in the blood,” says Slatton.  “Right after high school he went to engineering school and then he started his broadcasting career as a DJ.”

“That’s what he had always done, his whole adult career life, he was in broadcasting. But one thing that most anybody that knows him is that he was a Christian.”

“From the beginning, the station, WBTG, had a gospel format. And then he had a secondary sister station, WBTG-AM, that was contemporary Christian and then Christian talk,” explains Bradford. “Eventually he branded it ‘memory music’, but even on that station, he would still have little, short segments where he would drop in a little gospel”.

Bradford knew Slatton as well as just about anyone since he started working for him at a young age.

“I was 19 when I first started working. I’ve kidded before that I thought a ‘fader’ at that time was a haircut!” laughs Bradford. “But he gave people like me a shot. He seemed to have confidence in me and that gave me confidence in myself that I could do the job. And he did that for no telling how many other young up and coming DJs.”

Although his faith came first, Slatton knew broadcasting.

“There’s lots of things about radio. You’ve definitely got to keep it on air”, says his son. “He was an engineer and other engineers seemed to kind of be blown away at the things he did. He would just sometimes in his mind decide to do something and then he would build it.”

“Some of those things he just put together are still around and Kevin Kidd, an engineer  who still works with the equipment, shakes his head like, if that ever don’t work, you know, there’s nobody that can fix that!”

Although Slatton was old school, the younger Slatton says he did well to keep up with the changes.

“You know you’ve got to keep your nose in the game, sniffing for what’s working and keep changing if you need to”, he says.  “He always kept up with technology, and people in their 80s, they’re not usually like that. But he was on his iPhone and into new apps. He knew it benefitted him.”

 

“He continued to work until he was 84 – he died of Covid in 2021,” says Bradford.  “But I know during that whole time, even up until just a few weeks before his death, he was still working every day. He was still doing voice tracks for his memory music station and still running everything.” 

“He’s missed,” says Slatton.  “Of course, we miss him and I know that there are thousands of people that miss him. It’s real honor that the ABA has honored him. He would have loved that. Yes. He would have loved that.”