In most small towns, like Arab, Alabama, you can find this guy; he’s always been there, he has no desire to go anywhere else, you can always count on him, everybody knows him … he’s a fixture of the community. In fact, because of him, according to long-time residents, you don’t need a watch in Arab. Just keep the radio on and you’ll know what time it is based on what you hear him doing. In a world of uncertainty and constant change a guy who has used broadcasting to bring continuity to his part of the world since 1974 deserves as much recognition as we can give. And that is why the ABA is inducting Archie Anderson into the Alabama Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

“This has been weird,” says Anderson. “Two weeks ago I got put in the Marshall County Sports Hall of Fame and I did not understand that because all I ever did was practice two weeks on a peewee football team. And that award made me just a nervous wreck. Then I found out about this … I tell everybody I guess I’m going to die next year because I don’t know that there’s anything left!”

One of the first things you want to clarify when it comes to Anderson’s career is if he has really worked at WRAB for forty years.  “Yes, I have,” he says. “I started here like I say right out of high school. I worked at the campus station at Gadsden while in school, but other than that, I haven’t worked anywhere else. I never would’ve dreamed it.”

“Actually it was all kind of happenstance. Mike Bishop, a close high school friend, was interested in broadcasting and wanted to visit the station one day.  I went along with him. Mike got a job and I started hanging out and began to do tidbits here and there just for fun,” explains Anderson. “Mike went to Auburn in 1974 and the station needed someone and it just sort of fell in my lap. I heard about Gadsden State – they have a broadcasting program –so I got my associate degree and next thing you know, I’m working full-time at the station.”

Anderson’s personal interest in sports helped him crossover to doing sports on air, too.
“Yeah, that was back when I went to as many games as I could. I started keeping stats and doing reports on the games. I would interview the coach and get his comments and it continued to grow.”

Not only did Anderson do football, his coverage started to include both men’s and women’s basketball. “I was never really fond of basketball, but it moved quickly and you didn’t have to know as much,” he laughs. “In football, there’s so much down time. You have lots of chances to show how stupid you are!”

Unlike so many broadcasters who are always looking for ways to advance, Anderson has never been about the next big thing, and he’s content with that. “I think I just got up every morning knowing what I’m going to do. I really didn’t think about doing something else,” he says. “You know in a small town there’s not necessarily any big moments per se, although things are changing. I can remember going to city commission meetings and they’d call roll and then adjourn, but now there always seems to be some kind of debate about something.”

“It does concern me – and it concerns the newspaper editor next door – that we can cover something for six months and then hear people say they didn’t know anything about it. Everybody’s got their phones, or they listen to bigger city radio stations and half the time they don’t know what’s going on in their own community. Sometimes I think I’m not doing enough to show the big picture. That’s discouraging.”

Even so, Anderson still enjoys his work in radio and wouldn’t change a thing. “I don’t drive a Lexus or anything like that,” laughs Anderson. “I don’t know how long I’ll be doing this but I just enjoy being in the middle of everything. And I wouldn’t tell anybody this, but golly-bum, there have been some times when you wouldn’t have had to pay me for this job!”