{"id":18434,"date":"2018-08-11T04:23:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-11T10:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=18434"},"modified":"2018-08-11T04:23:17","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T10:23:17","slug":"bob-grip-2018-aba-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/bob-grip-2018-aba-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Grip – 2018 ABA Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bob Grip – 2018 ABA Hall of Fame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Junior High School guidance counselors across the country should be applauded for all they do to help shape the lives of our young people. Except for a certain counselor in Bristol, Connecticut who got it all wrong. It was in the late 1960\u2019s and a student with dreams of a broadcasting career was shocked to hear his advisor say, \u201cDon\u2019t do that. Do something normal.\u201d \u00a0Thankfully, \u201cnormal\u201d was something that this young student was trying his best to avoid. \u00a0He more than succeeded, and it is with great pleasure that the ABA inducts Bob Grip, one of Alabama\u2019s most illustrious broadcasters, into its Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, from an early age, my mother thought I was going to be a weathercaster,\u201d says Grip. \u201cShe found me one day when I was around three \u2013 I had crawled up onto the top of the couch and proceeded to draw a weather map on the wall \u2026 a newly- wallpapered wall, I might add,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

It was in 1969 that Grip got the validation he was looking for. \u00a0\u201cI was one of the winners of the VFW\u2019s Voice of Democracy contest and we all had to go to the radio station to record our essay. After I did it in one take, the engineer came out to me and said, \u2018Have you ever thought about a career in broadcasting,\u2019\u201d Grip says. \u201cYou never know what just a little bit of encouragement can do for someone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Within a short time, Grip got his \u201cbig break\u201d. He was hired on at WBIS in Bristol. \u201cI was on from Sunday sign-on to sign-off \u2026 the job nobody else wanted,\u201d Grip chuckles. \u201cBut I was delighted to do that for $2.50 an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me a world of experience to do the news, to spin records, to listen to foreign language shows that I didn\u2019t understand. I was happy to start at the bottom because I figured I had to pay my dues, plus it was a great place to make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

After succeeding in his radio career, Grip moved into television, eventually taking the news anchor position at WALA FOX 10 in 1984. The job has given him the out-of-the-ordinary life for which he hoped by providing opportunities for untold experiences. One of his most treasured memories is of meeting John Paul II.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got the idea of shooting a documentary with a local Catholic archbishop who was going to Rome to basically make a \u2018status report\u2019 at the Vatican,\u201d explains Grip. \u201cHe got it all worked out and we got to be in a receiving line where the Pope was going around pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tried to think what I could do to get his attention and I figured he knew Slavic \u2013 the language of my grandparents \u2013 so when he took my hand, I gave him a traditional greeting. Sure enough, he stopped, looked at me and started talking! It was one of those moments where the world just sort of stops for a second.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broadcasting has also given Grip a way to serve his community, especially with Fugitive Files<\/i><\/em>, a weekly series that features cases where the criminals are still at large. \u201cThe series has led to 714 arrests,\u201d says Grip. \u201cPeople often just turn themselves in when they see themselves on TV. One time I was doing a stand up in front of a house \u2026 I didn\u2019t even know the guy they were looking for was asleep on the porch \u2026 and he turned himself in before the package even aired!\u201d Grip says people often associate him with the series when they see him in public. \u201cYeah, people will say, \u2018I didn\u2019t do anything, Bob,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

After 33 years at FOX10, Grip plans to retire in January 2019. \u201cBut I don\u2019t plan to sort of fade to black,\u201d he smiles. \u201cI want to remain active, maybe pitching in as anchor say in Montgomery or Birmingham should a station find themselves in a pinch. I plan to continue to teach at Spring Hill College. And I\u2019m interested in voice work – I have a studio right here in my office.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it is on his office desk that you\u2019ll find an old three inch reel-to-reel tape that was used to record Grip\u2019s Voice of Democracy essay, and that continues to symbolize a time in his life when \u00a0he didn\u2019t know the broadcasting career of his dreams would come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior High School guidance counselors across the country should be applauded for all they do to help shape the lives of our young people. Except for a certain counselor in Bristol, Connecticut who got it all wrong. It was in the late 1960\u2019s and a student with dreams of a broadcasting career was shocked to … Continue reading Bob Grip – 2018 ABA Hall of Fame<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18434","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18436,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18434\/revisions\/18436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}