{"id":18474,"date":"2018-08-16T07:34:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T13:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=18474"},"modified":"2018-08-16T07:46:31","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T13:46:31","slug":"david-baird-2018-aba-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/david-baird-2018-aba-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"David Baird – 2018 ABA Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dave Baird – 2018 ABA Hall of Fame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the early 1960\u2019s, a Royal 50 transistor pocket radio was it<\/i><\/em>. That sleek design with a giant rotating dial, the way it fit right in your hand, the side volume control you could easily turn with your thumb and that cool, gold Zenith logo emblazoned on the front \u2026 it was enough to make a nine-year-old boy in Jasper, Alabama dream about becoming a broadcaster. Fifty-three years later we celebrate that dream and the illustrious career of one of Alabama\u2019s veteran news anchors by inducting Dave Baird into the Alabama Broadcasting Association\u2019s Halls of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandmother gave me that radio. \u00a0Every night going to sleep I listened to WSM, WLS \u2026 all those 50,000-watt stations. I was just fascinated by it,\u201d says Baird. \u201cWhen I was fifteen, a friend who worked at a local Jasper radio station invited me to come by and check it out. I walked in and I was captured. It was like magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As soon as Baird turned sixteen, he went to Atlanta to take the third class radio operators\u2019 test and quickly got his first broadcasting job at WWWB, working nights while he went to school. Later he worked for stations in both Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, loving every minute of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in Tuscaloosa in the \u201870\u2019s, you know, we were twenty-something-year old kids and they pretty much gave us a radio station to program the way we wanted to. Those were exciting times,\u201d says Baird. \u201cWe weren\u2019t making any money, but we were having fun and learning a lot.\u201d \u00a0Even though Baird enjoyed radio, he made the switch to television in 1981.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I decided to leave radio the doors opened with an opportunity to work at Channel 33. Then we got swept up in that whole ABC 3340 thing which is when, in 1996, they asked me to be an anchor,\u201d says Baird. \u201cThat was all an amazing thing because startups are very difficult – no one expected that venture to be successful, but eventually we were number one in the market. I was there for 22 years and I\u2019m very proud to have been part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his anchor duties, Baird was responsible for Matters of Faith<\/i><\/em>, a popular, on-going series about how people in the area expressed their religion. He says it was an interesting journey to see how communities used their faith as a way to reach out to others to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cNews isn\u2019t necessarily a perfect reflection of the world. There are so many people out there doing timely things to help each other, but they don\u2019t get recorded,\u201d he explains. \u201cIn trying to get the news on every night you can forget that there\u2019s so much going on in our communities. The series highlighted what was really important and gave me a more balanced way to look at the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike most television news anchors who move across the country as they advance in their profession, Baird feels fortunate to have stayed in central Alabama throughout his 53-year broadcasting career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud that in all that time, I stayed within a fifty-mile circle of Jasper, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham,\u201d he smiles. \u201cI got to stay in central Alabama \u2026 I got to stay a home boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baird retired this past September; his last broadcast aired twenty-two years to the day of his very first. \u201cI\u2019m hoping I\u2019ll be able to use my golden years as a chance to find the next thing, but whatever that is, it\u2019s going to something that I really want to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s enjoying his much more relaxed schedule, others feel compelled to give him new career advice. \u201cPeople keep asking me what I want to do next and suggest that I do this or do that,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI tell them I had the best job \u2026 my dream job \u2026 and I didn\u2019t leave it to go look for another one!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early 1960\u2019s, a Royal 50 transistor pocket radio was it. That sleek design with a giant rotating dial, the way it fit right in your hand, the side volume control you could easily turn with your thumb and that cool, gold Zenith logo emblazoned on the front \u2026 it was enough to make … Continue reading David Baird – 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-18474","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18474","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=18474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18483,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18474\/revisions\/18483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}