{"id":28445,"date":"2022-01-23T09:59:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T15:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=28445"},"modified":"2022-01-23T10:12:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T16:12:20","slug":"dr-a-g-gaston","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/dr-a-g-gaston\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. A.G. Gaston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A lot of good people do a lot of good things for their communities. We refer to them as pillars of society or backbones of the community. On the rarest of occasions, a person comes along who fits these descriptions and more. Their entrepreneurial vision and benevolent goodwill combine to make them an iconic beacon of hope to a people who very much need one.  Dr. A. G. Gaston was that kind of person, and the Alabama Broadcasters Association is honored to posthumously induct him into the ABA\u2019s Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my goals in life, one of my passions is to create more awareness of who he was and what he\u2019s done,\u201d says Rochelle Gaston Malone about her grandfather. \u201cSomething like this induction and this honor \u2026 this information about him being brought to the forefront \u2026 is going to help this process of awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaston was born in a log cabin in Demopolis, AL, in 1892. He moved to Birmingham with his mother while he was still a young boy, eventually working at Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. While there, he recognized a need in the black community for funeral homes, and so he started a funeral business. This started an entrepreneurial chain reaction.<\/p>\n

He saw how his neighbors were unable to secure loans, so he opened his own savings and loan. To equip people with the skills they needed to work in his businesses, Gaston created a business college. During the civil rights era, he opened a motel so those who participated in the movement \u2013 including Dr. Martin Luther King \u2013 had a nice place to stay.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gaston also wanted to give African Americans a source for news and entertainment so he purchased WENN-AM and WAGG-AM\/FM . \u201cThat was the main goal of owning the station,\u201d says Malone. \u201cHe wanted to create an outlet or vehicle of information where things could be reported from the African American viewpoint – all the information that was instrumental in the well being of the African-American community and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As was the case with some of his other businesses, Gaston found a way to educate young people in the skills they would need to work in radio. He opened the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club in 1967 and set up a studio within the facility that included microphones, turntables, and a board \u2026 everything you need to broadcast a radio program. The \u201cstation\u201d was only heard from speakers located throughout the organization, but it was a great way for kids to get a taste of what it was like to work in radio.<\/p>\n

Chris Coleman, vice president of programming at WATV-FM, was one of those kids who acted as a DJ from that Boys and Girls Club studio.  \u201cI always wanted to be a DJ, so I would bring up music every Saturday. My dad would drop me off at the boys club and I would be there all day\u201d, smiles Coleman. \u201cIt\u2019s where you got to be a DJ and you\u2019d talk to the people and make the announcements. It\u2019s like you were a DJ at a real radio station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaston also created a WENN high school advisory board and Coleman was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the advisors. \u201cWe\u2019d meet at the radio station in the conference room. Now DJs were like stars at that time. It was big,\u201d laughs Colman. \u201cYou went to school with a WENN advisor jacket on and you were the most popular kid!\u201d<\/p>\n

Malone believes that her grandfather\u2019s work was the fulfillment of a spiritual calling. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of him I reflect on Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8. Everything is for a time and a season,\u201d she says.  \u201cI believe my grandfather was anointed and appointed by God for this season of his life\u201d.<\/p>\n

 \u201cDr. Gaston lived to 104,\u201d says Coleman. \u201cI think he lived a long life because of the great work he did in this community.  He set people up to make money, and if he set you up, you couldn’t fail!\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Jenkins, Gaston\u2019s niece, wrote a book about her uncle titled Black Titan<\/em>. Perhaps this passage best illustrates the magnitude of his legacy: \u201cHe created a world for us where we had an up close look at limitless possibilities. We simply never thought, \u2018a black person can\u2019t do that\u2019 because our uncle had. \u201c<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of good people do a lot of good things for their communities. We refer to them as pillars of society or backbones of the community. On the rarest of occasions, a person comes along who fits these descriptions and more. Their entrepreneurial vision and benevolent goodwill combine to make them an iconic beacon of … Continue reading Dr. A.G. Gaston<\/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-28445","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28445","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=28445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28451,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28445\/revisions\/28451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}