{"id":32401,"date":"2024-07-10T11:19:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T17:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=32401"},"modified":"2024-07-10T11:19:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T17:19:30","slug":"pam-huff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/pam-huff\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Huff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in the mid 1970\u2019s, Pam Huff was assigned to cover the accomplishments of Viola the pig. It was her first day on the job as a reporter and she wasn\u2019t happy. But she gave it all she had, and management quickly took note of her ability. Huff has been making people take note of her creativity, professionalism and zeal for getting it right ever since. For the last five decades of extraordinary journalistic talent the Alabama Broadcasters Association is inducting Pam Huff into its Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran by my apartment and put on a gingham dress, and I went to the hotel lobby and sat down on the floor, and I held Viola the pig. I talked to Viola and \u201clistened\u201d to Viola and if I do say so myself, it was a good little story.<\/p>\n

Wendell (Harris) called me into his office after that and he said, \u2018Okay, you win.\u2019\u201d Huff never did another Viola story.<\/p>\n

Huff attended the University of West Virginia and unlike most broadcasting students who wait until their senior year to get an internship, she worked every day at a television station that was connected to the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned all the basics there,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had a nightly newscast and so I got to work my way up and become one of the anchors while I was still in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all her experience she quickly landed a job at WSAZ in Huntington, West Virginia and then she got an opportunity in Tampa.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband, who was my fianc\u00e9 at the time, was in Orlando and waiting to get into law school. I got a job at WFLA and that worked out well because I learned a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband ended up getting his law degree in Birmingham. \u201cHe told me that if I\u2019d just move to Birmingham for three years, then we\u2019d could go anywhere I wanted to go. But once I got here, Birmingham was very good to me and so this summer makes our 48th year here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huff got the co-anchor position in Birmingham when Harris stepped away from on-air work. He asked her to take his spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have bowled me over with a feather,\u201d says Huff. \u201cI never thought of myself as an anchor. I\u2019m not tall. I\u2019m not blonde. All the things which back then you needed to be if you were going to be a female anchor. But I said, \u2018Thank you \u2026 I\u2019ll give it my best shot.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, with that, I became the first female primetime evening news anchor in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes Pam a great person to be in the Hall of Fame is that she obviously was a\"\"<\/a> leader,\u201d says Janice Rogers, news anchor at WBRC and a close friend of Pam\u2019s. \u201cShe\u2019s a pioneer. There\u2019s no question about it\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer legacy to me is integrity and honesty. She\u2019s just someone who during times of happiness she was there leading the way but during times of troubles she was there as a calming voice to walk people though things,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd I think when people turned their TV on, no matter what was going on, Pam was there talking about it, and they felt a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not up on the news of the day, if you don\u2019t understand why this is an important story, the viewer figures that out pretty quickly,\u201d says Pam. I honestly believe that\u2019s one of the reasons why people have always supported me. They know that they can trust me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future is exciting, but a little scary for Huff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying these first few weeks of retirement,\u201d she says, \u201cBut it still feels very weird. I\u2019m in deep prayer to find out what I\u2019m supposed to do next. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to drop out of the heavens, and I will know it when I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Back in the mid 1970\u2019s, Pam Huff was assigned to cover the accomplishments of Viola the pig. It was her first day on the job as a reporter and she wasn\u2019t happy. But she gave it all she had, and management quickly took note of her ability. Huff has been making people take note of … Continue reading Pam Huff<\/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-32401","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32401","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=32401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32404,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32401\/revisions\/32404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}