{"id":34772,"date":"2026-06-23T09:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/?page_id=34772"},"modified":"2026-06-23T09:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:50:13","slug":"bob-sanders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/bob-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Norman Rockwell missed his best chance to paint a classic scene; a morning radio man in his studio surrounded by his trusty turntable and antiquated cart machines, a tableau that hadn\u2019t changed in 61 years. Rockwell would have loved to illustrate the subject, too. A man committed to keeping his community\u2019s small town, down home, unassuming way of life intact. For his unparallel dedication to WAUD and his audience, the ABA is honored to induct Bob Sanders into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust ecstatic! We are just absolutely thrilled, and over the moon that he would be recognized in such a way\u201d, says Dr. Cythia McCarty about her father\u2019s induction. \u201cIt is just the greatest honor and I\u2019m so appreciative.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he would get up at 4:30 in the morning and walk out to the car, I would peek out the curtains in my bedroom and see him walking out with his thermos of coffee,\u201d she smiles. \u201cHe did that six days a week. He went in early to open the station and get things ready before they went on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 1955 until his retirement in 2016, Sanders managed to let his audience know what was happening in Auburn while entertaining them with folksy stories at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had his fake helicopter,\u201d grins McCarty. \u201cHe would play the sound and say, \u2018Oh, what do we see out on South College this morning\u2019, and then he\u2019d make up the stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThe way he could paint a picture \u2013 you had no doubt in your mind exactly what he was saying,\u201d says Brooke Myers, general manager at Tiger Communications. \u201cTheater of the mind \u2013 that was his number one thing. That was huge. I learned about it in school, but I didn\u2019t really grasp it until I listened to Bob.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople that grew up here talk about how listening to Bob\u2019s radio show was their morning routine. They got in the car and there was Bob on their radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders had his daily routine, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would finish up his morning show and then before he would go out and try to sell ads and then come back for the classical hour, he would have coffee with a group of men,\u201d says his daughter.  \u201cThey would just tell stories and exaggerate and have a good time.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of those rare people that would go and actually and sell their own show,\u201d says Myers. \u201cHe knew everybody and everybody knew that he was for real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Sander\u2019s health got to the point that working was difficult for him, he retired.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was gone, there was definitely something missing,\u201d says Myers. \u201cHe\u2019d make his rounds every day and when he got off the air he would come say \u2018hey\u2019 to me. There was definitely a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers made sure that Sanders was represented at the station long after he retired.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to take the turntables out of the studio, but one of them is on display in the lobby,\u201d she says. \u201cHe had all the records organized by the Dewey Decimal System and I have the old card catalog. We built shelves for his records, And I\u2019ve still got his carts. One of them says \u2018helicopter\u2019. I really wanted to keep the sound effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think about him every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Dad was like an ambassador for Auburn,\u201d explained McCarty. \u201cHe adored my mother and that he had two heathy happy kids and now grandkids. But beyond that, I would say that he would be proud of positive legacy in the Auburn area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Sanders died Jan. 11, 2018, at the age of 86.<\/p>\n

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

Norman Rockwell missed his best chance to paint a classic scene; a morning radio man in his studio surrounded by his trusty turntable and antiquated cart machines, a tableau that hadn\u2019t changed in 61 years. Rockwell would have loved to illustrate the subject, too. A man committed to keeping his community\u2019s small town, down home, … Continue reading Bob Sanders<\/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-34772","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34772","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=34772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34777,"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34772\/revisions\/34777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}