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When WKRG television, Mobile, decided to integrate the newsroom, management knew the hire would need to be a very special person. Their search started and stopped with an English professor at Bishop State Community College.<\/p>\nWhen WKRG television, Mobile, decided to integrate the newsroom, management knew the hire would need to be a very special person. Their search started and stopped with an English professor at Bishop State Community College.<\/p>\n
After learning his name would be submitted to the station, Mel Showers became proactive and spent summer vacation attending broadcast school in Texas. In addition to looking for a quick-study, the station wanted someone with the right personality since this was going to be a difficult transition for the new reporter. Hiring Mel proved to be more than a good hire. Not only had he been through military intelligence training, he would step in with broadcast training and an FCC license. Mel proved to be a talented and committed newsman, who remains at the same station after 46 years.<\/p>\n
Mel can attribute his broadcasting career in part, to his college professor and his father. Without his professor suggesting him for the interview, and his father insisting Mel follow up after his interview, Mel doesn\u2019t know where he would be today. With his father\u2019s nudging, Mel learned the station was waiting to hire him as a booth announcer. That young announcer felt wealthy making $3.15 an hour.<\/p>\n
Arriving with the FCC license, Mel, in the absence of station management, could give the weather, news, and sign the station on and off the air. In years past, the FCC required public service programming, and Mel served as on-air host for You and Your Community<\/i>, a local program that ran for about four years. He often worked seven days a week, covering whatever needed to be done. By his senior year at University of South Alabama, Mel says, \u201cWKRG made an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse.\u201d Management realized the value Mel brought to the station and offered him a significant raise and anchor position. Mel\u2019s dedication to the station was rewarded with the
\n10 p.m. weather slot. He started out giving the weather using a magic marker, then progressed to \u201cmagnetic stickums\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mel\u2019s talent and personality made the transition as easy smooth as possible. \u201cI had a good support system from the station,\u201d Mel recalls, \u201cthey told me not to worry about the (negative) calls and to just do my job.\u201d He says he received the same support from the local civil rights community. Mel was wise as he moved to the anchor desk, \u201c\u2026if I was sitting by a white co-anchor, I told them not to touch me on the air; people were not ready for that.\u201d He made sure he kept a smile on his face at all times, and after a couple years, he began feeling acceptance, \u201cIt started to catch on with the viewing public, hate mail changed to fan mail.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, the one story Mel remembers, with mixed emotion, occurred on June 6, 1997, when he witnessed the execution of Henry Francis Hays. Hays was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was responsible for the brutal slaying of 19-year-old Michael Donald. \u201cI was standing pretty darn close to Hays,\u201d Mel says. \u201cBefore they put the hood on, he looked me in the eyes and gave me a thumbs up.\u201d He also remembers being on the air 24 hours a day for nine days, following Hurricane Katrina, \u201cWe had minimal damage, but we wanted to provide information for those hit hardest in southern Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n Mel enjoys speaking with young people and giving them encouragement; he tells them to stay in school and study hard. With a smile in his voice, he says, \u201cI tell them I get paid for running my mouth; that\u2019s usually when the teacher clears her voice, like \u201cI can\u2019t believe you said that.\u201d He quickly tells the class to sit quietly, \u201cand one of these days you may be paid for running your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Mel has represented his station and his community for more than four decades. He continues to cover for his team, as during a recent evening when the sports director was on vacation. That\u2019s Mel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When WKRG television, Mobile, decided to integrate the newsroom, management knew the hire would need to be a very special person. Their search started and stopped with an English professor at Bishop State Community College. After learning his name would be submitted to the station, Mel Showers became proactive and spent summer vacation attending broadcast … Continue reading Mel Showers<\/span> ![\"Mel](\"http:\/\/al-ba.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Mel-Showers.jpg\")
<\/a>After 46 years on the air, it\u2019s difficult for Mel to choose specific memories. But he does recall a morning when everyone called in sick but him, \u201cI did weather, sports and Pensacola news.\u201d Mel laughs and he says his face was put in the hairlines of all the reporters who were absent that day and each segment was introduced as Mel (fill in absent reporter\u2019s last name).<\/p>\n