On Monday, January 14th, the 60th anniversary of WALA-TV's first day of broadcasting programming on a regular basis was celebrated during "Studio 10", a local entertainment and lifestyle program produced for WALA-TV and WFNA-TV. The celebration included a montage of photographs of WALA-TV's history, appearances by Bob Grip, a news presenter for WALA-TV since 1984, John Edd Thompson, a weather reporter for WALA-TV from 1978 to 2009, and Judi Freeman, a baker from Mobile and a regular contributor to cooking segments at WALA-TV.
Here are some descriptions of how the anniversary was celebrated during the program over the course of six segments (the program had a total of seven segments. The final segment had no features related to the anniversary celebration) along with links to videos of some parts of the program.
- During the first segment of "Studio 10" (with regular news and weather features), Joe Emer and Cherish Lombard, the hosts for "Studio 10", talked about how their careers at WALA-TV began after Joe Emer mentioned his plan to ask Bob Grip and John Edd Thompson about how their careers at the station began. After Cherish Lombard mentioned her time working for WABB (AM & FM) in Mobile, she mentioned two other former employees of WABB who later worked for WALA-TV: Dorothy ("Dot") Moore, who used to host local programs for WALA-TV such as "Channel 10 Kitchen", "The Gulf Coast Today", and "The Dot Moore Show", and Bill Evans, who used to present weather reports for WALA-TV.
- During the first segment of "Studio 10", a montage of photographs featuring the station's former building along with past employees, newscast sets, and pieces of equipment was presented. Video of the montage uploaded onto the main anniversary celebration page on the official World Wide Web site for "Studio 10" and the YouTube channel for WALA-TV.
- Before Michael White presented a weather report for "Studio 10" during the first segment of "Studio 10", he shared his memories of how his career at WALA-TV began (he remembered being "ecstatic" upon learning of his hiring) and memories of watching local newscasts produced by the station. He recalled the station being affiliated with NBC and the titles "Acton News 10", "Channel 10 Action News", and "FOX 10 Action News" for local newscasts produced at the station. He also admitted to being "thrilled" to be a part of the 60th anniversary celebration of the station.
- Judi Freeman prepared chocolate Kahlua cupcakes and a large celebration cake for employees of the station and guests during the first, third, and sixth segments of "Studio 10". All of her appearances during this edition of "Studio 10", including a past clip of her cooking beside Dorothy Moore on "The Dot Moore Show", were uploaded onto the official World Wide Web site for "Studio 10" after they were broadcast.
- Bob Grip and John Edd Thompson spoke about their memories of working for WALA-TV and the changes in news broadcasting during the second segment of "Studio 10". Video of their conversation was uploaded onto the YouTube channel for WALA-TV after its broadcast. (note: Joe Emer said erroneously said one of the video clips featured during the conversation was from 1984, even though it was actually from the 1990s).
- Before the end of the third segment of "Studio 10" (with the regular "About the House" feature), Joe Emer introduced video of the beginning of a local newscast WALA-TV produced in 1977 under the brand name "Newsbeat" (the newscast was dated April 26th, 1977, which was on a Tuesday). The video included Carlton Cordell, a former director of news for the station, in the role of news presenter and Jim Koblas, a former sports reporter for the station, and Danny Treanor, a weather reporter. Images from the video were uploaded onto the professional Facebook page for Bob Grip prior to the video being shown during "Studio 10".
- In the beginning of the fourth segment of "Studio 10", a montage of video clips from local newscasts WALA-TV produced during the 1980s was broadcast. Shortly after the clips were broadcast, Joe Emer, and Cherish Lombard presented messages from visitors of the official Facebook page for "Studio 10" with memories of WALA-TV's programming. The montage was uploaded onto the YouTube channel for WALA-TV after it was shown during "Studio 10".
- Before the end of the fifth segment of "Studio 10" (with the regular "Happening Here" and "Monday Moms" features), Cherish Lombard introduced video of an advertisement WALA-TV originally broadcast in 1994 to promote their local news programming. After the commercial break, an advertisement WALA-TV used to broadcast between 1993 and 1996 to promote their local morning newscasts was broadcast yet again at the beginning of the sixth segment of "Studio 10" (the advertisement featured Eric Reynolds, a news presenter for WALA-TV from 1993 to 1998 and again since 2003, and his wife Eleanor Reynolds, who used to present news for WALA-TV's local morning news programs along with him from 1993 until 1998).
(correction: a earlier version of the article had the typographical error of April 27th for the local newscast dated April 26th, 1977)
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