In the late 70s Pat Gray continued her career in Florida. Refine Your Search Results. Send a note, share a story or upload a photo. Help tell the story of your loved ones unique life. Service areas (0) Professional Information Broker address: Langston-Shaw Realty Group 308 W Tabernacle Street Saint George, UT 84770 Cell phone: (435) 625-1654 Websites For a time, it incorporated the ABC circle logo inside its own "6" logo (just as it had done with the CBS eye in the 1950s). Like many network affiliates, WBRC-TV would preempt ABC programming occasionally or regularly, in some cases. WBRC began to clear the first hour of GMA in the early 1980s, and began airing the two-hour program in its entirety after York retired from the station in 1989. Meanwhile, WBRC-TV had become one of ABC's strongest affiliates, a position it retained for the next quarter-century. Veteran WBRC anchor Joe Langston died Saturday. His funeral is today at 2 p.m. at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. WBRC cemented viewer allegiances by carrying a heavy schedule of local programs during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably two long-running morning shows. May 18, 2022 . The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1949, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 4 as WBRC-TV (standing for Bell Radio Company, after Fountain Heights physician J. C. Bell, founder of radio station WBRC (960 AM). In lieu of flowers, his family suggests giving donations to Mountain Brook Baptist Church. NBC programming subsequently moved to channel 13 (by then, using the call sign WABT); both stations, however, retained a secondary affiliation with ABC. WBRC Fox 6 Chief Meteorologist JP Dice discusses his decision to leave Fox 6 and his plan for the future. This page was last modified on 12 April 2015, at 15:00. WBRC-TV (06-21-14)Long-Time WBRC-TV Anchor, Joe Langston, DiesBy WBRC-TV Anchor Janet Hall---(Editor Judson Garner) AboutPressCopyrightContact usCreatorsAdvertiseDevelopersTermsPrivacyPolicy. I'm Sarah Verser. Unusual for a commercial broadcaster, Storer supported educational television, and the company donated two transmitters and frequencies in the Birmingham market (channels 7 and 10, which were respectively occupied by WCIQ and WBIQ when both stations signed on in 1955) to Alabama Educational Television (now Alabama Public Television). There are plenty of things in this world that step out of the abyss and scare the hell out of you like Bozo the Clown. Visitation will follow in Hudson Hall. Service will be held on Monday, June 23, 2014 at 2:00 PM at Mountain Brook Baptist Church with visitation following in Hudson Hall. [32], The station would not begin producing half-hour evening newscasts until 1979, eleven years after ABC expanded its national evening newscast to 30 minutes. He eventually would become the station's director of news and editorial policy. He was also a member of the Alabama Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. The group's affiliation deal with Fox also gave New World a chance to solve its ownership problem by reaching an agreement with Citicasters to sell WBRC and WGHP directly to the network's owned-and-operated station group, Fox Television Stations. However, Taft had very good relations with ABC. The Federal Aviation Administration today anounced the last of six test sites is ready to conduct research vital to integrating UAS into the nations airspace. To celebrate the occasion, FAA Administrator Michael H Sydney Benter is set to join Cincinnati CBS affiliate WKRC as an anchor and reporter, tomorrow. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Alabama broadcasting pioneer, Pat Gray, has died. WBRC also lost several longtime anchors and reporters to the W58CK/WCFT/WJSU trimulcast at that time, including news anchors Linda Mays and Brenda Ladun, meteorologists James Spann (who himself reportedly left WBRC due to his disapproval over the edgier content of Fox's programming) and Mark Prater, and sports anchor Mike Raita. [22] Raycom which is controlled by the Retirement Systems of Alabama is headquartered in Montgomery (the market to the adjacent south of the Birmingham DMA), and also owns that market's NBC affiliate WSFA as well as Huntsville NBC affiliate WAFF. Later he joined the news team at WVTM TV, but returned to WBRC as News Director. Joe R Langston, 59. In December 1993, Great American Communications was restructured again into Citicasters after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. News footage started to switch from 16mm film to magnetic sound film, and then, in the mid 1970s to videotape. Former FOX6 News anchor Bill Bolen worked with Langston and continued their friendship into retirement. In 1982, WBRC began receiving ABC network and syndicated programming, and news footage via satellite. He just had a good time but was a smart fellow, too, and I loved him," Bolen said. WBRC-TV's signal provided at least secondary coverage as far north as Decatur and extending south to near Montgomery, and from the Mississippi border in the west to the Georgia border in the east. I An error has occurred, please try again later. Fox was unable to immediately purchase the two stations outright due to questions over the American citizenship of then-parent company News Corporation's Australian-born CEO Rupert Murdoch. After it suffered significant structural damage due to an ice storm that affected the Southeastern U.S. in the winter of 1985, the station's original transmitter tower was replaced in 1986, with a new tower on Red Mountain 3 miles (4.8km) east of the original tower's location. Copyright 2014 WBRC. After retiring she returned to Birmingham, the Magic City, where she is fondly remembered as a trailblazing pioneer for women in broadcasting. His funeral was held on Monday afernoon. M. D. Smith III is also named a remote general manager of WAAY-TV from Birmingham. Langston died at the age of 82 over the weekend. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the church. Mickey Ferguson says keep your umbrella handy for scattered showers today. Langston of Live Oak, Florida and his brother Dr. James H. Langston of Fort Walton Beach. [34] The station denied any wrongdoing, and began defending the lawsuit. Includes Address (5) Phone (2) See Results. Let others know about your loved one's death. as a tentpole between the 9:00 and 10:00p.m. newscasts from the September 1996 switch until September 2002, when it expanded the prime time newscast to one hour (WBRC is one of several Fox stations that offer newscasts in both the final hour of prime time and the traditional late news timeslot, one of the few affiliated with the network that runs a nightly newscast in the latter slot and one of the few to continue its Big Three-era late-evening newscast after switching to Fox). In May 2014, WBRC added an additional subchannel on virtual channel 6.3, which served as a charter affiliate of the male-oriented multicast network, Grit. Longtime WBRC news anchor Joe Langston passed away early Saturday morning. Even still, due to signal impairment in mountainous areas of northeastern Alabama, WBRC operated two low-power translators to extend its programming to that part of the state, W29AO (channel 29) in Anniston in W15AP (channel 15) in Gadsden. WBRC's Channel 6 Joe Langston News Anchor Promo from 1985 Station ID (1985) WBRC-TV's Channel 6's Alabama's Great video image promo from 1985 WBRC-TV's BRC6 News video opening from 1985 WBRC 6 News open (1985-1989) WBRC-TV's WBRC 6 News' Scott Richards Video Promo From 1986. Several members of the news department staff in its early years started at WBRC radio including news anchors Harry Mabry and Joe Langston (the latter of whom would also take on a management role as its director of news and editorial policy in 1969), and sports anchor Tom York. Longtime Buffalo meteorologist Andy Parker is switching stations, returning to ABC affiliate WKBW after 11 years at NBC affiliate WGRZ. These were locally produced commercial television programming intended for the child audience with unique hosts and themes. Here's something else affecting your wallet: the situation in Iraq is not helping with gas prices here at home. The station launched a full-scale news department in 1952, when it began operating from the former studios of the original WBRC-FM. Langston was president of the Alabama Associated Press Broadcasters Association and on the board of directors of the Birmingham Press Club and University of Alabama School of Communication Alumni Association. Langston was also an Army veteran. It may take up to 1 hour for your comment to appear on the website. WBRC (channel 6) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. He later became the evening news anchor, sharing the desk with Pat Gray, Mike Royer and Herb Winches. BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Family and friends said goodbye to Birmingham broadcast legend Joe Langston on Monday. The third result is Joe Bennie Langston age 50s in Chiefland, FL. 2023 SCI SHARED RESOURCES, LLC. BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Longtime WBRC news anchor Joe Langston has passed away. Joe Langston (1932) was born in Tuscaloosa county. That series, Country Boy Eddie, which was aimed at rural Alabama viewers, featured local country, bluegrass and Southern Gospel music artists during its 36-year run from 1957 until December 31, 1993. This email address is already subscribed to the selected list(s). Resides in Kingsland, GA. We are remembering Birmingham broadcaster Joe Langston, this morning. He graduated and soon after went on to join the army. WVTM-TV, WAPI-TV: The Balloon Goon (with Sterling Brewer) WBRC: Birthday Party (with Joe Langston) WBRC: Bozo the Clown (Bart Darby, Ward McIntyre) WBRC: The Bugs Bunny Show (with Benny Carle) Published: Dec. 8, 2020 at 9:52 AM PST. And somehow the two merged into this one persona that we call Joe Langston," Chandler said. Call for Action The station retained all of the newscasts that existed during its final years as an ABC affiliate, but expanded its weekday morning newscast from one to three hours (with the addition of a two-hour extension, known for most of its run as Good Day Alabama, from 7:00 to 9:00am), and bridged the separate 5:00 and 6:00p.m. newscasts on Monday through Friday nights to form a 90-minute early-evening news block (by adding a half-hour newscast at 5:30). In addition to compensating for the absence of daily national morning and evening newscasts on Fox's schedule, the expansion of WBRC's news lineup also filled timeslots vacated by the departures of Good Morning America and World News Tonight through the discontinuance of its ABC affiliation. "He would talk about his real life experiences. . Joe Langston of WBRC-TV/Channel 6 was a signature voice in Birmingham broadcasting. Langston graduated from Tuscaloosa County High School and began his career in broadcasting at WJRD-AM in 1950 while a student at the University of Alabama. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Margaret Lollar Langston and children Susan Langston Morris of Birmingham and Joe L. Langston, Jr. (Melissa) of Raleigh, NC and beloved grandchildren Margaret Whitney Morris, Sarah Evelyn Langston, and Joseph Owens Langston. He graduated in 1954 and served in the U.S. Army as a Radio Broadcast and Propaganda Officer at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Langston moved to Birmingham and began working at WBRC in 1963 as a co-host of the Tom York Morning Show alongside Tom York and Fannie Flagg. (AL.com file photo) JOE LANGSTON Joe Langston joined the staff of WBRC-TV/Channel 6 in 1963,. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50. Langston started working at WBRC in 1963. [33] On October 26, 2009, WBRC became the second television station in the Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Anniston market (after WVTM-TV) and the third station in Alabama to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the news set and the graphics were also redesigned as part of the transition. This email address is already subscribed to the selected list(s). Channel 6 originally planned to carry the entire Fox programming schedule when it switched to the network, including its children's program block, Fox Kids; it intended to air the weekday editions of that block from 1:00 to 4:00p.m. on Monday through Friday afternoons. New World formally filed an application with the FCC to transfer WBRC to the trust on October 12, 1994, one month after it filed transferred WGHP on September 9; the FCC approved the transfer on April 3, 1995. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He was named news director in 1969. The station began clearing Fox NFL Kickoff for the 2016 season. Its newscasts were also among the highest-rated local news programs in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s; WBRC had won practically every news timeslot for many years, with WAPI-TV/WVTM-TV coming in at a distant second until the mid-2000s; CBS affiliate WBMG/WIAT was not a factor for either station for most of its history (to the point where it did not even air any newscasts at three different periods between the early 1980s and February 1998). In 1979, channel 6 became the first television station in Alabama to acquire a helicopter for newsgathering, "Chopper 6". She was a pioneer who helped build our station into . The station's transmitter was originally purposed as the transmitter facilities for radio station WBRC-FM (102.5, now WBPT at 106.9 FM; original frequency now occupied by WDXB), which signed on in 1947 with the highest radiated power of any radio station worldwide, operating at 500,000 watts; after the FM station suspended operations in June 1948 due to continued revenue losses due to the lack of radios equipped with FM tuners, Hanna borrowed $150,000 to build a new studio facility and transmitter atop Red Mountain for the television station. Langston had a brief stint at Channel 13 before returning to Channel 6, where he retired in 1987. He also served on the boards of the Tuscaloosa County Tuberculosis Association, the Alabama Arthritis Foundation, and the Alabama Multiple Sclerosis Society, and served as a deacon for Mountain Brook Baptist Church. The concurrent move of the ABC affiliation to W58CK and its satellites also led to the CBS affiliation for the Anniston-Gadsden market to move to WNAL-TV (channel 44, now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXH-TV), which along with WTTO and its Tuscaloosa satellite WDBB (channel 17) lost its Fox affiliation to WBRC. He began as a reporter and worked his way up to news anchor, and in 1969 was named Director of News and Editorial Policy. Joe L. Langston January 1, 1932 - June 21, 2014 IN THE CARE OF Ridout's Valley Chapel Joe Leonard Langston, Sr., age 82, of Birmingham, passed away at his home on Friday, June 20, 2014. Earlier News by Date Editor on Duty: Mark K. Miller. Karen Church Out at WBRC After 17 Years By Mark Joyella on Dec. 29, 2015 - 3:28 PM "I paved the way for people who are now becoming my replacements, which I don't appreciate." The two stations studios atop Red Mountain (between Vulcan Trail and Valley View Drive) in southeastern Birmingham, where WBRC's transmitter is also located. ", Flagg called Langston "just an all-around good guy. Over time, Burns added novelty acts to the show's format and did most of the commercials himself in the studio live. Langston was also known for a sense of humor. WBRC and WGHP were the only Fox-owned stations that did not air the network's children's program blocks until 2003, when now-former sister stations KTTV in Los Angeles and WFLD in Chicago moved the block to their UPN-affiliated sister stations (KCOP-TV and WPWR-TV). While in TV, Langston received every major award from the Associated Press and United Press International Broadcasters Associations. He was inducted into the Alabama Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2009. KFMB, the CBS station in San Diego, debuted an updated news set, which the station described as a major renovation, with a new look and more tec Bri Eggers is joining Boston NBC affiliateWHDH. Joe was born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1954. We used to play jokes on one another, do silly things. Among those she worked with, Fannie Flagg, and Joe Langston. "I think that is what made him special. Langston died in 2014 at his home in Liberty Park. Storer may have used his leverage to secure a primary CBS affiliation for WBRC-TV, which joined the network on July 4, 1954. Langston's funeral will take place at 2 p.m. on Monday at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. Langston started at Birmingham's WBRC in 1963 as the first . Children's Television Series in Alabama. The company estimates that only about 20% of orders will be affected. In September 1950, WBRC established a coaxial cable link with fellow NBC-DuMont affiliate WRGB (now a CBS affiliate) in Schenectady, New York, allowing the station to broadcast NBC and DuMont network programs both live and live-to-air. [40] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6. Joe Langston was promoted to Director of News and Editorial Policy in 1969. Even in its final years on WBRC, mini-documentaries produced by the station (which were produced by Randy Mize and Tom Stovall) for the local segments aired during the UCP Telethon; WBRC stopped producing and broadcasting the local segments of the telethon soon after it switched to Fox in 1996. Former FOX6 News anchor Scott Richards said Langston connected to viewers because he was from Alabama. The cause of death is not known and funeral arrangements are pending. He helped us evaluate your home for sale and see what we could do to improve it. Funeral held for Birmingham broadcast legend Joe Langston, Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley report to prison. Former WBRC news photographer Bill Bowen said ten minutes before news time, Langston tried to teach him how to brew coffee. Preemptions and out-of-pattern scheduling of some ABC programs would continue in later years; for example, WBRC aired All My Children on a one-day delay from its 1970 debut until it became a Fox station, and preempted the soap opera Loving throughout its 1986 to 1994 run. I highly recommend Joe. Throughout his career Langston earned every major award from The Associated Press and United Press International. Joseph Leonard Langston (born January 1, 1932 in Brownsville, Tuscaloosa County; died June 21, 2014 in Vestavia Hills) was a long-time news director for WBRC-TV. Mike Hathcock, the school's director of television services, remembers Langston's rapport, especially with students. Joe was born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1954. Joe Langston Found 214 people in Texas, Florida and 37 other states. Eggers wrote on her facebook page, I am moving to Boston at the beginning of October! Former WBRC Sports Director Herb Winches referred to Langston as his mentor. Always there with a one-liner.