During the 1980s, WHNT had a weekly segment called “The Curtis Countdown.”   Reporter Dick Curtis would get people in the community to lip sync the hit song of the week and a classic song.   This story was the year-end finale from 1985.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  During 2013 WHNT News 19 is celebrating 50 years on the air.  November 28th is the exact date of our first broadcast, but all this year we’ve been taking a look back.

This week’s Carson’s Classic featured a story from Dick Curtis that was shot in 1988 during our 25th Anniversary celebration.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – It’s rare these days to find employees who have been at a company for 30 years or more, but at WHNT News 19, there are eight of them — and many more approaching that anniversary.

Steve King has been an engineer at WHNT News 19 since 1978.

“It’s great to be able to come in and basically do what you like to do every day, and I think that goes for everybody in the building, because you really have to like TV to be in it,” said King.

Terry Robinson started in 1977 in accounting.  Angie Gaines started in 1980 as the general manager’s assistant. Now they both work in the traffic department, making sure commercials run like they’re supposed to.  But they’re much more than co-workers. Their friendship has built roots after working side by side more than 30 years.

“We probably know each other better than some of our family members know us. And we work well together, I think,” said Gaines.

Morning anchor Steve Johnson started in 1977 and spent most of his career in the sports department. He’s seen a lot of big changes in that time.

“A lot of days it doesn’t seem that long, it’s just that everybody that’s been here that long, we all look a little older,” said Johnson.  “Actually, they all look a little older, let me put it that way.”

Nonda Sloan has been here 39 years. She started as an assistant bookkeeper.  Now she’s the vice president and controller at WHNT.

“A lot of people say this is like a family. And it really, truly is. It is a big family,” said Sloan.

Gregg Stone started in 1979 as a photographer. He still shoots, but now is the chief photographer.

“When we have a huge event, like in a tornado disaster or something like that, it’s not only that we’re working with people in the news department directly, we’re working with other departments like the sales department, accounting and stuff, they come and help out. I think that’s kind of unusual,” said Stone.

Someone else you might see around town shooting stories is Dion Hose. This year marks his 30^th at the station.  He thinks back to times in his life where his co-workers helped him.

“During the tough times. I lost my father and these guys just wrapped their arms around me. It was like, hey, we’ve got you now,” said Hose.

Anchor Jerry Hayes has spent the past 34 years at WHNT News 19.

“I think it’s almost like having a family. I mean we work a lot. And we work together well. And I think the fact that this is our home away from home, it’s our family away from our family, and I think that closeness and that close knit atmosphere that we have with one another makes it that much more enjoyable to be here,” said Hayes.

There have been a lot of big changes since this group started their careers here.

“You have to imagine, when I started in this business, the only thing we had, and it was high tech, was two-way radios, there were no pagers, there were no cell phones,” said King.

“We used typewriters, had short hand, we used to have a printing press that we printed our programming schedules on, now everything is done on computer,” said Gaines.

“I can remember going to our newsroom here and talking about computers, and nobody wanted to give up the typewriters. It was like, computers? No! Please, we don’t want that,” said King.

There was also the big move from Monte Sano to downtown.

“We were on the mountain for a long time dealing with all the snow and ice storms. We got downtown and had this big beautiful building, we were like a big-time TV station then,” said Hose.

And, perhaps, the biggest change of all.

“I think the big change is when we switched from film to video tape, it made a big difference in how we did things,” said Johnson.

Now everything is digital and HD. In more than three decades, technology changed, hairstyles changed, and lives changed.  But one thing has stayed the same — the need to play a good practical joke on a co-worker.

“In the early days, there were a lot of practical jokes, and things like that went on, so sometimes you would come in early just to see who was doing what to who that day,” said King.

Jerry’s Horns — an inside joke that’s gone on for more than 20 years.

“Someone took the horns off his desk, I think, and they’ve been traveling from everywhere,” said Hose.

“He has his bull horns that have missing for years from his desk. And they’ve been all around the world. All the way around the country. Different locations. Pictures taken. He has no idea who has his horns,” said Stone.

Just as the horns have come and gone throughout the years, there are many employees who have done the same. They were a part of the WHNT family and always will be, making this unique family what it is today.

“Some of them have done really really well and gone on to bigger and better things. For those of us who are still here, for us, this is our bigger and better thing. This is a great place to work. It’s a great place to raise your family, to raise your kids. And it’s a blessing that now one of my kids has started her career here. It’s a good place,” said Hayes.

TENNESSEE VALLEY (WHNT) – Modern-day meteorology was in its infancy when WHNT signed on the air in 1963, and it’s unlikely anyone at the time realized the important role television weather would play in years to come.

TIROS-1 sent back the first images of our atmosphere from space on April 1, 1960.  Weather radar had only been in operation for about four years in 1963, and there was a lot to be learned from the shapes and shades of green on those old scope displays.

The Tennessee Valley’s weather legend -  H.D. Bagley – took a part-time job delivering weather forecasts at WHNT in November 1963.  H.D. was a seasoned meteorologist who became one of the most trusted men around thanks to his calm demeanor and straight-shooting style of broadcasting.

H.D.’s tenure at WHNT began with some of the coldest, snowiest winters on record.  Even the Blizzard of ’93 could not surpass the heavy snow that fell on the Valley on the night of December 31, 1963.  Florence recorded 19.2 inches of snow in 24 hours.  That is the heaviest 24-hour snowfall on record in Alabama.

In 1966, a frigid air mass settling into the Tennessee Valley in late January sent temperatures to depths we have never come close to in the years since.  New Market set an all-time record low of 27 degrees BELOW ZERO on the morning of January 30, 1966.

Somewhere between the icy grip of winters past and the blazing heat of summers gone by, the Tennessee Valley earned a reputation for having some of the worst severe weather anywhere in the world.

WHNT and H.D. Bagley were there through it all when the “Super Outbreak” of tornadoes tore this region apart on the night of April 3, 1974.  Eighty-six Alabamians died in the swarm of tornadoes that seemed to target the Tennessee Valley that night.  Two EF-5 tornadoes tore through Madison County, and H.D. was on the air with the warnings even as the final tornado of the night, an EF-3, ripped through Redstone Arsenal and passed just south of downtown Huntsville.

Weather technology has changed a lot since H.D. Bagley tracked violent tornadoes with a modified ship radar back in 1974.  In the late 1980s, Doppler radar gave Chief Meteorologist Tim Simpson a better way to view a violent tornado that hit Airport Road and Jones Valley on November 15, 1989.

Daily weather forecasts had also changed from H.D’s grease pencil to Backyard Weather with Tim.

In the early 1990s, Chief Meteorologist Dan Satterfield introduced long-form severe weather coverage to the Tennessee Valley.  If there was a tornado warning, you could rest assured that Dan was on air covering it, leading the way.

Technology continues to advance, and WHNT is right there on the cutting edge.  In 2004, Live ARMOR dual-pol radar became first dual-polarimetric radar in the nation operated by a television station.  That investment is still paying off.

Thirty-nine years after H.D. Bagley helped the Tennessee Valley through a violent night of tornadoes, WHNT News 19 Meteorologist Ben Smith led the coverage of another Super Outbreak of tornadoes on April 27, 2011.  Ben, Christina Meeks, and Alan Raymond watched the storms from the pre-dawn hours until after sunset using Live ARMOR, NWS NEXRAD, live video cameras, social media, and they streamed it to the world on WHNT.com<http://WHNT.com&gt; reaching thousands of people here and elsewhere who wanted to know what was happening to our community.

WHNT News 19 is now and has always been about the Weather Where You Live.  Our mission is to give you the tools to plan your days around our fickle weather and keep you safe when that ever-changing weather turns on us.

TENNESSEE VALLEY (WHNT) – News is non-stop, so as you can imagine WHNT News 19 has covered a lot of stories during its 50-year time span.  But some stood out more than others – for both good and bad reasons.

Here’s a look back at the top news-making moments from the last five decades.

The civil rights movement is deeply rooted in Alabama and Huntsville had its own history makers.

In August of 1963, Sonnie Hereford enrolled his 6-year-old son in an all-white school, but it wasn’t an easy task.  Governor George Wallace sent 24 state troopers to keep the child out of the school.

Hereford and three other parents filed a lawsuit claiming unfair treatment.  Eventually, a judge allowed the enrollment to move forward.

NASA and Huntsville have a history that goes way back.

Marshall Space Flight Center was established in 1960.  While the country’s space program has had some high moments, like putting man on the moon in 1969, there were also some dark times too.

In 1967, Apollo 1 caught fire during a training exercise on the launch pad.  Space shuttle Challenger came apart less than two minutes after lift-off in 1986.  And in 2003, space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere.

Eight years later in August of 2011, the space shuttle program came to an end.

Over the last 50 years, Mother Nature left her mark in a major way.

On April 3, 1974, there was a super outbreak of tornadoes.

“Confusion, really.  It’s really hard to explain.  Just a lot of chaos.  Unreal,” said Janice Jones.  Like many others, Janice Jones lost her home as tornadoes swept across north Alabama.  Four of them were listed as violent and stayed on the ground for long stretches.  In all, 86 people died.

The 1974 outbreak set records that weren’t broken until the deadly storms of April 27, 2011.

The National Weather Service says the April 27, 2011 storm system spawned 39 tornadoes in the Huntsville region, three of which were EF-5 tornadoes.

Statewide, 248 people lost their lives and at least 2,200 were injured.

The destruction was immense.   Some subdivisions, businesses and towns were wiped out.

Violent crimes captured headlines countless times in the last 50 years.

In the late 70s, John Paul Dejnozka, aka the Southwest Molester, attacked 18 women in southwest Huntsville neighborhoods. He was sentenced to 830 consecutive years in prison.

In November of 1993, 5-year-old Andrea Gonzales disappeared in Russellville.  Her parents, Paul and Kym Gonzalez, testified at trial they’d accidentally killed Andrea and dumped her body off a bridge at Mondye Landing.

Paul Gonzalez did time for manslaughter and Kym Gonzalez served time for child abuse.  Andrea’s body was never found.

In March of 1998, Jeffrey Franklin brutally killed his parents and tried to kill three siblings at the family’s home on Camelot Drive in south Huntsville.

Franklin remains in prison at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer.

In March of 1999, Karen Tipton was stabbed to death inside her home on Chapel Hill Rd. in Decatur.

Daniel Wade Moore was tried three times for the crime.  The first time a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death; that decision was later overturned.  A second trial ended in a hung jury.  It wasn’t until the third trial, in 2009, that a jury acquitted him.

February 2010 was a violent month.  On February 5, 14-year-old Todd Brown died at Discovery Middle School in Madison.  His classmate, Hammad Memon, pleaded guilty to shooting him in the hallway during a class change.

One week later, on February 12, Amy Bishop opened fire on her colleagues during a faculty meeting at UAH.  Three people died and three others injured.  Bishop is serving life without parole at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka.

Accidents happen.

On April 4, 1977, Southern Airways flight 242 left Huntsville on its way to Atlanta.  Just over the Georgia line, the plane hit a severe storm.  The engines sucked in a lot of hail and crashed.  Sixty-three people died on board and nine died on the ground.  Twenty-three people survived.

In February 1980, a fire nearly destroyed the Huntsville Industrial Center, known by locals as the HIC.  Two-thirds of it burned to the ground.  It housed the two oldest mills in Huntsville, which sat near the corner of Meridian St. and Oakwood Ave.

In July 1984, the SCI Company’s paddleboat named, “SCI-tanic” capsized in a microburst on the Tennessee River at Ditto Landing.  Eighteen people were on board and 11 drowned, including an entire family.

On November 20, 2006, a school bus plunged off an Interstate 565 overpass.  Forty-one students from Lee High School were on board: 34 suffered minor to serious injuries and four died.

A NTSB report says the driver of a Toyota Celica tried to pass the bus, lost control, then crashed into the bus, causing it to ride the guardrail before falling off an elevated portion of I-565.

The crash led to a three-year statewide study on school bus safety.  A task force ultimately decided students would not be safer on school buses with seat belts.

Huntsville has developed over the years.

From the establishment of Cummings Research Park in the 60s to opening day at the Von Braun Center in 1975, to the construction of Interstate 565 in the late 80s, to the BRAC initiatives that led to thousands of Department of Defense jobs moving to Redstone arsenal, and the first V-8 engine to come off the line at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant in Huntsville in 2003, WHNT News 19 was present when news happened over the last 50 years and is committed to covering the next 50.

I began working at WHNT News 19 on May 2nd, 1977. The day I started at the station as Sports Director, there were no cell phones, no lap tops, no iPads, no DVDs, not even home VCRs.  It was a different time for sure. A time when 16-mm film ruled the industry. That meant when you shot film, you had to process it before you could edit it.  It only became “electronic” when all the stories were put in order and recorded in the control room for playback during the newscast.  Back then, WHNT News 19 would still use a slide projector during a news broadast. It was way more primitive, but the news product was still a matter of doing the job and telling the story.

In 1977, and for about a decade after that, WHNT News 19 was located on Monte Sano, right next to our tower.  When I first started at the station, the newsroom was a very small room in the main building.  There was a small grocery store across the road from the station where we’d go to get drinks and snacks.  That closed a couple of years after I started, and that building became our newsroom.  What that meant, you had to run across a street and a parking lot to get to the studio.  As you can imagine, going outside and running across a parking lot, and over curbs was not the same as going down the hall.  I know of at least one person who broke their collar bone, and a couple of others who sprained ankles trying to get from the newsroom to the studio.

In 1977, and for quite a while after that, most people who worked in news also smoked.  I don’t mean they went outside and smoked, I mean they smoked while they worked.  There was so much smoke in the building it looked like something was burning. As a non-smoker, I wasn’t really happy about it, but I still had to deal with smelling like smoke when I got home at night.

For the first decade I was at the station we were located on Monte Sano, and that meant driving up and down the mountain multiple times a day. Being news folks, we were always in a hurry, and that meant we were generally in passing gear all the way up the mountain. That wasn’t a big deal when we drove big eight cylinder Chevy’s, but as we moved first to six, and then four cylinder cars our repair bills zoomed.

As I mentioned there were no cell phones for the first several years I was at the station. It meant you either made your calls before you left the station, you called back on the two-way radio and asked someone else to call, or you just showed up and hoped for the best.  I actually don’t understand how we got the job done without all the communication tools we have today, but we did. Then again, the person back at the station who had to make the calls for reporters on the road was never very happy.

Two years after I started at the station we moved to what was called ENG, electronic news gathering. We were in the modern video tape age and film was out. In fact, the companies that made the 16-mm film only lasted a few years after TV stations quit using their product.  Video tape made doing stories a lot easier, but I still think learning to edit film was an advantage.  With film (which wasn’t cheap) you had to do some editing in the camera, and that caused you to really think about what you were shooting.

Cell phones (not smart phones) eventually came, and that really did make the work easier. Like I said, it’s hard to imagine a reporter not having a cell phone.

Technology behind the scenes also changed over the years.  When I first got to the station, the teleprompter for the anchors consisted of sheets of script being taped together with scotch tape, and then put on a conveyer belt.  Someone would control that belt, and the sheets would move under a camera which put the image on a two way mirror in front of the studio camera lens. It’s all electronic now, but that primitive system worked just fine.

When I started at the station everyone used a typewriter. At first they were manual, then electric.  With both kinds you had to type on script paper that was several pages thick.  To this day I hit my keyboard  too hard, because I got used to having to really slam away at those manual keys to make sure the copy was written on every sheet.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – On Monday, August 15, 1977 Terry Robinson walked into the doors of Action News 19 on Monte Sano Mountain. In 2013, she walks through the doors of WHNT News 19. It’s the same station, but the names are not the only changes in her 36 years here.

“It’s just like a big family,” Robinson said. “They are just real good friends. If you need anything, I can just go to them and ask. If it’s business wise or personal, they will do what they can.”

Robinson is the traffic manager. Her work attire does not include reflective vests for directing traffic in rush hour. Instead, she directs the daily programming log.

“When you say trafficking, you think out there in traffic ­– out there with cars and stuff,” Robinson said. “It’s not that, but it is in a sense. You are trafficking the commercial spots.”

“It’s like working a puzzle,” Robinson explained. “I try to get all the holes filled and put everything in the correct spot. I have to make sure everything is placed on the log and creative services fills in the holes.”

She did not start out as the traffic manager. When she first came to the station, she worked in the accounting department for two years.

“When I was first hired, we did everything manually,” Robinson said. She remembers when the station progressed to the use of computers.

After two years, she switched to the computerized trafficking department. “I’ve done everything on computers since then.”

“What I do every day now, it has changed a lot over the years,” Robinson said.

One memory stands of her career stands out over the rest ­– WHNT’s move from Monte Sano to its current location on Holmes Avenue in downtown Huntsville. She recalls working in advance of the great move so news programming would go uninterrupted during the transition.

“When the New York Times came in, they built us this great building,” Robinson said. “We came down from the mountain to the valley. That was a big plus for all of us because we had this great building to work in.”

She recalls the major leaks in the roof of the old mountain station where people used trash cans to collect rain. When the station moved to its current location, managers threw a party to celebrate the opening of the new building.

“Over the years, we’ve had some stars that have come in, you know soap stars,” Robinson said. “When we moved from the mountain, we had one of the Dallas people come in. We’ve met some stars.”

Robinson has worked for WHNT News 19 for over three decades where she’s witnessed firsthand changes in news business and world.  She recalls changes the station made in the aftermath of September 11 and carefully distributing mail to her coworkers after anthrax scares. The transition into the 24-hour news cycle occurred during her time as well.

“A lot of people ask me what’s going on in news,” Robinson said. “I usually don’t know what’s going on back in the news department. The only time I know is when I see it on the TV.”

When asked what her least favorite part of the job is, she had nothing to say. She said she enjoys her job and the people around her.

“We are a close family, we always have been,” Robinson said. “We have had some great managers over the years, great GMs, LSMs.”

-Posted by Annie Faulk

Hello, my name is Angie Gaines and I would like to welcome you to my WHNT sentimental journey. 

Angie Gaines

I celebrated my 20th birthday on February 8, 1980 and I had already had an interview with WHNT.  I was praying for the best birthday present ever– to land the job.   Thankfully,  those prayers were answered and that’s exactly what happened. 

I was hired as the Executive Assistant to the General Manager, who at that time was Mr. Tom Percer.  To this day, I owe him a great deal of gratitude for giving me a chance and setting me on this course. 

My first day at the station was February 12th, 1980 and I was thrilled to be here.  At that time, the station was located on the top of Monte Sano Mountain.  The walls in my office were covered with paneling.  I had a rotary phone, typewriter, pads for shorthand, Dictaphone and the other typical office essentials. 

I can remember having to keep a garbage can close for the leaks in the ceiling when it rained.  At that location, all of the office personnel, sales, promotions and engineering were in the main building and the newsroom was across the street.  Funny to think of it now, but there were ash trays everywhere inside for all who smoked, which is now unheard of and something I don’t miss at all. 

There were so many fun times and fond memories from that time and building.  But, we progressed on to bigger and better things in March of 1987 when we moved to our current location on Holmes Avenue.  Our new place of operation was beautiful and everything was brand new.  We were all so excited to find our new office space, get things unpacked, in place and ready to go.  Time marches on and that was 26 years ago.

During my tenure here, I have been through three owners, seven general managers and several managers.  My title has changed from Executive Assistant, Local Sales Assistant to Traffic Assistant.  Of course, job responsibilities have changed numerous times to go along with those title changes. 

I’ve seen countless people come and go.  Some have remained life-long friends, some casual acquaintances and some I never knew their name.  There is a small group that were here when I first started that still remain at the station today.  Through all of the changes of people coming and going, there is one constant that has always remained the same.  That is the family atmosphere. 

Our product takes a team of people on and off the air, with each job and every employee carrying equal importance.  We have gone from bringing that finished product into your homes to now bringing it to you just about whenever, however and wherever you want news, weather and entertainment.  Technology has drastically changed and we have changed right along with it.  So, even though I’ve remained with the same company, my current job is dramatically different. 

I’ve been asked several times why I stayed at the same place for so long and the answer is quite simple, “I have never had a reason to leave.”  Sure, there are frustrations.  Sure, there is burn-out.  Sure, I’ve wondered what it would be like to work somewhere else.  But the weekend comes or I take some time off and come right back and start all over again.  And besides, how many places can you work and have a flat-screen TV on your desk? Probably not very many. 

It’s so difficult to condense 33 years into mere words.  When I look back through those years, I tend to consider that which has come and gone to be the good ole days, but in light of looking back I quickly realize that they have all been very good.  Lord willing, my plan is for this wonderful journey (in the TV term) is To Be Continued…

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – “WHNT this is Channel 19 Huntsville.  This is Channel 19′s Morning Folks, a public service potpourri of events on the calendar from various places across the north Alabama area.  Now, here’s your host, Grady Reeves.  And a very pleasant good morning.  I hope it’s a marvelous day for you, wherever you are.”

That’s how most of us remember WHNT News 19’s Grady Reeves.  He was on the air at WHNT for 28 years.

Steve Johnson remembers the same things you do.

“But, I also  remember Grady taking me fishing here in Guntersville.  We always went with someone who was a very good fisherman.  We used their boat, and their gear.  We went to their favorite fishing holes.  And you know what­­­­ – they loved it,” said Johnson.

Grady’s north Alabama fame actually began back in the 1950′s when he did radio from his glass booth atop Huntsville’s Holiday House Restaurant.  Grady started out at WHNT News 19 in 1963 doing news and then sports.

“Believe me when I tell you, fans noticed when Grady showed up at an event,” said Johnson.

“Grady had a gift for gab.  I mean that in a good way,” said Tom Kennamer, a WHNT alumnus. “He could talk to anybody.”

Kennamer worked with Grady from 1968 until 1981.

“When I first started out, before I started doing the 10 o’clock sports, we’d go talk to a football coach, a basketball coach,” Kennamer said.  “He knew everybody, and he’d talk to the players, the parents.  I mean it was amazing.  He was a rock star when you went out with him.”

In 1965, Grady’s reputation grew when he began hosting Morning Folks.

“Thunder storms, that’s the weather for today.  Linda?  What’s your name?” Reeves said.

Linda Duncan worked with Grady doing weather, news and sports for Morning Folks for seven years.

“I think about a story teller,” Duncan said.  “He could go someplace, a school or a nursing home.  Meet some person, talk to them 30 seconds.  Come back, get on the show, and tell the most marvelous story.  Stretching the truth a little bit, but it was always the truth.”

There are dozens of photos of Grady with kids, with senior citizens and with people all across the Tennessee Valley.

“Dad just had this charisma.  There’s not a day goes by I don’t have somebody come up to me and say, ‘I knew your dad’, or ‘let me tell you about this’,” said Robert Reeves, Grady’s son. “Course, and I guess, it’s quite a compliment to be called Grady so often, and I know we do look alike.”

Robert didn’t look like his dad when they started working together in 1980 on Morning Folks.  Robert had seen Grady grow from a radio broadcaster to a fixture in the community to something of a north Alabama legend.

He knows his dad almost did it all in the news and sports business.

“He could go to Talladega, Steve, when you and I couldn’t get an interview,” Robert said. “They’d go Grady, what do you need?  It was just that kind of friendship.”

The photos of Grady are all a little similar – a smiling man attending parades or getting a smooch from an admirer or sharing a moment as he always did at the MDA Telethon.  However, the photos don’t show everything about a guy who was famous well before equality made it to Alabama.

“I had a lady tell me, she was from Courtland, Ala.  She said I want you to know about your dad.  You probably don’t know about this, but when I was a child, me and two of my friends were sitting outside this little store, and it was extremely hot in July, and your dad pulled up and he walked over and said, ‘what are you doing out here?’  And we said, ‘well, we can’t go inside.  We wanted to get some ice cream.  But we can’t go inside’, and your dad walked inside, and a few minutes later he came out and he had four ice cream cones, and he sat down with us outside and ate those ice cream cones.  Now all of those children were black, but it didn’t matter to dad,” Robert said.

People mattered to Grady.  Viewers knew that.

“That’s all our time for today.  I don’t want to go,” Grady said.

Actually, Grady loved going most anywhere in our coverage area, and folks loved it when he did.

“And he would announce where he was going, what café or restaurant where he’d be going,” Kennamer said. “Oh, they have the best post roast or whatever, and well, when he got there, they’d have pot roast waiting on him.”

Everyone wanted to see Grady.  The reason for that is not hard to figure out.

“The first word that comes to mind is kindness.  I think that’s about as far as you have to go,” Duncan said. “If you’re a kind person, people are going to remember you and people are going to feel good about you.  To me that’s a great legacy.”

Just think of it, as Grady Reeves’ legacy.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – In 1963, television was still relatively new.  But a man from Birmingham who had been a baseball star at Auburn decided Huntsville needed a CBS station and he was the man to get the job done.

In 1963 if you wanted to watch CBS programming in north Alabama, you had to point an antenna toward Birmingham or Nashville and hope for the best.  But on Thanksgiving Day of 1963, all of that changed.

It was all because one man, Charles Grisham, left Channel 13 in Birmingham with a vision of the future or at least his future.

“It didn’t appear that I was going to have any sort of retirement benefits there and I started looking around for something in the broadcast field that I could build up some equity in,” said Grisham.

Charlie Grisham (Photo: WHNT Archives)

Grisham saw equity in the growing city of Huntsville.  But there was a problem.  The FCC had only allocated one TV channel to Huntsville and it was already taken.

“I saw in the allocation of frequencies of the various cities that one was allocated to, that is 19, to Fort Payne.”

Grisham convinced the FCC to move the frequency for 19 from Fort Payne to Huntsville.  Throughout the summer of 1963, construction was under way up on Monte Sano to get the station on the air sometime in the fall.

“We prepared to go on the air around Thanksgiving time,” said Allynn Thomas, Grisham’s first secretary.  “We were not prepared for what was happening about the time we were going on the air.”

Thomas is referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  She and other employees saw the bulletin from Walter Cronkite at CBS News.

“We knew right away because we were getting the network feed but we weren’t broadcasting,” Thomas said.

Thomas says while WHNT went on the air during a very sad time for the country, it was a country focused on fulfilling Kennedy’s dream of going to the moon.  Huntsville and WHNT were swept up in that push.

“It was just a really exciting time,” Thomas said.  “And the sky was the limit.”

The Huntsville Times printed this article October 29, 1963.

WHNT signed on a month later, on November 28, Thanksgiving Day.

Click here to read the full article.

TENNESSEE VALLEY (WHNT) — A look back at sports in the Tennessee Valley shows growth.

From UAH basketball to three NCAA championships won on the football field at UNA and the birth of hockey in Huntsville, the sports landscape is full and the history rich.

“Those are the things that were just sort of in that time.  Entities that we know kind of take for granted,” said Huntsville Times and al.com writer Mark McCarter.

A look back shows sports look very different than it did in 1963.

Over the course of 50 years, two big currents shifted in Alabama, and those movements were felt across the Tennessee Valley.

First, sports became more diverse. 

50 years ago, with few exceptions, blacks and whites in the Tennessee Valley did not compete in sports.

But over five decades, the talent pool of athletes became more diverse, and coaches say it made their teams stronger and more competitive.

The recent Collinsville High State championship soccer team was loaded with players of Hispanic heritage.

The other change is female sports.  50 years ago, high school and college sports were a testosterone soaked endeavor.  The girls play now and compete fiercely.

Now, female athletes compete for in everything from basketball to softball and golf.

Tennessee Valley football fans follow Alabama and Auburn with religious zeal.  

Over five decades, Bama fans travelled to Tuscaloosa to follow championship teams lead by Coaches named Bryant and Saban.

Auburn fans made the long trip to the plains to watch special talents like Bo Jackson and in 2010 watched an electrifying talent named Cam Newton lead the orange-and-blue to a national championship.

Conredge Holloway played football at Tennessee.  Some say he was the best all-around athlete ever in north Alabama.

But the best football player, arguably, in the Valley may have played in Normal, Alabama.

John Stallworth played college football at Alabama A&M.   He was a Bulldog legend and is now a NFL Hall of Famer.

Stallworth was a co-founder of Madison Research, a company he later sold for millions that employed almost 500 people.

His legacy here in the Valley comes from his life after football.

“I think that is what john would like for people to believe.  He is a businessman who happened to play football at a high level to play in the football hall of fame. Developed his business and given so much back to the community in the way of his foundation,” said McCarter

Mark McCarter has forgotten more about sports than most people know.   He says when you look back at 50 years of Huntsville sports, some of the biggest stories have fallen off the radar.

Like Huntsville`s Bryant Shelton, who reached the Wimbledon Quarters in 1994. He played in 17 majors and won two tournaments on the tour.

And Don Mincher, the first president and general manager of the Huntsville Stars.

A former major leaguer who was also president of the Southern League, Mincher , was the nicest, classiest man ever on the sports landscape in north Alabama.

“It was just one of those blessings the night I spent in the press box at Joe Davis Stadium just talking to him. Have him tell stories, just learning the game from him. Just being around him,” said McCarter

The Stars still play just off the Parkway in Huntsville in a stadium built in 1985. Terrific players from Canseco to McGwire to Tejada played ‘The Joe.’

McCarter says the Stars future may be dictated by what happens to an old tired stadium.

“I`ve been lucky to see every ball park in the Southern League but one since 1976, so I have a vantage point that may be unique.  I`ve seen where other stadiums have done to their communities.  And they’ve improved things and what it`s meant to a community.  They look at Joe Davis Stadium and they said it’s serviceable and that is about all” said McCarter

But the most remarkable athlete to come through Huntsville is an Olympian whom McCarter says displayed courage in and out of the pool, Margaret Hoeltzer.

”She steadfastly trained and went to three Olympic trials.  Went to two Olympics and won medals in Beijing and then came out after and talked about sexual abuse as a six year old kid by the father of one of her friends,” said McCarter.

Eric Lidell once wrote, “In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.”

And on any given day, on any given weekend, the fields of competition are loaded with athletes, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and more.  Male, female, young and old leave their best on the field.

It`s a joy to watch.

(WHNT) - When WHNT News 19 signed on in 1963, Doctor Wernher von Braun and his rocket team were busy making President John Kennedy’s 1961 promise to go to the moon within the decade a reality.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” said President Kennedy.

In The Rocket City, making those hard things happen meant developing huge rocket engines for the Saturn V.

WHNT News 19 covered the roar that shook north Alabama, rattling windows and scaring people and dogs.

It all culminated in 1969 with Apollo XI; our coverage anchored by Walter Cronkite.

And the Saturn V developed at Marshall Space Flight Center did exactly what it was supposed to do.  The first humans made it to the moon.

“Neil Armstrong, 38 year old American standing on the surface of the moon. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” reported Cronkite.

It wouldn’t be long before a lunar rover was also on the moon, courtesy of hard work by Marshall Space Flight Center engineers and technicians.  But before that, something else happened.

“WHNT TV Television News presents a farewell tribute to Doctor Wernher von Braun, good afternoon.”

“In 1970, a parade and a special goodbye ceremony held on the Madison County Courthouse steps.

“My friends, there was dancing in the streets of Huntsville when the first satellite orbited the Earth. And there was dancing again when the first astronaut landed on the moon. I’d like to ask you, don’t hang up your dancing shoes,” said von Braun

There could have been dancing with Skylab.  Mankind’s first space station doesn’t fly without the leadership of Marshall Space Flight Center.  That leadership would go forward with the development of the world’s first re-useable space craft– the space shuttle.

When testing led to the first flight of STS-1, WHNT News 19 was there.

The shuttle program had a spectacular beginning.  Then, in 1986 on the 25th launch, disaster struck.  73 seconds into flight, the shuttle Challenger exploded.  The shuttle program was down for 32 months while the reason for the disaster was discovered.

“Technicians painstakingly cleaned and salvaged those flight recorder tapes at Marshall Space Flight Center. Officials kept saying those tapes wouldn’t yield new information, but we now know the crew seated on the flight deck probably did see something amiss,” said Bob Knowles, WHNT News 19 alumnus.

The problem that downed Challenger was fixed and the shuttle program returned to space.  Marshall was in charge of all propulsion and the external tank.

Among other specular accomplishments, the shuttle made the International Space Station possible.

And then in 2003, another disaster struck.  This time, the shuttle Columbia orbiter disintegrated during re-entry.  The shuttle program was grounded for 29 months.

WHNT News 19 was at Kennedy Space Center for the return to flight.

“Things have finally calmed down here at the Kennedy Space Center.  After one scrubbed launch and worries about a faulty fuel sensor, NASA is finally back in the manned space flight business.  And liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery, and thus America returned the space shuttle to flight. And the vehicle has cleared the tower,” said WHNT’S Steve Johnson.

And then in 2011, this incredible program came to an end 30 years after the last shuttle flight.  We were live from Kennedy Space Center.

The end of the space shuttle program led to work on a replacement.

When the Ares had its test flight, we were there.

“It did what it was supposed to do, it went right where it was supposed to go, and what a sense of accomplishment for that team,” said Robert Lightfoot, Marshall Space Flight Center Director.

As often happens–the program that spawned Ares was changed.  Now, the team at Marshall Space Flight Center is leading the way on the vehicle to replace the shuttle.

When it flies, WHNT News 19 will be there.

President John F. Kennedy visits Huntsville to meet with Dr. Wernher Von Braun and learn about the rockets he and his team were developing. (Archive Photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Fifty years ago, Huntsville was front and center on the national stage.  Attempts to launch Redstone Rockets were a success and President John F. Kennedy visited the city to see the installations for himself.

Dr. Werner Von Braun was building his arsenal on and off Redstone Arsenal.  His vision of rockets and space travel would propel the business of defense – unmatched anywhere.

Von Braun’s next mission:  putting man on the moon.  For that, he would need the manpower and know-how from top engineers.

Cummings Research Park is the second-largest research park in the U.S.

The vision to build Cummings Research Park would launch a cotton town into the space race.  Today, in 2013, Cummings Research Park  remains the the second largest research park in the nation and the fourth largest in the world.

“When you think back to how it all started with, really, Werner Von Braun going to Will Halsey, which is a name you recognize in business, to Sunnyvale to convince Lockheed to move here and they did,” said Major General Jim Rogers, VP of Army & Missile Defense Programs at Lockheed Martin.

Looking back 50 years, Lockheed’s Huntsville operations started small.

“It was between 50 and 100 I believe,” said Rogers.  “We’re now in this facility here about 800, total about 1,200 in the Huntsville community.”

To grow and sustain for 50 years, it takes defining moments.

Major General Jim Rogers reflects on Lockheed Martin’s growth in Huntsville.

“In 1984 we had our first actual proof of our ability to hit something moving that fast in the exosphere,” said Rogers.  “Scientists — many scientists said that could not be done.  And now we’re over 70-plus hit-to-kill operations or tests that have been executed by us to show that technology works and that is part of the theatre of ballistic missile defense that we have today all the way down into protecting our troops with the pact three missiles that we have in the Patriot system.’

While Von Braun was launching rockets and Lockheed engineers were working on the next big thing, Huntsville native Jerry Damson was starting his own venture.

“It was Dad, he basically did the body work on the cars, mechanic work on the cars,” said Deke Damson.  “I know the first eight years of my life he’d come and wake me up at night to play because he was working 18 hours a day.”

Jerry Damson added employees and moved from the original Meridian Street location.

“I think it was ’71 he moved onto the Parkway and at that point, things picked up,” said Damson.

The mechanic-turned businessman had a vision.

Jerry Damson, on the left

“Dad was a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, charter member of the BBB,” said Damson.  “Those things certainly have been big to the community over the last 50 years, they’ve been big for us too.”

Huntsville’s business community has seen rapid growth over the last 50 years.   According to the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce, in 1955, there were less than 500 members.  In 1963, there were 800 members.  Today, there are 2,200 members.

“As the community grew, it afforded us to grow too, more people… more cards to be sold,” said Deke Damson.  “And I think through the community growing and through our community involvement it’s afforded us to grow.”

While the scenery has changed and the number of companies has grown, the one thing that stays the same in business is ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’.”

“It’s all about making sure you get great people that have that desire to be the leading edge in technology and we feel very comfortable that Lockheed has been able to look ahead,” said Major General Rogers.

Deke Damson

“Dad always said surround yourself with good people and I think that we’ve been very fortunate,” said Deke Damson.

The people and a sense of community.  Local business leaders say those are among the secrets to success.

“What do the next 50 years hold for Damson?” WHNT News 19 asked.

“Oh my goodness.  Flying cars,” Deke Damson said.

“Von Braun [began the shuttle program here], so you’re in the right place,” we replied.

“That’s right, we could have that, couldn’t we?” Damson said.

TENNESSEE VALLEY (WHNT) – This year, WHNT News 19 celebrates 50 years on the air.  We know we wouldn’t be here without you, the viewer.

We invite you to share your photos of WHNT News 19 throughout the years.  Did you take a photo with one of our anchors or reporters?  Maybe you met a WHNT News 19 meteorologist at a community event.  We know there are lots of great pictures and we’d love to include it in this photo gallery on WHNT.com.  Any photo is welcome from 1963-2013!

Please use the ‘Submit Your Photo’ button below to upload it, or email it to photo@whnt.com.

See more of WHNT News 19′s 50th Anniversary coverage.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – During the 1950s and 60s, Huntsville underwent a population growth due to the construction of the Redstone Arsenal and the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Then, in October 1991, driving through Huntsville became easier with the opening of Interstate 565.

The interstate connects I-65 with U.S. Highway 72 and stretches over 22 miles.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Country music group Alabama hosted the final June Jam in Fort Payne in 1997.

Musical acts from across the country performed at June Jam — big-name artists came every year to perform for the crowds.  The biggest hit was always Alabama, though, closing out the night.

People came to Fort Payne from around the U.S. and other parts of the world to attend June Jam, despite the heat.  Many said they enjoyed the Southern hospitality.

For 14 years, money raised from the annual event benefited local schools and charities.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Huntsville’s largest music festival, Big Spring Jam began in 1993.  The Jam included emerging acts like Sammy Kershaw and Brother Cane.

From 1993 to 2009, the Big Spring Jam was a three-day event in downtown Huntsville. The concert took a hiatus in 2010, but returned as a two-day concert series in 2011.

Event organizers announced in November 2011 the Big Spring Jam would continue in the future as the local economy and interest improves.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Huntsville resident Jan Davis’ first mission in space was NASA’s 50th space shuttle mission on September 12, 1992. The mission traveled over three million miles and Davis and the crew spent more than seven days in space.

Davis began her astronaut career in 1987, providing technical support for space shuttles. She flew on three flights logging over 600 hours in space.

Davis is now retired from NASA. She graduated from Huntsville High School in 1971 and received degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology, Auburn University and UAHuntsville.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – During the late afternoon and early evening hours of April 3, 1974, at least eight tornadoes combined with four intense storms hit 16 counties in Alabama.

As a result of the tornadoes and storms, 86 people died, 949 were injured and damage from the storm reached $50 million.

The tornadoes set records that continued unbroken for 37 years, until April 27, 2011.

Meteorologists developed advanced storm tracking tools from studying the 1974 outbreak of storms.