Joe Langston inducted into Broadcasters Hall of Fame

My friend of 30 years and, in my mind, the best news anchor who ever worked in this city was honored this past weekend with his induction into the Alabama Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Joe Langston anchored the news here at NBC 13 and for years next door at WBRC Television.

I’ve never done a news story about Joe Langston….but I’ve always wanted to.

Joe Langston was raised in Northport, Alabama. Someone asked him once after he’d anchored the news in Birmingham for decades, if he ever thought about going to the “big time.“ Joe would say, “I’m from Northport, Alabama… this is the big time.”

“We had fun,” Langston said. “In fact I can’t remember a day that I didn’t look forward to going to work back then; I don’t think that’s quite true today.“

Many early pictures of Joe Langston are of him with a microphone. Broadcasting seemed to be in his blood. He graduated from the University of Alabama, was an officer in the Army, and came back home and stayed here on television in Birmingham for nearly three decades.

He covered many stories, and remembers the “Stand in the School House Door” at the Univeristy of Alabama.  He was among a group of reporters who were briefed in Foster Auditorium.

“And, we were told inside the auditorium what was going to happen,” Langston said. “We found out later that the Stand in the School House Door was a script almost written by Bobby Kennedy and George Wallace on a plane trip from Montgomery to Huntsville, Alabama… but we didn’t know all of this when it was going on.“

Joe covered President Richard Nixon’s return to Washington from his first trip to China. He interviewed President Nixon and President Ronald Reagan.

They all did it all back then. Joe hosted a live one-hour variety show on Sunday mornings. He was a staff announcer, news anchor and for a time, news director. He saw and heard it all.

“In fact, I’ve had lights explode over me during a newscast and one caught my suit on fire,“ Langston said.

Along with five other men, Joe was inducted in the Broadcasters Hall of Fame… an honor that he’ll always cherish.

“It’s not only an honor for me, but it’s very humbling to be included in the company of others who are in the hall of fame,” Langston said. “To be mentioned with people like Bert Bank from Tuscaloosa, whom I’ve known all of my life, and Kenneth Giden who was given the award this hear posthumously… it’s just a humbling experience.“

I was with Joe when he anchored his last newscast back in 1987. He hopes people will remember him for the best of reasons.