Pat Shadrick


The morning after WAFF TV's building burned Dan Whitsett called and asked me if I would consider coming to work at WAAY TV. The sales department anticipated WAFF being off the air for quite some time and WAAY would be receiving a good portion of the advertising budgets that were previously placed on WAFF. This started a relationship that lasted almost 18 years.

Mr. Smith III came into the office I was working in a couple of days later. He simply looked at me and said "Welcome Home". WAAY TV was home to a large number of us for a lot of years.

We experienced it all in the almost eighteen years I was at WAAY TV. Ice storms, tornadoes, snow, paint falling from the towers, births, marriages, divorces- you really never knew what would happen. I remember working late into the night the first elections coverage with computer generated results. Memories of the All Volunteer Christmas Parade from the very first one when I was with WAAY Radio, to stuffing pomps in cold warehouses and setting up entry judges for the parade and tallying the results after the parade finished. The 3 in 1 triathlon was always fun to work with the athletes. Regardless what happened, you were never bored at WAAY there was always something new happening. Like a family when thing needed to be done there was everyone pulling together to get it done.

It is always a pleasure to encounter people that you worked with at WAAY TV. Some of us have moved to other walks of life but you just do not forget your time at WAAY TV.

© 2003 Smith Broadcasting, Inc. [update 8-20-2003]