#MeetUsMonday -- Judy Watters

It all started with an idea for a music education children's program pitched to an engineer at WEBT public television in a block building with an antenna on top of Monte Sano mountain. Judy Watters was sent to meet George Dickerson who was literally IN THE PROCESS of converting a first-floor room at the Huntsville Times into a radio studio. From the March/April 2016 Huntsville's Event Magazine article written by Roy Hall, "Watters has all the charm and generosity of a natural born storyteller, as congenial in person as her voice is assuring over the airwaves. She knows music inside and out, too, and the sheer joy she exudes when she talks about it and the station she loves is palpable."

Judy had to obtain her third class radio license to begin broadcasting, and once she presented that to a surprised George Dickerson in the still unfinished Times building studio, "he hired her on the spot, but not to host a children's music show. He hired her as a full-time public radio announcer" at almost 40 years old. She and Dickerson, along with about 20 employees, completed the Times studio transformation and went on the air on the morning of October 13, 1976--a day Watters referred to as "one of the scariest of my life."

She was inducted into the Alabama Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2017. She hosted “Morning Blend” and she produced “Sundial Writers Corner”, another morning program that features regional writers.

“I know she’s extremely proud of ‘Sundial,’?something she started with her husband, Harry, with whom she hosted a radio show,” says the station’s general manager, Brett Tannehill. “It has fostered the culture of storytelling in the Tennessee Valley for decades.”

We are grateful for Judy Watters' tenacity, ingenuity, and flexibility that helped to establicsh a great foundation for your public radio station! You can read more about her here: https://wlrh.org/News/judy-watters-inducted-alabama-broadcasters-hall-fame.