Former WKRG Anchor Mel Showers dead at 78

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Longtime news anchor Mel Showers, who broke racial barriers, dies

Alabama broadcaster Mel Showers, who broke racial barriers in a Deep South newsroom and became a beloved and trusted newsman along the state’s Gulf Coast, has died.

apnews.com

Alabama broadcaster Mel Showers, who broke racial barriers in a Deep South newsroom and became a beloved and trusted newsman along the state’s Gulf Coast, has died. He was 78.

WKRG-TV, the station where he worked for 50 years, announced his death over the weekend. The station did not release the cause of his death.

When he became an on-air reporter in 1974, Showers was one of the first Black journalists on television in his native Mobile. He began co-anchoring the morning news in 1981 and became an evening news anchor in 1990.