Ray Melick says So Long

Ray Melick wrote his final blog/column in Birmingham today. He spent 27 years in the biz, most here with the late Birmingham Post-Herald and the Birmingham News. I count Ray as a very good friend. He makes a weekly appearance on my radio show to this day. I am not naieve enough to think everyone on here liked his style but I did always find Ray to be universally liked and respected. I know he will do well at his next venture.

Ryan Brown
WJOX Birmingham

http://blog.al.com/ray-melick/2010/05/melick_so_long_and_thanks_for.html

 

Agreed, very good guy. Gonna miss seeing him around in his boots and carrying his motorcycle helmet.

 

Ray's one of the good ones and it's another loss for the industry.

That leaves one columnist in Birmingham now, right? Hasn't the News for years had at least two or three in rotation?

 

Ray is a great guy and superb reporter and columnist. I'm sorry he's leaving the newspaper business.

He doesn't have the slightest bit of an ego, as you can see in his final blog/column. I've known him since he was at the Post-Herald and I was in college almost a decade ago, and he's always been the same: a first-class person and a credit to our profession.

 

I'm happy that he's one of the few left who can say they have left this business on his own terms. Good Luck Ray.

 

Great, great guy. First got to know him back when the SEC title game was in Birmingham. Another big loss for newspapers. Best of luck to him ...

 

I never met him, but his work is respected here in the Deep South.
He's always had a "finger on the pulse" of the SEC and southern sports happenings, for sure.
Good luck to Ray.

 

I really hate to see him leaving the buisness. I've always liked his writing. I first met him when I was in college working for the student paper. He always treated me as I a peer and I never forgot that. Just a super guy. Hope he continues to write on occasion. He's very good on the radio as well.

 

I hate to draft off Ray's heat, but since all the B'ham folks are at this thread ...

Mike Raita, the sports anchor on ABC 33/40, announced on the 5:00 broadcast that he will be out the next 8 weeks to have cancer surgery. Rough day in the local sports cocoon.

 

Hope everything turns out for the best. Raita's one of the good ones...

 

Very much so. A hard-worker and a pro. When you can reach across the great print/TV divide and have a lot of friends and people who respect you on both sides, that's usually a good sign.

 

That's awful. Raita really is a good guy.
Hope everything turns out OK; 33/40's main female anchor, Brenda Ladun, also had several bouts w/cancer when I lived in the 'Ham. Tough to have it happen to 2 main station personalities.