Ray Melick says So Long

[Ty Webb]

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

 

[Ralph Waldo Henderson]

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

 

[SixToe]

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?

 

[black dude with pompano]

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.

 

[Drip]

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.

 

[mediaguy]

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 ...

 

[Blitz]

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.

 

[YankeessSuck]

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.

 

[dixiehack]

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.

 

[slappy4428]

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...

 

[black dude with pompano]

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.

 

[BigRed]

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.

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.

 

[Pencil Dick]

If you want some keen insight into the Bammer Nation, read the comments section after Ray's goodbye blog on al.com. Stay classy, Tide fans.

One guy says it's good riddance he's leaving because Ray wrote something about Nick Saban not being a good fit for Alabama - just a bit outside on that one, Ray - THREE YEARS AGO. More than a handful want him to take lead columnist Kevin Scarbinsky with him.

Got news for you, mullets. Less Melick = More Scarbinsky on the pages of The News.

 

[Dr. Howard]

Sorry to see Ray go. Met him way back when, in the USFL days, when he covered the Birmingham Stallions. That was a great group of newspaper guys, with Ray and Jimmy Bryan.

 

[SixToe]

Or, as some knew him, Super JB.

Bammer Nation can read? Or did Melick provide crayon drawings for them?

 

[Born to Run]

Ray's a good, classy guy. And he'll be missed.

 

[Bamadog]

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...

Best wishes to Ray Melick and prayers for Mike Raita. Raita's ambush of Dennis Franchione in the College Station Airport when he flew to Texas A&M was a classic moment. The look on Fran's face was almost as good as the one when Oklahoma hung a 70-spot on them. Talk about shock and awe.

 

[dixiehack]

I understand putting food on the table, but hate to see this kind of career twist.

http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2010/06/archibald_dizzied_by_the_bp_sp.html

It came as a shock last week when it was revealed that BP had, thus far, spent a tad over $2 billion since its Gulf oil spill.

BP spokesguy Ray Melick says it's more like $2.35 billion now, for claims and cleanup, for relief wells, repairs and fines imposed by the good old USA.

It is becoming a well-oiled, if not well-tested, PR machine. Which brings us back to Melick.

That's right, Melick. Just weeks ago Melick was a popular face on these very pages, an award-winning sports columnist for The News who earned Alabama's trust by talking reasonably -- both in print and on sports radio -- about the most critical of Alabama topics: Football.

He's the guy in boots with the comfortable drawl. He was the one, here at The News, who would draw you back in after Scarbinsky poked you in the eye. It makes him perfect for BP's homespun message: You can trust us. We're just like you.

Ray's doing a good job for BP. So he's ... dead to me.

 

[SF_Express]

Boy, the message board posters on that farewell blog. Wow.

 

[WBarnhouse]

Color me confused. Melick's final blog is today and the blog post about Melick working for BP is also today. So, has Melick been working for BP while still at the paper? Is that the reason why Ray didn't mention his "next gig" in his farewell blog?