Eric Taunton Starnes Publishing
WBRC meteorologist Fred Hunter talks to chamber members about his journey as a meteorologist at the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon on June 14, 2022. Photo by Eric Taunton.
Local meteorologist Fred Hunter reminisced about his time at WBRC and as a storyteller during the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon June 14 at Vestavia Country Club.
Hunter is best known for his longtime news show, “Absolutely Alabama,” which produces uplifting and positive stories about people, places and topics in the state.
“There is so much negative news; that’s all we ever hear: bad news,” he said.
Before Hunter was hired as a meteorologist at WBRC in 1997, he produced a show for three years with the same concept as “Absolutely Alabama” called, “Positively Texas.”
He said his news director called him into his office and said, “We’re going to start a series, and we’re going to produce positive stories and we’re going to call it ‘Positively Texas.’”
Hunter had no idea where to start because he’s not a Texas native, he said.
“Not knowing about Texas or being a native from Texas, I said, ‘Well where do I start?’” Hunter said. “One of the seventh-generation Texans in the newsroom said, ‘If you’re going to do a series about Texas, you start at the Alamo and go out from there,’ so that’s what we did.”
After three years of commuting from his home in west Alabama to his job in Austin, Hunter finally came across a job opportunity in Birmingham at WBRC, he said.
That job interview was like a divine intervention, he said, allowing him to work much closer to home.
He applied for the job by submitting a video tape with clips of his meteorology coverage and some of his stories from “Positively Texas,” Hunter said.
“When I applied for that job, the lady who ran the newsroom at that time was Peggy Carpenter,” Hunter said. “It wasn’t necessarily my meteorological acumen that got me the job at Fox 6; it was the fact that I had a series called ‘Positively Texas’ … She flew me in from Austin, brought me into her office and said, ‘You’re going to be my weekend meteorologist. You’re going to produce a series for me, and we’re going to call it ‘Absolutely Alabama.’ You start in two weeks. Do you have any questions?’”
He’s since produced dozens of stories through “Absolutely Alabama,” but when asked about the most moving stories he’s done by a chamber member during the meeting, he has two stories that come to mind, he said.
The first was a story about Clay Dyer, a professional bass fisherman with no arms or legs, he said.
The second was a story on Randy Frazier, a high school student at the time with no legs who was trying out for the marching band, Hunter said.
“Don’t tell me you can’t do something,” Hunter said.
Hunter said it’s important that Alabamians get to know their own state. Sometimes after an episode airs, he said, people come to him and say they didn’t know certain things about Alabama, such as Gulf Shores or the mountains in the state.
“Folks, get out and see your own state, for heaven’s sake,” Hunter said. “Find a beach more beautiful than Gulf Shores. Find a drive more beautiful than Lookout Mountain Parkway. Get out and see your state.”
