2016 Blues Crawl & A Conversation With Al Mangum & His LIfe In The Radio Industry

Herb Cameron, chairperson of Sun Events and past President of the Preservation Board joins us by phone to talk about the upcoming 2016 Blues
Crawl event on Saturday, July 9th in Southern Pines. The event has grown each year since its inception in 2000 and has easily become one of the most popular summer evening events in Moore County and beyond. This year some of the venues.

Annual Blues Crawl 2016 Line Up

Sunrise Theater Headliners: 7:30pm & 9:30pm
Beverly Guitar Watkins, Johnny Rawls & The King Bees

Jefferson: 9pm-1am
Mac Arnold & Plate Full O Blues

Rhett’s: 9pm-1am
Donald Ceasar

Eye Candy: 9pm-1pm
Sammy Blue

Wine Cellar: 7pm-11pm
Juke Joint Johnny & the Hurricanes

O’Donnell’s: 9pm-1am
Charlie Sayles & the Blues Disciples

Bell Tree: 9pm-1am
Abe Reid & the Spikedrivers

Nosh: 8pm-12am
Big Bump & the Stungunz

Betsy’s: 8pm-12am
Big Ron Hunter

Day Band: 11am-3pm
Michael Wolf & D.B.A. Under the marquee

Tickets can be purchased at the Sunrise Theatre

IMG_0005Al Mangum, has spent the majority of his life in the radio business wearing the hats of DJ, Broadcaster, Writer, Marketing Director and Mentor. His reflections over his career provide a testament to the power of always being able to reinvent yourself as you go.

Al Mangum grew up in Brandywine, Maryland in Prince George’s County. Although it was only 20 miles below Washington D.C. it was then a very rural farming area, predominately tobacco. There were only 56 in his 1955 high school graduating class.

With the mandatory military draft ahead, Al went in the Navy Reserves as a high school senior and on active duty from 1956-1959 as a Navy Hospital
Corpsman; half of that time with the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa.

Upon discharge, Al entered the National Academy of Broadcasting; a professional school in Washington D.C. Some of the adjunct professors
included David Brinkley, Willard Scott, and Sports Announcer’s Jim Gibbons and Bib Wolf. After graduation he took his first radio job as a nighttime DJ and news announcer at a small AM station in Lumberton, NC. In addition, he attended what is now UNC Pembroke, where he met his wife of 55 years, Betty.

Al and Betty live in Pinehurst and both are involved in the local community and especially at their church, the historic Village Chapel in Pinehurst.

Al & Betty have a son and four grandchildren in Holly Springs NC and a daughter and two grandchildren in Perth Australia. They spent the month of
April in Perth with their daughter and her family who moved to Western Australia last year after spending 27 years in Sydney.

Al’s career has been primarily in radio where he has done “just about everything.” He is currently working at WEEB as an independent advertising
sales representative. Stated with WEEB broadcasting the “local morning news” and doing some ad sales. About 4 years later Al decided his semi-retirement job was more than he needed and gave the news shift. However, you will still hear him on many WEEB commercials he does for his clients.

Prior to working at WEEB, from 2005 to 2009, Al was Station Manager at WLHC FM Life 103.1; with studios in Sanford and transmitter in Robbins.

Al spent over 30-years in the Raleigh-Durham market, primarily as General Manager of the Radio Network Division of Capitol Broadcasting (WRAL’s
organization.) The network included the North Carolina News Network and Sports Networks, including – NC State, Duke, Virginia, the NFL Carolina
Panthers, NASCAR, A National Golf Show and other sports networks. He was also the Executive VP of Capitol Broadcasting’s Durham Bulls Baseball Club from 1991-1993.

Al & Betty moved to Michigan in 1961, where Al was a DJ and Program Director for stations in Port Huron and Battle Creek, Michigan, which was the first Top 40 Radio station in Western Michigan.

Prior to coming to Raleigh in 1976, he spent over 10 years with a multi-station broadcast group headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska; as Program
Director for the Lincoln station and later General Manager of the group’s radio station in Sioux City, Iowa

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Posted in All Things Moore County, Our Blog.