Bob Labbe was named the Large-Market Radio Personality of the Year in Alabama by the Alabama Broadcasters Association at the organization’s 20th annual Abby Awards. The honor was announced at the awards ceremony in Birmingham, where Labbe accepted one of five awards received by WLRH-Public Radio.
The recognition lands on a broadcaster with 53 years in the business, including 35 years hosting Reelin’ In The Years on WLRH-FM. Labbe, 72, also works as the long-standing sports reporter for the Madison Record.
On WLRH 89.3 FM, he spends four hours live every Friday night from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. playing oldies from his own 45 rpm vinyl collection, which includes more than 20,000 original records from the 1950s to the 1990s. The program also features interviews with some of the biggest artists in music history, listener prizes and facts about the performers and the era.
Labbe said he was “totally shocked” by the award and called it the one that means the most to him, even after previous honors for television work on Channel 31 and for more than three decades of newspaper writing. He said he used to play radio in his room as a child and always wanted to be a disc jockey, adding that WLRH gave him the chance to do what he had dreamed of doing.
The award does more than recognize a long résumé. It marks the kind of late-night, locally rooted broadcasting that can still draw attention in an era when much of radio has become automated, and it underscores how a station’s personality can still come from the person behind the microphone. For Labbe, the answer to whether the work still matters is already in the trophy: after 53 years on the air and in print, this is the honor he says he will remember most.
