Malcolm Street

Malcolm Street’s love for the sports began as a guard on the Glencoe High School football team of 1934. His playing career ended with his graduation from Glencoe as valedictorian in  1935 but his involvement with sports was just beginning. 

While in high school Street had covered sports for the Gadsden Times. As an undergraduate at Jacksonville State Teachers College, he began broadcasting hush school football games for a Gadsden radio station.

His first play–by-play experiences came as the public address announcer at Jacksonville State football games, over a PA system borrowed from the owner of the local theater, The Princess. During his junior and senior years, Street would return to Gadsden on Friday afternoons and broadcast high school games over radio station WJBY.

While in college, Street also began broadcasting the annual Sixth District basketball tournament - then the qualifying tournament for the state tournament. He also served as the tournament’s official scorer.

Following his graduation from Jacksonville State in 1939, Street took a full time position with WJBY. He remained until he moved to Anniston with WHMA in 1941 as sports director and program director. 

About three weeks later he asked for a week away from work to get married. The station manager agreed that he could be off from Tuesday, his wedding day, until Saturday, but insisted that he return on Sunday to do a live remote broadcast of an Easter egg hunt in Zinn Park, a block away from the station’s office. Street remained with WHMA and Anniston Broadcasting Company for more than 50 years. In Anniston, Street constantly promoted local sports with his broadcasting efforts. He aired home and away Anniston High School football games for almost 50 years. He also broadcast Jacksonville State and other area high school football games. 

Springs and summers found him broadcasting baseball games of the Anniston Rams, Anniston’s minor league team, as well as youth league games. 

Street promoted interest in high school football by interviewing coaches for his “Coach’s Corner” series, a program he did for more than 25 years. He also began a high school football scoreboard program on WHMA that aired each Friday night after that night’s live broadcast ended. 

Street helped establish the Calhoun County basketball tournament in 1951 and promoted the event by personally broadcasting the tournament’s games for more than 30 years. 

He is a charter member and former president of the Anniston Quarterback Club. He was instrumental in the Anniston Quarterback Club’s decision to sponsor a season-ending football game between Calhoun County’s two best high school teams with the proceeds benefiting children’s charities. The game was initially played on Thanksgiving Day and became known as the Turkey Bowl. 

As president of Anniston’s Broadcasting Company, Street started the first FM radio station in East Alabama in 1947, WHMA-FM, and the area’s first television station, WHMA-TV, in 1969.

Street holds an honorary doctorate from Jacksonville State and was inducted into the JSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. He was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.