Posted Friday, December 15, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Richard Sangster retired today from News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB after 26 years covering breaking news, most of it during the mornings.
"WSB believed in what I did," said Sangster after his final shift was over. "They liked what I did. It just shows you the station is committed to covering the news. They gave me that opportunity."
He said his younger sister recently passed away suddenly and at age 63, that made him think about his own future. "I have friends around the country," he said. "I'd like to travel and see them. I want to enjoy time with my wife [Linda] and my two daughters [Bianca and Ally]. I'd like to learn how to play golf. I want to visit Niagara Falls."
"He's going out on his own terms," said news director Chris Camp. "These days, that's an unheard thing. We're certainly going to miss him. Twenty five years of experience is difficult to make up."
A native Staten Island resident, he moved to Atlanta in 1988 after stints at stations in Tampa, Houston and New York. He worked for a time at 680/WCNN-AM when it attempted to be an all-news station but moved to WSB in 1992.
He said he has covered his fair share of news events, including the day trader murders in 1999, 9/11, the courthouse shootings in 2005, the 2007 Bluffton bus crash on I-75 and the 2013 Boston marathon bombing, to name a few.
And he became a hurricane specialist. "Whenever Kirk Mellish's forecast would show a hurricane coming," Camp said "either he would call me or I'd call him and the first words out of his mouth would be, 'Whaddya think? Where are we going to go?' I don't know how many hurricanes he's covered, big and small."
Traffic reporter Doug Turnbull considers him a "throwback to when many stations had an intrepid morning news reporter. He's quintessential WSB: professional, urgent and long lasting."
Sangster would wake up before many folks go to sleep and was at WSB by 1:15 a.m. prepping for the day's news. "He had priceless contacts within law enforcement," said fellow traffic reporter "Smilin' " Mark McKay, "which didn't mean just making a phone call but making a pre-dawn in-person visit if needed."
Camp said he's not sure who will take over Sangster's morning slot just yet.
WSB Radio and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are both part of Cox Media Group.
