Back Page
Broadcaster named to Wall of Fame
By Lisa Magers/CISD Community Services
Sep 17, 2008 - 11:37:22 AM

As news director of WBAP, Rick Hadley is used to covering the news and keeping listeners informed of the latest happenings.

But this week, Hadley, a member of the Cleburne High School Class of 1981, is making news as the recipient of the CHS Ex-Students Association’s Wall of Fame Award, presented in conjunction with 2008 Homecoming festivities.

Hadley, along with Coming Home Queen Dr. Stephanie Johnson Morton and members of the 1958 Jackets football team, named this year’s Homecoming Parade Marshals, will be recognized during pre-game festivities beginning at 7 p.m. Friday at Jacket Stadium.

They will also participate in Thursday evening’s Homecoming Parade and will be honored at the community pep rally immediately following the parade.

“We are very pleased to add Rick Hadley to our Wall of Fame,” said Mark Banton, Ex-Students Association president. “So many of us have kept up with Rick throughout his broadcast career and are very proud of his accomplishments as a Yellow Jacket.”

“Rick is one of the youngest graduates to be selected for the Cleburne High School Wall of Fame,” Banton said. “That’s quite an honor in itself.”

Hadley has more than 20 years experience in radio news and was recently named chairman of the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. He began his career in 1984 as an intern at Cleburne’s KCLE, while attending the then Texas Wesleyan College.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in mass communications in 1985, he returned to KCLE as news director. Hadley’s duties included play-by-play coverage of Jacket football, basketball and baseball with the late Pete Smith, with whom he now shares Wall of Fame honors.

“When you look at the Wall of Fame and see names like Pete Smith, Sonny Burgess, Lowell Smith Jr. and Boyd Matson—who also worked at KCLE early in his career—it’s very humbling,” Hadley said. “This is an unbelievable honor. It’s mind-boggling. To be up on the wall with these people is something I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams.”

Hadley’s life behind the microphone began in high school as a participant in theatre arts.

“I had great times in drama,” Hadley said. “By the time I got to high school, I had wrecked my knee playing football in junior high, and I didn’t make the baseball team, so I went another direction and got involved in one-act play and the high school’s drama productions.”

“I grew up with the same group of friends that I had made at Coleman Elementary,” Hadley said. “We all went through high school together. High school was a great time in my life.”

While attending Texas Wesleyan, Hadley was a member of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and was named Outstanding Active his senior year. He was also honored as a Guardian of the Golden Shears, the highest campus recognition award presented by the school.

It was also Texas Wesleyan that Hadley began dating a fellow Yellow Jacket, Angie Seay, who had been a year behind him at CHS.

“We didn’t know each other the whole time we were at CHS,” Rick said. “The year after I graduated I was invited back to help present Cleburne’s drama awards. Angie had been in ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ that year and was attending the drama banquet. I heard she would be going to Texas Wesleyan, and I went over and introduced myself and told her to let me know if she needed any help once she got there.”

Rick and Angie had a follow-up conversation several months later when they ran into each other at a campus Baptist Student Union event. They wound up dating all through college and married in 1986.

Their daughter, Kristen, is a junior at CHS and a member of the Golden Pride Band.

Rick’s parents are Fred and Linda Hadley and his brother, Jeff, is a member of the CHS class of 1985.

In addition to his time spent behind the mike at KCLE, Hadley spent a year as news director for Mineral Wells and Weatherford stations KYXS/KJSA. His experiences include play-by-play announcer for the Tarleton State University Texans.

Hadley received what he considers his “big break” in 1993 while working as a news director for a radio network of small market stations in Cleburne, Glen Rose, Hamilton and San Saba.

“I was hired for a part-time opening at WBAP,” Hadley said. “I stayed for a year, leaving to become the producer of the radio talk show, ‘Point of View,’ with Marlin Maddox at USA Radio Network in Farmer’s Branch.”

But his career at WBAP was far from over. Hadley received an offer to return to the station as morning news producer and mid-day anchor—an offer he accepted. He was later promoted to afternoon drive news anchor, and in 2002, was named news director at WBAP, rated the No. 1 news-talk station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, which is ranked No. 5 in the nation.

In addition to his duties at WBAP, Hadley serves on the AMBER Task Force for Tarrant County and is a past member of the Texas Wesleyan University Alumni Board and holds membership in the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

He has received numerous journalism and broadcast awards, including recognition from Texas Associated Press Broadcasters, Press Club of Atlantic City, Press Club of Houston, Texas Medical Association, Dallas Bar Association, State Bar Association and the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

In 2005 Hadley and the WBAP news department received the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize with the presentation of the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award for their coverage of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

A reception for this year’s Ex-Students Association honorees will coincide with the third annual CHS Cheerleaders Reunion, which will be held Friday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on the patio at Caddo Street Grill. All CHS exes and members of the community are invited to this event.

© Copyright 2008 by YapperOnline.com