Ashland Independent Profiles New KBC Communications Director

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Veteran journalist Roger Alford joined the KBC staff as director of communications just a few weeks ago. The Ashland Daily Independent ran this excellent profile of Roger detailing his 30 years as a journalist:

FRANKFORT — After dedicating his life to journalism for 30 years, former Independent reporter Roger Alford has decided to retire from the news world and trade in his recorder for a communications badge for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Alford, who has worked his way through the ranks of weekly and daily papers in Kentucky and Ohio to the one-person staff in Pikeville’s Associated Press bureau, will cap his journalism career on Tuesday and begin his job as communications director in mid-January.

Alford, 56, began working for the AP in 2000 after earning experience at a number of other papers, including the Corbin Times Tribune, the Middlesboro Daily News, The Independent, the Portsmouth Daily Times and the Columbus Dispatch.

Ed Staats, former bureau chief for the AP in Kentucky who hired Alford from The Independent, complimented Alford on his unique reporting style.

“His quiet and methodical professional approach to assignments just gave me confidence he would be able to handle any story that came long,” he said.

 

But as the end of his news career tapers off, Alford said he knows he will miss reporting.

“I’m certain that I’ll miss journalism. After 30 years, it’s definitely in the blood, but that said, I’m certain that what I’m doing in my new role will be just as, if not more, fulfilling,” he said.

Alford said he looks forward to advocating his mission as a Christian in promoting God’s word in his new line of work.

Alford said his family is also fully supportive of his retirement decision.

“Here I am, this roughneck who has lived a rough life, who finally got things kind of together,” he said. “To have an opportunity to support Kentucky Baptist churches that are reaching out to a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ is just thrilling.”

As Alford prepares to leave the AP, he assured he maintains a favorable view of the news organization, as he recalled his favorite Mark Twain quote that hangs on the wall in the Frankfort bureau:

“There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe … the sun in the heavens and The Associated Press down here.”

Click here to read the full story from Lana Bellamy of the Daily Independent.

Welcome aboard, Roger!

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