By Hannah Osborne
The Georgia Association of Broadcasters (GAB) is thrilled to welcome Phil Scoggins to its Hall of Fame.
The seed of broadcasting was planted in Scoggins’ mind while taking a speech class in high school. A reel-to-reel tape recorder was placed in the center of the table and each student would read out their assigned part, then the class would listen back to the tape.
Scoggins’ teacher, Sylvia Chambliss, had told him that he should be able to use his voice in broadcasting, something he hadn’t considered before.
“It was probably about 15 years ago that I tracked her down on facebook,” Scoggins said. “She was living in Boston and I was able to message her on Facebook. I sent her a story that I had done and I told her, ‘Because of you, this is what I am doing today.’”
Scoggins was born and raised in the ‘Queen City of the Highlands,’ Lafayette, GA. In 1964, Scoggins’ father decided to pick up the family and moved to Beverly Hills, CA to work for an electric company. After just a year and a half, the family decided that the big city was not for them, and moved back to Lafayette in 1965.
Shortly after coming back, Scoggins attended a church camp where he met his wife, Judy. The two dated for 5 years before tying the knot and this past year celebrated 52 years of marriage.
“There are so many trajectories my life could have taken if we stayed,” Scoggins says.
Upon graduating high school, with a career in broadcasting in mind, Scoggins decided to attend the University of Georgia.
“If you’re going to study broadcast journalism, where’s the best school to go? It’s right in Athens, GA,” Scoggins says.
As a freshman, in a corner dorm in Reed Hall, Scoggins would sit in his room and pretend to be working for the radio station.
Fast forward to December of senior year, a friend from journalism school, Joe Courson, mentioned to Scoggins that his spot at the local flagship station, WRFC, would be vacant soon. Courson had been working the night shift from 7-10 pm, and doing reports at the top of the hour.
“Joe mentioned to me, ‘If I put in a good word for you, I think you would love doing this,’” Scoggins says.
In January 1974, Scoggins applied for his first position in broadcasting.
Another familiar face worked at WRFC, Sandra Gwyn, who Scoggins knew from back home. Gwyn was close friends with Scoggins’ Aunt Mary and the daughter of Charlie Gwyn, who owned the station that Scoggins had walked past everyday on his way to high school, WLFA-AM.
Although it has never been confirmed to him, Scoggins had a feeling that Gwyn had put in a good word for him at WRFC.
Charles Giddens (GAB Hall of Fame ‘02) was the General Manager at the time and made the decision to hire Scoggins. He began working the evening shift, Monday through Friday.
“When I look back on how my career started, it is amazing and unbelievable that things could have happened the way they did,” says Scoggins.
In the spring, the sports director position at WRFC became available due to the current sports director getting engaged and deciding to move. Scoggins’ goal was to work in television broadcasting, but had been taught that breaking straight into television was very difficult and it would be easier to start in radio, then make the transition to television.
With graduation approaching, Scoggins went to Giddens and asked if he could apply for the sports director position, and to his surprise, he got the job.
“Right out of college, I was hired to be sports director at the flagship station of UGA football and basketball games,” says Scoggins. “That just doesn’t happen.”
Scoggins found himself right out of college and working in the booth on Saturday afternoons at Sanford Stadium, alongside Larry Munson (GAB Hall of Fame ‘94). His game day responsibilities would be to call the chief engineer back at the station to check for scores around the Southeastern Conference. These scores would be handed off to Munson, who worked them into the broadcast.
At the end of the game, Scoggins rushed back to the station. With each quarter recorded on a reel, Scoggins would dub all of the scores onto a cassette tape and do a scoreboard show for folks who were driving home from the game. The engineer helped Scoggins accomplish this by marking each touchdown and field goal with a slip of paper in the tape.
In the scoreboard show, Scoggins walked through the game and set up Munson’s calls from the game.
“That’s the stuff that dreams are made of, especially for a kid who just graduated from Georgia,” Scoggins says.
In Scoggins 2 years with WRFC, he had been exposed to three broadcasters who had gone on to be inducted into the GAB Hall of Fame: Munson, Giddens, and Scott Miller (GAB Hall of Fame ‘22), a morning disk jockey that Scoggins had developed a morning act with.
“To have that quality of broadcasters influence my life at the outset of my career, that was a huge blessing. I was so thankful for the way all of that unfolded,” Scoggins says.
Courson, who had led Scoggins to his first opportunity in radio, reached out 2 years later with an opportunity in television. While working for the Georgia Extension Service in Tifton, GA, Courson had become familiar with the broadcasters in the area. WALB in Albany was hiring a news photographer and Courson had offered to put in a good word if Scoggins was interested.
In the fall of 1976, Scoggins picked up his wife, who was pregnant at the time, and their daughter, and moved to Albany, GA.
Prior to taking the job in Albany, Scoggins had interviewed at WRBL for a news reporter position. Dick McMichael (GAB Hall of Fame ‘20) was the news director at the time and after his interview, let Scoggins know he would be better cut out for a position in sports than as a news reporter, but there were not any openings in sports at that time.
Scoggins went back to Athens and took the job in Albany. Jim Davis, the news director at WALB, helped Scoggins with the move and in finding a place to live.
Two months into his new role, Scoggins received a call from McMichael offering him a sports position at WRBL.
“I declined it,” Scoggins says. “As much as I wanted to be on air, and especially in sports, I didn’t see myself doing such a dastardly deed to Jim Davis, who had treated me so well.”
Scoggins called up his dad, who advised him to consider what the career opportunities were in Columbus versus Albany. In Albany, Ducky Wall was a mainstay, and the chances of breaking into sports seemed slim to none. His dad had suggested he sit down with Davis and explain his predicament.
“Jim told me that my dad was absolutely right and that if he had been in my chair he would be saying, ‘I’m out of here and heading to Columbus,’” says Scoggins.
He quickly called McMichael back and prayed the position would still be available. As luck would have it and for the second time, Scoggins picked his family back up to move to Columbus.
“My poor wife,” Scoggins says. “Now she’s two months further into her pregnancy and I moved her again. She has certainly been a trooper in my career, very understanding, never even brought it up, it was never even an issue.”
In the late fall of 1976, Scoggins joined WRBL as the number two sports anchor. Georgia Theeringer, a veteran broadcaster, was at the end of his career and McMichael knew that. The plan was for Scoggins to slide in and replace Theeringer at his retirement, and early in 1977 that is just what happened.
Scoggins became sports director and his on-air sportscasting career in television began.
Two and half years into his television career, Scoggins received a call from the General Manager at Channel 38 who wanted to recruit him. WRBL, channel 3, was a VHF station, while WYEA, channel 38, was a UHF station. It was considered career suicide to go from a VHF station to a UHF station, but Channel 38 was offering Scoggins an offer he couldn’t refuse.
During his time at the station, Scoggins pitched the idea of previewing the 1980 Sugar Bowl between UGA and Notre Dame. The idea was approved, but the catch was they would not be able to spend the night in South Bend, IN. Scoggins and another reporter would have to drive up to South Bend, get the coverage, and drive right back. 
The two left at 8 o’clock on a Thursday night, driving through the night in 30 degrees below zero with wind chill. When they arrived the 11 o’clock news conference had been pushed to 1 in the afternoon, when the time to interview the head football coach, Dan Devine, came around, the two were the only ones left in the room.
“Dan Devine had a love/hate relationship with the media, but he was like a grandfather talking to us,” Scoggins says. The two were awarded with a half hour, one-on-one interview with Devine.
After the interview, Scoggins and his companion got back in the car and arrived back in Columbus at 10 am Saturday morning.
Their next stop was Athens, where they interviewed Coach Dooley, Herschel Walker, Buck Belue and Tommy Hicks, a snapper from Columbus.
“I got a call from Tommy’s mother asking when the special would air,” Scoggins says.
At the end of their conversation she told him they would see him in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and Scoggins let her know that he would just be watching on the tv. Thirty minutes later, she called back and offered him two tickets to the Sugar Bowl.
“On January 1, 1981, on my dad’s 50th birthday, he and I got to sit in the stands, and instead of work, I got to cheer my bulldogs to the national championship with my dad sitting right beside me in the stands. That was a sweet moment.”
Two and a half years into Scoggins time with Channel 38, the station was sold to Lewis Broadcasting Corporation out of Savannah. On the first day, half a dozen people were fired, Scoggins being among them.
“I had been in the market for 5 years and didn’t see that coming at all,” Scoggins says. “The good Lord always has a plan and after applying for unemployment, the news director from Channel 3 called with an offer.”
WRBL was beginning an experiment of doing dual local newscasts in the evenings. The first wraparound would take place at 6pm, followed by Walter Cronkite’s syndication at 6:30 pm and then back to local news at 7pm. To accomplish this, the station needed two anchors, two meteorologists and two sportscasters.
Scoggins accepted the offer and came back to WRBL.
Within the next year, Scoggins was drawn to explore interests outside of broadcasting. He began a position in marketing and public relations with Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA, which he held for 6 years.
In 1988, Scoggins broke away and decided to start his own video production company, Scoggins Video Productions.
“Fast forward 10 years, in 1998, I asked the Lord, ‘I am comfortable and happy with what I am doing, but I’m not sure that this is what I need to be doing the rest of my life. If I need to be doing something else, just show me,’” says Scoggins.
At the time, Scoggins was working on a video for AFLAC and had a problem. Since broadcast editing tools were what he was familiar with, he used editing suites at stations. An editor at WRBL called and said he had figured the issue out and called Scoggins to come up to the station.
As Scoggins is sitting in the editing suite, Bob Page, WRBL’s news director, walks by and sticks his head in the door. Page tells Scoggins that he has been looking to talk to him and asks that he come by his office.
“I headed to his office and Page told me that the Lord had laid it on his heart and he wanted me to come back on board,” Scoggins says. “Within 2 hours of my prayer, I met with Page.”
Page had wanted Scoggins to come back as a news anchor, which he resisted at first.
“I told Bob, you got the wrong guy, that is not me, I don’t see myself as a news anchor,” says Scoggins. “I’m flattered, but I’m not sure I can do it.”
Page pushed back and had faith that it was the right fit for Scoggins. Phil Lane, the general manager at the time, took the chance on Scoggins and brought him back for a 3-year contract.
Scoggins returned to WRBL for a third time in July 1998 as an assistant news anchor, co-anchoring alongside Teresa Whitaker (GAB Hall of Fame ‘23).
The two spoke recently as a result of the induction and Page told Scoggins, ‘Remember what you had told me? That I had the wrong guy?’
In January 2001, when Scoggins’ contract was coming to an end, he met with Lane’s replacement. The new general manager let him know that they would not be renewing his contract.
“My heart sank,” Scoggins says. “I felt the Lord opened this door for me and now it’s closing so quickly.”
In August when his contract was set to end, Scoggins had not found a new job, nor had the station found a replacement. He told the news director that if he found a new job he would give the station a 30 days notice, and in return, if the station found his replacement they would provide him with the same.
Scoggins, in need of a break, took a week’s vacation to the Smokies with his family. He came back to work on September 10, 2001.
On the morning of 9/11, Scoggins’ wife woke him up just as the second plane was about to hit. He told her that he had to get to work. When he got in, he called the pastor at the First Baptist Church who he had been at Grady with.
“I told him, people need to hear from people like you on a day like this,” Scoggins says.
The news director made the major decision to make the 5 o’clock newscast an hour and a half long, rather than just a half hour.
“I tend to be a nervous person, that’s my nature,” Scoggins says. “On that particular day, it was like the Lord sent someone to sit on that anchor desk. The person doing it was so calm, there were no nerves, and I was blown away.”
Scoggins expresses that he was thankful for how the newscast was handled because on a day like that, the obligation is to present the news in the best possible way considering the gravity of the situation.
Corporate had requested copies of all of their stations newscasts, WRBL’s was ‘unbelievably’ problem free and ‘practically flawless.’ In light of a terrible situation, Scoggins’ contract was renewed by the end of the week.
For the past 26 and a half years, Scoggins and Whitaker have been side by side on the anchor desk. The pair have survived on the anchor desk over a quarter of a century; half a dozen general managers; a dozen of news directors; and a handful of owners, something that is typically unheard of in a business where any number of changes can cause someone to suggest a change on the anchor desk.
“Teresa and I are very strong in our faith and lean on each other in this crazy business that we’re in,” Scoggins says. “To have somebody that you know is strong is a strong Christian sitting beside you, gives you strength to do this job.”
Both have a passion for sharing the good news alongside the bad. Scoggins started a franchise, which has since been discontinued, called News 3 Neighbors, to highlight the stories of people flying under the radar, but trying to be a blessing to the other people in their community.
One of these stories was about an individual who lived in Americus and rode around on his bicycle collecting cans to raise money for the expansion of his community’s church. Over a couple years, he had raised $7,000.
In 2009, Scoggins spoke with former President Jimmy Carter, calling the story “The Faith of a President.” He and another reporter, David Spunt, did a dual interview with President Carter, Spunt focusing on his childhood, and Scoggins focusing on his faith.
The two met with Carter at his boyhood home, just outside of Plains, and interviewed him.
“To hear a former president describe the role that prayer played when he was leading the free world was impactful,” Scoggins says. “He would say that his most intense prayers came when he was in the White House and the weight of the world was on his shoulders.”
Scoggins would interview the president a few more times, but this experience stands out in his memory most.
“As my favorite Christmas movie says, ‘It’s a wonderful life,’” says Scoggins. “And it has been a wonderful life.”
Between television and radio, Scoggins has been in the broadcasting business for 35 years.
“I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to do something I absolutely love for my career. So many people can’t say that,” Scoggins says.
On March 28, 2025, Scoggins’ 35 years will be immortalized at the GAB Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
“I get to go to the TV station and tell people what’s going on in the world, and share stories with them. To do what I do is a thrill that is still within my bones at 72 years old. I’m a very blessed man,” says Scoggins.
The GAB Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at The Omni Atlanta at Centennial Park on Friday, March 28, 2025.
