Doug Turnbull has left the only full-time job he has ever had reporting traffic on WSB radio for 20 years.
His final day was Friday when he flew on the traffic helicopter over metro Atlanta for a final time. Earlier, staff held him a going away party at the office and on air, WSB afternoon host Eric Von Haessler wished him well.
“You’ve been a great colleague and great friend,” Von Haessler said on air at 6:45 p.m. Friday. “You are fantastic at what you do. I will miss the hell out of you.”
Turnbull, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said he started as an intern at the news/talk station three days after he graduated high school at age 18 in 2004 and worked under the late Capt. Herb Emory, who died unexpectedly in 2014.
“Capt. Emory trained me,” he said. “I got to start on top at a place this well respected. I didn’t have to go to a smaller radio station. I did different jobs at WSB but mainly traffic.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
For a time, Turnbull thought he could be that rare person who stayed at the same employer for his entire career. But the radio business has gotten more challenging in recent years and more people are using apps to track traffic instead of getting reports from the radio.
“I’m a person of routine and tradition,” said Turnbull, 38. “People consider me very loyal. I don’t do this easily. I prayed about it for a long time.”
He realized he had been covering traffic for ages when he saw the Georgia Department of Transportation repaving I-285 for a third time, which he said they usually do every seven years.
At the same time, he wanted to note that “WSB has given me so much. It changed my life. I’m absolutely honored to have worked with these people, who take their jobs so seriously. They will always be family to me.”
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Over the summer, Turnbull began hunting for other career options and landed at Impact Partnership in Kennesaw, a marketing firm that creates content for financial advisers including pay-for-play radio shows, commercials, promos, podcasts and social media. He said he will be a full-time podcast host.
Several other former radio personalities now work at Impact, including former Star 94 news reporter Rob Stadler, former B98.5 morning show producer Jessica Forkel, former Star 94 host Heather Branch and former Star 94 morning host Mark Owens.
“We all know a version of each other’s story,” Turnbull said. “It’s nice to be around people who understand you.”
Turnbull will continue to write the weekly Gridlock Guy column for the AJC as a freelance reporter. He has been penning it since 2017.
“I still care a lot about traffic,” Turnbull said. “I feel like I got a doctorate on the subject. I still have a lot of contacts.”
He will also continue to co-host a weekly NASCAR podcast “Five to Go” that began in 2017 and work as race announcer at some races with the Performance Racing Network since 2012. And, he hosts team trivia at Iron Horse Tavern on Thursday nights.
Over the past two decades, Turnbull has covered some of Atlanta’s wildest traffic-related stories, including the 2009 floods that covered parts of I-20, the infamous 2014 Snowmageddon that paralyzed the city’s highways, the plane that crashed on I-285 in 2015, and the 2017 underpass fire that caused a bridge to collapse on I-85. He was also in the helicopter that chased the man who hijacked the Gwinnett County bus in June.
Ken Charles, WSB’s director of operations, branding and programming, said a replacement for Turnbull’s afternoon shift has not been decided: “Mark McKay is leading the traffic team and we’re strategizing on the rest. You know how important traffic is to our listeners and this metro. We will not let them down.”
As for Turnbull, Charles said “he has been a great ambassador for the last 20 years. We appreciate his passion and commitment to the station and Atlanta’s commuters and wish him success as he starts his next chapter.”
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