Mitch Self
MITCH SELF
Photos courtesy of Kevin Self
Mitch Self talking about his life and career, c. 1989
Mitch Self (1936-1990) came to the Shoals from Oxford, Mississippi, in 1961, when he became part-owner of WLAY-AM, one of the oldest radio stations in Alabama and the southern United States. Ten years later, he traded his interest in Decatur station WMSL for a larger interest in WLAY, and became its president and general manager, serving in both capacities for the next two decades.
Mr. Self was born in Haleyville, Alabama, during the height of the Great Depression. As a teenager, he moved with his family to California, where he attended the Radio Operational Engineering School for two years. He returned to Haleyville in 1952 and got his first job in the radio business as an announcer at local station WJBB. He was still a high-school senior when, two years later, he moved to Decatur, Alabama, to work as a disc jockey for WAJF.
Following his graduation from high school, Mr. Self relocated to Oxford, Mississippi, where he served as program director and announcer for the newly launched radio station WSUH, and met his future wife, Elizabeth (Jimmie Lynn). In 1959, he and two partners purchased Dyersburg, Tennessee, station WTRO, and two years later, he traded his one-third interest in the station for a five-percent interest in WLAY.
Established as WNRA in 1933, WLAY had distinguished itself from other southern radio stations during its first two decades with an “open playlist” format, programming so-called “race music” alongside more typical gospel and country fare. This stylistic blend had inspired one young WLAY disc jockey, Sam Phillips, to establish Sun Records and lay the foundation for the development of rock and roll, which WLAY, in turn, was quick to embrace. “It was the station that played the rock and roll when AM radio was king,” as David Hood later recalled.
Four years before Mitch Self arrived at WLAY, the station had hosted the first commercial recording session in the Shoals area, for Bobby Denton’s Tune Records release “A Fallen Star,” and during Mr. Self’s tenure, WLAY continued to play a key role in the development of the famed “Muscle Shoals Sound.” Rick Hall was a frequent visitor to the WLAY studio, bringing test acetates of new recordings from FAME Studios to play on the air. Hall would sit outside in his car and listen to gauge how the recordings sounded on the radio, then return to FAME and fine-tune the mixes as needed before releasing them. Additionally, it was two former WLAY employees, disc jockey Quin Ivy and chief engineer Paul Kelley, who recorded the Shoals area’s first number-one hit, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” at Norala Sound Studio (built in 1965 with equipment borrowed from the station).
In addition to serving as president and general manager of WLAY, Mr. Self was active in state and local politics, managing two successful mayoral campaigns, and serving both Howell Heflin and Ronnie Flippo as a campaign advisor during their respective runs for the United States Congress. He was also a community and industry leader, serving on the boards of the National Association of Broadcasters and the Alabama Broadcasters Association, and as chairman the Muscle Shoals Utilities Board. In 1985, he was chosen as one of the fifty most influential people in Colbert and Lauderdale counties by readers of the Times Daily newspaper.
Sources:
Mitch Self, interview by Michelle Self Tiffin, c. 1989.
Elizabeth Self, Kevin Self and Mike Self, interview by Brian Corrigan, April 19, 2019.