Randy Bell Collection

Randy Bell was born in Fayette, Alabama, and grew up in Vernon, AL. He is a graduate of both Lamar County High School, and of Mississippi State University (Class of 1974). His radio career began Vernon, and he became a journalist while in college, working at Starkville station WKOR. After graduating from MSU, he moved to Jackson, MS, to work at WJDX-AM and WZZQ-FM. In 1978 he was named News Director of the Jackson stations, and since then has become Mississippi’s longest-serving and most-awarded radio journalist. Over the course of his career Bell has covered many topics, including state politics, the 1979 Easter Flood in Jackson and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He has served as president of the Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Association; as a member of the board of directors of the Radio-Television Digital News Association; and as state chair of the Mississippi Emergency Alert System. He also helped to create Mississippi’s AMBER Alert system.