Jamie Cooper

Alabama Original: The Country Rover Jamie Cooper

Jamie always wanted to be in television while growing up in New Hope like his early morning mentor, Country Boy Eddie.

After a college professor told him with his Southern accent he'd never make it - he thought otherwise.

In 1974 he began his career at Educational Television as a film editor.

In the fall of 1975 he was hired at WAAY-TV as a photographer and hot film splicer. He had found his dream job. A couple years later The Country Rover was born and became a full time job.

Seventeen years as a feature reporter and almost 1,000 stories later, Jamie shared a lot of stories of local folks from Fort Payne to Florence. Many laughs with ordinary people placing them in the spotlight made it successful.

In 1990 he started WAAY TOO EARLY on Channel 31. Several years later he went out on his own with Cooper & Company. In 2003 he and his wife, Gloria, bought ZTV-11, a Class A station in Athens and continued Cooper & Company live for almost 20 years. After selling their station it only felt natural to bring the Country Rover back.

Thomas Wolfe once wrote, "you can't go home again"...but that's exactly what Jamie did. After 31 years Jamie returns to WAAY-TV and there are still plenty of Alabama Originals to be shared. What a WAAY to celebrate 50 years of local television.

Find all the Alabama Original: The Country Rover stories HERE