Rick Karle wants to bring you some good news.

The longtime sports director at WBRC Fox 6 and anchor at WVTM 13 is as much a television fixture in Birmingham as he could be, but he’s still a writer at heart. Starting this week, he’s going to be telling stories designed to warm hearts in the daily digital editions of the Huntsville Times, The Birmingham News and the Press-Register in Mobile.

“You know, I think there’s a lot of bad news out there,” Karle said. “And, you know it just felt like, we have to cover it, you know, in all mediums. But people really respond to good news — because there’s so much bad news out there.

“I think it’s — it gives them a break, and it gives them a little bit of relief,” Karle said. “And there’s so many good news stories out there.”

Karle’s work will appear weekly in the daily digital editions and will be available to subscribers on AL.com. You can subscribe to a digital edition of the Times, The News or Press-Register here.

Long before he retired from WVTM as morning co-anchor in December 2023, Karle was regularly sharing good news stories with an ever-expanding audience.

Karle writes about sports – “current Alabama football players like Jalen Milroe, or former Bama stars and current NFL players like Jalen Hurts, Mac Jones and Bryce Young,” as noted in a Nov. 22, 2023 Ben Flanagan story on AL.com. But he doesn’t stop there.

“Karle’s philosophy is to see a good story for what it is and then find an even deeper hook. He might learn about a subject, call a family member to talk, or they’ll send him a photograph and he will parse through the details of the image for a new perspective,” Flanagan wrote.

Karle said people send him stories about their health issues, family crises and other challenges they overcome. “You know, it’s cliche, but … everybody has a story,” he said. “You can talk with a lady at Publix or chat with a guy at the gas station. And the story they’ve got to tell us is really pretty amazing. So that’s how it started.”

Karle has been telling stories on big platforms with much success for many years.

Beginning his TV career in 1980, Karle moved to Birmingham in 1989. Since then he has won 25 regional Emmy Awards and in 2023 he was recognized by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame with a Mel Allen Media Award, which honors media members who have made a lifetime contribution to sports through their work.

Even after retiring from TV – besides “playing lots of pickleball” and working around the house he shares with Jill, his wife of nearly 40 years — Karle has continued telling stories online, multiple times a day. And he still has lots more to share, he said.

The stories Karle tells in the digital editions will be exclusive. For his first offering on Saturday, he’s exploring the emotions Alabama play-by-play announcer Chris Stewart will experience as he calls the Crimson Tide’s game against UConn in the Final Four. Let’s just say Stewart beat long odds to get there.

It’s a powerful story. Expect more of the same, he said.

“They will be stories that you don’t see on my Facebook page, but they will be in the same route of most of them – good news,” Karle said. “There are some more heartbreaking, tragic stories I do,’’ he said. But “Hey, you know – I try to write stories with a happy ending.”

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