Randy Kennedy will receive the Mel Allen Media Award as part of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 induction in May, it was announced Monday.

Kennedy, a Birmingham native, has been a mainstay of Alabama sports media since the 1980s. He covered both Alabama and Auburn for the Dothan Eagle and also served as editor of the Opelika-Auburn News before moving to Mobile in 2002.

Kennedy worked for many years as sports editor and columnist for the Mobile Press-Register before going into radio full-time. He can be heard every afternoon on “The Randy Kennedy Show” on Mobile’s SportsTalk 99.5 FM, and also contributes to AL.com’s coverage of high school and college sports and recruiting and writes a weekly sports column for Lagniappe.

A graduate of Chelsea High School and the University of Montevallo, Kennedy has also worked as a sports writer or editor at the Shelby County Reporter, the Alexander City Outlook and the Valdosta (Ga.) Daily Times. In 2022, he was honored as one of 50 Legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association.

The Mel Allen Media Award was created by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 to recognize media members who have “made a lifetime contribution to sports” in the state of the Alabama. The award is named in honor of 1974 ASHOF inductee Mel Allen, a Birmingham native who was most famously the radio voice of the New York Yankees from 1940-64.

Previous winners of the Mel Allen Media Award are John Pruett (2014), George Smith (2014), Tom Roberts (2015), Ron Ingram (2017), Cecil Hurt (2019), Paul Finebaum (2020), Rubin Grant (2021), Mark McCarter (2022) and Rick Karle (2023).

“The Mel Allen part is hard to even wrap your brain around, but I’ve always been proud of how many great sports journalists there are in Alabama,” Kennedy said. “So obviously, it’s a great award. But it’s an even bigger deal because of how much I think of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and have over the years without ever any thought being an inductee in any way in it. They do such a great job, that to be there alongside the other people who have won, this is really, really special.”

The 56th Alabama Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet and ceremony takes place at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel on Saturday, May 4. The Class of 2024 includes Mike Anderson, Larry Chapman and John Drew from basketball, David Palmer, Robert Mathis and Mike Washington from football, Penney Hauschild Buxton from gymnastics and Scott Sullivan from baseball, as well as Distinguished Alabama Sportsman recipient Kerry Goode.

For more information on the 2024 Hall of Fame banquet or to purchase tickets, please contact the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Museum at (205) 323-6665.