Meet Our Staff
East Alabama Now’s team of professionals is dedicated to delivering top-quality multi-media content to the local community. With over 100 years of combined experience, our team is passionate about creating content that matters to you. Meet the East Alabama Now team below.
Ashley Gober
Co-Founder & CEO
Nathan Gober
Co-Founder and COO
Lisa Freeman
Advertising Specialist
Our News Team
Mike Stedham
News Director/Anchor
MIKE STEDHAM began his newscasting career at WDNG Radio in 1974 while still a junior at Jacksonville State University majoring in English. He became News Director of WDNG four years later and left in 1984 to complete his master’s degree. He worked for The Anniston Star as a reporter and editor from 1985 to 1999, and in 2000 he became manager of student media at JSU. He continued to do freelance writing for magazines, newspapers and TV during that time. Stedham retired from the university in 2022 and began working with East Alabama Now Local News at its inception in October 2022. He continues to work as a freelance writer and directs plays for the Community Actors Studio Theater in Anniston. He also writes murder-mystery scripts that have raised thousands of
dollars for local charities.
Katie Edwards
News Anchor
KATIE EDWARDS brings to EAN 21 years of experience in the radio, television and public speaking industry. Her broadcast career began at WEAC TV-24 as a co-host, content creator and writer for the “Wake Up Alabama” morning show, as well as the evening news broadcast. While Studying at Jacksonville State University as a double-major in English and Communication, Katie became the News Director for WHMA Radio in Anniston. In 2003, she found a new talent and passion in media-working with local clients in developing brand strategies for radio production from concept to execution at WVOK Radio in Oxford. In 2012, Katie discovered Social Selling-an industry that allowed her to lead a more than 300 member team through training, coaching and mentoring and become a Main Stage presenter at multiple National Conferences, while staying home with her children for almost a decade. In 2020, she accepted a position as Director of Marketing at Anniston Orthopedic Associates, as well as Sales,
Marketing and Social Media Director at High School Football Alabama. Katie is the founder and host of Truth by Light online Bible Study, Founding Member and Contributor of Beyond the Bleachers Coaches Wives Ministry, and Women’s Bible Study Coordinator at Parker Memorial Baptist Church in Anniston. She resides in Jacksonville with her husband, Jamison, and their four children.
Jon Holder
Weather
JON HOLDER has been the General Manager of WGRW Grace Radio 90.7 FM, a Christian radio ministry in the Anniston/Gadsden area, for 24 years. Holder is an ordained deacon at Grace Fellowship Community Church on McClellan in Anniston. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes of the Cheaha Valley and is Vice-President of the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors. He has also been a past board member of the ARC of Calhoun and Cleburne Counties and Sav-A-Life of Calhoun County and past President and board member of the East Central Alabama United Cerebral Palsy Center Board. Jon is the Producer and Host of the High School Football Alabama After The Game live streamed video show. He was a Weather Forecaster in local television news for over a dozen years and has prepared daily forecasts and anchored live severe weather coverage on Grace Radio for 24 years. Holder has worked for many years on statewide and regional television and state radio sports broadcasts. Jon is a graduate of Spring Garden High School and Jacksonville State University. He has been married to wife Lynne for 24 years and they have one daughter. The Holder family resides in Anniston.
Namath Pitts
Sports Director
NAMATH PITTS is a graduate of Wellborn High School and Jacksonville State University. He started his broadcasting career at WDNG in Anniston. He then transitioned to WVOK where he called high school football and did board op work. Namath comes to East Alabama Now from iHeart Media in Birmingham where he was a producer.