One of Alabama’s most watched morning news programs brought its cameras and personalities to Gulf Shores on Monday and Tuesday to get the word out across the state that the Alabama coast is clear.

Co-anchors Rick Journey and Janice Rogers of Birmingham’s Fox6 Good Day Alabama program, along with sports anchor Jeh Jeh Pruitt and popular morning weatherman Mickey Ferguson, helped kick off spring break by broadcasting live on the beach near The Hangout, doing interviews, exercising, cooking and dancing to live music.

“Janice (Rogers) and the show contacted us and said they wanted to come down and do a segment of the show during spring break and I said no, let’s do a whole week,” said Hangout owner Shaul Zislin. “So we had to compromise and ended up with two full days here on the beach.”

Zislin complemented the City of Gulf Shores along with the Convention and Visitors Bureau for making it happen.

“We are already getting phone calls and emails from people up north saying that everything looks great,” said Zislin during Monday’s broadcast.

Ferguson, a veteran of television for more than 20 years and known for his flamboyant personality, said it was he and Janice Rogers’ idea to bring the show to the Gulf Coast.

“Janice and I went to our news director about a month ago and told him that we would like to bring the show to the beach,” Ferguson said. “The country kind of got a negative light of what the beaches were like, and we were down during the Jimmy Buffett concert and we couldn’t find any oil.”

Ferguson said it was at that time they discussed bringing the show to the beach during spring break.

“We are showing all of north and central Alabama how beautiful our beaches are.”

According to Ferguson, several affiliates of Raycom Communications were broadcasting parts of the show in other states.

“We just want to show everyone how gorgeous this place is.”

Rogers said that everyone at Fox6 realizes how important getting the word out is in order to get people back to Alabama’s beaches. She also said it meant something to her personally.

“My family vacations down here every year so it is a real personal thing to me, and when we were sent down here last year to cover the oil spill, it became even more personal,” Rogers said. “We thought about the idea of bringing Good Day Alabama here and we are just glad that it all worked out.”

Despite the advertising campaign that is presently taking place in markets across the region, Zislin said the more live broadcasts that can be done, the better.

“The key is to get the message out there that we are absolutely good to go and that it is okay to come down here,” Zislin said. “A month from now will be the one-year anniversary of the oil spill and people are going to be looking to see how we are doing, and people need to see that we are looking great and ready to go.”