Hugh Douglas made an emotional return to 94WIP’s midday show on Monday for the first time since his 20-year-old son died in a car accident on Sept. 4.
Douglas took time at the beginning of the show, which he hosts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside Joe Giglio, to thank everyone who has reached out to him in the weeks following the tragedy.
“I want to say thank you to everybody that reached out these last couple of weeks. I appreciate you. Compassion is not dead,” Douglas said. “This is hard. I thought I could get up here and do this without being emotional. But hey, it is what it is. This is my new normal, and I have to figure out a way to try to adjust, and adapt, and be as close to what I was before this happened.”
Giglio expressed support for his cohost and gratitude for the fill-in hosts who took over for Douglas during his absence.
“Your normal is good enough for us,” Giglio said. “Your ‘you’ … is good enough for us, and we’re very excited to have you back… We love you, man. Listen, I want to thank everyone that had a chance to fill in for you because they did a great job, but this show is not the same without you.”
During Douglas’ first episode back, he and Giglio discussed the Birds’ Monday Night Football game against Tampa Bay. The full episode can be streamed here.
As the show was airing, Douglas took to X, formerly Twitter, to interact with fans who praised his return to radio.
“I tried to hold it together,” he responded to a user who commented on his tearful speech.
Douglas’ son, also named Hugh, was killed in a car crash in the East Point suburb of Atlanta. Douglas’ college roommate, Christion Files Jr., also 20, was driving with Douglas as a passenger. Files tried to pass another car and lost control, police said. The car struck two utility poles and overturned. Both men died at the scene.
The two were sophomores at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta. Douglas was studying business administration with a concentration in finance. He was a member of the Morehouse Business Association and a Goldman Sachs fellow, as well as a fellow at AltFinance, a program that boosts diversity within the financial services industry. Files founded CxF Media, a photography and videography company focused on sports and entertainment. His family has named a scholarship fund in his honor.
In the weeks following his son’s death, Douglas has posted several photos of his son and changed his profile picture on social media to a smiling photo of the 20-year-old.
The elder Douglas played for the Eagles from 1998 to 2002, then again in 2004. He began his broadcasting career at FOX29 before joining WIP and later working as an NFL analyst for ESPN. He returned to WIP earlier this year following the retirement of Angelo Cataldi.