Listen to Jay Butler on WCMC when it was a country radio station. This bit of audio is known in the industry as an air-check. You will hear the beginning and end of a song and the program transitions from one element to another.

Check out this assortment of wild and crazy on-the-air phone calls made to unsuspecting listeners. The prank turns into a happy birthday phone call. Proceeds of the cassette went to Duke Children’s Hospital.

Listen to the voices of children, parents, and those who made a donation to Duke Children’s Hospital.

Listen to this very moving story told by a nurse at Duke Children’s Hospital.

Alan is a boy who received a lung transplant. He reads his letter of sincere gratitude to the donor, someone he will never meet, but feels a strong connection to thanks to the lung transplant.

This program schedule shows WRAL-TV programming switching to The Today Show just after 7 a.m. on February 29, 2016.

This article appeared in the Leader magazine in 1979, not long after CBC founder AJ Fletcher died. Fletcher designed and planted the garden in 1959.

Patent for Wide Range Tunnel Diode Oscillator awarded to CBC Director of Engineering Virgil Duncan in 1962. The invention was useful for feeding background music into distribution systems for TV and FM radio sets.

Bill of sale when Microspace sold the company’s C-band uplink unit known as StarShooter in 1997. That essentially ended the company’s C-band remote uplink ventures.

First News Director at WRAL-TV

Marks dressed as cowboy character. Marks was best known for portraying Capn 5, a cartoon show in the late 50s.

Weatherman Bob Caudle with incoming anchor Bob DeBardelaben during early 60s promotional shoot

Charlie Gaddy chats with WRAL GM Jim Hefner before reunion newscast in 2006

Ray Wilkinson, Denece Boyer, Bob Vernon and Bill Schmidt on the set during noon newscast

Jim Goodmon, CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company, is interviewed by WRAL Sports Anchor Jeff Gravely about the modern era of the the Durham Bulls baseball team. Much of it has to do with “regionalism.”

The Durham Bulls, America’s most famous Minor League Baseball team, is regarded as one of the premier franchises in the industry. Since Capitol Broadcasting Company bought the team in 1991, the organization has separated itself from its peers, thriving on local, regional and national stages. Under Capitol Broadcasting’s direction, the Bulls have been at the center of the revitalization of downtown Durham, never ceasing to contribute to The Triangle community.

Watch and listen to this fascinating interview explaining all the twists and turns of the Durham Bulls!

Photographer: Jay Jennings
Circa 2015.

Jim Goodmon learned the business of broadcasting at the knee of his grandfather A.J. Fletcher—founder of Capitol Broadcasting Company. Goodmon observed station operations carefully and learned well, and in turn–A.J. Fletcher recognized his grandson’s potential. This close, early relationship laid the groundwork for the future leadership of the company.

He holds a fierce dedication to the public interest, and all CBC divisions not only meet but exceed industry requirements and standards. In 1998 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. Known as the Gore Commission, this prestigious panel recommended public interest obligations for American broadcasters as they made the transition to digital television.

Goodmon led CBC and its stations into the digital age, gaining industry-wide recognition as a visionary whose stations constantly pushed the boundaries of technology. In 1996 the FCC granted the nation’s first experimental HDTV license to WRAL-TV, which was the first in a long line of CBC technological achievements in the field of high definition television.

Jim Goodmon’s interests go well beyond broadcasting. Under his leadership, Capitol Broadcasting Company has expanded into real estate—developing the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham and turning it into an award-winning example of entrepreneurial restoration.

Watch and listen to this free-wheeling conversation between Jim Goodmon and CBC Director of Special Projects John Harris.

Photographer: Jay Jennings
Recorded December 11, 2017

David Crabtree joined WRAL News in 1994 and will retire at the end of 2018. His long and distinguished career at WRAL include covering local stories that impact North Carolina and traveling the world to document the Election of Pope Francis; the funeral of Nelson Mandela; survivors of the Haiti earthquake in 2010; interview with Holocaust survivors; Pope John Paul II’s funeral; Mother Theresa’s funeral; James Taylor in London; documentary on the Vatican; covering seven major hurricanes; interviewing husbands of wives with breast cancer; a documentary focusing on living conditions of migrant workers in North Carolina; the documentary, “Focal Point: The Other North Carolina.”

David is interviewed by John Harris, CBC Director of Special Projects. It is a free-wheeling, casual chat that covers everything from David’s childhood dream to be in broadcasting to discerning what his next mission in life might be within the Episcopal Church.

Prior to WRAL, David worked at KCNC-TV, Denver, Colo.; 1988 to 1991: KMGH-TV, Denver, Colo.; 1985 to 1988: WITN-TV, Washington, N.C., 1982 to 1984: WKRN, Nashville, Tenn.

Two channel audio.
Photography by Robert Meikle
Recorded November 15, 2017

Focal Point: Green Acres looks at how development is affecting ordinary people and places across North Carolina. It examines development trends that may hold the key to managing growth in a way that protects important green spaces and it looks at how conservation groups are scrambling to protect land in the face of rapid growth and skyrocketing land prices.

The program, hosted by WRAL News anchor Bill Leslie, aired Wednesday, August 9 2006.

SKY 5 pilot Mike Allen finds two missing boy scouts and their scoutmaster clinging to trees after their canoes overturned in the Cape Fear River in Harnett County.

Since SKY 5 is not equipped with rescue gear, the National Guard helicopter was called to execute the rescue., while SKY 5 oversaw the direction.

Circa 1983.