More Highlights for Fred Barber

• Fred Barber Senior VP of Broadcasting at CBC

  Fred Barber started with Capitol Broadcasting Company in 1976 as the General Manager of WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC. He left to manage other stations in Atlanta and Pittsburgh, but returned to the CBC family in 1987 as General Manager of WTTV in Indianapolis, IN. In 1990, he returned to Raleigh to oversee the television properties. He was made a Senior Vice President in 1994 and assumed the additional responsibility of WRAL-FM in 1997.

  When he retired in 1998 as senior Vice President for Broadcasting of Capitol Broadcasting he had made an enviable mark in journalism and broadcasting, but he also made a major contribution in service to others. His work focused on mental health, substance abuse, affordable housing, and the homeless. He was co-founder and founding board chairman of The Healing Place in Raleigh, a highly successful residential treatment facility for alcohol and substance abuse.

  Fred Barber was a North Carolina native who graduated from High Point College and went into journalism, first in newspapers and then in TV. Barber passed away in May, 2014 at the age of 76.

  NOTE: The video was shot in 2006 for the 50th anniversary of WRAL. The video is “raw” which means it has not been edited for broadcast, so you will see several quick camera moves that would have been covered with video by another camera in post production. Barber was interviewed by WRAL News anchor David Crabtree.

• WRAZ 50 Goes On The Air

  On September 7, 1995, WRAZ signed on as an affiliate of WB.
  The early history of WRAZ can be traced back to a construction permit granted to Reverend James Layton’s Tar Heel Broadcasting to build a television station in Raleigh on UHF channel 50. Layton entered the under-construction station, originally known as WACN, into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the Capitol Broadcasting Company. WRAZ would operate out of WRAL’s studios with transmission facilities on the WRAL tower near Auburn.
  In this WRAL News story by David Crabtree, you will hear Reverend James Layton, WRAL News General Manager Fred Barber, and WRAL News anchor Debra Morgan.

• The Healing Place

  In the late ‘90’s, former WRAL-TV General Manager Fred Barber traveled to Kentucky with Barbara Goodmon and Maria Spaulding to tour the model for what they hoped could be a facility to help homeless men find sobriety in the Triangle. The trio came back determined to make The Healing Place happen in Raleigh. This documentary shows the work of The Healing Place in Louisville, Kentucky which became the inspiration for the The Healing Place in Raleigh, North Carolina.
  “Fred just was a unique person,” said Goodmon, now President of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation. “He made a decision and went forward with that. He kept us going. He was our engine.”
  They worked together to raise $4 million to build the facility near downtown. They broke ground in 2000, and celebrated the grand opening in January 2001.
  “It totally changed Raleigh,” said Goodmon. “It totally changed downtown Raleigh. It could not be the place it is today without the Healing Place.”
  Fred Barber served on the Board of Trustees and was an active volunteer at The Healing Place up until the time of his death.