More Highlights for Jim Payne

• WRAL 49th Raleigh Christmas Parade 1993

  Live coverage of the 49th Annual Raleigh Christmas Parade aired on WRAL-TV in November 1993. WRAL News anchors Pam Saulsby, Donna Gregory and Jim Payne hosted the broadcast.

  This video only shows the first hour of the live broadcast. 1993

• 1999 Special Olympics World Games Opening Ceremonies

  WRAL provided coverage of the opening ceremonies of the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games held at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. The competition venues were primarily located in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill between June 26 and July 4, 1999. A few events were held in neighboring towns of Cary, Pittsboro, and Garner.
  Special Olympics was created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver when she saw how unjustly and unfairly people with intellectual disabilities were treated. She also saw that many children with intellectual disabilities didn’t even have a place to play. She decided to take action. The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, USA on July 20, 1968.
  In this video, you’ll watch the international athletes representing their countries march through the stadium. Learn how North Carolina became the host of this massive event that became the largest international sporting held in North Carolina.

• WRAL First HD Newscast at State Fair

  WRAL-TV led the nation in the development of High Definition broadcasting. On October 13, 2000 WRAL made history by broadcasting the entire 5:00 PM newscast LIVE in HD from the State Fair. The historic newscast was broadcast from a special stage at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh. The broadcast came just days after WRAL announced it was purchasing equipment from Panasonic to allow the station to gather all of its news stories in the 1080i format. WRAL was the first in the country to convert its entire news operation into HD. This video documents the historic moment from a behind-the-scenes perspective.

  In 1996, WRAL was the first station in the nation to start broadcasting in HD even though most viewers did not have an HD television set.

• Farewell promo for WRAL News anchor Jim Payne

  Jim Payne was a very popular news anchor at WRAL from August 1992 until December 2000. Jim is from Green Bay, Wisconsin and graduated from Purdue University with a BA degree in Communication. During his time at WRAL he earned numerous awards from the Associated Press and the Radio and TV News Directors Association, and he received the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Community Service. Jim left WRAL in 2000 to become a news anchor at WESH (NBC) in Orlando, Florida. You will be able to tell by this promo that Jim was loved by the WRAL news staff and viewers.

• Fred Fletcher Obituary on WRAL News at 5:30

  WRAL news announced the passing of Fred Fletcher to the public on January 8, 2000. He was 89.
  Fred Fletcher was a broadcast executive, entertainer and public servant who — as General Manager of WRAL-AM, WRAL-FM and WRAL-TV — helped shape the first quarter century at Capitol Broadcasting Company.
  Fred started as WRAL-AM’s Education Director and then moved up to General Manager in 1942. Later he took on additional management duties when CBC signed WRAL-FM on the air in 1946.

  The 1950s brought television, and the long, arduous legal battle that eventually won Capitol Broadcasting the coveted license for Channel 5 in Raleigh. Fred was an integral part of the CBC team that fought for and won the license at the FCC.
  When WRAL-TV signed on in December 1956 – Fred Fletcher was at the helm as the first Vice President and General Manager. He was later named President of Capitol Broadcasting Company–a title he held until his retirement in 1975.