More Highlights for Rick Armstrong

• Tar Heel Tartans

  Tar Heel Tartans!

  WRAL news anchor Bill Leslie and news photographer Rick Armstrong document North Carolina native Bill Caudill’s search for his Scottish ancestral homeland. Along the way they meet an artist, visit castles, watch Bill Caudill participate in a bagpipe competition and learn about the significance of the tartan.

  Enjoy this six part series produced in May, 1986 and aired prior to the annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and Gathering of Scottish Clans in July, 1986. You will discover that the people in Scotland have a high regard for the gathering that takes place every year near Linville, North Carolina.

  Bill Caudill is Director of the Scottish Heritage Center and Instructor of the College Pipe Band at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

• “Give Thanks for Carolina” photo essay by Bill Leslie

  “Give Thanks for Carolina” was primarily shot and edited by WRAL news photographer Rick Armstrong and set to music composed and performed by WRAL news anchor Bill Leslie.

• “The Pumpkins Strike Back” vignettes

  “The Pumpkins Strike Back” is a delightful, cheesy series of four vignettes that aired on WRAL-TV during the late night Halloween movie on October 31, 1981. During the commercial breaks, “The Pumpkins Strike Back” would air prior to the commercials, then back to the movie.

  Rowell Gorman, “The Man of a Thousand Voices”, wrote the script and provided different voices to the pumpkin characters, as well as appearing in the production. Other “actors” were staff members at WRAL, many who had never acted before – and that will be apparent! The vignettes were produced by the WRAL production staff.

  The parody is loosely based on several blockbuster movies including STAR WARS, PSYCHO and PATTON. But “The Pumpkins Strike Back” is in a league of its own. Enjoy!

  NOTE: Single channel audio. Originally produced on 3/4 inch videotape.

• News Highlights of 1990

  1990 News Highlights include the following top stories: WRAL news covers the buildup of U.S. military troops prior to the combat phase of Operation Desert Storm, sometimes referred to as the first gulf war. The trial of Blanche Taylor Moore resulted in the jury finding Moore guilty of first degree murder. County residents in Richmond, Montgomery and Iredell counties protest a plan to build a hazardous waste incinerator landsite. In politics, incumbent Senator Jesse Helms defeats Harvey Gantt in the elections. Severe weather caused a dredge to ram into the Bonner Bridge, knocking out several sections, rendering it impassable and causing Hatteras Island to be cut off from the mainland. Duke University’s basketball team losses to the Running Rebels of UNLV in the NCAA Championship game held in Denver, Colorado.

• WRAL news crew with ENG microwave truck

  Reporter-Photographer Rick Armstrong sets up camera for live report using one of the early WRAL live trucks.