The History of Capitol Broadcasting Company

WILM-TV in Wilmington, NC is the most recent addition to the Capitol Broadcasting Company lineup of television stations.

CBC purchased the station in December 1999 when it was a low-power outlet known as WSSN. That station was an affiliate of the UPN network at the time, but things would change once Capitol took control.

CBC soon changed the station’s call sign to WILM-TV and successfully negotiated a deal with CBS that would bring the Tiffany network to Channel 10 in Wilmington. On March 23, 2000, WILM-TV re-launched as the CBS affiliate serving the Wilmington market.

Since Wilmington is a coastal community, hurricanes, storms and summer beach forecasts are always big news and top-of-mind for viewers. In order to serve that need, WILM-TV adopted the slogan “Wilmington’s Weather Station” and positioned itself as the best source of weather information in the market.

In 2008 WILM made history as the first CBS affiliate in the country to make the transition to full-time digital broadcasting. That year the Federal Communications Commission had selected the Wilmington, NC television market to serve as a test-bed for the upcoming nationwide digital TV transition. CBC engineers led the way and set about equipping WILM for the momentous switch. All of the station’s analog equipment was replaced with modern digital technology, including the main transmitter at WILM’s tower facility near Delco, NC.

On September 8, 2008, WILM-TV and other television stations in Wilmington, NC shared the national spotlight as they turned off their analog signals and officially launched the age of digital broadcasting in the United States. FCC Chair Kevin Martin joined station and city leaders at a ceremony to mark the occasion.

The move to digital gave WILM new, untapped channel capacity and station has made the most of it. On December 1, 2013 WILM added the MeTV network to its broadcast lineup. MeTV programming is broadcast on digital channel 10.2, giving Wilmington viewers yet one more source of entertainment.

Capitol Broadcasting Company was formed in 1937 for the purpose of applying for a 250-watt AM radio station in Raleigh.

With encouragement from his son Frank, an attorney at the fledging Federal Communications Commission (FCC), A.J. Fletcher and four other original CBC stockholders applied for a license to run an AM radio station in the state capital.

Not only did Frank Fletcher urge his father to get into radio, he came up with the station’s call letters that would proudly claim the identity of North Carolina’s capital city – WRAL, as in RALeigh.

The FCC granted CBC the license on July 28, 1938, and on March 22, 1939, WRAL-AM went on the air from studios at 130 South Salisbury Street in Raleigh. The station’s transmitter was located east of town on the East Davie Street Extension (later known as South Bart Street).

WRAL-AM started as an independent broadcast outlet, but it joined the Mutual Broadcasting System in September of 1939. In 1942, A.J. Fletcher’s oldest son Fred was named WRAL-AM’s General Manager.

WRAL-AM’s early programming was a mix of live and network material. “Tuning in with Fletcher”, gospel shows and pioneering programs for the African-American community all enjoyed regular programming slots.

“Tempus Fugit” began on WRAL-AM around 1940 when Fred Fletcher – tired of having to fill in for morning announcers who failed to show up – took over the morning announcing shift at the station. Fletcher entertained listeners with a variety of regular features, news, weather, music and fun. He also created special call-in segments like “Lost and Found” and “Trading Post” where listeners would swap items in an on-air exchange program.

The best-known segment on Tempus Fugit was the reading of a fairy tale each morning. The idea came about in late 1941 to entice children to listen to the show in hopes of luring their parents to the radio as well.

Fred Fletcher read the fairy tales live, doing all the different voices and sound effects himself. Within months, ratings went up and by 1945 Tempus Fugit was beating the NBC World News on WPTF-AM. Fletcher’s local fame skyrocketed and from that point on he was known to listeners as “The Fairy Tale Man.”

Bill Currie was hired as the first News Director at WRAL-AM, but he was better known for his sportscasting abilities. Currie delivered colorful game descriptions with a biting wit and engaging style. He later became the radio voice of the UNC Tar Heels, and when a Sports Illustrated article dubbed him “The Mouth of the South,” a legend was born.

WRAL-AM’s other legendary sports announcer was Ray Reeve, who gained statewide fame during a storied radio and television career. Reeve’s distinct play-by-play style and raspy voice endeared him to thousands of sports fans. He became best known as the first voice of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball after the league was formed in the early 50s. Many sports historians credit the early growth of the league in part to Reeve’s compelling basketball broadcasts.

WRAL-AM went through a series of leadership changes in later years. In 1956 Bill Currie was named Station Manager, replacing Fred Fletcher, who moved to television as the President and General Manager of WRAL-TV. In 1959 Currie was appointed Director of Radio for CBC. He left the company in 1962, and Marion “Tommy” Tucker became Director of Radio.

In 1964 the station joined the ABC radio network. In 1965, Capitol Broadcasting sold WRAL-AM to focus more attention on developing WRAL-FM.

In 1995, Capitol Broadcasting Company President/CEO Jim Goodmon decided that WRAL would become one of the first TV stations in the country to launch a site on World Wide Web. The move was bold considering that this decision was made when the predominant internet browser was Netscape Navigator and Google Chrome was still 13 years away.

Early hires for the website included John Whitehead, the first webmaster, who built the tools and automation that made what was originally called WRAL OnLine the envy of local media companies across the county. Other original staffers were Graphic Designer Bill Burch, Web Producer Michelle Singer and Managing Editor John Conway.

WRAL OnLine (originally at http://www.wral-tv.com) went live on Jan. 17, 1996 during the 5 p.m. newscast, with technology reporter Tom Lawrence introducing viewers to the Triangle’s first local news website. The site was delivered by a single Silicon Graphics server from an office just around the corner from the women’s restroom on the second floor of the main WRAL-TV building. (By 2010, WRAL.com was using 25 servers at its north Raleigh data center to deliver content to website visitors – a sign of the tremendous growth that took place in the following 15 years.)

The original homepage – or front door to the website – was a far cry from the highly dynamic homepage of today. That first homepage was a hand-drawn imagemap of a virtual town dubbed Happy Valley. Visitors navigated the simple site by clicking on the satellite truck for news, the stadium for sports and the sun for weather.

Less than eight months later, Hurricane Fran took the site offline for more than two days. Most homes lost power and phone connections, and the internet connection between WRAL and Interpath’s hosting facility on Hillsborough Street was severed.

Whitehead, Jason Priebe and John Conway loaded updates on a disk drive and drove the updated content from Western Boulevard to the 711 Building so that the latest information about Fran’s wrath and the recovery could be pushed out to the small slice of Triangle area residents who had working dial-up access.

By 1997, the homepage was redesigned to showcase the vast array of content being posted to the site around the clock, including full access to the Associated Press and Reuters wire stories that typically were only seen by newspaper editors. Another redesign followed in 1998, aimed at showcasing images and audio. With some occasional tweaks, it lasted until 2001.

That year CBC partnered with Internet Broadcasting System in hopes of reducing operating costs while tapping into IBS’ relationships with national advertisers. In May 2001, IBS launched an updated version of WRAL.com and assumed operations of the site for the next five years.

In 2005, the decision was made to bring control of the WRAL.com website back in house. Jason Priebe, an early member of the technology team that helped build and grow the original site, was hired back to help design the content management system, dubbed Diesel, and new site. On Dec. 16, 2006, the “new” WRAL.com went live shortly after midnight, with Jim and Jimmy Goodmon on hand for the switchover.

WRAL.com has continued to thrive and grow in the years since. In December 2010, the site hit a milestone, serving more than a billion pages in a single year.

Today, the site averages about 100 million page views and 4 million unique visitors a month. Staffing also has grown, from four full-time employees in 1996 to 35 in 2014.

The original site also has produced spinoff sites such as WRALSportsFan.com and HighSchoolOT.com.

In January 2014, WRAL.com launched a new version of the site to better serve the needs of smartphone and tablet users. The responsive design was the first of its kind in the Raleigh-Durham DMA and one of the earliest nationwide. The project required more than a year of planning and testing.

Since its inception, WRAL.com has operated under the simple premise that “Content is king.” That can be seen in the tremendous traffic figures, staff growth and awards the site has received.

WRAL.com was the 2009 winner of the national Edward R. Murrow Award for best local TV Web site.

In 2010 WRAL.com was named best local TV website in an international competition sponsored by Editor & Publisher.

In addition to the two national awards, the site has been a frequent winner of regional Murrow Award, including most recently in 2012. WRAL.com also has won numerous best-website awards from the N.C. Associated Press Broadcaster’s Association and from the Radio and Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.

Content and interactive graphics produced by the site also have won several Mid-South Emmy awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

In the 1940s Capitol Broadcasting Company began looking for ways to grow its business. WRAL-AM, the company’s only radio station, had been on the air since 1938, but at only 250 watts — the station’s signal barely reached beyond the Raleigh city limits. Despite lots of creative marketing and popular local programming, the AM station’s audience was hard to expand with such a limited signal.

So in true CBC fashion, the company began looking at a promising new form of radio called FM, or “frequency modulation.” Few listeners had FM sets at the time because there were very few FM stations on the air. But FM radio offered a signal that was technically superior to that of AM, and technical superiority was always of interest to CBC.

Never afraid of the unknown, Capitol Broadcasting set its sights on an FM station of its own. On September 6, 1946, the FCC granted CBC a license to operate WCOY-FM – only the second FM station licensed in North Carolina.

CBC quickly changed the station’s call letters to WRAL-FM and increased the power to a staggering 250,000 watts. Then it was time to begin building an audience for the new station.

Led by WRAL General Manager Fred Fletcher, CBC began producing unique programming that would create a separate identity for its new FM station. Rather than simply “simulcasting” shows from WRAL-AM, Capitol created unique programming that could only be found on FM.

WRAL-FM broadcast a mix of easy-listening music, agricultural reports and numerous live sporting events as it built an audience in those early days. Before long it became the flagship station for the Tobacco Radio Network, allowing CBC to put its new FM signal to work as a money saver for all the member stations in Eastern North Carolina. The TN stations were now able to receive network programming directly from WRAL-FM and no longer had to subscribe to expensive phone lines for the feeds. It was one of the earliest innovations in CBC broadcast history.

In the 1970s WRAL-FM adopted the “Adult Contemporary” musical format and eventually branded itself “MIX-101.5.” Morning host Bob Inskeep was one of the station’s most popular and successful personalities. Inskeep joined WRAL-FM in 1974 and won legions of fans during a fifteen-year CBC career.

Inskeep was followed by Bill Jordan, who teamed with a number of co-hosts to carry on the station’s morning show success. Jordan retired in 2013 after 23 years as the best known “voice” of the station.

Through the years WRAL-FM has continued its commitment to technological innovation and excellence. In December 2002 it became one of the country’s first licensed commercial radio stations to broadcast in HD Radio, which allows it to split the radio signal into multiple program streams.

WRAL-FM has also received numerous honors for its community service, news reporting and public affairs programming.

In 1983 WRAL-FM and its corporate partner North Carolina News Network won the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for a series of reports focusing on victims across all walks of life.

In 1996 the station won the prestigious NAB Crystal Award for Excellence in Community Service. The NAB judges lauded WRAL’s fundraising for victims of the Oklahoma City bombings, support of Duke Children’s Hospital and a host of other community projects benefitting needy citizens. Thirteen years later – in 2009 – the NAB once again honored WRAL-FM with the national Crystal Award, citing the station’s numerous efforts in the community.

WRAL-FM’s best known community service project began in 1994 as a fundraising effort for Duke Children’s Hospital. The station’s annual “Radio-Thons” have raised more than $15 million in the years since.

WRAL-TV can trace its history to 1939, when Capitol Broadcasting Company founder A.J. Fletcher and son Fred saw a television demonstration at the World’s Fair in New York City. Both were fascinated by the flickering pictures on the small oval screen, but TV at the time was still very much a novelty.

Fast forward to the early 1950s and post-war America; the sale of TV sets was beginning to boom and A.J. Fletcher was determined not to miss out on the potential of the exciting new medium. On October 17, 1953, Capitol Broadcasting Company formally applied for a license to operate a television station in Raleigh, North Carolina. With that, the battle for Channel 5 had begun.

Two companies wanted Channel 5 – Capitol Broadcasting and the much larger Durham Life Insurance Company—owner and operator of WPTF-AM, the dominant radio station in the region. Since two applicants wanted the same channel, a competitive hearing was scheduled to determine which company was better suited to hold the license.

The proceedings began in Washington, DC in April 1954 and went on for nine long months. CBC was the decided underdog, but A.J. Fletcher had come to Washington with a savvy legal team and a mountain of supporting documentation. CBC also benefitted greatly from the wise counsel of A.J. Fletcher’s son Frank, who used his prior experience as an FCC attorney to great advantage.

The competition was fierce; Durham Life’s attorneys relied on the company’s radio experience and corporate muscle as they argued for the license. CBC positioned itself as a truly local broadcast company whose officers and managers would actually operate the station, unlike Durham Life.

When the FCC rendered its verdict in the summer of 1955 – it agreed with the hearing examiner that Capitol Broadcasting Company should be awarded the license for Raleigh’s channel 5. CBC had won and once again—David had beaten Goliath.

WRAL-TV went on the air December 15, 1956. Standing beneath the station’s 1100-foot transmission tower, the tallest east of the Mississippi River, A.J. Fletcher said “and now, to the almost two million North Carolinians within reach of our signal, we say happy viewing and listening to all of you on Channel 5.”

Fletcher’s introduction was followed by the classic holiday movie “Miracle on 34th Street.” More than three years had passed since CBC applied for the license, and at last it was official—Raleigh had a new television station.

WRAL-TV went on the air in 1956 as an NBC affiliate, but signed on with the up-and-coming ABC network in 1962. That relationship lasted until 1985, when the station became an affiliate of the CBS Television Network. WRAL partnered with CBS for 30 years, but on February 29, 2016–history came full circle and TV5 once again affiliated with the NBC television network.

Network partnerships have played an important role in WRAL’s success, but the station also has a long and distinguished history of locally-produced programming. Some of the most memorable shows from the station’s early days were produced with children in mind. The earliest of these programs featured Herb Marks, who portrayed submarine skipper “Cap’n Five” as the host of a daily cartoon show that ran for several years in the late ‘50s.

Then in 1961 the multi-talented Paul Montgomery began hosting “Time for Uncle Paul,” a cartoon and variety show that aired for 20 years and became the most beloved program in WRAL-TV history. Thousands of youngsters visited the WRAL studios over the years to appear on the show and “march with Uncle Paul.”

Over the years WRAL continued to produce memorable local programs for children. Shows like “Frog Hollow,” “Sparks,” “Central X-press.com” and “Androgena” were consistently honored as some of the best educational programming in the nation.

WRAL-TV also won acclaim for local programming that broke racial and gender barriers. The station premiered “Teenage Frolics” in 1958. “Frolics” was a weekly dance and variety show featuring J.D. Lewis, who made history as one of the nation’s first black hosts on local television.

“Femme Fare—WRAL-TV’s Magazine of the Air for the Modern Woman” was another landmark program that aired on Channel 5 from 1963 to 1977. WRAL Woman’s Director Bette Elliott hosted the daily program that featured regular segments on cooking, sewing and flower arranging, but also delved into serious topics such as women’s health, business issues, the arts and culture.

The 1960s would see the rise of another WRAL icon – Jesse Helms, who delivered CBC’s corporate editorial positions in daily “Viewpoint” editorials. Helms’ fiery, conservative commentaries stirred passionate debate—winning admirers and enemies alike while making him a household name in North Carolina. In 1972 Helms rode that popularity to the US Senate, where he would serve five terms.

While the station gained recognition for its local programs and editorials, WRAL-TV’s news operation was steadily building a stellar reputation. Early Channel 5 newscasters Bill Armstrong and Sam Beard laid a solid journalistic groundwork for success, but another WRAL anchorman would be the one to galvanize the station’s news image and become a legend in the process.

That man was Charlie Gaddy, a former radio personality who joined WRAL-TV in 1970. Gaddy worked first as host of a morning variety show, but in 1974 station managers named him primary news anchor, which would make him the face and image of WRAL-TV for the next twenty years.

TV-5’s new anchorman was a catalyst for success, and by the late 1970s Gaddy, co-anchor Bobbie Battista, weathercaster Bob DeBardelaben and sports anchor Rich Brenner formed one of the most heralded anchor teams in local television history. At one point, the Gaddy-led 6pm newscast commanded 50% of the market’s available television audience; that made it one of the highest-rated news programs in the nation.

Over the last four decades WRAL’s news operation has carried on that stellar tradition with market-leading ratings and national and regional awards. It also achieved an impressive list of “firsts” that cemented WRAL’s reputation as an industry leader: the first news operation in North Carolina with a fulltime helicopter (SKY 5 – 1979); first in North Carolina with a satellite uplink truck (LiveStar 5 – 1984); and first in the nation to produce a documentary in the new High Definition format (The Cape Light – 1999).

WRAL’s news success and innovation goes well beyond the medium of television. WRAL.com launched in 1996 and quickly became one of the most successful local news websites in the country. In December 2010, the site hit a milestone, serving more than a billion pages in a single year. Today, the site averages about 100 million page views and 4 million unique visitors a month.

Genuine public service has always been one of WRAL-TV’s core principles. The station has raised millions of dollars for charities and victims of natural disaster and has won numerous state and national awards for its involvement in the communities it serves.

The station is widely-known for its community-oriented programming. One longstanding WRAL tradition is the annual presentation of the Raleigh Christmas Parade. WRAL has presented live parade coverage each year for more than four decades. The station is also famous for turning its 300-foot-tall transmission tower into a giant Christmas tree each December. The tower’s three thousand colored lights bring joy to children and adults alike.

While WRAL is well known for its outstanding news, local programming and community service–it has also gained nationwide recognition as one of the most innovative stations in all of broadcasting.

WRAL was a pioneer in the development of High Definition Television (HDTV). In 1996 WRAL was the first station in the U.S. to be granted an experimental license for HDTV. Later that year TV-5 became the first commercial station to broadcast an HDTV signal. In October 2000, WRAL was first to produce and air a complete newscast in HD, and in January 2001 the station was first to gather and produce all its news in HD.

All of WRAL’s pioneering technical work with High Definition helped set the stage for the biggest change in television since the introduction of color. On June 12, 2009 WRAL-TV joined stations across the country in turning off their analog signals, completing the official conversion to digital television (DTV). The technological conversion ended more than 50 years of analog transmissions on Channel 5 and ushered in the new age of digital television. As one of the top TV stations in the nation, WRAL eagerly awaits the challenges and excitement of the next 50 years!