The History of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Known as “The Biggest Name in Weather,” Bob DeBardelaben was one of WRAL-TV’s best known on-air personalities, gaining fame as the primary weather anchor of the station’s dominant “Action News 5” broadcasts.

DeBardelaben was born in Buffalo, NY, but moved to Greensboro, NC at age 11. Following tours in the Merchant Marine and US Navy he enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill. That’s where he discovered a talent for broadcasting and he soon switched his major to communications.

Following graduation from UNC, DeBardelaben landed a job at WTIK-AM, a Durham radio station owned in part by Floyd Fletcher, son of Capitol Broadcasting founder AJ Fletcher. From Durham, Bob moved on to on-air and management positions at a series of radio stations outside North Carolina.

In 1959, DeBardelaben was lured to Raleigh to work for an AM station that would soon revolutionize the local radio market. The station was WKIX, which became one of the most popular and successful radio outlets in the South.

As one of the early “KIX Men,” Bob handled on-air shifts under the name “Bob Kelly.” Listeners grew familiar with the station “jingle” that introduced him: “Time for the Bob Kelly Show, time for the man on the go!” Bob also created a signature sign-off phrase that many remembered years after his KIX days: “This is Mrs. Kelly’s little bald-headed boy, Rapid Robert!”

As DeBardelaben’s success grew, Capitol Broadcasting management was paying attention, and a job offer was eventually extended. Bob joined CBC in 1966 as a sales rep for Tobacco Radio Network. He began voicing commercials and handling a variety of on-air and off-air jobs, and by the late 60s he was doing the morning show on WRAL-FM.

It wasn’t long before DeBardelaben’s talents would move to the world of television, where he gained instant popularity as the host of “Dialing for Dollars,” a daily quiz program on WRAL-TV. Bob would spin a big wheel, make random phone calls and challenge viewers to win money if they could recite “the count and the amount” of the contest totals at that particular moment.

Bob’s popularity continued to grow, and in 1976 his career was forever changed when he was named the primary weathercaster of WRAL-TV’s weekday newscasts. DeBardelaben replaced long-time weatherman Bob Caudle, who was focusing on a growing career as a wrestling announcer.

DeBardelaben and Caudle joined forces in a series of satirical promotions that announced the on-air change. The campaign was dubbed “As the Weather Turns,” and featured appearances by a wide variety of characters, including CBC executive Jim Goodmon and professional wrestler “Black Jack” Mulligan.

Bob wasted little time making a big name for himself in weather. Although he wasn’t a trained forecaster, he adapted quickly and spent hours learning from the friendly meteorologists at the local weather bureau.

Despite his growing weather knowledge, Bob admits he never had a great grasp of US geography, so he resorted to his own version of cue cards. Bob couldn’t remember all the state names and locations, but the WRAL weather map was large enough so he could lightly pencil in each state’s initials and readily identify them on air. Bob smoothly and accurately referenced all the states in his weathercasts and loyal viewers never knew the difference!

In 1984 Bob traveled to New York City for a guest role on the ABC soap opera “Ryan’s Hope.” It was all part of a promotion between ABC and WRAL, and Bob played the role of an underworld “heavy.” He spoke only three lines, but he remembers them to this day: “Well, well, look who’s here;” “Isn’t that John’s girlfriend?” and “That girl better watch it!”

Bob was always up for a weather stunt, as well. In the mid-80s he broadcast the weather one evening from a platform near the top of WRAL’s 2,000-foot tower. All went well, but when he came back down after the newscast he kissed the ground and said “never again!”

DeBardelaben retired in 1989 at age 62. Always an avid golfer, he says he wanted to spend more time on the links.
In 2006, Bob DeBardelaben returned to the WRAL studios to take part in a reunion newscast to mark the station’s 50th anniversary. He joined newscasters Charlie Gaddy and Bobbie Battista and sportscaster Tom Suiter in a memorable newscast that reminded viewers of one of the most successful on-air teams in history.

For years after he retired, Bob was still recognized in public, and when complete strangers wandered up to ask “aren’t you Bob DeBardelaben?” he had a ready answer: “Yes, I used to be!”

Bob DeBardelaben died October 6, 2014 following a brief illness. He was 88.

Charlie Gaddy is the legendary WRAL-TV newscaster whose reassuring, conversational anchor style led viewers to call him “the Walter Cronkite of North Carolina television.”

Gaddy spent two decades as the primary anchor of WRAL’s evening newscasts–dominating audience ratings, winning awards, and becoming one of the most successful local news anchors in television history.

Charles Reece Gaddy was born in the small Sandhills town of Biscoe, North Carolina on September 17, 1931. His father worked for Carolina Power & Light, and when Charlie grew old enough, he worked summers for the power company climbing poles and doing odd-jobs.

Charlie earned his degree at Guilford College and was almost immediately drafted into the Army. He spent two years in the service and then moved to Washington, DC with the idea of going to law school. After a half semester, he knew the law profession was not for him, so he withdrew from classes and started looking for a job in the nation’s capital.

It turns out Gaddy had always been a natural on the dance floor, so he signed on as an instructor with Arthur Murray Studios to make ends meet. Charlie taught ballroom classes and excelled on the dance floor, but after fulfilling a one-year contract his interests turned to a craft that had inspired him as a child – broadcasting.

Charlie says that as a youngster during World War II he sat spellbound on his front porch listening to Edward R. Murrow’s news reports from Europe. He remembers imagining what it would be like to sit in front of a microphone and have people listen to him.

With that memory fresh in mind, Gaddy began knocking on doors of the major networks in Washington. He went to ABC first and CBS next and was turned down both places. His last chance was NBC, and as luck would have it, he found an entry-level opening for a network page. Charlie took the job and started learning the business from the ground up.

Charlie worked hard and moved up the ranks. As an assistant director he held cue cards for Nikita Khrushchev when the Russian premier delivered a speech from NBC’s studios. He also interacted with brothers John and Robert Kennedy as JFK prepared to run for president.

By the time Gaddy left NBC he had worked his way up to staff announcer for the network, a position that answered his boyhood dream and gave him the chance to speak on a microphone and have people listen.

During his time at NBC, Charlie met a beautiful colleague by the name of Nancy Rankin. The two fell in love and were married September 3, 1960. Almost immediately they moved to Raleigh, where Charlie had just been offered a job at WPTF-AM, the most powerful and prestigious radio station in the state.

Gaddy spent ten years at WPTF and became extremely popular hosting the “Ask Your Neighbor” show, a folksy call-in program that featured Charlie helping callers solve problems, trade stories and answer life’s questions large and small.

Across town the managers at WRAL-TV were paying close attention as Gaddy’s popularity rose, and in 1970 they hired him to host a television version of his radio show on Channel 5. It was called “Good Morning, Charlie,” and featured Charlie in a familiar role–taking phone calls, interviewing guests and celebrities, even singing the occasional song as part of the day’s entertainment.

Once on television Gaddy’s popularity grew even more and once again WRAL management saw an opportunity. In 1974, Charlie Gaddy was named primary news anchor on WRAL-TV, a position that would make him the face of the station for the next twenty years.

Success came in short order and by the late ‘70s Charlie, Bobbie Battista, Bob DeBardelaben and Rich Brenner formed one of the most heralded anchor teams in local television history. At one point the Gaddy-led newscast commanded 50% of the television audience in the Triangle–one of the highest-rated news programs in the nation.

Charlie Gaddy was best known as a news anchorman, but over the years he also reported from the field on numerous major stories. He left the studio to cover the deadly Raleigh tornadoes in 1988 along with hurricanes and elections. He traveled to Normandy, Saudi Arabia, China, Honduras, and Plymouth, England for special reports and live coverage of major events.

Gaddy also had important off-camera responsibilities, serving as Senior Editor of WRAL-TV News for many years. He mentored countless young news people during that time, teaching them how to gather and report news accurately, fairly and in a professional fashion.

Charlie Gaddy retired from WRAL-TV after twenty years as the station’s lead anchor. His last newscast came on July 1, 1994, and as he signed off for the last time, Charlie quoted lyrics from an old favorite song, saying “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when; but I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day.”

Charlie Gaddy has been honored numerous times. Following his retirement he was named to the prestigious Silver Circle by the MidSouth Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences. In 1994 he was inducted into the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. And also in 1994 Pembroke State University presented Gaddy with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

During his WRAL years Charlie hosted the annual telethon for United Cerebral Palsy and helped raise millions of dollars for the organization. Shortly after his retirement, “The Charlie Gaddy Center for Children” was named in his honor in Raleigh. This child development center serves youngsters through age five, helping them reach their full potential with child care, language development, occupational and physical therapy.

Charlie Gaddy was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2012. The award honored his career at WRAL plus his community service, especially his work on behalf of children through groups like UCP and the Children’s Miracle Network.

Charlie has also served as Vice Chair of the advisory board of the Duke Eye Center. His interest in the Eye Center goes back to childhood when his father was diagnosed with glaucoma.

Following retirement Charlie authored the biography of Dr. Leroy Walker, legendary track coach and educator at North Carolina Central University. The book is titled “An Olympic Journey: The Saga of an American Hero – LeRoy T. Walker.” It was published in 1998.

Charlie Gaddy continues to enjoy working in the community, writing and spending time with Nancy.

J.D. Lewis was an on-air personality and corporate executive who broke racial barriers and gained widespread popularity during a long career at Capitol Broadcasting Company.

Lewis was best known as the genial host of “Teenage Frolics,” a dance and variety program that debuted on WRAL-TV in 1958 and ran for more than two decades. Teenage Frolics is thought to be the country’s first regularly-scheduled program hosted by an African-American; it went on the air thirteen years before the legendary Don Cornelius hosted the first “Soul Train” dance program in Chicago.

John Davis (J.D.) Lewis, Jr. was born in Indianapolis on July 7, 1919. His family moved to Raleigh in 1923 so his father could take a job as district manager with North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. J.D. grew up on South Bloodworth Street near Shaw University. He starred in football and track before graduating from Washington High School – the first public high school for African-Americans in Raleigh.

Lewis won a scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he earned a business degree and graduated with honors. He lettered in football and track and at one time held the Southern Intercollegiate pole-vaulting record.

After college, Lewis returned to Raleigh, where he worked briefly for his father and then as a clerk in a neighborhood store. It was there that he met and fell in love with Louise Cox, a high school student who would become his wife.

When the United States entered World War II, most of Lewis’ college classmates urged him to join the Army’s 99th Pursuit Squad, better known as the “Tuskegee Airmen.” But Lewis was newly-married and wanted to stay near his bride, so he enlisted in the Marine Corps and thus became one of the first 200 blacks to serve in that branch of the military.

J.D. and his fellow black enlistees did basic training in North Carolina and were known as “Montford Point Marines,” a reference to the swampy area where their barracks were built to segregate them from white Marines at nearby Camp LeJeune. Lewis excelled at Montford Point and was sent to the Pacific Fleet School at Pearl Harbor for training on the military’s new radar technology. His unit was then assigned to the Marshal Islands to track Japanese movement during the rest of the war.

The radar and electronics experience gained in the Marine Corps laid the groundwork for the next step of J.D.’s career. When he returned to Raleigh in 1947, Lewis set up a radio and television repair business. He also built a mobile sound truck and drove around neighborhoods promoting various events and functions over the loudspeaker. And he handled public address announcements and play-by-play descriptions when teams from the old Negro Baseball League would play in Raleigh.

J.D.’s reputation grew quickly and in 1948 WRAL-AM/FM General Manager Fred Fletcher heard about him. Fletcher attended a baseball game at Chavis Park and was impressed with Lewis’ announcing talent. He quickly hired J.D. as a morning disc jockey, making him the first African-American radio announcer in North Carolina.

For the next twenty years Lewis blazed a trail in radio at WRAL-AM and FM, hosting music shows, doing interviews with community leaders and reading news and community announcements. He also got heavily involved in community service – joining and supporting the NAACP, Omega Psi Phi fraternity, The Urban League, The Boy Scouts of America and the First Baptist Church of Raleigh.

When Capitol Broadcasting Company competed for a television station license in the early 50s, the company proudly pointed to J.D.’s many on-air and civic contributions in its application. CBC won the license and WRAL-TV went on the air in late 1956. Two years later – in 1958 – J.D. Lewis would begin hosting the program that is still synonymous with his name – Teenage Frolics.

“Frolics” was a wildly popular program that aired live from the WRAL-TV studios every Saturday afternoon. The show featured African-American teenagers dancing to the latest tunes, and while it was best known for music and dance, Teenage Frolics also gave J.D. Lewis a platform for interviews with community leaders, civic officials and nationally-known entertainers such as Lou Rawls and Isaac Hayes.

Teenage Frolics provided a window into black youth culture and music and gave African-American teenagers a sense of pride. It also made J.D. Lewis a regional star, and his daughter, Yvonne Lewis-Holley, says she felt her father’s influence on a regular basis: “This is what I hear from people when I see them on the street: He was the first black man that they could see on TV that wasn’t pushing a broom.”

When J.D. Lewis ended his radio career in 1968 he became a community relations representative for Pepsi and a project director for the U.S. Labor Department. He was also responsible for job training programs for the Neighborhood Youth Corps.

In 1974, CBC President Jim Goodmon convinced J.D. to come back to the company, hiring him as Capitol Broadcasting’s first Human Resources Director. J.D. accepted the challenge and soon went on the air as an editorialist for WRAL-TV, stressing education and other topics that were important to him.

Later Lewis would serve as CBC’s Minority Affairs Director. During that time he hosted the WRAL-TV public-affairs program “Harambee,” where he used the phrase “Let’s get it together” as a slogan. J.D. also headed up the consumer-advocacy program “Call for Action” that helped numerous citizens with their financial problems.

Lewis’ deep interest in young people was exemplified throughout his life and career. When he retired from CBC in 1997, he declined a traditional gift and asked that the money instead be directed to his favorite charity, the Garner Road YMCA, a center J.D. helped found after World War II. Capitol Broadcasting Company’s Fletcher Foundation provided $100,000 in seed money for a multi-purpose center that opened in 2005. The new wing at the Y was fittingly named in honor of Lewis.

J.D. received numerous honors for his participation in a broad range of civic and community activities. In April 2000, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) presented him with its Humanitarian of the Year Award. J.D. was also inducted into the Hall of Distinction at the African-American Cultural Complex. And he received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association.

In February 2007 Lewis was honored with the very first Triangle Urban League Legend Award for his trailblazing career that changed the landscape of the broadcast industry. The next day — February 17, 2007 – J.D. Lewis died at the age of 87.

In 2010, J.D. received posthumous induction into the Raleigh Hall of Fame.