Highlights for John Harris

• Action News 5 funnies with news anchor John Hudson

  Sometimes the best made plans go awry, especially if it is a “live” shot during a newscast. Here are two examples of WRAL news anchor John Hudson having a bit of fun with two situations. (circa 1984)

  The first example shows reporter Bryan Glazer reporting “live” from a post office on tax filing day, April 15. Before the day of electronic filing, tax payers needed to mail their tax returns in an envelope stamped before midnight. Last minute deliveries were common and created long lines at the post office. It just so happened that the “live” shot occurred during a lull. That left Bryan without someone to interview. News anchor John Hudson helped relieve the awkward moment with a little humor.

  The second video shows WRAL news anchor John Hudson offering up a humorous comment after WRAL reporter Howard Fox finished his “live” shot at the fairgrounds at the expense of reporter, Bryan Glazer, who was not even on the scene. You’ll recall in the previous video that Glazer waited in hope of interviewing someone about filing their tax returns at the last minute. Hudson cleverly connected the wait to Howard Fox having to wait for a mule to dive into the water. The humor left Adele Arakawa speechless and the studio camera crew doubled over in laughter.

• “I hope this station goes on forever and ever.”

  There are days when we hit the CBC History jack-pot. One of the days was in January 2016 when John Harris and I were digging through one of the boxes filled with old corporate papers in his office. Lo and
• First LIVE HD Newscast from State Fair October 13 2000 (Short Version)

  This is a short version showing behind the scenes activity of the first HD Newscast by WRAL, the leader in HD 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.

  The complete 30 minute HD broadcast is available for viewing on this website.

• WRAL.com launch celebration

  Developers and managers of WRAL.com celebrate launch of the website in 1996. L-R: John Conway, Jason Priebe, Tom Lawrence, unknown, Michelle Singer, John Harris, Cindy Sink and John Whitehead.

• WRAL-TV Action News team in 1986

  Action News team including Bill Leslie, Adele Arakawa, Charllie Gaddy, Bob DeBardelaben, Fred Taylor and many others.