Crabtree signs off: Longtime WRAL anchor reflects on final newscast, 40-year career
When David Crabtree signs off his final 6 p.m. newscast on Wednesday, he will close the book on a 40-year career in journalism — the last 28 of those at WRAL in Raleigh.
But he isn’t retiring, and he isn’t leaving public service.
Though his new role — interim chief executive officer at PBS North Carolina — is more behind the scenes than he’s accustomed to, Crabtree, 72, sees the move as an opportunity to continue to “educate, inform and entertain the people of the state.”
Since April 1, he’s been spending half days at his PBS job while continuing to anchor the 6 p.m. newscast at WRAL: “My plate’s full but it’s a good time, it’s a good time,” he told The News & Observer on Monday. He says he’s trying to learn as much as he can before officially starting the job full-time on June 1.
“I just left there before I called you and it’s only been nine or 10 weeks, but I continue to walk out of there every day with new invigoration by the people who are there,” Crabtree said.
But before he turns all of his attention to the public television station, known until just over a year ago as UNC-TV, he grapples with the magnitude of ending a long career in broadcast journalism.
“It’s surreal. In my career I have anchored almost 20,000 newscasts and more than 17,000 of them have been here at WRAL,” Crabtree said. “I’ve walked through the same front doors for 28 years, down the same hallway, said hello to many of the same people, looked at the same pictures on the wall, same smells, same sounds. The awareness of that coming to a close is profound. Knowing that I won’t be seeing the same people everyday that I have for almost three decades is really significant.
“And so I pay attention to that while at the same knowing I still have a job to do, still have a newscast to anchor. We still have people in this community who depend on us, so you just come in and do what you’re supposed to do.”
Gerald Owens, a member of the WRAL News team for 20 years, will join Crabtree’s on-air partner, longtime anchor Debra Morgan, for the flagship weeknight newscast after Crabtree departs. Owens has his first day in the 6 p.m. chair on May 31.
A career built on service
Crabtree, a Tennessee native who took over as lead anchor at WRAL when Charlie Gaddy retired in 1994, has flirted with retirement in the past.
He announced in the fall of 2017 that he planned to retire at the end of 2018, but changed his mind in 2018 and said he would stay through 2020. In the summer of 2019, Crabtree extended his contract with Capitol Broadcasting Company, the parent company of WRAL, saying he would stay on through 2021. He announced in January 2022 that he would stay at WRAL, but cut back on anchoring duties, doing only the 6 p.m. newscast.
Since he announced his pending departure for PBS in March of this year, he has received phone calls, emails and cards — both mailed and dropped off at the station — from “people saying how much they will miss the presence of someone they have known for 28 years, and wishing me well. That has been very rewarding,” Crabtree said.
He notes that even during a difficult public embarrassment — in January 2019 when he lost his position as a member of the Episcopal clergy after a self-described “inappropriate” relationship that violated church rules — he has felt love from viewers.
“Sometimes we fly too close to the sun, and when that happens, we pay the consequence for it, which I did,” Crabtree says of the incident. “Viewers overwhelmingly — then and now — continue to be very supportive, and for that I will forever be grateful.”
Journalism — particularly in a high profile position — is never an easy career to walk away from, and Crabtree acknowledges the difficulty. But he also says that having a new challenge to focus on has made it a bit easier.
“Walking away from a family of coworkers, a family ownership of this company, a family of commitment to this community for almost three decades and walking away in this capacity from the viewers is harder than I thought it was going to be,” Crabtree said.
But it’s not hard because of ego or celebrity, Crabtree is quick to point out, but because of the fulfillment he has gained from his work.
“The reason this is hard is because of the commitment we truly have to serving people in this community,” Crabtree said. “The reason it’s not overwhelmingly hard is that I get to continue to do that in a different capacity. The service is still there, it’s just taking on a different cloak.
“And does it get any better than that?”
Looking back: David Crabtree’s three big career moments
Forty years in journalism means lots of stories and lots of big moments, particularly for a lead anchor at a station like WRAL.
As he leaves the station this week, Crabtree cites having communion with Pope John Paul II in his private chapel as an “obvious highlight,” along with a recent trip to Poland to do stories on North Carolinians helping Ukrainian refugees.
“The Final Fours and great travel and fun, and flying in an F16 — just having great fun and laughter is one thing, but when stories of humanity get under your veins they make a real difference to you,” Crabtree said.
Here are three of the most memorable stories from Crabtree’s career — ones he said “really had an impact on me that continue to resonate.”
▪ Crabtree reported on 14-year-old Brandy Dial of Raleigh, who was waiting for a heart transplant. “In covering her journey and exploring the waiting list that people are on for organ donations — and Brandi did receive a new heart and lived for several years before she passed away — just seeing the courage of a 14-year-old whose greatest concern was that she might leave her parents and they would be hurting. That was coming from a 14-year-old.”
▪ Over the years, Crabtree has worked with North Carolina veterans, particularly those from WWII, to help them tell their stories: “I was just trying to chronicle some of their stories to keep them alive and I’d sit down and say, ‘tell me your story,’ and for the next hour this person would just emote and weep and laugh and remember. And in the next room would be family members just bawling. And this happened twice — I remember walking out and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, are you OK?’ and they’d say, ‘We’ve never heard him tell that story.’ And so to have been a gatekeeper and not know you’ve been a gatekeeper is pretty amazing.”
▪ Meeting a woman named Judy, who lived under a bridge in Fayetteville and was displaced by Hurricane Florence. “Just before a live shot one night she walked up to me, because the flood waters from Hurricane Florence had pushed her out of her living space, and I realized even the homeless can become homeless. All she had in her life she carried in a Harris Teeter bag and in that bag included a bar of soap and a wash cloth. And I just stood there thinking, ‘My gosh, no matter what condition humanity is in, there’s still a desire for dignity, isn’t there?’”
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Crabtree signs off: Longtime WRAL anchor reflects on final newscast, 40-year career."
