Anchor David Crabtree announces departure from WRAL, citing ‘an amazing opportunity’
WRAL viewers may remember that anchor David Crabtree has announced retirement plans in the past, only to hedge on the timeline and stay put for years.
But this time it’s different.
This time Crabtree is really leaving the station — but he’s still not retiring.
Crabtree will leave WRAL at the end of May to take on the job of interim chief executive officer at PBS North Carolina, the public television station known until just over a year ago as UNC-TV. The station is run by the University of North Carolina system.
Crabtree succeeds former UNC School of the Arts chancellor Lindsay Beirman, who took charge at PBSNC in August 2019. Beirman stepped down this month to become executive director and CEO of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California.
Former WRAL vice president and general manager Steve Hammel and UNC Health leader Kevin FitzGerald both served in interim capacities at PBSNC following the departure of Brian Sickora in October 2018.
Crabtree’s service at PBSNC will begin April 1 on a part-time basis, the public TV station said in a press release, and he will transition to the full-time role in June.
WRAL made the official announcement at the end of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. newscast, but Crabtree told The News & Observer earlier in the day that the offer was “totally unexpected.”
“I never went looking for this,” he said.
Crabtree, a Tennessee native who took over as lead anchor at WRAL when Charlie Gaddy retired in 1994, had announced in the fall of 2017 that he planned to retire at the end of 2018. But he changed his mind in 2018 and said he would stay through 2020.
In the summer of 2020, 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.
WRAL said this week that Debra Morgan will continue to co-anchor the 6 p.m. newscast, and that an announcement on her new co-anchor will come soon.
University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans said in a released statement: “David Crabtree’s excellence in journalism, experience in the television industry and deep knowledge of the state make him a perfect fit for PBS North Carolina. I’m grateful to him for taking on this role at one of North Carolina’s most beloved institutions. I look forward to working with him as he leads PBS North Carolina into its next chapter.”
Not an easy decision to leave
Crabtree said on Tuesday that he was contacted about the PBSNC opportunity several weeks ago and that while the idea “caught him off guard,” his “great love” for PBS and the possibilities of the job made it hard to turn down.
“I think that the opportunity for me of public service — this is just a great opportunity and I’m happy to have the chance to do it,” Crabtree said. “I am literally blown away by the opportunity to do it.”
Still, Crabtree, 72, said the decision was not an easy one to make.
“When you’ve been with a company for 28 years and they’ve been loyal to you and you’ve been loyal to them, and with the viewers I’ve connected with over the years — it’s a real transition,” he said.
“I was at the station yesterday and just walking through the front doors I was thinking, ‘you’ve walked through these doors now almost 28 years, every day down the same hallway, every day seeing some of the same people, every day the feel of a building, the emotions of a building and the emotions of the people there.’
“We know each other and have worked together for almost three decades. Walking away from that is not easy. Yet I knew a year and a half from now, I would be,” Crabtree said. “This opportunity fits within that framework … it’s good timing, and I’m just delighted with the opportunity.”
In addition to having a new employer, Crabtree’s new job comes with two other big changes: he will no longer be in front of the camera, and he’ll be entering a management role.
When asked if a new job with its new demands feels “scary,” Crabtree chuckled but admitted, “it’s a little daunting yes.”
“I think any change can be daunting, but part of that means you’re ready to embrace it, and it’s exciting at the same time,” he said.
Crabtree said right now he’s focused on the opportunity to share his nearly 40 years of broadcast journalism experience and “bring different ideas to the table” at PBSNC, an organization that boasts a public service mission to educate, inform and entertain the people of the state.
“It’s still journalism. It’s still broadcasting. It’s still people. It’s still storytelling and it is still being able to have an impact on the community in which I live, and a chance to give back in a different way,” he said.
What about that retirement?
In January, when Crabtree scaled back anchor duties, he said there was no timeline in his head as far as when his retirement might happen. This week, he alluded to “a year and a half from now” as the possible end for his time at WRAL.
Does this new job reset the clock on future retirement plans?
“It has the potential to reset the clock, but I’m not looking at it in that regard,” Crabtree said. “That is really not my intent, but who knows. It could open up doors for other opportunities. I don’t want to close the door on anything.”
But the PBSNC position is an interim one. There will be a nationwide search to find the person who will fill the job permanently, Crabtree said, and there is no set timetable for that search or how long it will take.
But in whatever amount of time he’s needed there, Crabtree says he is ready for the “wide open possibilities” of what he might bring to the PBSNC job.
“The bottom line for me — this is such an amazing opportunity to continue to bring new ideas to people and to invigorate and challenge, and see what we can do to serve people,” he said. “I am so humbled. It’s an incredible responsibility, and I don’t take it lightly.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 6:27 PM.
