Charlie Gaddy, the face of WRAL News for two decades, died on Thursday, June 12, 2025. He was 93.
“Our family was incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Charlie Gaddy," said Jimmy Goodmon, president and chief operating officer (COO) of Capitol Broadcasting Company, the parent company of WRAL-TV.
Other WRAL Top Stories
"For many of us, it feels like the loss of a giant," Goodmon continued. "Charlie was both a light in our community and a light within our own Capitol Broadcasting Company family. He will be deeply missed by us and by everyone who watched him deliver news with grace and integrity for decades. Charlie’s journalism legacy is one of compassion and curiosity and will live on in all of those he touched."
Paul Pope, long-time vice president of Capitol Broadcasting Co.," called Gaddy "The grand poobah."
"I mean, if Charlie Gaddy said it, it was so,” Pope said.
Gaddy will be remembered at a funeral June 26, 2025, at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh at 11 a.m., followed by a graveside service at 2 p.m. at Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh.
Gaddy was born in Roxboro, N.C., educated at Guilford College and served in the US Army, before being bitten by the broadcast bug.
- History of Capitol Broadcasting: Charlie Gaddy interview pt. 1 | Charlie Gaddy interview pt. 2
- Photos: Charlie Gaddy, 1931-2025
Gaddy began his career in television as an NBC page in Washington, D.C., in the late 1950s. He also was an announcer and assistant director on NBC’s award-winning evening news program, the Huntley-Brinkley Report, before moving to Raleigh as a newsman with WPTF-AM.
In 1970, he moved to WRAL to host "Good Morning, Charlie," a morning call-in show. He later hosted a variety show for the station before moving to the evening news anchor desk in 1974.
Paired with anchor Bobbie Battista – they were the area's first man-and-woman anchor team – weatherman Bob DeBardelaben and sportscaster Rich Brenner, Gaddy helped build Action News 5 into the dominant television news station in the Triangle.
"A lot of the success the station enjoyed in those early years as the news really grew an audience was attributable to Charlie Gaddy,” said the late Fred Barber, a former WRAL general manager.
Former associates said Gaddy was a gifted communicator whose connection to viewers transcended television.
“You felt like Charlie was talking to you – not reading to you, not preaching to you or any of that – just simply sitting back and talking to you,” said John Greene, another former WRAL general manager.
"I really think that was the charm and the magic of Charlie Gaddy is that, when you saw him on TV, he was telling you – one neighbor to another – what was going on in our community that day," said Jim Hefner, another former WRAL general manager. "Folks believed him, and they had a reason to believe him.
“I think he probably, in those days, was the soul of WRAL News in many, many ways.”
“Charlie was the gold standard,” said former reporter Julia Milstead. “He wasn’t just a really good anchor or good journalist. He was a really good person.”
Gaddy used his celebrity to help worthy causes, such as United Cerebral Palsy and Wednesday’s Child, where he profiled hard-to-adopt children. The Charlie Gaddy Children's Center, a Raleigh center for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities is named for him.
As other members of the news team were replaced – Battista left for CNN in 1981, Brenner was replaced by Tom Suiter the following year and DeBardelaben retired in 1989 – Gaddy remained a constant presence on WRAL News' evening shows.
Gaddy said two of his most defining moments as a newsman came in 1988, when he covered a tornado that ripped through north Raleigh and an armed takeover of The Robesonian newspaper in Lumberton. In the latter story, he talked on-air with Eddie Hatcher, one of the two men holding the newspaper’s employees hostage.
“I was nervous. I was awfully nervous about that," Gaddy said later. "Yet, I thought it was important to ask the man what he wanted.”
"He always talked about what was it going to take to let those hostages go," said former WRAL anchor Debra Morgan. "He was always an advocate for the viewer and that's what people loved about him so much."
During his career, Gaddy won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, and he later was inducted into the North Carolina Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
He retired from WRAL on July 1, 1994, but he continued to appear in station projects. In 2004, he hosted a documentary for the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Hazel, and he began hosting the community town hall program, WRAListens, which examines issues facing different communities across the region.
To honor WRAL's 50th anniversary, Gaddy reunited with Battista, DeBardelaben and Suiter on Dec. 15, 2006, for a special evening newscast.
Gaddy was named to the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2012. One of his last public appearances was when he was inducted to the Mongotmery County Hall of Honor in 2022.
“I just feel like I was in the right place," Gaddy said of his career with WRAL. "This was what I was supposed to do, and I wanted to do it well and tried to do it well.”