A well-known WRAL reporter is leaving the station. What we know
Aaron Thomas' last day at WRAL is Monday, June 16, according to social media posts announcing the news.
'This wasn't an easy decision,' Thomas wrote in a Facebook post. 'Reporting for my hometown TV station has been a blessing and a dream fulfilled. YEARS of prayer and self-reflection led to the conclusion that it's time for a new challenge.'
Thomas, who did not immediately respond to a request for more information from The News & Observer, said in the Facebook post that he would take a month to 'recharge + reset.'
'As for what's next? Stay tuned,' Thomas wrote.
Thomas, who joined WRAL in 2019, graduated from N.C. State University in 2014 with a degree in communication media, according to his WRAL bio.
He was born in Fayetteville and raised in Fuquay-Varina, the bio says.
During his six years at WRAL, Thomas won two Nashville/MidSouth Emmy Awards in breaking/spot news - multiple reports and team coverage categories.
Before coming to WRAL, Thomas worked for two years as a reporter/multimedia journalism at ABC affiliate WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia.
From 2015-17, he was a reporter/multimedia journalist at CBS affiliate WTAJ-TV in State College, Pennsylvania.
WRAL legend Charlie Gaddy — 'the Walter Cronkite of North Carolina' — has died
Thomas is the latest broadcast journalist to leave WRAL in recent months.
Gilbert Baez, a longtime Fayetteville reporter for the station, left WRAL in January, after the station did not renew his contract. Baez is hosting a new TV show, 'Air Angels: Flight Helene.' He is also hosting a three-hour weekday news program at WFNC, The N&O previously reported.
Debra Morgan joined WRAL as an anchor in 1993. Until 2023, she co-anchored newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., alongside Gerald Owens. But in May of that year, she began co-anchoring only at the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. hours, a change she said would offer better work-life balance.
Morgan's last day on the anchor desk at WRAL was May 21.
Have a question about your community you'd like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you'd like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you.
If you have a question about the Charlotte area, send The Charlotte Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form.
If you have a question about Raleigh or a Triangle area community, send The News & Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form.
Local TV station announces new host for public affairs program. Here's when she'll start
Former WRAL reporter begins 2 new TV & radio projects this year. Here's what to know
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Press
an hour ago
- American Press
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90 Published 11:11 am Tuesday, July 1, 2025 Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who became a household name amassing an enormous following and multimillion-dollar ministry only to be undone by his penchant for prostitutes, has died. Swaggart died decades after his once vast audience dwindled and his name became a punchline on late night television. His death was announced Tuesday on his public Facebook page. A cause wasn't immediately given, though at 90 he had been in poor health. The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of successful TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and '90s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience. Email newsletter signup Swaggart encapsulated his downfall in a tearful 1988 sermon, in which he wept and apologized but made no reference to his connection to a prostitute. 'I have sinned against you,' Swaggart told parishioners nationwide. 'I beg you to forgive me.' He announced his resignation from the Assemblies of God later that year, shortly after the church said it was defrocking him for rejecting punishment it had ordered for 'moral failure.' The church had wanted him to undergo a two-year rehabilitation program, including not preaching for a full year. Swaggart said at the time that he knew dismissal was inevitable but insisted he had no choice but to separate from the church to save his ministry and Bible college. From poverty and oil fields to a household name Swaggart grew up poor, the son of a preacher, in a music-rich family. He excelled at piano and gospel music, playing and singing with talented cousins who took different paths: rock-'n'-roller Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. In his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana, Swaggart said he first heard the call of God at age 8. The voice gave him goose bumps and made his hair tingle, he said. 'Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theater,' he said in a 1985 interview with the Jacksonville Journal-Courier in Illinois. 'I felt better inside. Almost like taking a bath.' He preached and worked part time in oil fields until he was 23. He then moved entirely into his ministry: preaching, playing piano and singing gospel songs with the barrelhouse fervor of cousin Lewis at Assemblies of God revivals and camp meetings. Swaggart started a radio show, a magazine, and then moved into television, with outspoken views. He called Roman Catholicism 'a false religion. It is not the Christian way,' and claimed that Jews suffered for thousands of years 'because of their rejection of Christ.' 'If you don't like what I say, talk to my boss,' he once shouted as he strode in front of his congregation at his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, where his sermons moved listeners to speak in tongues and stand up as if possessed by the Holy Spirit. Swaggart's messages stirred thousands of congregants and millions of TV viewers, making him a household name by the late 1980s. Contributors built Jimmy Swaggart Ministries into a business that made an estimated $142 million in 1986. His Baton Rouge complex still includes a worship center and broadcasting and recording facilities. The scandals that led to Swaggart's ruin Swaggart's downfall came in the late 1980s as other prominent preachers faced similar scandals. Swaggart said publicly that his earnings were hurt in 1987 by the sex scandal surrounding rival televangelist Jim Bakker and a former church secretary at Bakker's PTL ministry organization. The following year, Swaggart was photographed at a hotel with Debra Murphree, an admitted prostitute who told reporters that the two did not have sex but that the preacher had paid her to pose nude. She later repeated the claim — and posed nude — for Penthouse magazine. The surveillance photos that crippled Swaggart's career apparently stemmed from his rivalry with preacher Marvin Gorman, whom Swaggart had accused of sexual misdeeds. Gorman hired the photographer who captured Swaggart and Murphree on film. Swaggart later paid Gorman $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit over the sexual allegations against Gorman. More trouble came in 1991, when police in California detained Swaggart with another prostitute. The evangelist was charged with driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an unregistered Jaguar. His companion, Rosemary Garcia, said Swaggart became nervous when he saw the police car and weaved when he tried to stuff pornographic magazines under a car seat. Swaggart was later mocked by the late TV comic Phil Hartman, who impersonated him on NBC's 'Saturday Night Live.' Out of the public eye but still in the pulpit The evangelist largely stayed out of the news in later years but remained in the pulpit at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, often joined by his son, Donnie, a fellow preacher. His radio station broadcast church services and gospel music to 21 states, and Swaggart's ministry boasted a worldwide audience on the internet. 'There's been no greater example of a good and faithful servant than my father. No ifs, ands and buts about it. A man who lived his life for the cause of Christ,' Donnie Swaggart said in a video message shared on social media Sunday about his dad's final days. The preacher caused another brief stir in 2004 with remarks about being 'looked at' amorously by a gay man. 'And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,' Jimmy Swaggart said, to laughter from the congregation. He later apologized. Swaggart made few public appearances outside his church, save for singing 'Amazing Grace' at the 2005 funeral of Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, a prominent name in state politics for decades. In 2022, he shared memories at the memorial service for Lewis, his cousin and rock 'n' roll pioneer. The pair had released 'The Boys From Ferriday,' a gospel album, earlier that year. Featured Local Savings
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies at 90, weeks after going into cardiac arrest
Famed teleevangelist Jimmy Swaggart died on Tuesday, July 1, according to an announcement on his Facebook page. He was 90. The Pentecostal preacher and pioneer of televangelism was in critical condition at a Louisiana hospital after going into cardiac arrest on June 15, family members said during a recent prayer service. Family of the late musician, author and broadcaster previously announced they had not expected him to survive. "I wish I could tell you that (he's) recovering and things are going better but there has been no change," his son Donnie Swaggart, co-pastor at Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, said in a June 17 video released online after visiting his father in the hospital. "The bottom line is that without a miracle ... that's the only thing we can hope for." Swaggart's hospitalization Swaggart's 70-year-old son said his father was found about 8 a.m. at his home and revived before being taken to a local hospital. At the time of his death, he was co-pastor of the Family Worship Center, which he founded. Where was Jimmy Swaggart born? Swaggart was born on March 15, 1935 to the late Willie Leon and Minnie Belle Swaggart in Ferriday, Louisiana. He had one sister, the late Jeanette Ensminger, who family confirmed died in 1999. A prominent evangelist for decades, Swaggart grew up in Ferriday, a town in Concordia Parish which borders the Mississippi River on the central eastern border of Louisiana. According to Swaggart's family, his cousins included rock-and-roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis and country music star Mickey Gilley. Swaggart, who authored more than 100 books and commentaries, held evangelistic crusades in more than 40 countries, his family said, filling stadiums with tens of thousands of worshippers. As a musician, he sold 17 million gospel albums. More than 100 countries and a dozen languages Swaggart "faithfully attended small Assemblies of God churches in Ferriday and Wisner, Louisiana, where his passion for ministry first began to take root," according to family. His full-time ministry kicked off in 1955 and the preacher grew to become "one of the most recognized voices in Christian broadcasting," family reported. In 1969, he launched "The Campmeeting Hour," which aired on more than 700 U.S. stations and in 1973, "The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast" started, eventually growing to reach more than 100 countries each week, being translated into more than a dozen languages. During the height of his 1980s exposure, Swaggart became involved in various prostitution scandals leading to his suspension and defrocking. In 1988, Swaggart delivered his infamous "I have sinned" speech on live television. In 1995, at age 60, Swaggart founded SonLife Radio Network, expanding gospel programming across North America which currently broadcast to more than 300 million TV homes across the globe. In addition to his son and cousins, the preacher is survived by his wife of 70 years, Frances Swaggart. He also leaves behind his daughter-in-law, Debbie Swaggart; his grandchildren, Gabriel Lee Swaggart and his wife, Jill; Jennifer Swaggart Mullis and her husband, Cliff; and Matthew Aaron Swaggart and his wife, JoAnna. In addition, he leaves behind his nine great-grandchildren: Samantha, Ryder, Abby, Lola, Harper, Navy, Harrison, Caroline Frances and Mackenzie. Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr. Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@ and follow her on X @nataliealund.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Quilting Gathering Brings a New Tradition to a Classic Form
Laughter mixed with the steady hum of sewing machines as Candace Thomas addressed a room full of quilters inside the Durham Convention Center in Durham, N.C. Hot irons resided at the front and back of the room to keep a rainbow's worth of fabrics flattened and at the ready. 'You want to get a length of fabric that's about a half-inch wide,' Thomas instructed. 'You can make a tube, turn it inside out, roll your edges like you would do a purse strap. Whatever shape you like.' The couple dozen women eyed Thomas's instructions as they refined their altar boxes, decorated containers roughly the size of a shoe box that can hold a doll or special memory. One of Thomas's boxes contained a copy of a poem her mother penned in 1948. 'It's like teaching a cooking class for family,' said Thomas, who started quilting as a high school student in California after watching her aunt sew. Thomas taught over Juneteenth weekend at the Kindred Spirits Quilting Conference, which brought together African American quilters from across the South. Kimberley Pierce Cartwright, a longtime member of the African American Quilt Circle of Durham, was the one who conceived of the idea for the three-day conference, which featured workshops like the one Thomas headed and a pop-up quilt show where spectators could admire and purchase quilts. The first conference was held in 2023; after this second edition, Pierce Cartwright plans to make it an annual event around each Juneteenth. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
