David Crabtree is an American award-winning journalist, former television news anchor, and television executive. He served as the lead anchor of

WRAL-TV WRAL-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Research Triangle area. It is the flagship station of the locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company, which h ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

for much of his 28 years at the network through 2022. Following a forty year career in television reporting, he was named the CEO of

PBS North Carolina The University of North Carolina Center for Public Media, branded on-air as PBS North Carolina or commonly PBS NC, is a public television network serving the state of North Carolina. It is operated by the University of North Carolina system, whic ...

. Crabtree has won 16 Emmy awards, is a recipient of the North Carolina

Order of the Long Leaf Pine The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, created in 1964, is an honor that can be granted in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2021, it was believed the Order had been awarded to more than 21,000 people. The Order The Order of the Long Leaf Pine is ...

, and is a member of the NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame.

Career

Crabtree was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University. Crabtree started out his career as a musician, playing drums professionally with bands in Nashville and doing session work for radio jingles, which led to a job as a radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

. He left radio to work as press secretary for the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

Television career

Crabtree started his television career as a reporter on Nashville’s

WKRN-TV WKRN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road (U.S. Routes U.S. R ...

. He later worked at

KCNC-TV KCNC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street (between ...

and

KMGH-TV KMGH-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling-licensed independent station KCDO-TV, channel 3 (and its Denver-licensed translato ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

WITN-TV WITN-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Washington, North Carolina, United States, serving Eastern North Carolina as an affiliate of NBC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Gray Television, the station has primary studio facilities on Eas ...

Washington, North Carolina Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. It is commonly known as "Original Wa ...

. In 1994 he became a news anchor at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. Crabtree announced his retirement from WRAL in 2018 and was set to retire at the end of that year, but announced in November 2018 that he would postpone his retirement and continue working at WRAL. Crabtree hosted his final broadcast on May 25, 2022. In April 2022, Crabtree was named as interim Chief Executive Officer of PBS North Carolina. In September 2022, Crabtree was appointed permanently as the CEO of PBS North Carolina by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.

Awards

Crabtree has won 16

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and was named North Carolina Journalist of the Year four consecutive years by the Radio-Television News Directors Association of the Carolinas. He was named the 2014 North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Anchor of the Year. He has also received the

Gabriel Award The Gabriel Awards are a Catholic honor awarded each year for excellence in broadcasting. They were started by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals in 1965, and are currently administered by the Catholic Media Association. ...

and

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *'' Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interl ...

in 2007 for his documentary on living conditions for migrant workers in North Carolina. He notably won a Midsouth Emmy award for coverage of the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

, and was additionally nominated in 2011 for a Midsouth Emmy for coverage of the funeral for

Elizabeth Edwards Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards (July 3, 1949 – December 7, 2010) was an American attorney, author, and health care activist. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who was the 2004 United States Democrati ...

. Crabtree was also inducted into the

by governor

Roy Cooper Roy Asberry Cooper III (born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician, serving as the 75th governor of North Carolina since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina from 20 ...

on May 25th, 2022, the same day of his retirement from WRAL. The day was declared “David Crabtree Day” by the mayor of Raleigh. He was inducted into th
NC Media Journalism Hall of Fame
in April, 2023.

Ministerial Work

Crabtree was ordained a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in the Episcopal Church in 2004. He served as an assisting minister at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Raleigh from 2004 until 2018. Crabtree was permanently suspended from ministry by the

Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina is a diocese of the Episcopal Church within Province IV that encompasses central North Carolina. Founded in 1817, the modern boundaries of the diocese roughly corresponds to the portion of North Carolina ...

after allegations of improper conduct were made against him in October 2018. Crabtree made a personal statement explaining his removal from ministry, stating that he had engaged in a consensual relationship with a woman that violated church protocol.

Personal life

Crabtree is from Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated with a bachelors of science from

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight undergraduate colleges as well as a college of graduate studies, together off ...

. He later studied divinity at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

and obtained a masters in theology from the

Graduate Theological Foundation The Graduate Theological Foundation (GTF) is an American nonprofit interreligious institution of higher learning, originally founded in Indiana but now centered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Unlike traditional residential theological schools, the ...

before enrolling as a masters student at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Divinity School A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

. Crabtree is divorced and has two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabtree, David Living people 21st-century American Episcopalians 21st-century American journalists American Episcopal clergy American male journalists American television news anchors 21st-century Anglican deacons Duke Divinity School alumni Journalists from Tennessee Middle Tennessee State University alumni News & Documentary Emmy Award winners People from Nashville, Tennessee Vanderbilt University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Graduate Theological Foundation alumni 21st-century American clergy