The Triangle-area’s most notorious left-wing zealot – Jim Goodmon – has announced that WRAL-TV5 – the TV station he inherited 
from his uncle A.J. Fletcher – will switch network affiliates from CBS to NBC effective February 1.
Reasons for the change, after a 30-year relationship, are cloaked in the usual corporate doublespeak. Why is Goodmon leaving the very liberal network synonymous with Dan Rather’s journalistic embarrassment to join the very liberal network that Brian Williams similarly embarrassed?
It would be a safe bet that Goodmon’s well-known “personal mission” to destroy all opposition to his radical left-wingedness is at the crux of the move. That “personal mission” has come to dominate the 73 y/o Goodmon’s daily existence over the past decade.
The man, once viewed as a pioneer and trailblazer, WAS considered The Triangle’s #1 “City Father” and WAS universally admired for his 
Apolitical decisioning. “Was” being the unfortunate verb tense. His much-admired Apoliticalness included famously banning any/all political bumper stickers of any ilk from the CBC employee parking lot. That, of course, was well before Goodmon’s descent into the depths of The Dark Cauldron.
Fellow inside-the beltline enclave observers credit a terminal attack of Liberal Guilt for Goodmon’s Jekyll to Hyde transformation into The Triangle’s #1 Limo Liberal Zealot.
Goodmon, who attended Duke but never graduated, fortuitously inherited Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) from his uncle – AJ Fletcher – in the early 70s, at the beginning of an era during which WRAL “had a license to print money”. The significant personal wealth that inheritance afforded him could, observers surmises, have eventually manifested itself in his current over-the-top zealotry.
Changing one’s “personal politics” is certainly not that unusual nor normally cause for public concern. When one has total iron-fisted control over a significant media conglomerate using the public airwaves, it definitely DOES create concern. Jim Goodmon’s current state-of-mind overrides any media ethics the man might have once possessed.
Goodmon began turning over the day-to-day management of CBC to his son, Jimmy Jr in recent years turning his own time/interest to bankrolling a long list of radical left-wing causes including Reverend William “Bully” Barber’s much ballyhooed Monday Mini-Mobs at the NC General Assembly.
It was a Goodmon “toady” – Peter Anlyan – that issued the infamously bogus press release that one of Barber’s Hoot & Hates drew “at least 80,000….” when Barber’s own people said “no more than 6-7,000 !!! That WHOOPER will haunt Anlyan, Goodmon and Barber ‘til the cows come home.
When North Carolina voters gave Republicans an overwhelming mandate in the NC General Assembly, Goodmon retaliated by hiring a “hit squad of dumpster-divers” to do “whatever it takes” to discredit and disrupt state government. “Whatever it takes” being the key directive. With a critical national election coming in eleven months, Goodmon’s Goons are expected to ratchet up their attacks. The verocity of Goodmon’s attack on anyone who does not share his politics has seen WRAL surpass even the notorious local newspaper – The N&O – as a partisan media attack dog.
Then, of course, there was Goodmon’s “encouraging” (wink, wink) WRAL’s “Weather Guy” Greg Fishel to play Chicken Little with a much ballyhooed OMG…. The Sky If Falling !!! special expose on Climate Change / Global Warming / “whatever they are calling it this week”.
Fishel was, prior to his Chicken Little Show, WRAL’s only on-air performer with a shred of credibility. “Was”, again, being the unfortunate verb tense.
Perhaps this network switch to NBC may be to give WRAL a closer affiliation with NBC’s crazy cuzzin – MSNBC. The screaming loonies that populate that insane asylum are consistent with Goodmon’s current mindset
….as, entering his Golden Years, Jim Goodmon sits on his expansive front porch throwing rocks at anyone who does not share his convoluted world view..
That mindset might have been even more “at home” with Al-Jazeerah America but, alas, that radical network has just announced a complete shutdown of its operations.
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WRAL drops CBS affiliation as networks put the squeeze on local markets
Once again, CBS has sent a strong message that it will be tough in negotiations to extract money from its local affiliates.
WRAL, which touts itself as “the No. 1 CBS affiliate sign on to sign off in the top 25 markets,” announced on Friday it will soon become the NBC station in nearby Raleigh, North Carolina. CBS will change its affiliation to WNCN, the NBC affiliate in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The switch was prompted by a disagreement between WRAL and CBS about how much revenue paid to WRAL from from cable companies should go to the network. CBS has taken a hard stance with local stations recently; it dropped its CBS affiliate in Indianapolis in 2014, leaving it without an affiliation. WRAL said it will become the NBC affiliate on Feb. 29, which is when the February ratings period ends.
Local stations hoped that when cable companies began paying “retransmission fees” for the right to pass along their signals that the locals would keep most of the money. But networks are pressing for a bigger cut, and analysts say soon the local stations will be paying half of the “retrans fees” to the networks. A couple of decades ago, networks actually paid the local stations to carry network programming.
WRAL’s noted that making the switch “was not an easy decision” and was motivated by a long look at which network better positioned it for the future:
“This was not an easy decision. It came down to the question, ‘What network do we believe is best positioned for the future of local broadcasting?’ It is clear to us that NBC understands the value that local affiliates bring to the entire network relationship,” Jim Goodman, president and chief executive of Capitol Broadcasting Co., WRAL’s parent company, said in a statement. “We’re local broadcasters first. As the industry continues to change, we believe this switch to NBC positions us well for the future.”
Media General, which owns WNCN, endorsed the switch in a statement:
“CBS has been a longstanding and valued partner for many years, and we are pleased to build upon our relationship with a new affiliation in Raleigh,” said Vincent L. Sadusky, Media General’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are particularly excited about the opportunities this brings to our station and the high-quality network programming that complements our strong local news and unique local content.”
In one way, the affiliation change is a return to WRAL’s roots. While the station has been a CBS affiliate for 30 years, the station signed on the air in 1956 as an NBC affiliate then switched to carrying ABC programming.
Correction: Due to an editing error, this story originally misstated WNCN’s location. It is based in Goldsboro, not Greensboro.
