By his own admission, former WRAL news anchor David Crabtree isn't good at retiring.
Crabtree, who left WRAL at the end of May after nearly three decades with the top rated local station, is now interim CEO of PBS North Carolina. He says he’s in the new role for the long haul.
“Retirement isn’t really a word I know how to define right now,” Crabtree said.
About five years ago, Crabtree announced his intention to retire from WRAL at the end of 2018. But the final farewell kept getting postponed.
This time, his “retirement” includes a very active day job.
In an exclusive interview, Crabtree talked about what led him to became part of the so-called “Great Resignation," and he described his new mission at PBS.
Something left in the tank
Crabtree joined WRAL in 1994 after stints at television stations in Nashville, Tennessee; Washington, North Carolina; and Denver. When he left the anchor desk for good in May, 16 regional Emmys later, he was co-leading WRAL's 6 p.m. broadcast.
While he had initially plotted his retirement years ago, an active hurricane season gave him a renewed sense of his job’s importance.
“I knew we were providing a service and there was still something left in the tank,” Crabtree said. So he added a few more years – planning to "try" to retire again at the end of 2023.
Then PBS North Carolina (former UNC-TV) called. But Crabtree did not initially see himself in an administrative role.
“In fact, when I received the call expressing some interest in me taking a look at this, I said no two times before I said yes because I didn’t think I would be the person for the job because of all the job entails,” he said.
But the nagging idea wouldn’t go away – that perhaps he could really do this.
Crabtree spent a few weeks talking over the idea with past general managers he had worked with “and I said tell me why I should not do this, and all but one was incredibly encouraging.”
With the pandemic, Crabtree is one of a slew of people making career changes. For Crabtree, however, it wasn’t about Covid-19 burnout.
“If the pandemic did anything, it made me thankful that I was working at a business to bring information about the pandemic to [North Carolinians],” he said.
Crabtree, who, as an “essential worker,” had come into the office without interruption during the pandemic, said his desire to join PBS was more about the challenge.
“I realized that, possibly, the 40 years prior that I’d spent in broadcasting was actually preparing me to do this,” he said. “Here I am at this stage of my career, entering into something very difficult, but still something with my skill set.”
Kaitlin McKeown
His advice for others considering leaping into a career unknown? Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Ask people who know you “why not,” he said.
The challenge
For Crabtree, it ultimately came down to the mission. Having covered the Triangle region, he saw firsthand the importance of education – and PBS was a different way to move the needle, both for children and lifelong learners.
Less than a third of PBS North Carolina's funding comes from the state. The majority of its budget comes from donors. Crabtree said what critics of publicly-funded broadcasting aren’t getting is that it’s investing in education “in a way that you may not have considered before.”
Not only does PBS work with agencies like the Department of Emergency Management to keep people safe – similar to his mission as a news anchor – it also works to offer free, over-the-air education.
“No one else in the state can do that,” he said.
Crabtree was recently talking to a rabbi about an upcoming Ken Burns documentary about the Holocaust. And he said it’s amazing to be part of something that starts important conversations.
Crabtree admits it’s been a challenge. He's used to reporting on the news, not managing a station. He’s in the midst of budget planning right now – not a typical item on an anchor’s repertoire. But he’s trying to be a sponge, relying on his skill set but pulling in advice from others. And he says it’s working.
“It’s been a wonderful adjustment and a steep learning curve at the same time,” Crabtree said. “Television is television.”
The basics are the same – “producing great content.” And with PBS, Crabtree gets to balance two parts of the job he treasured at WRAL – public service and public safety.
“It’s invigorating,” he said.
