The Place To Be.

Legendary WRAL News Anchor Charlie Gaddy, Weatherman Bob DeBardelaben with Randy at the WRAL Reunion Reception.

(West Raleigh, NC) -- They were my childhood heroes. Frankly, they are legends of a by-gone era of broadcasting. They are the Action News 5 Team -- Charlie Gaddy, Bob Debardelaben, Bobbie Battista, and Tom Suiter.

For one final time together -- they did what I could have only created in dreams years after three of them retired -- come together again to anchor WRAL News. The appropriately titled "WRAL Reunion Newscast" opened with clips from Action News 5's past glory -- then transitioned to the sleek new graphics and music of the present.

With North Carolina's version of Walter Cronkite alongside former CNN founding anchor Bobbie Battista for the first time in 25 years, Action News 5's first male-female anchor team were together again.

Age has been kind to all three former anchors. Battista actually looks better today than she did when she left for CNN in 1981. 75-year-old Gaddy has barely aged a bit. He looks more like 60 -- then again -- he looked all of 59 when he retired in 1994. Venerable weatherman Bob DeBardelaben still has his signature calming voice. Though a little rusty with new equipment such as WRAL Weatherscope and the various other weather maps, Bob was nonetheless as professional today as he was when he retired in June 1989.

Perhaps the most touching moment of the evening came when Tom Suiter joined all three former colleagues on the Anchor desk he has called home since Rich Brenner departed for Chicago in 1981. Being the geniune person that he is, Suiter celebrated the talents that each anchor brought to the program -- saying at one point "I want to cry."

It was obvious this was the Action News 5 Team. This was special for Suiter. It was a joy for Battista, Gaddy, and Debardelaben.

And for at least one more night ... WRAL was absolutely THE Place To Be!

(editor's note: this is the first in a series of posts forthcoming in the next few days regarding WRAL's 50th anniversary.)