NBC's Holt gets to know new WRAL partners

Lester Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News, visited the WRAL studios, to meet with all of us who will soon be NBC partners.

Posted 11:00 p.m. Feb 23, 2016 — Updated 8:34 p.m. Feb 24, 2016

Lester Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News, puts you at ease the moment he says hello. When he visited the WRAL studios, he wanted to meet with all of us who make up the newsroom to make the partnership official.

Holt has been the anchor of NBC Nightly News for the past year. Many of you already know him; many more do not.

He sat down with me and Debra Morgan during his visit, and here are some excerpts of our conversation.

Deb's first question may be your first question. She asked, "For people who aren't used to watching NBC News, what can we expect?

"We are aggressive. When we head for a big story, we attack it," Holt said. "We want to own it."

Holt is not an anchor who likes being anchored to the desk. Whenever he can, he takes the newscast on location.

"We went to Hungary for the refugee crisis, which of course is still going on. We were in Paris after the bombings. When the bell rings, we go. We brings lots of folks. We will go where ever it takes, and again, we want to own the story," he told us.

Holt grew up in a military home. His dad was in the Air Force. His family always watched the news and talked about the issues of the day. He said he was hooked early.

"I was on the radio at 16, and I never lost the passion for a good story," Holt said.

Beginning Feb. 29, you'll have the chance to experience that journalistic passion on WRAL-TV.

I wanted to know what it meant for NBC to partner with WRAL, and his answer demonstrated that he had done his homework.

"It's so critical because this station represents the best in boradcast journalism and it also represents the best of a station that is part of the fabric of the community. You serve your viewers on every level," Holt said.

We also learned that this very busy man has a sense of humor.

When Deb asked which basketball team he'd cheer for here in the Triangle, he answered, "I was warned, stay away from college teams."

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