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Bill Leslie: The Great Raymond Farrar

One of my best friends retired from WRAL-TV this week and I wanted to brag about him a little bit.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — One of my best friends retired from WRAL-TV this week and I wanted to brag about him a little bit.

If you could win a Peabody Award for behind-the-scenes excellence in broadcasting, Raymond Farrar would take top honors hands down.

Raymond is a character in the best possible sense. I describe him as “old school excellence.” Raymond believes in hard work. He believes in doing things the right way and being better than anyone else.

Raymond takes incredible pride in every aspect of his job as a crew member for WRAL’s newscasts and public affairs programs. Raymond works with precision, confidence and flair. He should write a manual on how to be the crew member.

Bill Leslie: The Great Raymond Farrar

Raymond has a unique sense of humor that makes you laugh every day. He is not shy about demanding excellence from everyone around him.

Over the many years we worked together I kept a log of Raymond’s colorful quotations. Here are a few of my favorites:

“Get your head in the game or turn in your uniform!”

“If you need to rehearse, do it on your own time!”

“Bill, fix your collar. This ain’t the Gong Show!”

“It’s a good thing I came to work today because anybody else would have crumbled like a cheap cookie at the supermarket deli.”

“We’ve got to improve. I’ve seen better things at a yard sale.”

Raymond uses humor to get his point across. Just like the TV show, everyone loves him.

A footnote. Raymond is an awesome singer and guitar player. I’ve convinced him to perform on my new CD. We’ll be going into the studio in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned. I’ll have more on that later.

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