Longtime WRAL director dies after short illness

We lost a member of the WRAL family on Saturday. Director/producer Chris Bolanz, who had been with WRAL for 17 years, died after a short-term illness.

Chris was responsible for making sure WRAL's morning and noon newscasts, as well as numerous live specials, looked great on the air. He would have turned 50 next month.

"We will miss Chris and his tell-it-like-it-is personality and his incredible work ethic and his wonderful sense of humor," said WRAL anchor Bill Leslie. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his son and daughter and the rest of his family."

We wrote about Chris in this blog in August 2010 after a viewer wrote in, asking about the mystery man sitting in the background behind the anchors during newscasts. That was Chris, working hard on scripts for the next hour of news so he would know what to set up and call for in the control room.

We'll miss you, Chris.