Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Long-Time Executive Producer Celebrates Decades-Long CBC Tower Lighting Tradition

01/12/2023

CBC completed the trifecta of tower lightings for the holidays, as well as a half-hour special on WRAL-TV to broadcast the triple-event, on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. The WRAL-TV tower turned into a Christmas tree for the 65th time that night, and WRAL-TV Director of News Operations, Sports & Special Projects Leesa Moore has been there for 41 of those years. The 2023 lighting was her 25th as Executive Producer for the live broadcast.

Our tower lighting coverage has been through several iterations from covering only in newscasts, to producing a stand-alone special, Moore told CapCom. The constant has been to entertain. The technology has certainly changed throughout, and I think it has served us well to make the event truly sparkle.

WRAL-TV's Lena Tillett snaps a selfie as she prepares to emcee the Lucky Strike Tower Lighting at American Tobacco during CBC's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Lena Tillett)

The WRAL-TV tower began the tradition with CBC Founder A.J. Fletcher at the helm of the company, and in recent years has expanded.

I love that we're including our sister properties at American Tobacco Campus and Rocky Mount Mills, said Moore. It's an exciting way to showcase the reach of Capitol Broadcasting and reinforce our commitment to the various regions we serve.

WRAL-TV Anchor Lena Tillett went to Durham to host the lighting of the Lucky Strike tower at American Tobacco, while WRAL-TV Anchor Ashley Rowe experienced her first CBC tower lighting as emcee of the portion of the broadcast from Rocky Mount Mills.

Over the years the tower lighting has become a favorite of the CBC Team. Coverage has expanded and the number of towers has grown, but one thing stays the same.

The main constant is our people, said Moore. The staff of WRAL do amazing things throughout the year, but I think lighting the tower holds a special place in everyone's heart. With all the news we cover, this is one event where we really get to have fun!

From WRAL-TV's Kelly Riner in the control room on Wednesday, November 29, 2023: Months of preparation came down to the fastest 27 minutes of tv all year! Once again, I had the honor of producing WRAL's Tower Lighting Special. It certainly was a fun one thanks to my amazing coworkers and a lot of hard work!

WRAL-TV Senior News Producer Kelly Riner is also a mainstay of the Tower Lighting Special.

Months of preparation came down to the fastest 27 minutes of TV all year! she posted. Once again, I had the honor of producing WRAL's Tower Lighting Special. It certainly was a fun one thanks to my amazing coworkers and a lot of hard work!

The annual tradition of lighting the WRAL Tower, and now also the towers at American Tobacco and Rocky Mount Mills, is a key part of signaling the start of the holidays in the Triangle.

I love everything about the tradition of the tower lighting, said Moore. It is truly CBC's gift to the community. I have friends who attended NC State years ago who still remark about how special it was to see the tower all lit up. It's also a tradition that has stood the test of time I mean, 65 years! It's been my absolute honor and privilege to be part of such a memorable annual event and I have so many memories to carry with me.

Riner agrees.

It is always my favorite night of the year, she told CapCom. First Night is a close second! And now that countdown begins.

Watch the WRAL Tower Lighting Special:

WRAL.com: WRAL lights towers in Raleigh, Durham and Rocky Mount

Thanks to WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore, Kelly Riner, Kat Campbell, Mike Maze, Lena Tillett and Ashley Talley for these CapCom photos.

The Lucky Strike Tower at American Tobacco was lit for the holidays during CBC's Tower Lighting Special on WRAL-TV on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. The crowd at American Tobacco enjoys musical entertainment awaiting the Lucky Strike tower lighting during CBC's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Lena Tillett) The Lucky Strike Tower at American Tobacco is set to light for the holidays during CBC's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Thanks to WRAL-TV's Lena Tillett for this CapCom photo.) WRAL-TV's Kat Campbell shared this photo of her weather forecast, complete with snow from Souther Snowman, before WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. WRAL-TV's Mike Maze snaps a selfie with WRAL-TV's Kat Campbell as the meteorology duo get set to participate in WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Mike Maze) WRAL-TV's Charles Braswell (left) & WRAL-TV's Mike Mory move TV monitors outside in prepartion for WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. It takes a TV village to pull off a live special in 3 locations! said WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore, executive producer of WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore) It takes a TV village to pull off a live special in 3 locations! said WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore, executive producer of WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore) It takes a TV village to pull off a live special in 3 locations! said WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore, executive producer of WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore) It takes a TV village to pull off a live special in 3 locations! said WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore, executive producer of WRAL's Tower Lighting Special on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV's Leesa Moore) From WRAL-TV's Kelly Riner on Wednesday, November 29, 202
LINK: https://capitolbroadcasting.com/2023/12/01/long-time-executive-produce...
See more stories from cbc

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

11/06/2026

HBSs Johannes Franken on Digital Innovations, the Role of the Influencer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...

11/06/2026

Nielsen: Soccer Fandom in North America Tops 136 Million, Up 10.9% in Five Years

Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...

11/06/2026

Telemundo Announces All-Day Opening Day Coverage for FIFA World Cup 2026 on June 11

Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...

11/06/2026

Fubo Announces Distribution Agreement With NBCUniversal

FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...

11/06/2026

DAZN Announces In-App Features for FIFA World Cup 2026 Coverage in Spain, Italy, and Japan

DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...

11/06/2026

Roblox Report: Sports Engagement on Platform Drives Real-World Fandom and Purchases

Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...

11/06/2026

Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, Megan Thee Stallion, and EJAE Release Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem DNA'

FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...

11/06/2026

ESPN Announces Extensive English- and Spanish-Language World Cup 2026 Coverage

ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...

11/06/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Teddy Batkin, Rochester Institute of Technology

The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering In...

11/06/2026

DAZN and DSPORTS Announce Distribution Agreement Across Five Latin American Countries

DAZN has announced a multi-year agreement to make DSPORTS channels available to ...

11/06/2026

Resource Actors Throughout the Years at Sundance Institute's Directors Lab

Laura Dern at the 1986 Sundance Institute Directors Lab (Photo by Eric Edwards) By Lucy Spicer It takes a village to bring together the Sundance Institute lab...

11/06/2026

Introducing a New Standard for Podcast Plays and Upgraded Creator Analytics Experience

As podcast formats evolve in the streaming era, podcasting needs updated, transp...

11/06/2026

RADAR Italia Unveils 6 New Artists and a New Approach for 2026

As Spotify's global RADAR program enters its sixth year in Italy, a new class of artists is stepping into the spotlight. Today, we're announcing the six...

11/06/2026

5 Audiobooks that Amplify and Celebrate Queer Voices

Pride Month is a time for celebration, reflection, and amplifying the diverse stories and perspectives from the LGBTQIA+ community that enrich our world. To hel...

11/06/2026

VSL introduce Synchron Solo Violin 1 & Cello (sordino)

First in new line of muted string libraries VSL have just announced the launch of two new string libraries that represent the first two instalments in a new...

11/06/2026

Novation reveal the Launchkey 61 MK4 White

New colour option for 61-key Launchkey MK4 At Superbooth 2025, Novation introduced the Launchkey Mini 37 White and Launchkey 49 White, bringing an additiona...

11/06/2026

Arturia announce the MiniLab 37

Larger, but still compact! Arturia's popular compact MIDI controller keyboard is now available in a, well, slightly less compact version! The new MiniLa...

11/06/2026

Eurosatory 2026: Rohde & Schwarz shapes the new-generation battlefield

Eurosatory 2026: Rohde & Schwarz shapes the new-generation battlefield Rohde & Schwarz unveils next generation SIGINT/EW and CUAS solutions on uncrewed system...

11/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz unveils NEMACS - Directional, ultra secure connectivity for the future battlefield

Rohde & Schwarz unveils NEMACS - Directional, ultra secure connectivity for the ...

11/06/2026

MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit

MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit Posted by MTI Film on June 10, 2026 LOS ANGELES, CA - June 2026 - MTI FILM, the multiple Emmy Award winning Hollywood post-p...

11/06/2026

Ungrounded LLM Fabricates Every Detail for Nearly 1 in 5 Movie and TV Titles Tested, New Gracenote Report Finds

Study underscores the need for authoritative content intelligence to build trust...

11/06/2026

PTZOptics, LayerJot Partner on AI-Powered PTZ at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Chyron Unveils PAINT 10.4

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Maxon Brings Real-Time Architectural Visualization to AIA26 With New Redshift for Revit and Archicad Integration Beta

Maxon Brings Real-Time Architectural Visualization to AIA26 With New Redshift fo...

11/06/2026

ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design

ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton June 11, 2026 0 Comments DP Judd Overton and team bring Wes A...

11/06/2026

PTZOptics and LayerJot demo Visual Reasoning at InfoComm...

PTZOptics, and LayerJot today announced live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how prompt-based AI, robotic camera control, and high-performance computing...

11/06/2026

Lightware launches GPIO Button to deliver simplified hard...

Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, announces the release of GPIO-Button-10S, a dedicated control interface enabling straightforward press-to-a...

11/06/2026

NABs LeGeyt Urges Congress to Limit NFL's Antitrust Exemption

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Fubo Inks New Distribution Agreement with NBCUniversal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/06/2026

Kiloview to Showcase Broadcast-Grade AV-over-IP Solutions...

Kiloview, a leading innovator in AV-over-IP video solutions, will return to InfoComm 2026 (Booth# N8327) with broadcast-grade AV-over-IP solutions designed for ...

11/06/2026

Australian Games Industry Glossary of Terms

Australian Games Industry Glossary of Terms 10 June 2026 From DAU and EULA to COT and QADE, here's a list of game industry terms, industry jargon and their...

11/06/2026

Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year

Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year The Music Business Association honored Butler at its annual Bizzy Awards. June 10, 2026 ...

11/06/2026

Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement

Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement The five-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer, known for her longstanding...

11/06/2026

Daisy May Cooper rallies the nation ahead of ICC Womens T20 World Cup

Thursday 11 June 2026 Daisy May Cooper rallies the nation ahead of ICC Women's T20 World CupTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy options and...

11/06/2026

Hadewych Minis and Geert van Rampelberg to Star in New Netflix Series Directed by Paula van der Oest

Back to All News Hadewych Minis and Geert van Rampelberg to Star in New Netflix...

11/06/2026

Official Trailer for Anime Adaptation of Thunder 3' Unveiled Ahead of July 9 Premiere

Back to All News Official Trailer for Anime Adaptation of Thunder 3' Unvei...

11/06/2026

RT Radio 1 and Irish Lights mark RT 100 with special broadcasts from Ireland's Lighthouses

Summer solstice shows from C il House and Late Date from 9pm on Saturday 20 Jun...

11/06/2026

Save Big and Play Bigger: GeForce NOW Summer Sale Brings Major Membership Savings

The GeForce NOW summer sale kicked off today with limited-time savings of up to ...

10/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Team Whistle's Joe Caporoso on Building World Cup Content Around Fans, Culture, IRL Experiences

DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...

10/06/2026

Clear-Com Appoints Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager

Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...

10/06/2026

Caretta Research: 2026 World Cup Revenue Growth Due to More Matches; Rights Revenue Up 32%

An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...

10/06/2026

Women Without Boundaries Awards Are Back!

The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...

10/06/2026

On Eve of World Cup Kickoff, FIFA and HBS Offer Deep Dive into IBC Operations, Commentary, and Ref Cam

Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...

10/06/2026

SES Supporting World's Biggest Soccer Tournament Broadcast Distribution Worldwide

SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...

10/06/2026

BirdDog Achieves Full NDI 6.3 Compatibility Across Entire Product Line

NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...

10/06/2026

Emmy Award-Winning Audio Team To Present at SVG Audio Symposium

Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...