Longtime WBT News Director Jim Barroll has died after a short bout with cancer.
Barroll joined the Charlotte news/talk station in 1985 after stops in Columbia, South Carolina and Orlando.
He joined the station as a reporter before ascending to the role of afternoon news anchor and eventually becoming the outlet’s news director. Baroll spent more than 30 years in the WBT newsroom before anchoring his final newscast in 2016.
“I will miss this man so, so much. He passed away this morning from an exceedingly aggressive mantle cell lymphoma. He was a completely healthy man a month ago,” his daughter, Amy, revealed in a post to social media. “I am the luckiest person in the world to have called him my father.”
Pete Kaliner called Barroll “a mentor and a friend… I’m picturing him talking baseball, aviation, and philosophy with God.”
“He had a warmth and inviting delivery that was unmistakable and highly respected. He was loved by listeners and colleagues alike… a rock in our newsroom for so many years,” added the station’s Bo Thompson.
Jim Barroll was 71 years old.
