When Cory McRae, creative services director at WXII, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in Winston-Salem, N.C., sat down to write the script celebrating the station’s 70th anniversary, he had one person in mind. Chris Paul “is an NBA star and a local hero.”
When Cory McRae, creative services director at WXII, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in the Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point, N.C., known as the Triad, sat down to write the script celebrating the station’s 70 anniversary, he had one person in mind.
“He does a lot for our community which is why we wanted to ask him to be a part of the anniversary video that we were putting together,” McRae says. “He is definitely a hometown hero for us.”
McRae says Chris Paul grew up in Winston-Salem, played high school and college basketball in the area, is a perennial all-star in the NBA, and won Gold on the USA Olympic team.
“So he is an NBA star and a local hero,” he says.
McRae says Paul’s story is unique. He had a special relationship with his grandfather, who was the first Black man to own a gas station in North Carolina. Paul worked there as a young boy.
“The day after Chris signed a letter of intent to play at Wake Forest, his grandfather was murdered,” McRae says. His grandfather was 61.
“A few days after that was Chris’s first game of his senior year in high school and he went out and scored 61 points,” McRae says. He’d never scored more than 36 points in a game before, McRae says.
During the last shot that gave Paul 61 points, he was fouled. He purposely threw the foul shot out of bounds so he could finish with 61 points.
Paul’s book is titled, 61.
“So it is a very well-known story around here,” McRae says.
How did McRae get Paul involved in the project?
“I reached out to his agent,” he says. McRae says the station was already in contact with Paul’s agent about getting Paul involved in other projects for the station.
Getting Paul to sit down in front of the camera was difficult due to his travel schedule and the fact that he was playing for the Phoenix Suns, he says.
McRae worked through the team to arrange a video shoot after practice.
“We sent their team a storyboard of how we wanted it lit and how we wanted it to look, and they pulled it off for us,” he says.
“Everybody in the video is a resident of this area or has a connection to this area,” McRae says. “I made it a point to really tell the stories about the people that made a big impact in this market.”
The station plans an hour-long special as it gets closer to the anniversary date in September.
McRae says former WXII news anchors and well-known community leaders will be giving shout-outs to the station during newscast bumpers and during the special.
“Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion,” he says. “We wanted to make this about our viewers and the stories and the people that they connect with. They want that connection and that is what we try to go for with this spot.”
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