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Charlotte news personality grand marshals Valdese parade

Staff reports

Published: November 24, 2008

John Carter, co-anchor of WBTV News This Morning and WBTV News at Noon, will be the grand marshal for the Valdese Christmas Parade at 10 a.m. on Dec. 6.
Carter was born in St. Charles, Mo., but at the age of 9 his family moved to Shelby and he's been in North Carolina ever since. He and his wife live in Charlotte.
Carter graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in communication arts with a concentration in broadcasting. Shortly after graduation from ASU, Carter began working at WBTV as a news assistant.
Over the course of the next few years, Carter had many roles at WBTV, including general assignment reporter, consumer reporter, Western Bureau chief/reporter, news producer/consumer producer, and news producer/managing editor.
He also was host of the popular Carolina Camera, traveling across North and South Carolina to bring back stories of interesting and unusual people, places and things.
Following his work on Carolina Camera, Carter left WBTV and formed his own video production business. He also opened what turned out to be a very successful comic book shop that he later turned over to his brother, Allan.
During his time away from WBTV, Carter became very involved in politics and was elected to the North Carolina Senate, representing the 25th District which was made up of Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and Rutherford counties. Carter chose not to run for a second term because of family and business considerations.
When he left the Senate, he began work with Mecklenburg County as a public information specialist where he supervised the county's video production work and acted as a county spokesperson.
Just a few years later, WBTV came calling again, and Carter returned to the station to anchor the WBTV News Morning Show and later, WBTV News at Noon.
Over the course of the years, Carter has won numerous awards and honors for his video and journalistic work. He also is a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is North Carolina's highest civilian award.
In late 2005, Carter was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's done a series of stories on his diagnosis and continues to do updates on his treatment as well as stories on the latest in medical research and technology. Carter works closely with the American Cancer Society to get out the message about the life saving importance of early detection.
His favorite activity is spending time with family and friends. He's also an avid reader and regularly visits schools to talk to students of all ages about the importance of reading. He loves sports as well.
Carter is a regular runner (but he readily admits he's not fast, although he's steady) and has participated in many road races in Charlotte and across the Carolinas. He's coach of the WBTV Softball team as well as a player. He has season tickets to the Carolina Panthers, loves skiing and going to ASU Mountaineer football games.
He is a collector of sports cards, action figures and memorabilia and plays golf as often as he can with his son, Jerry, brother Allan, and good friend and co-worker Chris Suchan.