Doug Mayes, American journalist, Dies at 93

  Dead Famous

Doug Mayes, passed away on October 18, 2015, on Sunday after a period of declining health, he was a Charlotte television news pioneer.

He last worked at WBTV News in 1982, but his legacy lives on. He was, and always will be, Charlotte and the Carolinas’ first anchorman.

Mayes started his career in radio and as a musician.

His talents took him to Nashville to play bass fiddle at the Grand Ole Opry, but was pulled away from the music industry.

In a 2013 interview with Paul Cameron, Mayes said his desire for a steady paycheck led him in a different career direction.

WBTV (Channel 3) was only 3 years old in 1952 when he became the host of “Your Esso Reporter,” a 15-minute dinner-hour newscast sponsored by the oil company now known as Exxon.

He would go on to be the voice and face of WBTV News, which held such a grasp on viewers that the revered CBS anchor Walter Cronkite asked to meet him when he came to Charlotte in the late 1960s for a speech.

Doug died at age 93 on October 18, 2015.