Former Channel 9 anchor Cullen Ferguson has died

CHARLOTTE — Former Channel 9 anchor Cullen Ferguson has died. He was 82.

Ferguson started working at WSOC-TV in 1968 and was with the TV station for 36 years.

He was Charlotte’s first consumer reporter launching the Action 9 segment in 1970.

Later in his career, he reflected on those early days.

“If we wanted late-breaking video of a fire or an accident downtown, we sent somebody out with a polaroid camera, and they came back with a little snapshot, and we put it on the board in front of a studio camera,” Ferguson said. “And that’s late breaking video.”

Ferguson’s reporting took him across the Carolinas and sometimes, not far at all. In the 1980s, he had a Carolina Garden segment often reporting from his garden behind the Channel 9 studios.

Ferguson was a calm and steady presence on the anchor desk.

He was on air when Hurricane Hugo hit Charlotte in 1989.

“The eye of the hurricane, right now, is moving over the Charlotte area and wind gusts up to 90 mph with sustained winds around 45-50 mph,” he reported.

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The journalist described the carnage the historic hurricane left behind.

“Moving around Charlotte this morning has not been easy,” Ferguson reported after the storm blew through the Queen City. “You’ll find lines just about everywhere.”

Cullen was as genuine off the air as he was on the air as kind as he was smart.

He cared about our community and spent 36 years telling its stories and retired in 2005.

Ferguson said how he would want to be remembered.

“I would hope people would feel I was an honest reporter and anchor, certainly tried anyway,” he said.

Cullen passed away on Saturday at Mission Hospital in Asheville of pulmonary fibrosis.

Ferguson’s obituary reads, “Cullen’s memory will endure as a selfless man who used his melodious voice to champion others and whose love and humor continue to be a light for those he leaves behind. He was a man of faith whose baritone singing voice will echo for years in the sanctuary of his church and in the hearts of all who knew him.”

Services have not been finalized.

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