R.I.P.: NC Radio/TV Broadcaster Bob DeBardelaben

Bob DeBardelaben

Longtime WRAL weatherman Bob DeBardelaben, popularly known as “the biggest name in weather,” died Monday after a brief illness, according to his family.

He was 88, according to WRAL-TV5.

To many viewers and colleagues, DeBardelaben was larger than life.

“He has a great voice. He had great delivery. He had a great personality on the air, and I thought, man, this guy is really, he’s really good,” former WRAL and CNN anchor Bobbie Battista once said.

DeBardelaben had been a radio announcer and host of WRAL's "Dialing for Dollars" segments during afternoon movies when the television station asked him in 1976 to become a weather anchor.

“Bob was not a scientist, but he was a very good communicator, and I think Bob just made people feel good," said Jim Hefner, former WRAL general manager. "He always came on with that big smile and that big voice, and he was going to tell you to the best of his ability what the weather was going to be.”