WSOC news anchor is leaving for an ‘amazing opportunity.’ What John Paul will miss most

WSOC-TV anchor and reporter John Paul is leaving the station this week after seven years.

Paul announced his pending departure on Facebook.

“I have an amazing opportunity to work at 6abc Action News in Philadelphia,” Paul said in the Facebook post. “Cox Media Group was an amazing company to work for — and I am grateful for my time with them.”

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time here!” Paul said on Facebook. “We will miss our friends — who have become like family to us — and we will miss the kind people we have met here!”

Paul joined the Channel 9 Eyewitness News team in July 2015 as anchor and reporter, according to his station bio. He arrived from sister station WHIO in Dayton, Ohio, where he was morning and noon anchor.

He won two Emmy Awards for his work on the noon broadcast and with cold case murder mysteries, according to the station.

Paul and his wife, Kimm, have three daughters.

Born outside of Chicago, he spent most of his life in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He majored in journalism at Western Michigan University and graduated in 2005.

“My girls have grown a lot in Charlotte — and I feel that I have too!” Paul said on Facebook.

While he and his family love Charlotte, he couldn’t pass up joining the top-rated station in the country’s No. 4 market, Paul told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.

‘The hottest place’

Paul said Charlotte’s weather shocked the family when they moved here in July 2015. His daughters were 2, 4 and 6 years old.

“Charlotte is the hottest place I’ve ever lived,” he said. “The absolutely hottest place, and on so many levels, the humidity, for one.”

When they arrived, he and his wife wondered where to take the kids and opted for a playground.

“Why does it hurt outside?” he recalled his daughters asking.

‘Southern charm’ is real

The genuine “Southern charm” of his neighbors in Matthews and people in general in the Charlotte area quickly grew on Paul and his family, and those friendships are what he’ll miss most on the personal side of life, he said.

Paul said he enjoyed leading neighborhood family gatherings on such special days as Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo and learning from his neighbors how to smoke ribs.

He might introduce the Southern way to smoke ribs to his neighbors in Philly, he said.

“It sounds sappy,” he said about the term Southern charm. “We’d heard about it, but there’s definitely something to it.

“’Southern charm,’ they don’t have a word for that for people in Philadelphia,” he quipped.

Great colleagues, bosses

Paul said he’ll also miss his colleagues, and that goes for his bosses, too.

“They taught me everything I know,” he said. “I knew they wanted to keep me,” but they also realized how he couldn’t and shouldn’t pass up the 6abc Action News opportunity, Paul said.

Paul said his contract with WSOC expired at midnight Friday.

“I’m officially unemployed,” he quipped. He joins the Philly station Aug. 15, he said.

On Twitter Thursday, fellow WSOC-TV anchor Allison Latos described Paul as “a talented anchor & reporter.”

“I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the desk w/ @JPaulWSOC9 at 2 stations,” Latos wrote on Twitter. “Our first time working together was at @WTOV9 (Steubenville, Ohio/Wheeling, West Virginia), way back before either of us got married or had kiddos! ... We’ll miss you in #CLT. #Philly is lucky to have you!

To those who’ve enjoyed watching him in Charlotte, Paul said on Facebook, “I’ll still be right here on Facebook — just in another zip code.”