Hometown: St. Charles, Missouri, just across the Missouri River from St. Louis.

Family: Mom, Shirley, is a Missouri native but his dad, Billy, is from North Carolina. So when John was nine, his family moved to Shelby and he's been in North Carolina ever since. John and his wife Becky currently live in Charlotte.

Education: Owen High School in Swannanoa then Crest High School in Shelby. After high school, it was off to Appalachian State University in Boone where John graduated with a degree in Communication Arts with a concentration in Broadcasting.

Career: Not long after graduating from ASU, John began working at WBTV as a news assistant. Over the course of the next few years, John 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 was also 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, John 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, John 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. John 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 John returned to the station to anchor the WBTV News Morning Show and later, WBTV News at Noon.

Honors: Over the course of the years, John has won numerous awards and honors for his video and journalistic work. He's also a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is North Carolina's highest civilian award.

Personal Cause: In late 2005, John was diagnosed with prostate cancer, the number one cancer in men in the United States. 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. John works closely with the American Cancer Society to get out the message about the life saving importance of early detection.

Hobbies: 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. John 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.

Email: jcarter@wbtv.com