Anchor Carol Sbarge retiring from WSB-TV after 29 years

Sbarge, who still has time left on her contract, said in an interview that she just felt it was the right time to go.

Suzanne Nadell, WSB-TV news director, called Sbarge “a great employee and a friend to many. We’ll miss her but are happy for her plans to enjoy her well-deserved retirement.”

Fred Blankenship, morning anchor who worked side by side with her for more than ten years, said he was always taken by her sense of child-like wonder.

“One of Carol’s phrases is, ‘I wonder: it leads to endless possibilities,’” Blankenship said. “She is the most curious person in a field of curious people. She can talk to anyone anywhere about anything. She is up for anything.”

After many years doing anchoring, she has most recently been focused on reporting, including checking on restaurants with poor grades.

“Carol was our best utility player,” said Monica Pearson, primary evening anchor for WSB-TV from 1975 to 2012. “She was not only a solid reporter but she could get on the anchor desk and be as charming and good as anybody else. She would work early mornings without a blink. She’d fill in at 5 and 6 and go out and report.”

Sbarge, a native New Yorker and a DeKalb County resident, came to WSB-TV in 1992 after previous stints at stations in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Portland, Maine. She got a bachelor’s degree in economics and business from SUNY Oneonta in New York and received a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University.

She has covered breaking news stories such as the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, the Atlanta courthouse shooting in 2005 and numerous winter storms. She has won multiple Emmy awards including best news field reporter and best anchor.

Her hobbies include playing piano, travel, yoga and hiking. Sbarge said she’ll be able to spend more time with her daughter Ashley Wilson, who lives in San Francisco, and her two-year-old granddaughter. She’ll also be traveling to Oregon to see her son Chris Wilson.