11Alive reporter Jerry Carnes retiring after 35 years at the station

He said he’s been “running on empty for a while. It’s time to devote my energy to my wife Cady, who has been so patient and understanding the last four decades.”

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Carnes said “in the last few months, I shifted from 4th gear to 3rd gear then eased toward second. I feel like an old model Buick that is running out of gas and trying to go up a hill. The years have taken a toll.”

He said his current contract wasn’t up until January but he decided to retire early. His final day is Friday, Aug. 9, 11 days before his 65th birthday.

“Jerry Carnes is the ultimate professional, the ultimate journalist,” said Jeff Hullinger, an anchor at 11Alive for 14 years who moved to Georgia Public Broadcasting last year. “He was just good at everything he did. He was a tremendous presence in the newsroom and he was always fair.”

Carnes has covered hundreds of major stories over the decades such as the Susan Smith murder trial in 1994, the 1996 ValuJet crash, the Olympic park bombing, Snowmageddon in 2014 and the 2017 I-85 bridge collapse. He has interviewed Jimmy Carter and was outside the courthouse when Donald Trump was indicted in Georgia last year.

He most recently spent four days at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport during the Delta technical breakdown debacle. He was also there when the Atlanta Braves won the World Series both in 1995 and 2001 and when the University of Georgia celebrated a national championship in both 2021 and 2022.

“I got to be at all these huge news events because of my job,” he said. “I gained access I normally wouldn’t have had. I feel very blessed I worked as long as I have.”

Born in Atlanta and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, he graduated from the University of Georgia, where he began working in broadcast journalism. He was a reporter at stations in Columbus; Huntsville, Alabama, and Greenville, South Carolina, before coming to 11Alive (WXIA-TV) in December 1988.

He said 11Alive was a great employer, accommodating him through prostate cancer in 2009. After the deaths of his sister and father to cancer a decade ago, he asked to be taken off the breaking news beat to focus on transportation issues. He became the “Commuter Dude.”

“I couldn’t do general news,” he said. “It was too depressing with all that grief. I couldn’t take on other people’s grief, too.”

Carnes said he’ll do more traveling and spend time with his three children and five grandkids. “I thank God for allowing me to do something I’ve loved doing for so long and for all the people I’ve met along the way,” he wrote in his post.