The general manager of television station NBC-17 since 2005 is stepping down to run 1360-WCHL, the community radio station in Chapel Hill.

Barry Leffler, left, will buy a minority stake in the radio station for now. Eventually, owner Jim Heavner plans to sell the whole thing to him.

Leffler will become WCHL's CEO and managing partner, with Heavner continuing as chairman.

"It is impossible for me to imagine a more capable successor than Barry Leffler, who brings a lifetime of broadcast experience, personal leadership, creativity and commitment to WCHL and this community," Heavner said, in a prepared statement.

Leffler, who lives in Chapel Hill, has worked for NBC for 14 years, with stints in Miami, London and New York.

"This presents us with enormous opportunities to develop integrated local media to create a new 'medium of record' for Chapel Hill-Carrboro and the growing surrounding areas," Leffler said.

Add this to the feathers in Sir Walter Raleigh's cap: Raleigh is tops in hospitality.

Forbes magazine, which appears to put out a new "best" list a day, writes that Raleigh is one of the places in "America that welcomed the most newcomers in 2008."

It's not the barbecue at the Pit or even Glenwood South's entertainment district that's the draw, however. The credit goes to the city's colleges: NCSU, Shaw, Meredith, St. Aug.'s and Peace.

Intellectual centers, the magazine states, "attract new residents because universities are large, relatively stable employers — and a steady flow of students keeps the population young."

Unlike many lists, this one didn't link Raleigh to Durham but rather to Cary — as a
Metropolitan Statistical Area. As such, the area's population is listed at 1,068,720.
Percent new to the metro: 6.14%

Nor can Raleigh claim to be No. 1. That honor went to Colorado Springs, Colo. Raleigh was No. 5, behind Bakersfield, Calif., Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

Scott Custer doesn't yet know what he'll do after he retires as CEO of RBC Bank, but he says that becoming numero uno at industry behemoth Bank of America isn't in the cards.

Custer, 52, who announced Thursday that he's retiring from Raleigh-based RBC Bank effective Nov. 1, went into self-deprecating mode when he was asked about the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis -- also announced this week.

"I think there would be a qualification issue there,"  Custer said. "I'm not quite sure I'm on the list of candidates. I think they are fishing in different waters, as opposed to where I am."

RBC Bank, the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, has more than 430 branches. Bank of America has more than 6,100 branches, serves clients in more than 150 countries and, thanks to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, is the world's largest brokerage firm.

Quintiles Transnational, the world’s largest pharmaceuticals services company, expects to rapidly expand its business in Asia over the next five to 10 years as rising incomes in the region spur "dramatic" growth for new medicines.

In an interview with the Financial Times in Singapore, CEO Dennis Gillings said that Durham-based Quintiles has expanded strongly through the global economic slump because big pharmaceutical companies have stepped up efforts to cut costs by outsourcing sales and research.

Gillings, a former UNC-Chapel Hill professor who founded Quintiles more than 25 years ago in a trailer, told the newspaper that the company's Asian business will increase from a fifth of its global total to 25 percent within two years, and then to a third in five to 10 years.

State regulators said today that Progress Energy can build a natural gas-fired power plant as part of a plan that will allow Progress to shut down three older coal-burning power plants near Goldsboro.

The N.C. Utilities Commission approved the clean-burning gas plant in Wayne County under a state law enacted in July by the General Assembly and limited to this construction request by Raleigh-based Progress. The law required the commission to issue a ruling on the plant within 45 days, while the standard regulatory review would have taken at least six months for a power plant construction request.

The natural gas plant will have a capacity of 950 megawatts and is planned for operation in 2013. Progress will spend an estimated $900 million to build the plant, which still requires an air emissions permit from the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.

Journalist Clayton Henkel is no longer working for the North Carolina News Network.

The former special projects reporter and producer of the weekend news magazine News & Views with Chris Fitzsimon was not offered a position with Curtis Media Group, which bought NCNN from Capitol Broadcasting last week.

Curtis Media CEO Don Curtis said the decision not to offer Henkel a job was not at all a reflection on her work.

"We only needed 12 employees and we had 13 people," he said.

Since Henkel was already working on other projects and was anchoring just a few broadcasts each week, she was the one person not extended an employment offer, he said.

Efforts to reach Henkel Thursday were not successful, but a representative from Capitol Broadcasting confirmed that she is no longer working for that network either.

The number of foreclosure filings in North Carolina this year was 46,363 at the end of September, the N.C. state Administrative Office of the Courts reported today, and are on pace to exceed 2008 filings.

There were 873 September filings reported in Durham, Johnston, Orange and Wake counties. Foreclosure filings increased in Wake and Durham over the previous month.

Durham County had 176 filings in August and 187 in September, while Wake County's filings totaled 527 in September compared to 468 in August.

Foreclosure filings between June and September in the four-county region were up 35 percent from the previous four-month period.

Foreclosure filings in North Carolina totaled 53,961 in 2008.

Talecris Biotherapeutics rose in its first day of trading in New York.

Shares of the Research Triangle Park company rose to $20.29, a gain of 6.8 percent, soon after its Wall Street debut around 11 a.m.

The company had priced at $19 Wednesday night when it raised $950 million through an initial public offering of stock.

Talecris makes drugs from blood plasma at a massive facility in Clayton.

On Friday morning, Talecris CEO Lawrence Stern will ring the opening "bell" at the Nasdaq. The company and its investment firm owners raised about $950 million before fees in the IPO, the second-largest by a U.S. company this year.

RBC Bank CEO Scott Custer, the executive who moved the bank's headquarters from Rocky Mount to a downtown Raleigh skyscraper, is retiring.

The Raleigh-based bank announced this morning that Custer, 51, is retiring after 25 years in the financial services industry. Custer has been CEO of the bank, which at the time was called RBC Centura, since the fall of 2004.

Custer is being succeeded as CEO by his boss, Jim Westlake, the head of international banking and insurance for the bank's corporate parent, Royal Bank of Canada, as well as the current chairman of RBC Bank. Westlake will retain those roles as well.

At least two bankers with Triangle ties are being mentioned as possible replacements for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis.

Lewis, who faced mounting criticism, announced last night he would retire Dec. 31. The Charlotte company said it would name a "worthy" successor before then.

There are six insiders on the list of potential candidates, including Sallie Krawcheck, a former Citigroup executive and UNC-Chapel Hill alumna, the Charlotte Observer reports. But our sister paper also mentions Bob Steel, a former Wachovia executive and Durham native.

They will have big shoes to fill. Lewis joined the company's predecessor 40 years ago and helped build it into a banking behemoth. In 2007, Time magazine named him of the the world's 100 most influential people.

Read the full Charlotte Observer story here, and find links to other in-depth coverage of Lewis and Bank of America.