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WBT's Emergency Studio to be Featured on All Things Considered

M

Matt

Folks,

I just heard this morning that NPR's All Things Considered is doing a package this afternoon about the Cold War-Era emergency studio at the WBT transmitter, and the replacement studio FEMA equipped them with last year. I've only seen pictures of the studio they had/have in their basement, and understand the replacement is at ground level and has a few "surprises".

Should be some good listening.

Later.......
 
Wow that's good news. The old bunker downstairs had some really ancient equipment and I doubt any of it would work today. An emergency studio at the transmitter is always a good idea.

I wonder if Greater Media would build something out there if and when they decide to move out of the palatial 1 Julian Price Place since TV and radio are under separate ownership. Even back in the JP days there was talk about constructing a separate building for radio.
 
Let's hope when that time comes they build studios somewhere classy enough to reflect the heritage of the WBT image....not somewhere out in the boonies.

Back in the day, when I was at WAME the main studio was on Wilkinson Boulevard and they had an emergency studio out at the transmitter site. The address: 1480 Collins Road, off of Hoskins Road, but it was really a rutted out pigpath. Once you got there, the transmitter building was well-built enough and the studio old but functional. When I started there their array was so tightly directional that they had first ticket engineers sitting at the transmitter taking readings every half-hour 24/7.

Then...deregulation. I was doing afternoon drive and the manager decided to make me the guinea pig and moved my afternoon thing to the transmitter since I had a third ticket and could now take my own readings. Soon followed the night guy. He was blind, so I moved my office and production down to Collins Road so I could take his readings. Then the overnight guy and weekenders moved down about a year later.

In March of 1980 we had 12 inches of snow fall on a Friday afternoon. The night guy had gotten there early, but when my shift ended at 7:00 that rutted-out pigpath was impossible to get either in or out of. The two of us alternated shifts that entire weekend until a snowplow got to us Sunday afternoon. That's life in bad weather in a studio in the boonies.

Sometime after I left, they built a nice studio and office building down there in front of the old transmitter building. Then Pat Robertson bought WAME, changed the calls to WCNT and took the station dark after 2 years of trying news-talk.

The next time I sneaked down Collins Road, it had been paved but had developed some massive potholes, and that beautiful studio/office building had a chain-link fence and "No Trespassing" signs around it.

That station is now WGFY, running the Radio Disney satellite 24/7 and I wonder if anyone even works at 1480 Collins Road anymore.

Later.....
 
I hear ya Matt but Nations Ford Road right off I-77 while suburban isn't exactly the boonies. Downtown might be a fitting location but I don't know about the rents. It would probably be best if the stations had their own building... Dillworth maybe?

They did a good job on the piece about the bunker studio. What I didn't know is there are two new emergency buildings on site, courtesy of FEMA. I'll have to see if I can get a look someday. While there were pictures of the old bunker I didn't see any interior pictures of the new ones.

I never thought it was a good idea to be near those 3 towers during an attack. Seems like it would make too good a target!
 
Matt Smith said:
Let's hope when that time comes they build studios somewhere classy enough to reflect the heritage of the WBT image....not somewhere out in the boonies.

Back in the day, when I was at WAME the main studio was on Wilkinson Boulevard and they had an emergency studio out at the transmitter site. The address: 1480 Collins Road, off of Hoskins Road, but it was really a rutted out pigpath. Once you got there, the transmitter building was well-built enough and the studio old but functional. When I started there their array was so tightly directional that they had first ticket engineers sitting at the transmitter taking readings every half-hour 24/7.

Then...deregulation. I was doing afternoon drive and the manager decided to make me the guinea pig and moved my afternoon thing to the transmitter since I had a third ticket and could now take my own readings. Soon followed the night guy. He was blind, so I moved my office and production down to Collins Road so I could take his readings. Then the overnight guy and weekenders moved down about a year later.

In March of 1980 we had 12 inches of snow fall on a Friday afternoon. The night guy had gotten there early, but when my shift ended at 7:00 that rutted-out pigpath was impossible to get either in or out of. The two of us alternated shifts that entire weekend until a snowplow got to us Sunday afternoon. That's life in bad weather in a studio in the boonies.

Sometime after I left, they built a nice studio and office building down there in front of the old transmitter building. Then Pat Robertson bought WAME, changed the calls to WCNT and took the station dark after 2 years of trying news-talk.

The next time I sneaked down Collins Road, it had been paved but had developed some massive potholes, and that beautiful studio/office building had a chain-link fence and "No Trespassing" signs around it.

That station is now WGFY, running the Radio Disney satellite 24/7 and I wonder if anyone even works at 1480 Collins Road anymore.

Later.....
Click to expand...

Interesting... Thanks For The Historical Update. I Did Not Know. Steve.
 
On the subject of 1480: You can't get near the place now, there is a fence that goes almost out to the main road. I saw the transmitter studios once, I forget why I was there. For being a 5KW signal I always thought it should cover better. Someone told me Disney invested a lot of money on the transmitting plant.
 
Back to WBT... If there was any kind of emergency I know they would cover it and cover it better than any other station in Charlotte. Runner up WFAE.
 
Matt Smith said:
Sometime after I left, they built a nice studio and office building down there in front of the old transmitter building. Then Pat Robertson bought WAME, changed the calls to WCNT and took the station dark after 2 years of trying news-talk.

The next time I sneaked down Collins Road, it had been paved but had developed some massive potholes, and that beautiful studio/office building had a chain-link fence and "No Trespassing" signs around it.

That station is now WGFY, running the Radio Disney satellite 24/7 and I wonder if anyone even works at 1480 Collins Road anymore.

Later.....
Click to expand...
This leaves out one very important era: The owners of WHVN ran this station for a while, bringing back good music to Charlotte, and then when no one would listen on AM, they decided to use the FM station they had planned for WHVN's programming, and put good music on 1480 and 106.1. It was right after a failed attempt at talk radio that Disney took over. During those final months, 1480 AM was playing the best music, even better than 106.1.
 
I was told by someone who should know the contents of the new above ground emergency studio is top secret.
 
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