Way back when, the Company gave out service pins—in five-year increments. Is it true, that someone figured out that it would be more cost effective to buy only WBTV pins, then, if the recipient worked in WBT radio, just snap off the "V"?
In the 1960s and '70s there were about 400 of us, give or take a dozen or so, working for the radio and television stations; for the division called Jefferson Productions, a commercial and programming production group; and Jefferson Data Services, a unit that provided computerized accounting and scheduling services for many broadcasting companies around the country; and for the many departments providing support services for the entire corporation, such as photographic, printing, film processing, graphics, research, financial and administrative.
Prior to 1955 the two broadcast stations resided on several floors in the Wilder Building in downtown Charlotte. Then a new facility was established at 1 Julian Price Place (a stone's throw from W. Morehead Street). The "new" quarters are what most of us remember as home, although several of the Wilder Building veterans still roam the earth, waxing nostalgic about the "good old days."
What was memorable about our situation was our closeness to each other. We shared each other's excitement of accomplishment and the occasional disappointments that inevitably came along. Everyone pulled for everyone else; it was truly all for one and one for all.
It was certainly a different, less complicated time then, almost primitive by today's standards. We accomplished so much, and felt the joys and rewards of so many things we did. The purpose of this Web site is to celebrate those accomplishments, and perpetuate the bonds that held us together.
Like a Frank Lloyd Wright creation, WBTV's first transmitter site jutted out over the crest of Spencer Mountain, about 20 miles west of charlotte. For over 30 years a succession of transmitters here beamed WBTV's sights and sounds into millions of Carolina homes. In the '80s a new site was established further west, where a taller tower was erected. The Spencer Mountain installation was dismantled. And so it goes.