jimbenedict14

Gaylord Broadcasting had owned Channel 13 since 1956 and considered it the 'crown jewel' of their station group. But by the mid 1980's Gaylord was looking for other opportunities in the entertainment field and decided to sell their stations and use the funds for purchasing theme parks and Nashville's famous Grand 'Ol Opry.

The sale ($325,000,000) of the station after thirty two years was a shock to employees, who were each rewarded with a bonus for their dedication in taking WTVT to the top. 'May you live in interesting times' is the old saying and the next few years became very interesting at BIG 13.

The stations new owners, The Gillette Corporation, came to the conclusion that Channel 13 had outgrown its original building. In 1989 construction began on a new broadcast center that included two large studios dedicated to news programming. Production Manager Dan Boger and Assistant Production Manager Jim Benedict were not intimately involved with the design of the new studio as Gillette management had brought in outside consultants. Boger and Benedict's main contribution was to modify the control room plans from a narrow design to more of a square layout.

Although he had sentimental attachments to the old building, Jim felt that the decision to build a new station was sound: "I think most of us who were in the old building had mixed feelings…we had a lot of memories and good times there. But the old building became a health issue. They had big pieces of plastic tarps in the ceiling in engineering to keep moisture from coming down. Studio B had asbestos insulation and you could see the backlit particles falling down. I kind of wonder sometimes how many folks suffered later from the asbestos."

Months were spent planning the move to the new studio which went up directly behind the original building. "The alley was still left open so that's how we got things back and forth," explains Jim. "We were scheduled to make the move over the weekend. On Friday night the new studio was lit and monitors were in but we still had a lot of stuff to bring over. After the news ended at 11:30, we started hauling the cameras over first. 'Big Joe' and 'Little Joe,' two of our lighting ladders went over next. The move was freaking unbelievable, a real test of everyone's endurance and the fact that it went off almost without incident is an amazing fact in itself. We went off the air at midnight Friday night and we were back on the air Saturday night at six in the new building. (Network programming continued uninterrupted from the transmitter.) That's how fast it went. Roy Leep was on that night and we had to hand-hold monitors in his field of vision so he could see where to point on the Chroma key. There was still a lot of work to be done after that."

The old building stayed up for two or three months before its demolition. Jim took a last tour of his old haunt shortly before the wrecking crew arrived. "I walked through the old building and it was kind of surrealistic. The power was off and there was debris all over the place. I was walking down the hallway and all these memories were hitting me in the head. I was sad to see it go but it wasn't the healthiest place to work after thirty-five years of use."

(Right) The newsroom during demolition. At upper right
is the window to Studio B

A bulldozer levels the original building's lobby.
WTVT's new building looms in the background

Going...going...gone. WTVT's original building demolished in 1989
(Photos courtesy Ann Williams Hagan)

The demolition of WTVT's original studio didn't take more than a couple of days. When the final debris was removed and the 'twin tower' taken down, large rectangular ponds were installed over the former site where Ernie Lee, 'Shock Armstrong,' Mary Ellen, and all the news, sports, weather and production people had worked for so many years.