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"?

 

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WBTV personalities in 1977
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A study in misidentification

A portly, elderly gentleman wearing an outfit like Gene Autry might have worn in a 1940s western.

Click here to learn who this well-dressed "cowboy" really is.

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away...

There was a broadcasting company called Jefferson-Pilot, whose flagship stations were WBT and WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. From WBT's beginning in 1922, and WBTV's sign-on in 1949, until about the late 1980s, they were the pride of Carolina broadcasting. They were beacons to those who aspired to and were proud of being a part of something special; who held a unique feeling of responsibility to their audience and the community; who had the talent and enjoyed the freedom to create original, tasteful programming that could appeal to the entire spectrum of listeners and viewers.

This site is all about yesterday, and how things used to be.

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Luncheon

Diane's Scrapbook Libby Hahn Squandered Valor

Big Bill Alan and Robin

Making Commercials at Jefferson Productions Marty Lambert was WBT's "Jeff Pilot" Rob Veerman remembers

Anniversary Shows Jeffcaster Snippets The Crutchfield Chronicle

Ken Tredwell story and photos

Revisit the 1940s and '50s. Hank Warren's Proof Sheets

Wanna see my 1970's JP production stills?

WBT in the '30s

Hillbilly Tunes

Updates! Lots of new entries in Feedback and two names in In Memoriam.

Bailey Hobgood was WBT's program director in the late 1950s.

Spencer Mountain today. And we thought the old WBTV tower had been dismantled!

Rear View

It's outrageous. You'll bust your buttons laughing at this Hello Henry booklet from 1984.

Tower

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.