WBTV's First Color Camera

Irma (Mrs. Max) Davis contributed this treasure, a 12-page Company newsletter from the mid 1950s. Among other things, it contains a story on WBTW-TV, the Company's new station in Florence, South Carolina; articles on a recent telethon on WBTV and the hard work it took to produce; "WEE-TV," a weekly country music production; and recollections of the Company's two outings held the previous year. You'll see mentions and photos of many with whom we worked or who entertained us over the airwaves, and you'll learn how many listeners Grady Cole had on a typical weekday.

You'll read a profile of one WBT employee named Jack Mathis, who, 54 years earlier (in 1901!) as a 13-year-old professional telegrapher, had received the news of President McKinley's assassination for a Union, S. C. newspaper. At the age of six, he had learned the Morse Code along with the alphabet.

Read the newsletter »

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Jay Torrence (left) and Charles Crutchfield conferring at the main entrance as they await the arrival of the motorcade of Julie Nixon, daughter of then President Nixon.