In the early 1920s your great-grandparents may have listened to WBT on a rig like this. Radio consumption was still a hobby mainly for the curious and technically adept.

One of a Kind | Alma Mater

An aerial view of the station with the Charlotte skyline in the background taken in the early 1980s. This photo appeared on the cover of the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry magazine and was probably taken by Tom Landen.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, alma mater comes from the Latin term "fostering mother" and refers to a school, college or university (or broadcast station) which one has attended or from which one has graduated. So that's why most of us, at one time or another, felt we were being "fostered" by that mother? Some felt particularly fostered in '71 when Nixon froze wages for several months; upper management could barely hide its glee.

Someone wondered whatever happened to that neat '50s WBTV logo that once appeared on the exterior of the building in earlier years. Our guess is, during the Cuban missile crisis in October, 1962 the logo was removed so as not to invite terrorist attacks. Also at that time there was a rush to issue each of us an official Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Co. ID card, so that our loyal selves could be distinguished from the Red Hordes. (Halt! Who goes there?) These tactics apparently worked: the building still stands.

Photo courtesy Gregg Pell.