Some years ago when WSLS TV, Channel 10, was housed across the street from the Roanoke Courthouse and owned by the notorious Roy Park Broadcasting, the newsroom was in the basement of the building, both literally and figuratively.
On Monday, that distant memory was rendered a piece of bad history when the station’s news team cranked out its first broadcast in its grand new facility near the Roanoke Civic Center. Outside, it looks like the warehouse it used to be, but inside, the news team enjoys wide open spaces, big windows and whiz-bang technology that, according to News Director Rick Moll, “cost millions” (though he won’t say how many millions).
It is an impressive new facility in any event, but when compared to the Park Studios of days gone by, it shows the station has had a change of priorities over the years. It was 18 months in the making, starting as the abandoned warehouse of the Grainger company. When work started, floor to ceiling (high ceiling) racks and shelves had to be removed before any of the television station could come to fruition.
“All our department heads worked with Graham Media [owner of the station] corporate offices,” says Moll. The physical work was done by Lionberger Construction of Roanoke. There was a special effort made to keep the studios in the center of the city, he says. The facility has tons of security (four passes got me to the inner sanctum of the broadcast newsroom), 90 parking spaces and what looks like an acre of satellite dishes.
There are two booths just off the newsroom that look like 1950s TV quiz show booths where reporters can talk privately on telephones. A “den” area in lime green furniture is also for reporters who want to do interviews without interference. The broadcast studio has an 84-inch weather screen, nine screens behind the anchors and two in front, in addition to two others that wrap from the news shows to Daytime Blue Ridge’s studio next to it.
Moll says new cameras were sent up from a sister station, and the wiring for all this is neatly tied and runs around the ceiling.
Moll says that “directors and engineers worked 11-14-hour days, seven days a week” to get the station ready to broadcast and the principals are still discovering “Oh wow!” moments with the new capabilities.
It’s a long way from the basement.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
