Touring NewsChannel5 Nashville
During the spring, we headed to WTVF NewsChannel 5 in Nashville with a local homeschool group. NewsChannel 5 is a CBS affiliate since we arrived a bit early for the tour we watched Let's Make a Deal which I assume is one of their network shows.
Our tour guide, weather reporter Kelly Cox, shared with us that Oprah formerly worked there in her early years. I was shocked to find out that the girls were maybe the only two children who knew or recognized Oprah. Since the station is a CBS affiliate, they recognized most of the posters hanging like The Good Wife and Person of Interest because those were two of my favorite shows. At some point we had even started watching Madame Secretary together as if it was family show. I will admit it did lead to lots of interesting conversations.
The station has several studios now. The building which houses the station went through somewhat of an upgrade to make room for an updated studio. The studio pictured above is no longer used for recording the weekly news broadcasts, but is now used to shoot the daily segment, "Talk of the Town" and other News Channel 5+ shows.
Before the station underwent the upgrades and addition, the lower studio is where all of the broadcasts took place. Since there are now two studios, the lower studio is automated without a camera crew to run it.
Our tour happened the Thursday of the annual air show in Smyrna, TN. During our tour, we learned that a pilot of the U. S. Navy Blue Angels, Captain Jeff Kuss, lost his life. This was as experience because we were there while the reporters went through the process of gathering information and communicating with the broadcast crew that was onsite. It was traumatic to learn that a man who was a young husband and father would not be returning home to his family. Writing this post didn't happen earlier because of the tragic death of Captain Kuss..
Breaking news is broadcasted from the Alert Center which is smaller studio in the midst of the workstations.
Our tour didn't go as plan due to the extreme circumstances of the breaking news announcement, but the children were able to meet the ladies behind the daily show, "Talk of the Town" and the sportscaster, Jon Burton. They also found time when we visited the empty studio to interview one another. We didn't have the opportunity to tour the main studio, but hopefully we'll be able to return again.