North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-05-06

It's Thursday, May 6th. Tonight, getting ready to welcome the world to North Carolina now. Hello, I'm Marita Matria, pleasant evening to you. On this Thursday edition of North Carolina now, I'm going to focus on some major events taking place in three separate areas of our state. In Asheville, the welcome mat has been spread out for the new chancellor of UNC Asheville. He is Dr. James Mullen. You'll meet him on tonight's program. The city of Charlotte is marking a milestone WBTV, the first television station in the Carolinas, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. But we start tonight in the triangle, which is gearing up for a worldwide event. In 52 days, the Special Olympics World Summer Games gets underway. While the games are being held in the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area, the entire state is getting ready to welcome 7,000 special athletes from around the world,

over 2,000 coaches and 15,000 family members and friends. Reporter Barclay Todd takes a look at the preparations. If you haven't seen them yet, you soon will. Signs and billboards up all around the state, announcing the coming of the Special Olympics World Games to the triangle in late June. Everywhere from the airport to the roadways and highways, the signs are there. Since the area was awarded the games four years ago, preparations have been underway to host this year's largest sporting event in the world. Putting on the games is a major undertaking. I think if you can envision what it's like to run a city with 40,000 people that you're totally responsible for. You're totally responsible for their transportation once they get here, for feeding them, for arranging for the venues. So it's almost like a full service city. They walk in and we're the city management. A city that will cost $35.5 million to operate during the 10 days of the game.

Fredo also says thanks to private donations and corporate sponsorships so far, all but $1 million has been raised. Operating costs for the Special Olympic World Games were kept to a minimum because of the nearly 30,000 volunteers who are helping the 80 paid employees put on the games. Volunteers, media of who are special athletes themselves, are doing everything from sending out letters to registering the athletes to organizing the sporting events. With the games getting closer, preparations have now gone from the planning stage to the developing stage. The biggest, one of the biggest is logistics, just getting stuff and people to where they need to be. We have 7,000 athletes that will be coming from all over the world, 15,000 family members, about 1,000 plus members of the international media. We need to take care of them, we need to find housing, we need to provide transportation, we need to feed all the athletes.

We're going to prepare about 300,000 meals just for the athletes and coaches over the 10 days that they're here. We think we are there, some soft spots, we'll get those earned out and then we'll start working on what ifs. Another major challenge for organizers of the world games is navigating the thousands of passenger vehicles that will be traveling in and around the triangle during the games. To help out with that, the State Department of Transportation is putting up 8 of these electronic message boards along the major highways and corridors in the area. The signs will give motorists real-time information about any road delays or detours during the games. The DOT is working closely with organizers for the games to try and keep traffic tie-ups to a minimum. I think as far as during the week, we can expect some increased traffic on the weekends, certainly during the opening and closing ceremonies. If you don't have anything to do with the games, I would avoid those areas.

But many will be coming to the area. 50 to 60,000 people are expected to attend the opening ceremony on June 26th at Carter Finley Stadium in Raleigh. Back in March, athletes from NC State University in Raleigh joined other volunteers to start getting the stadium ready. They planted dogwood and magnolia trees around the grounds in time to bloom by opening day ceremony. The special Olympic athletes will be housed on the campuses of State, Meredith College and UNC Chapel Hill. The local convention bureaus are handling finding accommodations for nearly 15,000 family members and international media expected to attend the games. We're handling all of the housing, which is very unique because there are 150 countries representing here. So you can imagine sending in their deposits for the first room from all different types of currency, and it's very interesting, but very challenging for us as well. While the state is getting ready for the games, the athletes and coaches are doing what they do best.

Thank you, Mark. Go! Practicing. The state is sending 112 athletes to the games, and Webb is the coach of the four-member aquatic team. We're all practicing very hard with our individual teams in our hometown, and then we're coming together four times as Team USA to practice with training camps. They're specifically done for world games. Athletes mate Team USA by winning a gold medal on the state level and then having their names picked at random. Webb, who also helped train the first North Carolina delegation to go to the inaugural World Games in Chicago in 1968, thinks the state has a strong team this year. Mike Stone was one of six North Carolinians to go to the first world games 30 years ago, and he will compete in golf this year. Mike says he was glad he was able to make the team to play in world games on his own home turf.

I'm really excited about it, I'm thrilled, I'm ecstatic. We never have anything like this at all, never because North Carolina is very lucky to have the world games here. The world games will start on June 26th, and run through July 4th. If that's just around the corner, organizers say they'll be ready to welcome the world. Special Olympics is still looking for people to help out with the games, and if you would like more information, you can call 1-888-767-1999. We'll still head on North Carolina now, a conversation with a newly named chancellor of UNC Asheville. But first, here's Mitchell Lewis with a summary of today's statewide headlines. Good evening Mitch. Topping the news, State House Minority Leader Leo Dottry is stepping down from his post. Dottry Sassy is making the move to concentrate on his campaign for the GOP nomination for governor.

The Johnson County Republican has served four terms in the State House and two in the State Senate. Dottry Sassy will relinquish his leadership post only after the budget is finalized, but the lawmaker says he will not be giving up his current seat in the House. North Carolina's Lieutenant Governor and a State Senator have come under fire for questionable campaign contributions. For Scythe County District Attorney Tom Keith is calling for Lieutenant Governor Dennis Wicker and Senator Beverly Perdue to pay the state board of elections nearly $75,000 in campaign funds, he claims were received illegally. The money was given by Steve Pierce, former owner of the state's largest rest home chain. The FBI is also investigating Pierce's contributions to Governor Hunt and Senator Betsy Cochran, a spokesman from the Lieutenant Governor's office says Wicker does plan to pay back the money. North Carolina's local governments won't be getting any help from the state legislature when it comes to raising sales taxes. The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners was hoping to get a sales tax increase approved in order to hold down county property taxes.

But how Speaker Jim Black says lawmakers aren't interested in raising taxes. Speaker Black believes the state needs to review the current tax structure before approving any more tax bills. So far, 1999 has been a profitable year for Governor Hunt's Smart Start program. Smart Start has already received nearly $18.8 million in cash and in-kind contributions. The funding requirement set by the General Assembly was $13.9 million. The program's contributions are expected to exceed $20 million by June 30th. This is the second straight year Smart Start has exceeded a legislative funding requirement. Truckers will be banned from using the left lanes on certain stretches of North Carolina highways. Department of Transportation officials have identified 133 miles of interstate highway that will be restricted to trucks with three axles or more. Violators will have to pay a $96 fine plus court costs. The ban is part of a truck safety package unveiled after a national report ranked North Carolina 5th in deaths caused by truck crashes.

And now if we look at tomorrow's weather, highs in the mountains will be in the upper 60s to lower 70s. The rest of the state should see highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s. There's a chance for showers and thunderstorms in all areas with the highest probability in the western part of the state. In Business News, one of the world's largest makers of computer memory chips is considering locating a plant in research triangle park. Moself Vitalik of Taiwan would invest more than $1 billion in higher up to 1,000 workers. State and Durham County officials are talking about offering millions of dollars in tax incentives to attract the company. Talks are in the preliminary stages and North Carolina faces competition from other U.S. sites and Canada. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. The University of North Carolina at Asheville is getting a new chancellor.

Current chancellor Patsy Reed is retiring July 30th. Dr. James Molen of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut has been chosen to replace her. Dr. Molen earned his doctorate degree in higher education administration from the University of Massachusetts. His master's from Harvard and his baccalaureate from Holy Cross. Dr. Molen, welcome to North Carolina now. Nice to be here. What excited about this job at UNC Asheville? Well, I'm very excited about the chance to lead a great liberal arts institution. I have a real commitment to the liberal arts, as you said. I attended Holy Cross and I now have the privilege of working in Trinity and to lead a distinguished institution is a rare privilege in one's life. I'm particularly excited by the chance to lead a public liberal arts university. Because I think that draws on the best traditions of the liberal arts. And the chance to be part of the University of North Carolina system, there's no system in the country that's finer and molly broads that's an awfully high standard among presidents.

And the chance to work with her is one I'm really looking forward to. What is the value of a liberal arts education in today's high tech society? I think the liberal arts prepare an individual to live in a very complex world. You know, the liberal arts is about complicated ethical issues. It's about preparing one to think critically on difficult issues. It's about training a very rigorous mind. And there's nothing in the liberal arts that's afraid of technology either. And I think that you can engage great issues. You can engage important ethical questions. You can engage complicated questions in a disciplined way and use technology. But I think that it's always very interesting to talk to people who come out of the liberal arts tradition. And they will say that they have succeeded in life and in business because they have the ability to think critically and to think about difficult issues and to approach them in a way that is very disciplined and very rigorous.

And I think that's why the liberal arts have been so successful through the years. And I think that's why they'll continue to be. At Trinity College, you gained quite a reputation for building a relationship between the college and the community. Do you have similar plans to do something like that here? Very committed to the relationship between a college or university and its community. Look, you can't teach the lessons of liberal arts and ignore what's happening outside your campus. That's not acceptable. The fact of the matter is that we as institutions don't pay taxes and we charge to wishes. And it seems to me that when you do that, you have an obligation to give something back to the community. And it's my hope that I'll build on the great work that Chancellor Reed has already done in building partnerships with community. And in joining together with the people of Asheville and the region to ensure that our students and our institution is very much a part of the life blood of that region. And particularly as a public institution, we have that obligation.

And it's something I take very, very seriously. And my hope is that particularly community service will be very much a part of the ethic of University of North Carolina Asheville and part of every student's experience. In addition to the community building, what are your goals as Chancellor of UNC Asheville? I want University of North Carolina Asheville to compete at the level that it should compete at. And by that, I mean every student who goes to that campus, no matter where they go in their life, if they say I went to University of North Carolina Asheville, people stop and say, wow, that's a special place. And there's no reason that that campus can't do that. This is an institution that's had 28 full bright scholars and 28 years. It's an institution whose faculty is distinguished and can stand with any college or university in the country. It's an institution that has built innovative programs from its humanities sequence to the Center for Creative Retirement, which I think is one of the great jewels of North Carolina. And my obligation as Chancellor is to ensure that the university has the resources.

The University of North Carolina Asheville has the resources to compete with any liberal arts college in the country. And I don't see any reason that that can't be done. The University of North Carolina in general, the entire system is faced with an overwhelming boom in its student population. But UNC Asheville is a bit unique in fact that it's not being challenged with having to grow. The President Broad has allowed the school to remain small. And that's important to you. It's very important to us. And I think it's a great statement of President Broad's vision and President Broad's understanding of what the liberal arts are all about. The liberal arts is based on conversation between faculty and students. It's based on small class sizes. It's based on faculty who are mentors to their students, who know their students, who connect with their students. I think every one of us remembers the professor that made a difference in our lives. I remember it Holy Cross, two professors who really helped shape my intellectual framework.

And the way I approached education and my commitment to learning. And I think that if you were to talk to any student at UNCA, they would point to a faculty member and say, you know, that person really made a difference in my life. And to be able to have the smaller class sizes and to be able to maintain our size the way we are will allow us to sustain the excellence in the liberal arts that I think sets UNCA apart. You spent a great deal of your time in the Northeast. What excites you about moving down south? I must tell you, my wife Mary and I have been genuinely touched by the cards and letters that we've received. I probably have gotten five to ten cards a day from the last month from people in Asheville who are just simply saying, look, we welcome you. We want you to know that we share your enthusiasm about the university. And we're just, we know what a privilege it is to be selected into the University of North Carolina system.

We know what a rare opportunity is to be able to live in Asheville, which is, I think, one of the great cities of this country. And we're just dying to get down here and get started. All right. Well, Dr. Mullen, good to meet you. It's great to meet you. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Dr. Mullen's first official day on the job at UNCA will be August 1st. In the summer of 1949, President Truman was in the White House. Stan Mutual was the hero of baseball.

That's when North Carolina's Pioneer Television Station WBTV signed on the air in Charlotte. Mitchell Lewis brings us this story produced by Donna Campbell. Good afternoon. This is Jim Patterson, welcoming you to Channel 3 Television from WBTV, Charlotte, North Carolina. Television Station of the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company. This historic first broadcast of television in the Carolinas was immediately followed by a test pattern that ran for the next seven hours. When WBTV signed on in mid-July, there were less than 1,000 TV sets in use across the state. By the end of July, there were TV sets in 2,000 Carolina households, doubling the viewership in two weeks. Even more important is the promise of future development as a vital force in our culture. To your home, television's sight and sound brings news, sports, special events, religious features, and entertainment. The test pattern ran every day from noon until 630, followed by filmed network programs like the author Godfrey Show, Perry Como, and Hoppa Long Cassidy. We also ran that old Indian test pattern, which got a lot of viewing because applying stories would set up at set in the window, so people could see what television looked like.

And people walking by would see that test pattern fade in and out and go, oh, television. And then three months later, they're all critics writing us letters and complaining about the programming. Three months later, in fact, there were 8,500 television sets in the viewing area. Within a year, thousands of miles of coaxial cable had been installed by AT&T to connect stations like WBTV with the television production centers in Chicago and New York. And now, Mayor Victor Shaw will walk over to the control panel and push the button, which will take us across the nation for the first simultaneous network telecast ever brought to the Carolinas. With the pushing of this button, direct television is brought to Charlotte and the Carolinas. Our capacity crowd of over 56,000 people saw these two great teams meet itself in Indiana.

Notre Dame defeated North Carolina, 14 to 7. It's good morning, everybody. Seven o'clock. Once again, it's time to rise and shine with Arthur Smith and all the Packer Jackson, Carolina College. The following summer, WBTV began producing local shows, Lod. And I'll greet you with a smile. Here's the headman of all these Packer Jackson, Arthur Smith. And it's good morning, neighbors. Got to greet you with a smile. Got to have it. Being happy, saying it's great to be alive. Carolinas calling you another day is breaking through a good, good morning, baby. In the early years, they tried everything from live drama and music to religion and philosophy. But they soon learned what their viewers wanted to see. You know, Phil, you have to learn to suffer to be a good wrestler. Yeah, and I've had my nuts. Oh, buddy caught him coming off. He had buddy going.

By the late 50s, there were over a million TV sets in the Charlotte area. The market was ranked 22nd in the country. WBTV presents the early reports, sports with Big Bill Ward, news with Doug Mays, weather with Clyde McLean. The early report, the southmost widely viewed television coverage of world and local affairs. WBTV is perhaps best known for a long line of charming and professional on-air personalities. Jim Patterson, Fred Kirby, Betty Feaser, and Clyde Cloudy McLean have all passed away. But they are fondly remembered by many in Charlotte. That's how tall my love is. Won't you love me, please? Gorgeous, huh? There definitely will never be another Jim Patterson who was hillbilly on one show and did the weather on another and a morning show on another. And Clyde McLean, who used to draw his weather maps with a crayon. Under the north of us and one down to the south of us, both part of a ridge that stretches up and down the east coast.

In 1958, WBTV was the first station in the world to record and rebroadcast a show on color video tape. Hello, on this very cold and getting much colder Wednesday visit. Let's talk about whether you should wash your face or whether you should cream your face. Betty was a home economist and mother who hosted a home making show live every afternoon for 23 years, often drawing an astonishing 60% of the viewing audience. Betty was the one, you know, Betty did it from the 60s all the way up into the 80s. And so Betty was the cookin' woman on TV. In the very beginning, that's pretty much what women could do on television. The men were the announcers, the men were the newsmen. You know, they even used the word newsman. Winston Salem, tobacco air, Smith Bagley has raised the possibility of a pro football team in the Greensboro Highpoint Winston Salem area. These folks who are on the air were neighbors.

They were friends, they lived here, they knew what I knew, they did what I did. And that's always been to me the secret of success. I was talking earlier about the pasta flying across the studio. It will stay in the bowl for Barbara Stutz. That's right, I'm here to tell you there's more than one way to napa noodle perfection wasn't there. It was all about just being real. And I think that's one of the reasons that the audience related so much, because they would think, you know, that would happen to me if I were on TV. And it did happen to me. I'm just a girl from Shelby that came over here and got really lucky. Here in Marion, as with other towns and communities throughout the Carolinas, two things arrived fresh daily. The sun and premium quality, both bread. It was a special place. It was like Broadway is to the theater world. WBTV was and Charlotte was, too, to the Carolinas. It was just, it was about as big time as you could get. Here we go. You're watching WBTV, Charlotte. Counting down to the year 2000. It was a station of first when you think about one of the first stations in the country to have a computerized newsroom.

This was one of the first stations in America to have a live satellite truck. One of the first stations in the Carolinas ever to have a helicopter. So obviously the station was always ahead of the curve when it came for providing news. And when it came to being a station of first to do things the right way. This is a station with a long and proud tradition and heritage in this community. And that's something that we all treasure and value greatly. And we do so with the knowledge that it is a brave new world out there. This is WBTV, Channel 3E Charlotte, North Carolina. One WBTV signed on in 1949. There were only 12 other stations in the country. And that's all we've got time for tonight. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night.