World War II was still a fresh memory. JFK, MLK, Mays, Mickey and Elvis were yet to be known. Moon Pies would be within reach, but walking on the Moon was not. Textiles and tobacco were king in what was not yet called the Triad. Radio ruled and the thought that a picture box called television would be in most every home was a fantasy.
Nevertheless, in August 1949, what would become known as WFMY-TV transmitted picture and sound, a first in the Piedmont. WFMY would later deliver the first ‘live’ broadcast in North Carolina. The age of television had arrived and WFMY was first, front and center. New local programs, new technology, new network and memorable personalities. The new TV meeting place locals simply called ‘Channel 2’ became an electronic town hall. Television was going to make it. And so was WFMY News 2. Now, the Piedmont-Triad’s first station is 70 years old.
As amazing as a broadcast TV signal was, WFMY’s success always has been about people. Broadcasters and newscasters, viewers and social media users. Certainly important is WFMY’s role in bringing color TV, radar, HD, weather watchers and multi-platform content to screens big and small. Great people paved the way, though, from Lee Kinard and Sandra Hughes to the journalists and personalities of today.
Eric Chilton and Maddie Gardner are true blue Carolinians with Ed Matthews all about State. Tracey McCain and Patrick Wright are hometown Greensboro stars. Tim Buckley came from the Wilmington coast, Chad Silber and Meghann Mollerus from the Midwest. Tanya Rivera is Carolinian Gator if that’s possible. Taheshah Moise of Haitian descent arrived via Boston through Texas. Californian Julie Luck literally crisscrossed the country from one Portland to the other before discovering the Triad... and News 2... are really home. Add in support of superb behind-the-scenes leaders and TEGNA, WFMY News 2’s industry-leading owner. But even all of that is but half of the people equation.
Ultimately, WFMY News 2’s brand best captures the history and promise of this unique connection with decades of friends and viewers in the Piedmont Triad. ‘You Are 2’. WFMY is a seventy-year story about community. Hard-working, hopeful Carolinians have made the cities and towns of the Triad a place we are proud to call home.
Indeed, #WFMY70 is about a pioneering station, place and people. We are WFMY News 2. And You Are 2.