VIDEO: KPLC Lake Charles Building Being Demolished
After two years, progress is finally being made on part of the KPLC News "compound". The newsroom took quite a hit during Hurricane Laura as their broadcast tower collapsed on part of the building. Luckily, the news team had decided to evacuate before Laura made her way into the lake area. Hence the iconic Ben Terry photo we all related to while trying to do the same thing. As plans were finalized for the new building, it was time to get rid of the old.
KPLC has a deep history in the Lake Area and actually has a close history with your favorite country station Gator 99.5. The TV signal flipped on in 1954 and first aired the World Series. Before broadcasting TV, KPLC was on the radio split between 1470AM and 99.5. Fast forward many years later and they upped their game by flipping to HD in 2004. I was actually sitting in front of 2 televisions in my parents' kitchen. One on the old analog signal, and the other tuned to the "HD" signal. I watched it flip from one tv to the other. I really didn't have a life growing up in case that wasn't evident.
I can remember quite a few times growing up going into that building. For sure, in high school, we took the Barbe High School Elite Choir there for a Christmas show we were doing. I remember thinking that it could be my big break in TV. Sadly, it wasn't in case you were wondering. I should also note, since being on the radio, I have done TV interviews and for some reason, that dumb camera makes me nervous as all get out! I don't know what it is, but I have frozen up plenty of times on camera. It's a total shocker for me.
As our favorite TV station gets its facelift, it will be impacting Division Street with closures as construction crews continue to work and demolish the current building and then build their fancy new one. We cannot wait to see the end result and hope we get invited to the grand opening!
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