Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Watch the conversation on Facebook video.
WFAE signed on the air 40 years ago this week. Charlotte has changed considerably since then. In fact, newcomers today wouldn’t recognize the Queen City back in 1981.
Legend has it the streets in uptown rolled up after 5 p.m. and you couldn’t even buy a candy bar. To help celebrate our anniversary and recognize just how far Charlotte has come over the last four decades, we’re looking back at some of the most impactful events, ideas and people that have shaped the city over the past 40 years.
Here are just a few major events we've seen: Hurricane Hugo, the fall of PTL, a population boom, the expansion of the uptown skyline, our transformation into "Bank Town," infrastructure galore, becoming a sports city and playing host to two political conventions. And then there's Charlotte’s never-ending quest to become “world-class.”
We'll take a quick stroll down memory lane.
Guests
Mary Newsom, lifelong newspaper journalist, retired from the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, now a freelance writer in Charlotte.
Tom Hanchett, community historian, formerly staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South
Steve Crump, reporter at WBTV
Larry Sprinkle, weather forecaster at WCNC
