The Modern Era

UNC-TV 's benefactor Joseph Bryan

A highlight in UNC-TV’s history occurred in 1989 with the opening of the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Communications Center in Research Triangle Park. Within its gleaming white tile walls the University finally realized the dream of centralizing the network’s studio operations in a single location for the first time.

Here again an old friend, Joseph Bryan, helped out with a gift of $1 million dollars to encourage the General Assembly to come up with the needed money for the $8.3 million facility.

The move to RTP signaled UNC-TV’s transition into the modern era of broadcasting. The North Carolina Association of Broadcasters acknowledged the significance of this step forward when it elected Jake Dunlop to its Hall of Fame in 2000.

UNC-TV Director John W. Dunlop.

From its humble beginnings UNC-TV had transformed into a major media presence in North Carolina, serving one of the largest audiences in all of public television. The educational station with a single transmitter had grown up into a major state resource that was ready to be taken to the next level. In 1986, when C. D. Spangler succeeded William Friday as president of the University of North Carolina system he decided to place a new emphasis on University communications by hiring as Vice President for Communications Wyndham Robertson, formerly an editor with Fortune magazine, to oversee University communications activities, including UNC-TV. With a keen eye for quality and highly developed journalistic instincts and skills, Roberts on devoted herself to improving UNC-TV’s programs. When Jake Dunlop retired she decided the . More>>