By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

The future brings Lethbridge radio back to its past

Dec 12, 2016 | 12:33 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Broadcasting in Lethbridge has returned to the place where it began, 90 years ago.

Employees of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group — Lethbridge News Now, Country 95.5 and B-93.3 — were busy Monday, Dec. 12 unpacking and becoming accustomed to their new offices in the RBC Royal Bank building at 410 – 7th St. S. The move was in the works for approximately a year, according to general manager Gary Dorosz. He explained that the company had looked at a number of locations around the city before owner Jim Pattison purchased the downtown location.

“Downtown is awesome. It’s the heart of the city,” Dorosz said. “There’s lots of activity down here. It’s great for the staff to get out, to get out and about; it’s great for our sales team to touch hands with the clients in the downtown area.

“It’s good to be in the real heart of the city.”

The move also brings Lethbridge radio back to its roots. The city’s first radio station was originally located in the Marquis Hotel, which stood at the current location of the RBC building. But there’s been a world of technological change since then, and Dorosz said the new studios are cutting-edge.

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“We’re now broadcasting with the utmost of today’s latest technology. It’s all digital — not some digital, some analogue — it’s everything from your news equipment here to the control rooms, it’s all state of the art, and it’s great to be here,” he explained.

But for Dorosz, feelings are a little bittersweet as well. The relocation marks the end of broadcasting from the original CHEC studios first established at 401 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. in 1959.

“Fifty-seven-odd years, radio broadcasting from that location, and it’ll be kind of sad to see the tower come down next week. That’s been a landmark in the city for quite some time. Some folks probably have gotten used to seeing the old tower on top of the Sandman Hotel. But that’ll be gone too,” he said.

“So it’s going to be a little change for us, a little change for the community, but all-in-all, it’s onward and upward.”

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