Today was the last day for CMS-TV. Back on May 11th the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted 7-2 to cut all funding to CMS-TV, effectively eliminating the station in a single amendment vote. In addition to operating the school system’s cable PEG channel, CMS-TV also served as the media services department for the entire district of 130,000 students and 19,000 employees.
I worked at CMS-TV for the past two and a half years. It was a very different experience in many ways. Facility-wise it was much like being back in college at PSTV. The station operated out of an old school and half the equipment was donated from other stations long ago. (Although, one thing PSTV had that CMS-TV didn’t was indoor plumbing. 
) But it’s not the equipment that matters as much as what you do with it. That little station with only a few employees produced a tremendous amount of media content, both for the public via cable channel 3 and internally for various school departments too. And the quality of our work was way above what you’d expect from your typical PEG channel. But the biggest difference was the people. I remember my first day of work there, Stephanie told me that everybody there was like a family. At the time I internally scoffed at that notion. No matter how big or how small a workplace is, anybody can give the typical “we’re like a family” line. But Stephanie was right. I’ve had plenty of co-workers at other jobs who were good friends but this tight-knit group really was more like a family.
Most of the final day was surreal. For one thing, even though some were still cleaning up their belongings, we still had actual work to do. And we also had a parade of former colleagues stop by to wish us all well. In some ways it felt like the final episode of Seinfeld, when all the past characters came back for one final appearance. But at other times it felt a bit like a funeral because nobody quite knows what to say is in this situation.
For lunch we all went together for a last meal at our collectively favorite restaurant, Big Daddy’s Burger Bar on East Boulevard. (Seriously the best burgers in town and crazy-awesome sweet potato fries.) After lunch we were still working right up to the final moments, but we still took a moment to take this group crew photo in the studio.
In addition to everybody losing their jobs today, another co-worker, Elizabeth, lost her job last year due to 2009′s RIF (Reduction In Force). After Elizabeth was terminated we left her name on the schedule board. We set the dot to “out” and wrote “Santa Fe” next to her name as that’s where she ended up moving to. That’s how it remained for the past year and before locking up today for the final time, Donald set all of our remaining names to “out” too, along with the different locations we were heading. (Click the image to see it larger.)
Then after a long bizarre day came the final few moments. Unlike when it’s one person’s last day at work, this was the last day at work for everyone, and the last day for the station itself (although it will broadcast existing content on auto-pilot for a while). We turned off all the lights and most of the equipment, secured the building and set the alarm, and then locked her up for the last time.
Then we said our last goodbyes hoping that we’d eventually see each other again somewhere at sometime, and we all rode off into the proverbial sunset. The end.
Here’s a few more photos from the last year or two at CMS-TV. (Click on the first thumbnail to see a larger version and then click the “Next” link to flip through them all. Or you can click here to view the originals on Picasa.)
CMS-TV Studio Set
Professor Joel
James at the Avid
On the set of UpFront!
Behind the scenes of UpFront!
Donald directing
Myers Park High School taping a PSA in the CMS-TV studios
Stephen says “Go Wolfpack!”
Stephen says “Get to work lowly interns!”
