WCET-TV will remain at Central Parkway and Ezzard Charles Drive for four or five years — or possibly much longer — as the city of Cincinnati pauses redevelopment plans south of TQL Stadium.
The fate of the nation's first licensed public TV station — located in the Crosley Telecommunications Center on that corner since 1976 — has been questioned since 2017, when the city tore down a pedestrian bridge over Central Parkway linking Music Hall to the TV station and adjacent Towne Center Garage, owned by the city.
The Enquirer recently reported that the WCET-TV site was one of the top locations for a new Downtown arena to replace the Heritage Bank Center. Diagrams prepared for Visit Cincy, the region's convention and tourism bureau, showed the arena at the corner, with WCET-TV in a proposed small rectangular building two blocks south, at Central Avenue and Charles Street.
A year ago, the city requested proposals to redevelop the crumbling Towne Center Garage. But City Manager Sheryl Long reversed course two weeks ago, telling stakeholders "the time is not right to recommend selling this asset."
In a letter dated Oct. 13, Long explained that due to the "immense amount of change" to the area around the FC Cincinnati stadium, "there is no need for the city to sell this asset as a catalyst for development at this time; instead, these circumstances require that we be patient and thoughtful about long-term decisions for this site …
"The long-term use of this site must ultimately serve the Cincinnati community, including our partners at Music Hall and FCC, but most importantly, it must best serve the needs of the residents of the West End as the neighborhood evolves," Long wrote.
For the short term, City Council approved Long's request last week to use carryover funds for routine inspection and maintenance of the neglected garage throughout 2024.
WCET-TV owns the Crosley Telecommunications Center, which it purchased through a federal land grant program in 1976, says Kitty Lensman, president and CEO of WCET-TV and Dayton's WPTD-TV. The station owns "the air rights below and above the building in perpetuity and have a written agreement with the city of Cincinnati," she says. The TV station rents the second floor to Cincinnati Public Radio, which operates WVXU-FM and WGUC-FM.
"CET is not looking for a new location currently. We were told by the city manager’s team in a follow-up meeting last week that there would be a four- to five-year period before any type of development occurred and that it would include a much larger swath of the West End neighborhood," Lensman says.
"We are not an organization that can easily be picked up and placed in a new office building," she says. WCET-TV has the largest TV studio in Cincinnati, which has been used for Rain Man and other films.
"We house a lot of technology in the CET building and annually invest in that technology to keep our facilities state of the art. In addition, the state of Ohio has made an incredible investment to interconnect all eight Ohio public television stations via fiber. This allows us to quickly respond to situations, including disasters and first responder needs in an emergency," says Lensman, the chief executive for Public Media Connect, the nonprofit which operates the Cincinnati and Dayton public television stations.
WCET-TV was not consulted about Visit Cincy listing the site as one of eight potential locations for a new 16,000- to 18,000-seat arena, she says. The report was prepared earlier this year by Visit Cincy, Populous design architects and the Machete Group, a development and project management firm involved with constructing TQL Stadium.
"There was no discussion with CET about that design nor have we been approached by Visit Cincy," Lensman says. Two developers have talked to her about working around the station. Each offered "in-kind support and opportunities for CET to vastly improve our facility within their plans."
Her immediate concern is the deteriorating city parking garage, where the third floor is closed, and the city's neglected walkway to the station entrance on the second floor, which used to be connected to the Music Hall pedestrian bridge. FC Cincinnati fans use the garage one block south of the stadium, which is also across from Cincinnati Police headquarters.
"The parking garage and exterior of the building that the city does own … is falling down around us," Lensman says. "The bridge was taken down, and we now have a front promenade that goes nowhere and is not being maintained. The lights outside of the front entrance are not working.
"With the third level of the garage now closed for any parking it has become a place for homelessness, refuge, and criminal activity. The cement and structure have pieces falling or leaking and is an unsafe environment" for CET staff, visitors and donors, she says.
Long says regular maintenance and inspections for the garage in 2024 will allow "the safe use of the 590 parking spaces on the first and second decks of the garage and serve the parking needs of the area through next year."
WCET-TV moved in 1976 from WLWT-TV's former "Mount Olympus" studios in Fairview Heights into the new Central Parkway building, named for Powel Crosley Jr., the WLW founder, local industrialist and former Cincinnati Reds owner. Classical music station WGUC-FM moved into the second floor in 1980; WVXU-FM was added in 2005.
In 2018, a year after the pedestrian bridge was removed, Cincinnati Public Radio began searching for its own building. Cincinnati Public Radio President Richard Eiswerth said at the time the WCET-TV building "has been targeted for razing for most likely parking, with a portion of it for mixed use." Ground was broken for new WVXU-FM/WGUC-FM studios on Dana Avenue in Evanston in August.
Long says that next year the city will "lead an intensive community engagement process to listen to the needs of our residents and partners and deeply evaluate all options for the future use of this site," according to her Oct. 13 letter.
"I understand that some will be frustrated by this direction. There are many stakeholders with many different needs and perspectives on what is best for this site. Our job is to first listen to and understand those needs and perspectives, and then ultimately propose a recommended course of action," Long says.
Lensman says she likes WCET-TV's "proximity to the local arts and surrounding neighborhoods." In addition to Music Hall, the station is close to Memorial Hall, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, the School for Creative & Performing Arts and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.
Rather than raise funds for a new building, "I would prefer to invest those types of dollars into expanding the educational and local programming services that Cincinnati families expect and deserve," she says.
John Kiesewetter's reporting is independent. Cincinnati Public Radio only edits his articles for style and grammar.
