The Marriott Center will soon have a new neighbor. In May Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve presided over the groundbreaking of a new BYU Broadcasting building, a 100,000-square-foot structure that will straddle the hill east of the Marriott Center and north of the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum.
Elder M. Russell Ballard presided over the groundbreaking for the new BYU Broadcasting building.
Equipped with TV and radio production studios, editing space, a new Web media department, and more, the three-story building will bring all BYU Broadcasting units together under one roof. Presently, BYU Broadcasting’s content producers are scattered among various buildings on campus and a facility in South Provo.
The centralized building also holds promise for more quality programming from BYU Broadcasting.
“I don’t believe any of us really realize what we’re starting here today,” said Elder Ballard at the groundbreaking, before he and university officials and donors became the first to shovel the ground. “In my vision and my feeling, this broadcasting effort from Brigham Young University has the potential of being the voice that will be heard around the world, that will be the voice of the Lord, that will take head-on the contest that is going on in the worldbetween good and evil.” Elder Ballard called for content that will “touch hearts and change lives” and stand out in today’s sea of media.
President Cecil O. Samuelson noted that it has been 50 years since BYU first applied for a broadcasting license from the Federal Commu- nications Commission. The university set out to broadcast clean, uplifting, educational content on all of its subsequent channels: BYU Television, BYU Television International, KBYU Television, BYU Radio, and KBYU-FM Classical 89—all of which, with the exception of KBYU Television, can be viewed or heard live online at byub.org.
