It’s spring at UTM.
Birds are chirping and the sun is shining, but the dusty classroom you’re in smells nothing like blooming flowers. It’s dark and musty, the building is old, and the young man behind you is taking class way too seriously. He’s dressed professionally every day, answers all of the questions and takes vigorous notes. You’re lucky you made it to class on time with your hair brushed.
You’re living through Ashleigh Burton’s sophomore year at UTM, when she met Blake Stevens in the Communications Building. They somehow survived that year of hating each other and not getting along in class, only to develop a courtship and eventually a relationship while working for WUTM, the radio station housed across the quadrangle in Gooch Hall.
On Jan. 15, 2018, Dr. Richard Robinson asked Burton to speak to one of his broadcasting classes. When she stepped inside the familiar wood walls of the Communications Building, she had no idea that her life would change in the next few minutes.
As Burton was giving her presentation to students, Stevens interrupted, with camera crew in tow. Robinson knew what was coming next, but Burton just thought her boyfriend was filming for work. At the time he was working for WPSD-TV Local 6 in Paducah, so the camera crew following him around was no surprise.
In the Communications Building, on that cold January day, in the only classroom still being used, Stevens said to Burton, “I know we say this is where we hated each other, but I want it to be remembered for where I asked you to be my wife.”
After an initial shock and some statements of disbelief, Burton said yes. Robinson smiled, because he was in on the plan, and the relationship became full circle even after the couple had graduated and left UTM.
The Communications Building, as it is currently known, holds many more memories within its nearly 7,000 square feet. Sitting at the east end of the quadrangle between the College of Business and Global Affairs and the Sociology Building, the historic corner lot has been home to many functions since it was first constructed in 1934. The building is slated for demolition this year to make way for the new Latimer Engineering and Science Building at UTM.
At its inception, the Communications Building was used as a dining hall for UTM students. It predates the Boling University Center, and still has the remains of the fireplace that was used to cook student meals.
During World War II, the building also was used to feed War Training Service trainees. At this time in the state, UTM was largely focused on military men as their enrollment declined with the U.S.’ entrance into the war. By 1943, UTM had a student body of 115, only 24 of whom were males.
Thanks to the school’s contributions to the war effort, outside of cafeteria services, there was eventually an uptick in enrollment from returning war veterans a few years later. As enrollment expanded, much the way things often occur, the university also had to expand.
So came the University Center, which opened in 1965 to accommodate a growing student body. At that point, the Communications Building underwent a renovation period. The ever-familiar sound of construction did not stop this building from being a meaningful piece of the institution.
In May 1968, David Spikes began his job as a janitor in the Communications Building. At the time, he was enrolled as a student of UTMB, (University of Tennessee Martin Branch) and the Communications Building was being renovated to transition from being the Dining Hall to becoming the Instructional Television Building (ITV Building).
It was largely coincidental that Spikes began his job in the ITV Building, and it wasn’t a glamorous position at that. He was responsible for cleanup after daily demolition and then went on to unpacking and assembling video gear; however, he didn’t let the monotony of the task get in the way of his summer fun.
“I was ecstatic in getting the opportunity to not only unpack and assemble video gear, but also in finding that I had a totally unexpected talent at operating a camera, following director’s instructions and loving every moment of being a cameraman,” Spikes said.
He spent his summer learning the behind-the-scenes ropes of production and was taken under the wings of Ray Iggulden, Bob Zimmerman and Bob Carswell to learn every step of the production process and each piece of equipment being used at that time.
“Perhaps my fondest memory is when the famous violinist Rubinoff performed in the studio, with his Stradivarius violin,” Spikes recalls. He even remembers that there was one rehearsal, one take and one cut done from a “sophisticated reel-to-reel tape deck.”
On a personal note, Spikes says if anyone has access to that tape, he’d love to see it and any other archives from those years in the building.
Spikes left UTM and the Martin area in August 1974 to begin his career as a video specialist in St. Louis, Missouri. It’s been 45 years since then, but Spikes still speaks fondly of the Communications Building and all of the memories he made and people he met while working there.
As Spikes was leaving his memories trapped in the building with the floor-to-ceiling windows, another future UTM alumnus was just stepping onto the scene.
Jim Leighton describes his enrollment at UTM as “off and on” from fall of 1972 to summer 1979, but, during that time, he developed a relationship with the communications profession and building that resonated with him as he moved on in life.
Leighton says when he started out, he was a Business major and the Department of Communications was housed in the Humanities Building. But after spending some time at the radio station, WUTM, he changed his major to Communications and found his home in the Communications Building. He refers to the building as the “hub” for his production classes and has a hard time separating all of his memories into years or semesters.
“Having that building (the Communications Building) torn down is a symbol of progress and the industry that building represents. Media & entertainment has also moved on,” Leighton says.
But that time for the Communications Building still has 40 years to come from the time that Leighton moved on to his professional career.
Dr. Robert Nanney, a professor and chair of the Department of Communications, also has a memory to share about his first encounter with the Communications Building. He doesn’t flash back to the fall of 1992 when he began his teaching career at UTM; instead, he recalls an eighth-grade student on a field trip in 1968 venturing into the Communications Building to film a spot for his school in the ITV facilities. They were doing a chemistry experiment and Nanney recalls his peers feeling like “really big stuff” when the recording was broadcast at their school.
At the same time that Nanney was there for a field trip and learning, the basement facilities of the Communications Building were also being used for classes for the university, says UTM Communications instructor Rodney Freed. Some of those classes included photojournalism, which had a darkroom housed in the facility. Little did Nanney know that 24 years later he would be teaching in that same building.
Twelve years after opening studios in the Communications Building, and one year after Nanney came to campus as a professor, the UTM Communications Building took on a new job and a new set of friends in 1993. The master control facility for WLJT-TV was tapping the space and, with a little help from a grant, began a new era of work for the building. A remote-controlled microwave link between UTM and the public television’s transmitter was established and WLJT has been housed in that facility ever since.
Freed arrived at UTM in the fall of 1997 and started teaching Introduction to Broadcast classes in the Communications Building. The space was split between UTM and WLJT – UTM owned the studio space, but WLJT owned the gear. Freed refers to this conglomerate as a “partnership” and says they have always worked well together.
This partnership is unsurprising, given that a UTM staff or faculty member has always served on the Board of Directors for WLJT as a communicating partner between the university and the media outlet.
In recalling his time with the Communications Building, Freed says, “I can only imagine what [the building] was in its prime.” He speaks to a little-known fact, saying that several of the original sconces from the building’s heyday are still tucked away in storage rooms within the building. The history of the building itself is living within its walls.
“There were a lot of fond memories there. Because there were so many things going on in that building between WLJT and us, it was a media-centered building. There was radio stuff going on. There was television. There were productions that WLJT was doing. There was the historic factor … that you’re working in that building. A lot of people like that building. A lot of people didn’t want to go to that building, but I never minded,” Freed said.
“It served a great purpose. It allowed people to have a hands-on experience,” he added.
Soon, this historic piece of UTM will be torn down to make way for the Latimer Engineering and Science Building, but the memories people have of the Communications Building will linger as a living legacy.
That legacy will represent one of UTM’s goals for its students and faculty for years to come: educate and engage responsible citizens to lead and serve in a diverse world.
Today, Burton serves as the Office and Student Manager at WUTK 90.3 The Rock, at UTK. She and Stevens went from their hatred in Communications 315 to falling in love by working together for WUTM. They will be getting married Sept. 7 of this year and have the Communications Building to thank for being home to significant memories in the story of their life together.
Nanney and Freed continue to teach at the university and will watch as the old building comes down and the new building rises on that corner.
For everyone else with memories living in those walls, though the physical building is coming down, their memories will always be on campus, embodied in the spirit of UTM, and retold for years to serve as a living legacy.
