KNTV opened its doors at 645 Park Ave. in San Jose in 1955, and many current and former employees are reminiscing about the old studio.
A 5-alarm fire in downtown San Jose destroyed the former NBC Bay Area building just two blocks from the San Jose Caltrain station. At the height of the fire, flames and thick black smoke could be seen for miles in the South Bay.
Although the building is destroyed, the memories live on.
Reporter Damian Trujillo began his NBC Bay Area career at the building in 1996, and there to welcome him his first day was a Bay Area TV legend, who remembers Park Avenue fondly.
Maggi Scura spent many years on the anchor desk at KNTV's Park Avenue studio.
"Just a big shock, and very sad," Scura said.
The old building was a bakery before it became KNTV in 1955. The live trucks at the time were actually station wagons.
The city later purchased the building and still owns it in hopes of building a Major League Baseball field in its place--a place where many Bay Area journalists stepped foot.
"Very sad to see it come down in this fashion," Scura said. "For the San Jose A's to come, it would be sad to see it go down in that fashion for any of us who spent a considerable portion of our lives there."
"So many people in the news business in the Bay Area came through that building and either learned their craft or came from another market to KNTV and channel 11. It just populated the entire West Coast and Bay Area," Scura added.
The old Park Avenue studio is also where Scura eventually met her husband and where other familiar faces began their career at the station.
