It’s built to withstand the test of time – and nuclear blasts.
The home of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, better known as NORAD, comes into the light on “MegaStructures: NORAD” (6 p.m. Tuesday, National Geographic Channel).
“NORAD” is part of an ongoing series about big buildings and big machines. The bigger the better.
Former Denverite Laurie Brian produced Tuesday’s show. Not surprisingly, she was awed by the sheer size of the facility 2,000 feet inside Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs.
“It’s pretty impressive,” said Brian, who spent two days with her crew inside the mountain.
“Pretty impressive” barely covers it. Miners hauled 700,000 tons of granite out of the mountain to make room for the facility, which includes a restaurant, gym, convenience store, barbershop and doctor’s office. It cost $142 million to build in the 1960s, an estimated $18 billion today.
Brian says she and her crew from independent Indigo Films were not alone. They were closely watched by military security. “Totally. We had to submit to them a week in advance a list of all our equipment. We couldn’t film any of their procedures. It was crazy.”
The show repeats on NGC on Sunday and Nov. 15.
There were a lot
The Denver market placed seventh among TV stations with the most political announcements in the recent campaigns, according to a new survey by Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
In the 12 weeks between Aug. 1 and Oct. 16, there were 107,171 political advertisements aired nationwide. It sometimes seemed they were all on my TV.
Not so. Denver stations aired 4,437 ads, according to the survey. California was first with 15,285 political ads. In fact, six of the top 10 markets were in the Golden State, where most of the advertising dollars were spent on three highly contested statewide propositions.
Around the dial
NPR starts a five-part series on terrorism in the Horn of Africa today on “All Things Considered” (3-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, KCFR 1340-AM). Today’s episode examines Somalia. Other episodes cover Somalia II (Tuesday), Kenya (Wednesday), Yemen (Thursday) and Ethiopia (Friday). … KMGH-Channel 7 weather wizard Mike Nelson hosts the second annual Winter Weather Seminar from 7-10 p.m. Wednesday at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield. He and other experts will talk about surviving winter. It’s free. … He lives! The late rock deejay Wolfman Jack back on the airwaves, thanks to the magic of some recently discovered tapes (7 p.m. Monday-Friday, XM Radio Channel 60). … From the I-didn’t- know-that file: There are now 26,304 radio stations in the United States. … Quotable: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.” Peter Sellers in “Dr. Strangelove”
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
