With the snow-covered grounds and some of the kids out of school for a whole week, some of you weren’t surprised to hear that Gov. Mark Sanford declared the entire State of South Carolina a “State of Emergency” during his last week in office.
But, what did surprise some of you…is that those kids are having to make up the school they missed. Some people think that once a State of Emergency is declared, school does not need to be made up. So, you asked us about it.
That’s not the case, though. A spokesperson for the SC Emergency Management Division said the state does not control the schedules of the schools. Each individual district decides its calendar year, and when the make-up days will be.
Others wondered what exactly a “State of Emergency” does. Is it just a term announcing that conditions are bad? Or does it serve a purpose?
It serves a purpose.
When the governor declares a State of Emergency, it gives him/her the ability to mobilize resources, reassign personnel, activate the National Guard, and order evacuations, if necessary. But, it also serves as a severe warning for people to be extra cautious and not be out and about unless it is absolutely necessary.
Another question asked this week was about News13! Linda Coates wants to know, “What does WBTW stand for?”
Over the years, slogans have been used to play off of our call letters. Most notably, “Best of Two Worlds” was used to describe WBTW in the 1990s. That refers to the Grand Strand and Pee Dee, the two regions we are proud to serve.
However, the origin of the call letters dates back to 1954, when WBTW was first started by the same company that owned CBS-affiliate WBTV in Charlotte. The decision to call this station “WBTW” was made to be similar to WBTV. That brings us to, "Well, then what does WBTV stand for?" Someone who means so much to WBTW helped us with this answer. Long-time Chief Engineer Bernie Moore said WBTV was named after its radio partner WBT. WBT was a radio station owned by a man who ran a Buick dealership. WBT stood for "Watch Buick Travel." When WBTV came around, it added on the "V" to stand for 'video.' WBTW then made its call letters based off of WBTV.
We are still working to get answers to some other Good Questions submitted to us. But, do you have something you want to know about? If so, email it to GoodQuestion@scnow.com!
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement