NBCUniversal to Dedicated West Coast News Center to Tom Brokaw

NBCUniversal today announced it is naming its brand new, state-of-the-art broadcast facility located on the lot of Universal Studios for the distinguished and long-time NBC News journalist Tom Brokaw. The "Brokaw News Center," home to the West Coast operations of NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo News and local stations NBC4 Southern California/KNBC and Telemundo 52/KVEA, was officially dedicated during a ceremony attended by the legendary newsman, his family and NBCUniversal executives and employees.

"The name Tom Brokaw is synonymous with integrity, passion and a commitment to getting the story right," said Steve Burke, CEO, NBCUniversal. "It is fitting to name this state-of-the-art news center after a true broadcast legend like Tom who has done so much for journalism and for NBC News. I can think of no one more deserving of this honor."

From the civil rights movement to Watergate, Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall and September 11th, Brokaw has reported on almost every major news event over the past five decades. He was the first U.S. journalist to interview Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dali Lama, and he has covered every presidential election since 1964. For the past six Olympics, Brokaw has been a special essayist for NBC Sports and he's reported on more than 30 documentaries, ranging from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the American and Russian space race, AIDS, education, medicine, immigration and global warming. A native of South Dakota where he met and married his wife Meredith, Brokaw has spent nearly his entire career with NBC News, starting as a Los Angeles bureau correspondent and a KNBC anchor.

An avid outdoorsman and a devoted husband, father and grandfather, Brokaw is also a best-selling author. He has published six books, including The Greatest Generation, and penned numerous Op-Eds that have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, TIME magazine, Newsweek, Outside, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal and The New Yorker. Brokaw is the recipient of every major journalism award, including the Peabody, Dupont and Emmy awards as well as several lifetime achievement recognitions.

Today, as the "Brokaw News Center" is unveiled, Brokaw joins NBCUniversal icons Abbott and Costello, Alfred Hitchcock, Carl Laemmle, Sidney Jay "Sid" Sheinberg and Steven Spielberg in having various buildings and streets on the Universal Studios lot named after them.

"This is a singular honor and I am so grateful to Steve Burke and the Comcast team for making it possible," said Brokaw. "I still remember the day I drove into the NBC News Burbank parking lot and thought, 'My life is about to change.' I had just turned 26 and now, almost a half century later, indeed it has changed in ways I could not have imagined. I'm an NBC News lifer and very proud of it. None of this would have been possible without the support of the producers, cameramen, technicians and office staff who were always there for me. They're like family and this honor belongs to them as well. So I accept this recognition with gratitude, humility and pride."

The 150,000-square foot news center is comprised of two three-story buildings featuring the latest technologies and enhancements. By co-locating all of the news organizations together, they will collaborate even more closely and fully Leverage their collective resources.

Additional highlights of the technologically advanced facility include:

· Four newsroom facilities;
· Six production studios;
· State-of-the-art audio and video production systems to create news and entertainment programming on-air and digitally;
· Forty satellite feeds monitored simultaneously, a 40 percent increase from previous location;
· Over 12,000 individual strands of fiber crossing between both buildings;
· Mactech LED lighting, innovative technology installed by Universal Studios, with 50,000 hours of energy efficient usage;
· Drought-tolerant landscape that is sensitive to Southern California's water shortage; and
· A spacious outdoor courtyard which lends itself to community or employee events.

Once fully occupied later this spring, more than 600 people will work out of the news center in addition to the over 10,000 other employees who already work on the Universal Studios lot. The company has also committed to investing more than $1.6 billion in NBCUniversal's West Coast headquarters' core businesses - production and tourism - further positioning its West Coast operations as a key economic engine in the region.

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