KETV has announced plans to buy the historic Burlington Station in downtown Omaha and turn it into the station’s new home by 2015.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Ariel Roblin, president of the Omaha ABC affiliate. “It really goes back to the people who watch us every day, the people we serve every day, the people we think about every day. That’s the reason we get to do this, so you know we have to do it right.”
Originally built in 1898, Burlington closed the station and leased it to Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak abandoned the building in 1974 after railroad traffic declined. The station posted a photo gallery of the old railroad station to its website. Click here to view.
“It allows us to move with the technology,” Roblin told the Omaha World-Herald. “We looked at all kinds of options, but this one really made sense to us because it exemplifies what we do. Bringing back an old building to something beautiful and used and honored is important to us.”
Hearst-owned KETV also posted a video of the story to its website. Click here to view. The station’s player doesn’t allow embedding.