WRAL-TV Studio B Updated to Become Home to NC Lottery’s Bigger Spin

In 2021, WRAL-TV’s Studio B underwent a big transformation. WRAL-TV Local Production Producer Scott Reid put together a piece for Capcom and shared some photos, telling about the iterations the small studio has been through in the past and the bigger and better money-winning game it now holds.

The Studio B Transformation at WRAL-TV

by WRAL-TV Local Production Producer Scott Reid

WRAL-TV Studio B Transformation: The concrete floor was ground down to make it smooth. Then tiles were placed over the floor. (Photo courtesy of WRAL-TV’s Scott Reid)

In the 34 years that I’ve been a part of CBC…Studio B has had many changes and now its newest makeover is changing lives of a few lucky north Carolinians.

In the 1980’s, Studio B was used daily.

There was a living room set in the right-back corner and next to it on the left was a kitchen set. Half of the noon news was done there.

Every two weeks…The Southern Sportsman, a hunting and fishing show hosted by Franc White used the kitchen set to show viewers how to cook fish and game.

In the front left corner was a set for a show called Sparks. It was a kids show where the actors traveled through time in a time machine. Magician Joshua Lozoff was one of the stars of the show when he was young.

Studio B was reinvented again in the late 1990’s… this time for a news set for the FOX50 10pm news. Anchors were Cullen Browder, Lynda Loveland, Barbara Cain, Elizabeth Gardner, Leon Smitherman and Jeff Gravely.

Then in the early 2000’s that set was used for the News Channel when the FOX50 news moved into Studio C.

Studio B became a storage area housing various set pieces used in studio A for telethons, and weekly show production.

During that time the folks at the NC Education Lottery began doing daily live drawings…. you’ve seen them at 2:55 and11:22pm with host Gayle Hurd, and former WRAL news anchor and reporter Tina Selden Cash.

Then, in 2019 the NC Education Lottery wanted to create a new game-the Big Spin!

Think… The Price Is Right “Big Wheel” …on money steroids.

Top prize then was $500,000.

One winner did hit the top prize and walked out of our TV station with the half-million.

Fast forward to early summer 2021. The folks at the NC Education Lottery wanted to make the Big Spin even BIGGER!

Welcome the Bigger Spin!

Where would this new set be built? Studio A and C…not an option.

Studio B was a mess.

The back-half of studio B would have to be cleaned out. The podcast record booth was in the middle of the floor-it would have to be moved. The concrete floor needed some attention and was ground-down to make it smooth. Tiles were placed over the floor. A curtain was ordered and installed. Then an electronic colored video wall was installed in front of that. Add a monitor, and the Bigger Spin wheel, and voila instant set!

On Nov. 17^th two winners spun for up to $2 million dollars each! The energy during the wheel spins is electric! Someone’s life is about to change forever.

Congratulations to Truman Caddell of Greensboro and Seima Garcia of Durham(shots). They walked out of Studio B with 900 thousand and 400 thousand dollars!

There will be more Bigger Spins coming in the weeks and months ahead.

Studio B is alive again.

Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Scott Reid for this Capcom story & for these Capcom photos.