2's Main move — Station to play visible, interactive role in downtown Salt Lake

"We think that moving a television station down to the heart of Main Street will revitalize it more than any other kind of business," Phillips said. "You couldn't buy that kind of publicity and attention that that will bring. Yes, we're doing that for us. But it will help Salt Lake, too."

"I'm hoping that we can have an effect on Main Street," said KUTV news director Steve Charlier. "And, obviously, with the (LDS) Church's investment up the block, the space in between should be pretty valuable."

Planned or not, the move seems like a natural progression in the station's "Fresh Air" campaign for its newscasts.

"For me, this is the final portion of Fresh Air," Phillips said. "It's a facility that will act and react the way our newscasts have over the last few years."

And it builds on the station's efforts to personalize its newscasts and reach out to viewers. "We always say if we could get every viewer to meet (news anchors) Mark Koelbel, Michelle King, Shauna Lake, we'd be No. 1 tomorrow," Charlier said.

People will be able to watch them at work. The new studio cost approximately $400,000, with a big chunk of that going to the glass. And the plan is for anchors to start some stories on the set, then walk outside and finish it on Main Street.

Channel 2's man-on-the-street reaction stories will be just that — men (and women) who are walking by on the street. "It's a set that's built so that the people of Salt Lake can be a part of our newscast and we can be a part of their lives every day," Charlier said.

It's a plan not without risks, however. You never know what might happen on the street. Those big windows that the reporters and anchors will sit in front of have a variety of filters that will deal with light at different times of the day, but they don't have any coverings, so Ch. 2 will be taking some chances.

"I hope so. It wouldn't be any fun if it was easy," Charlier said. "It's easy to sit in a big glass building or to be in a warehouse in West Valley City. It's not as easy here, but it'll be a lot more fun."

And the street-level studio is already drawing plenty of attention from passers-by.

"We've got to clean the windows about every 15 minutes with people coming up and pressing their noses against them," Phillips said.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com