Ted’s Warehouse documentary to air on WEIU TV

Luke Taylor, Editor-in-Chief

WEIU-TV’s documentary about Ted’s Warehouse, a bar and entertainment venue that was open in Charleston from the early ‘70s to the mid ‘90s, will premiere at 7 p.m. Friday.

Joe Astrouski, an Eastern journalism instructor, produced “Remembering Ted’s Warehouse.”  He said that his goal was to make the documentary interesting both to people who have memories of visiting Ted’s, and people who never had the opportunity to go.

“I wanted to make a show for people who went to Ted’s, to bring back the memories for them, but I also wanted something that would interest people who had never been there before,” Astrouski said. “It was difficult to find the balance between those two, but it’s broadcast, so I want to make it accessible to as many people as possible.”

Astrouski said that while there might be certain memories that some people had from Ted’s that weren’t included in the documentary, he hoped it would start a conversation about the venue.

“My hope is that if you’re someone who went there a lot, that it brings back some of those memories and it helps you jumpstart the conversation,” Astrouski said. “A lot of people that I interviewed said that this place, for it being a bar, really meant a lot to them in terms of it being a place where they made memories, made friendships, and grew up.”

Ted Bertuca started Ted’s Warehouse because he wanted a way to bring a larger venue to Charleston. He featured both local and touring bands so that college students and full-time Charleston residents alike could experience live music.

Despite being located in the relatively small town of Charleston, Ted’s Warehouse hosted many up-and-coming bands of the time that later became very successful.

Astrouski mentioned Cheap Trick as an example of one of those bands, and said that a member of REO Speedwagon still tells the story in interviews of playing at Ted’s the night he got the call to be in the band.

“Remembering Ted’s Warehouse” premiers on July 9 at 7 p.m. on WEIU-TV, but will also air July 10 at 9 p.m. After that, it will be available on WEIU’s website.

Luke Taylor can be reached at [email protected].