When Ned Clark learned while watching the news that demolition began this week of the building and tower at the former WHIO-TV and radio location on Wilmington Avenue, he said to his wife, “I wonder if anyone would like to see this.”

He found the framed Dayton Daily News story from Aug. 29, 1948, that showed his father, George (nicknamed Ned), and crew constructing the tower. The full-page story included several photos of workers walking along beams high in the air without support. They brought the added steel beams skyward with ropes and a telephone pole.

The story highlighted the queasiness of the work. It was titled, “Need Balance, Steady Step When Walking On Air.”

Clark shared the memories Friday morning over a cup of coffee, pointing to the penciled-in arrows on the newspaper photographs indicating his father working on the tower.

It was dangerous work, and Clark’s family knows that as well as any. His grandfather and great uncle, also iron workers, died in a construction accident while helping to build a large NCR building in 1929. Another accident later claimed his father’s upper front teeth.

Still, Clark figured he would join the family line and do iron work.

“He told me, ‘Boy, you get one mistake on a tower; the first is your last,’ ” Clark said.

It was overcoming such dangers that helped construct the large tower on Wilmington Avenue, whose legacy is inspiring memories this week.