First, some background for the benefit of our out-of-state readers:

Nissan Motor Corp. president Carlos Ghosn and Gov. Phil Bredesen announced today that Nissan will move its U.S. headquarters from California to Middle Tennessee. In the short term, Nissan will be in downtown Nashville, in what is officially the BellSouth Tower but which everyone knows as the “Batman Building” because its twin spires make it suggest Batman’s cowl. Meanwhile, the company will build a new headquarters building in the Cool Springs retail-and-office-park area of Williamson County, between Brentwood and Franklin (although actually, I think Franklin has annexed it).

Bedford County, where I live, is southeast of Williamson County and doesn’t border on it directly. But much of our growth in the past few years has been in the northern end of the county, as people working in Williamson and Rutherford counties venture south in search of lower home prices. This can only accelerate that process. In addition, one of Bedford County’s largest employers is a Nissan supplier.

Reports differ on how many people will actually move from California to Tennessee. Ghosn said today that half of the 1,300 people employed in California are expected to move; other press reports in California put that figure lower and say many Nissan employees, having seen this in process, are already putting out resumes.

My favorite moment related to today’s announcement was that WTVF-TV in Nashville was the only Nashville station which has an 11 a.m. newscast, and they were promoting that they would cover the 11:15 a.m. press conference live. At one point, they were about to go to commercial, and they showed a live shot of the backdrop for the news conference, with a large “NISSAN” logo, while the newscaster said “coming up, it’s the announcement Tennesseans have been expecting for weeks.”

Then, so help me, they cut to the following bumper: “This portion of NewsChannel 5 is brought to you by your local Toyota dealer.”

Oops!