Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - My last days in radio LARGE PICS, some bragging. Low calorie though!

Poppinjay · 10-25-2005, 06:52 AM

At least, radio here. Hopefully, they'll like me enough where I'm going to let me play around there, too. I love radio studios. Ugly, pretty, new, old.

I've been the news director/program director of this station for 5 years.

First: this is what it looked like when I started here:

If you think it looks like a pit, it is. In fact, this studio has always photographed well. What you don't see is the fact that there is no AC, stains all over the carpet, and two racks of equipment that represent 1983's best technology. The only thing new is the computer we put in for the cable service we gave the studio to.

Dust bunnies the size of buffalo. New York.

This is the studio that replaced that studio three years ago:

This is the master control for one station and a network of 4 other stations. They join and seperate throughout the day, with the help of the computer on the left. The pic is obscured looking into our talk studio due to folks in the pic. You can't tell from the pic that this studio is HUGE compared to our last.

This is the master control for the networked 4 stations:

This is our news network, that also airs triple A music 7-Midnight.

I wrote a grant to pay for about half of all the new equipment. Since adding the news network, we've won several of these:

Now comes the bragging.. before I took over, the number of these that decorated the walls was: 0. We have two more that I'm especially proud of.

The two blue plaques are for Outstanding News Operation, 2003, 2004, for the state of North Carolina. And this is in a state that has some heavy hitter in radio journalism. I used to work at two of the others who have won this award, WBT, and WFAE, both in Charlotte. I was a production grunt back then. But I did learn how to beat their asses.

Now for the real geeky stuff:

The stuff on the right stores our audio, the stuff on the left sends the news signal to our outlying stations. A frame relay system sends it inland, a T1 line sends it to our beach station.

As you can see, we have nowhere to go in this room but up.

Frame relay on top, T1 on bottom, silence sensor and tuner in the middle.

And our last project, "completed" this past May.

This is our all digital studio, though it still looks like a wreck. Carpet and window built in in 1983 out what appears to be raw timber. Speaker mounts are obviously not used, as one speaker sits on top of another broken speaker.

When I wrote the grant for the new studios, I found that as a grant writer, I make a pretty good program director. i didn't think about two things; microphones and chairs. Our GM found a great deal on microphones, and one of our salespeople traded spots for four beautiful hi-seat chairs, as seen in the third pic on the left.

My last day is Friday, I want to go hug the studios.

10-25-2005, 06:52 AM	#1 (permalink)
Poppinjay You had me at hello Location: DC/Coastal VA	My last days in radio LARGE PICS, some bragging. Low calorie though! At least, radio here. Hopefully, they'll like me enough where I'm going to let me play around there, too. I love radio studios. Ugly, pretty, new, old. I've been the news director/program director of this station for 5 years. First: this is what it looked like when I started here: If you think it looks like a pit, it is. In fact, this studio has always photographed well. What you don't see is the fact that there is no AC, stains all over the carpet, and two racks of equipment that represent 1983's best technology. The only thing new is the computer we put in for the cable service we gave the studio to. Dust bunnies the size of buffalo. New York. This is the studio that replaced that studio three years ago: This is the master control for one station and a network of 4 other stations. They join and seperate throughout the day, with the help of the computer on the left. The pic is obscured looking into our talk studio due to folks in the pic. You can't tell from the pic that this studio is HUGE compared to our last. This is the master control for the networked 4 stations: This is our news network, that also airs triple A music 7-Midnight. I wrote a grant to pay for about half of all the new equipment. Since adding the news network, we've won several of these: Now comes the bragging.. before I took over, the number of these that decorated the walls was: 0. We have two more that I'm especially proud of. The two blue plaques are for Outstanding News Operation, 2003, 2004, for the state of North Carolina. And this is in a state that has some heavy hitter in radio journalism. I used to work at two of the others who have won this award, WBT, and WFAE, both in Charlotte. I was a production grunt back then. But I did learn how to beat their asses. Now for the real geeky stuff: The stuff on the right stores our audio, the stuff on the left sends the news signal to our outlying stations. A frame relay system sends it inland, a T1 line sends it to our beach station. As you can see, we have nowhere to go in this room but up. Frame relay on top, T1 on bottom, silence sensor and tuner in the middle. And our last project, "completed" this past May. This is our all digital studio, though it still looks like a wreck. Carpet and window built in in 1983 out what appears to be raw timber. Speaker mounts are obviously not used, as one speaker sits on top of another broken speaker. When I wrote the grant for the new studios, I found that as a grant writer, I make a pretty good program director. i didn't think about two things; microphones and chairs. Our GM found a great deal on microphones, and one of our salespeople traded spots for four beautiful hi-seat chairs, as seen in the third pic on the left. My last day is Friday, I want to go hug the studios. __________________ I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet Last edited by Poppinjay; 10-25-2005 at 07:26 AM..