studio move – Engineering Radio

The Audioarts Air-4 Console

Aside from everything else, we have been working at WSBS, Great Barrington, MA installing a new Audioarts Air-4 console. WSBS is a small AM station (860 KHz, 2,500 watts day, 4 watts night) serving the Great Barrington area. They also have a 35-watt FM translator (W231AK) on 94.1 MHz which is highly directional. During the day, the AM station has a much better signal than the translator. After dark, the translator covers the downtown area fairly well. WSBS has been on the air since December 24th, 1957 (Happy 55th anniversary!), broadcasting from a non-directional tower just east of town on US Route 7.

The format could be termed full service, in the old tradition. Music, professional sports, local news, network news, and weather with coverage of special events like election night and so on. The station does local very well, and as such, is profitable and has a great community presence.

The air studio console was this rather tired-out Broadcast Audio unit from the early 1980s. It had certainly served its station well, but change was in the air, so to speak. Actually, we were getting worried about continuing to service this unit, as parts had become scarce about ten years ago.

Thus, we moved the air studio to the production room temporarily and removed all the old equipment and furniture. We installed an Audioarts AIR-4, which is a pretty cool little console. The AIR-4 has four built in microphone preamps, a telco mix minus feed, two program busses selectable VU meters and so on. The control room rebuild project included a new counter top, adding extra microphones, headphone amplifiers, cleaning up wiring rat’s nests, installing new monitor antennas, rewiring a good bit of the rack room and so forth.

It was a little more involved than we first thought, however, it came out pretty well:

The carpenter will be back next week, after Christmas to install the sides on the studio furniture under the counter top. It is a small operation in a small market in Western Massachusetts, but they have a real, live station staff including two news reporters. Hey, what a concept! To be honest with you, it is a joy all its own to work at a real radio station, if only for a short while.

Moving the WKZE studio, Part II

The phone company came out and cut over the T-1 circuit on Wednesday, June 2nd. This really kicked things into high gear. By that afternoon we had moved the Prophet systems automation rack up to the new location and started broadcasting from there.

Unfortunately, the backup plan, which was to use the phone company’s DSL circuit to relay audio to the transmitter site, fell through at the very last minute. I think the phone company mistakenly turned off the DSL service to the old studio ahead of schedule. The net result was 2 hours off air in the middle of the day, which we were seriously trying to avoid. Once it was done, however, there was no going back, so we worked extra hard to get back on the air from the new location.

Naturally, while all this is going on, the electrical inspector shows up to do the final electrical inspection for the town building department.

Here is a nice progression on the equipment racks:

After the T-1 circuit was cut over, we began broadcasting from the new location with the equipment rack automation system using the production room as a studio for live elements and voice tracking.

The wiring on the equipment rack is completed.

Completed with phone system and network switch

The equipment rack is completed, the phone system is installed, and the computer network is wired and tested. The yellow light on the top of the rack is a silence sensor.

The old WKZE studio was ripped out on Thursday. The console was removed and rebuilt with a new control surface

New WKZE air studio completed, console is a Radio System millennium 12 — The new WKZE air studio completed, console is a Radio System millennium 12

The production room was completed, speakers hung, etc.

All set and ready to be “customized” by the DJ’s. Monday morning, the staff will roll into their new digs, which is always fun. In comparison to most studio moves and built outs these days, this one was relatively small and simple. The last studio consolidation project involved 5 radio stations and ten studios. That one took place in steps over several months.

Studio Builds, the never ending cycle

The lease is up, it’s time to move! Yay, we get to rip apart the old place and redo it! Again! It seems to be a matter of course that every few years a radio station will move. Such is the case with WKZE in Red Hook (the town, not the area in Brooklyn). Their lease is up on the “Grotto” location, so the owner has decided to move to a new location, closer to the center of town.

The new location was the former thrift shop. I know this because while I am working there, a constant stream of older people stop by and tell so. Once, while working alone doing some pre-move work punching down wires and computer network cables, I had to use the facilities. There I sit, on my porcelain throne, when I hear, “Hello?” in an old shakey voice. A quick glance at the door reveals it is not locked. Oh, NOs! Okay, don’t say anything, she’ll go away.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is anybody here?”

“Hello? Very strange, the doors are open but nobody is here. Hello?”

Oh for the love of Pete, “I’m in the bathroom,” I finally said.

“Where is the bathroom?” said the interloper.

I refused to say anything else and she finally left. She could have taken all my tools if she wanted to.

Anyway, the studios themselves are pretty simple, one production studio and one air studio. A T-1 line to the transmitter site, turned out the be the hardest thing about the entire operation. We moved the old Radio System consoles rather than purchasing new equipment. Radio Systems has a program called a Millennium upgrade, where you buy a new control surface, which replaces all moving parts, for something like $2,300.00 or so. For that, basically, a new console is had.

Radio Systems Former RS-12 now Millennium 12 console

The new production room is long and narrow.

The air studio is large and spacious. They often have live music from this studio, which is really cool. The station uses Prophet Systems automation equipment, although it is live most of the time.

WKZE air studio before furniture is installed — WKZE air studio before the furniture is installed

The main office area is one large room where desks will be located.

We are moving in stages:

Prep work, installing all the computer network cable, phone system cable, pulling all the audio and control wiring. Then the contractor finished up the drywalling and painting. Nice Colors!
Ordering phone lines and T-1 line. Ahhh, the phone company, such a pleasure to deal with, we had to pull a new cable through the underground conduit from the street to the building because the old cable did not have enough pairs. The conduit length is about 75 feet or so.
Removed the old production room console and took it to the shop to rebuild. It was not that difficult really, although a little cumbersome. I throughly cleaned out all the dust dirt and other detreious materials from the console frame and install the new control surface. I also checked all the power supply voltages with an oscilliscope to make sure there was no ripple. The original consoles were made in 1992, not bad for an 18 year old board.
Built a new production room with the rebuilt board.
Tested all computer jacks, audio wiring, etc prior to move.
Move T-1 circuit and all office and studio telco lines to the new location. Fortunately, the phone company is a local company not the big V we have in other cities. They were able to work with us and get things paralleled to the new location, something a large company might not have understood.
On the air from the production room at the new location
Remove the main rack, intact and move it to new location
Remove office phone system and install at new location
Remove and rebuild old air studio console
Install rebuilt air studio console in new studio, wire
Transfer operation to new studio

Right now, we are on step #6. That is going to be done next Tuesday (the day after memorial day) morning I believe. We should have the move completed by the end of the week. I’ll post updates as they become available.