Finest Facilites?

[Dan Shoe]

I'm more of a geek when it comes to the hardware side of the business. Whose actual studio facilities do you like?

For those that have seen the WITF building, it's really a spectacle. Saw pics of the new BOB studio and it looks top notch, although i don't remember the rest of the Harrisburg CC building being as nice. Seems like they've cobbled together different studios and equipment as they've added and moved stations. The newer Citadel building in Camp Hill is good, but i can't stand the location. CC Lancaster has a small building, but the main studio is one of the nicest I've seen. Much better than the old rat trap they used to call home downtown.

 

[danwxman]

I think it's ashame WITF built a brand new studio on some hilltop in Swatara township. Would have a been a great addition to Midtown Harrisburg.

 

[Ticker]

I always thought the old "shack" for 96WHYL, and ZUE102 where it was my first job back in '79 was a classic radio station building. It was out in a field somewhere on the edge of Carlisle, almost under the highway. It seemed really run down and ready to fall apart at any minute it. It had a really small hallway where you had to walk pretty much single file to get to production. The front entrance was the biggest room in the building, or was it?, I can't really remember all of it.
But, I do remember the smell of all the burning tubes, wires, reel to reel tape machines and wooden nickels that really made it smell like a radio station. Classic.

 

[TODDMAYOR]

now the land occupied between home depot and chilis in carlisle. it was in a camper...err...i mean trailer. wasn't the old 93.5 wkcd in mechanicsburg in a camper....err... i mean trailer too??? wow trailer radio everybody all trailer all the time.

 

[TODDMAYOR]

ok lets turn it to the biggest dumps past and present in the market???

 

[TODDMAYOR]

the now razed house in wormleysburg with the big bay window that housed wcmb 1460 and mix 99.3 now that was cutting edge. poor salespeople in the basement. ;D

 

[loeper]

Bad facilities have to include WORK in York when they were still at 13 S Beaver street. in 1972 Control room had a 15 year old Gates board while the production studio had an old RCA board that had to be from WWII. It had TUBES for gosh sake. same thing for the Ampex reel to reels in both control and production. Transmitter was from the 1940s and the sound it put out showed it. also there was absolutly no audio processing from the studio to the transmitter site. I think the newest peice of equipment was a Gates remote mixer unit that we used for High school Football and Basketball games.

 

[John-Summers]

the now razed house in wormleysburg with the big bay window that housed wcmb 1460 and mix 99.3 now that was cutting edge. poor salespeople in the basement. ;D

If space is limited, sales people should be in the basement, Todd, not for punitive reasons but because sales people are not supposed to be in the building most of the time anyway. It's their job to be out on the street. Why waste upstairs office space with sunlight streaming in the windows on people who, if they are doing their job, won't be there to enjoy it 99% of the time. Ask any sales manager how often he/she wants to actually see their crew sitting at their desks. It's the air studios that should have the view. I worked at one station where the sales people had a large sunlit room in which to sit and drink their coffee and the air staff worked in the basement where the one and only window was in the equipment room behind the rack. Never could figure that one out. I worked in sales at another station where the department was headed by an old-time by the book sales manager. He made no bones about it. He did not want to see any of his people in the building between 8 and 5. Paperwork was to be done before 8 and after 5. Sales meetings were at 7am! I wonder how many sales managers would do that now?

 

[grandoleopry]

While I am in agreement on many of the things you mentioned John the way radio sales are being made is evolving just as the programming departments have. More in office time is prevalent these days as many contacts are made and deals solidified via email.
Also there are fewer local direct accounts to sell to these days...the majority of spending even from many local accounts is coming from agencies. This is a result of many qualified and successful radio sales executives leaving the business and forming their own ad agency businesses. As I mentioned not only have we seen the evolution of programming but we are also seeing the sales side of the business evolve too.