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Nice studios vs. Hell Holes

Ancient history - Hell Hole!

And a hole it was. The original studios of WALE-1400, now long since demolished.

It started at the front door; a dark doorway on Central Street that was shared with a cubby-hole where dwelt a troglodyte who as the dispatcher for a taxi company. Then down a winding staircase and along a hall with typically less than 1/2 of the lightbulbs working. Then, on your right, a pool hall that probably opened in about 1929 - the last year in which anybody cleaned it. Continuing on, the back door of said pool hall presided over by an evil gnome on a short stool....casting an occasional eye on the "inmates" while lazily peeling off skin cancers with a too-often sharpened pocket knife. That's not a joke....it's the way it was.

Then through a buzz-me-in door with two doorways to the left. Miss the first one and you found your way in the service door for the theater's men's room where aso was stored a long-disused FM transmitter. But if you got the right one you were in the studio. Equipment from about 1947 - all Raytheon. Presto turntables but for one newer one from RCA. Two early-generation MagneCorders and one (so help me God) wire recorder and another boxy old tape machine that was used as an amplifier for an FM receiver via which Boston Celtics Basketball was picked up, off-air, for re-broadcast. By your left knee a pushbutton to admit to the offices anyone who knocked on the window separating you from the pool-room corridor....if you recognized them. To your right and behind, the 250-Watt Raytheon transmitter/furnace that ensured the room hovered around 90-degrees and hummed mightily 2 minutes into a 15-minute newscast. High on the wall behind, an air conditioner whose on-off switch was also by your left knee. You had to turn it off when announcing or be drowned out by the drone. BUT....it vented hot air into the vestibule of the men's room. So, if you turned it off, sounds infiltrated through the A/C. Mostly flushing if the intermission between the "A" and "B" features fell during your newscast.

You quickly learned to never, NEVER look up as the ceiling was composed of various pipes and ducts carrying God-knows-what and all of them covered with the dust of the ages, which sometimes fell, in clumps to land on your copy. Wise announcers quickly learned never to leave an open container of coffee, tea, or soft drink lest it become sorta fuzzy on the top. Oh yeah, and first thing after work, rush home and scrub your hair.

And them was the good old days???
 
Holy Moly. It's going to be tough for anyone to top that! That truly sounds like a Nightmare! Perhaps one of the worst stations in the country! I would guess that WALE when headquartered Downtown may have been bad too. Not nearly as bad as your experience with the original place though.
 
Skynet74 said:
Holy Moly. It's going to be tough for anyone to top that! That truly sounds like a Nightmare! Perhaps one of the worst stations in the country! I would guess that WALE when headquartered Downtown may have been bad too. Not nearly as bad as your experience with the original place though.
Click to expand...

Aw heck, I'll add another one. The original KNOM building in Nome, Alaska. State of the art with all Collins equipment when it was converted from a private residence in 1971. Not really a bad facility; the equipment wasn't plentiful but everything was the very best.

So what was wrong with it? The building was on "blocking", up about 3-feet off the frozen ground and the floor wasn't insulated. Now tundra (what was under the building) gets really squishy during summer so, first off, the building would tilt and that made it tough for tone-arms to track on vinyl. Then there was the rot. The floor was rotting away from below. The announce chair finally had to be put on a big steel slab so the wheels wouldn't penetrate the floor. Oh yeah, the rats. All city services, sewer, water, etc. came through buried wooden ducts called "utilidors" that ran through the city and had smaller versions to each building. Naturally one such came up in the restroom......so one sometimes had a weird feeling of being watched. Yeah, realllly watched! Because you were.

Near the very end there were spots in the record library, between the control room and the restroom, where the floor was so rotted that tightly stretched....nailed at the edges...carpet was what kept you from falling through! A new building was put up next door and built to last with the latest and greatest equipment but somehow the charm of the old place was lost......
 
I don't even think it matters if anyone else posts. You seem to be the obvious winner and deserve an award of tolerance for working at the absolute worst pig styes in all of broadcast history. Maybe it's time to focus on the nice stations now. Anybody have some big roomy studios with ultra modern equipment to talk about? A real King's palace! Perhaps like Rush Limbaugh's place with huge computer monitors and a Golden Microphone. Which is a nicer place to walk into, Clear Channel Providence or Citadel. I know that Clear Channel has a better view as they overlook the city. What do you see when you look out WPRO's studio window? Do they even have a studio window? Many questions to be answered. Who else wants to join in on the fun?
 
The only studio on the Trail that doesn't look out on it is Lite Rock 105. 92 Pro FM technically only has a window into the reception area though. 790 and 630 both have outside windows in both control room and studio.
 
The ClearChannel Studios in Providence are fairly nice (most built around 2000-ish).
Seems a waste of time though, since CC's idea of radio is an empty studio.
 
I can attest to the WALE 1400 studios when they were at 130 Rock St. Best described as "utilitarian" and functional. It was an old house for starters. Walked in and to the left was a large window that looked in on the production studio. Straight ahead was what I assume was a large closet at one point, serving as a receptionist office. Stairs to your right took you up to sales and management.

A slight left at the receptionist office took you down a hallway. Immediately, another large plate glass window looked in on the on air studio with room for your announcer and two guests at the "L shaped" console. Down the hall a bit more and to the right was the newsroom, to the left was the entrance to the basement which I think I ventured down to twice - not a pretty place. Lots of historic "stuff" down there, but it was really off limits. The newsroom had two desks, one of which had a manual typewriter for Bernie Sullivan who didn't take well to those fancy electric typewriters. The desks were on the right side...the AP wire was on the left wall and a very large table was had for layout of stories with their respective carts. (Damn near every local story had sound, whether it was by phone or in person with the trusty Marantz casette decks.) Far end of the room was the audio set up for the news dept, which included cassette decks, reel to reel and carts of various lengths and wear/tear to them.

Out of the newsroom, continuing down the hall, was the Program Directors office and at the end of the hall was the break room with the mailboxes, bathroom and the previously mentioned tech room manned by Steve Sorel.

Gear? That's where "utilitarian" comes into play. Steve Sorel was a magician - can't say enough about him. However, I will share a story (list this under "Operator Error") about the Radio Shack mixer that was used to talk through the phone (for PBP stuff) in audition mode. However, if the phone was live, the main levels to the RS mixer had to be down, otherwise, the mike was live. One night, it was live, and so the Greater Fall River listening audience got a listen to the Durfee basketball game and one of our announcers more personal conversations. (No, it wasn't me and no, I'm not telling who. Not sure what the limitations are when it comes to the FCC and decency rules.) However, I will say that I made the land speed record from the pre-game sports show at Durfee High School to Rock Street and promptly turned down the RS mixer, much to the announcers surprise.

Marc
 
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