Radio Performance Auditoriums

[The King Bee]

Are there any full-blown, specifically built-for-radio performance studios still around? I mean the ones with audience seating, room on stage for orchestra and sound effects personnel, control room space, the whole nugget? The type that Jack Benny and the other big shows originated from or worked out of when touring with the cast and crew. It seems to me that someone, somewhere would've maintained one, even if only for historical purposes.

In 1949, the Louisville Courier-Journal and WHAS-AM/TV moved into a new building, complete with three radio studios, one of which (Studio A) was the beautiful, then state-of-the-art full performance studio. WHAS made use of this studio until they moved to a new AM-FM-TV broadcasting-only facility in 1968.

Nowadays, there is little evidence of the studios on the C-J building's fifth floor. Just wondering if any such studios are still in use in public/community radio...the only type of programmers imaginative enough today to try audience-participation radio. Or do they all use adapted general purpose auditoriums?

 

[amfmsw]

In Philly, the late classical voice, WFLN AM/FM had an unbelievable performance studio, perfectly preserved from the 40's, and still used till it's sale. High gloss, hardwood floors, Persian rug that was rolled up or out depending on the need of quieting, and heavy retractable drapes. A concert grand piano was permanent, with booms, fixed with Neuman mics, chairs and music stands.

The studio/office/tower site was on Ridge Pike, just a short jog from uber legend Top 40 rocker WIBG.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Equally as sad as the demise of the facilities, is the lack of any programming that could make use, even partial use, of such a facility. Other than Garrison Kieler, what happens on the radio today that cannot come from a simple little padded cubicle studio.

For those who get to use them, there must be something of a grandeur in using the modern studios where three or more people can sit around strange shaped tables and do morning shows and sports talk.

Facilities can shape an organization to some extent. The right building layout and design can cause a church congregation to blossom in its attitufe and style. I have visited a lot of radio facilities that did about as much for attitude, and sound, as broadcasting from the outhouse at an Interstate rest area.

 

[rip-n-read]

WSMB had a performance studio on the top floor of the Maison Blanche building on Canal Street in New Orleans. The station was there until the 1980's.

KUHF in Houston has a really nice new studio they use for classical performances.

 

[Prais]

As late as the early 1960's WMBI, Chicago, had beautiful, though old fashioned, studios to do their dramas, and larger cast religious programs, in their LaSalle Street headquarters. I stood in the room (while touring) as a teenager. It was quite large, with a large organ, and many microphones. They also showed me their small "dj studio" with a Gates board and turntables.

On Bradley Place, WGN used to do the radio "Barn Dance" from their middle (of 3) TV studios - a seperately produced program from the TV Barn Dance, that was recorded on Friday night for Saturday broadcast.

Also in the 60's, WMAQ radio, when in the Merchandise Mart, produced Jack Eigen's 10pm Saturday interview show from a large room (no evidence of tv in that room) that could hold an audience. I was there a few times.

WBBM may also have had a large radio studio in the 60's, as they did a few local programs featuring "Ralph Marterie and his Orchestra". One I remember, broadcast around 8 or 9 am sponsored by "McLothlin's Manor House Coffee" - a Chicago brand. I could have had a better memory, but the mean guards at the door never let us visit there.

I also visited "The Cloud Room high atop the Allerton Hote on Chicago's Magnificent Mile" - where Don McNeil's Breakfast Club originated on WLS in the 60's.

"First call to breakfast for all of you out there, America's awake, the Breakfast Club is on the air!" Those were the days, my friend.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I believe NPR does have a modern version of this type of studio in their Washington DC digs. When they've produced those drama specials like the radio version of Star Wars, etc, they used that studio. I don't know how often the studio gets used as my local NPR station hasn't aired an NPR drama special in a number of years. As mentioned, Garrison Keeler's NPR hit show A Prairie Home Companion may be the only secular radio show, in America, that does a live or pre-recorded show where such a studio is needed.

There is another studio, but I believe it is smaller (no room for a large audience based on the photos I've seen) but has been producing radio dramas since 1950. The show is called "Unshackeled". It's a Christian drama that tells a true story using actors with sound effects and an organ (like the soap operas used to use). This show is considered to be the longest running radio drama still on the air (58 continuous years will be a tough record to beat). It is produced at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. There are tours available. If I ever get to Chicago I plan on going to watch this classic production in operation. Even if you're not into the message, the stories are well produced with a quality that rivals what a commercial radio network would produce if they were inclined to air a radio drama.

Also the Moody Radio Network produces a drama series called "Stories of Great Christians" that uses actors and sound effects and an organ just as Unshackled uses. I believe that the Moody studio is also located in Chicago. I don't know if they have an audience or not or if tours are available.

The only other radio drama (that I know of ) being produced today is by Focus On the Family, but their show is produced in England at a studio there as they do still have radio dramas, comedies, and musical shows on the radio via the BBC.

 

[Tom Wells]

I think you must include the The Grand 'Ol Opry's space in Nashville, which I have been to twice.
It's a great big place, if not all that old, and it was built specifically for radio, though it now has TV production as well.
It is interesting when the lights are dimmed during commercial breaks and the audience is addressed off the air.
I'd be real sprised if WGN didn't still have some kind of large production studio somewhere in that big 'ol building on Michigan Ave.

 

[Sgeirk]

WEJL in Scranton still has a stage on the top floor of the Scranton Times building where their 3 stations are located today.

 

[Ultimajock]

I'd be real sprised if WGN didn't still have some kind of large production studio somewhere in that big 'ol building on Michigan Ave.

...WGN Radio was in the same facilities on Bradley Place as their TV operation for many years before returning to Tribune Tower, so there's really no reason to assume they'd have any large radio studios left over from their days as a key affiliate of the old Mutual network on Michigan Avenue. I don't know what the current status is of NBC's old studios in the Merchandise Mart, from whence "Amos 'n Andy" and "Fibber McGee & Molly" came in their earliest years, but I do know that Emmis moved WKQX (originally WMAQ-FM) from those 19th Floor facilities to new studios on the 2nd Floor of the Merchandise Mart about seven years ago. The one large facility in Chicago that's regularly used today is the Chase Auditorium in the Chase Tower on South Dearborn Street, where NPR and WBEZ produce Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me most Thursday nights...

...in Wisconsin, there's the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, where PRI and WHA produce Whad'Ya Know? most Saturday mornings; as well, although it's since been modified for TV newscasting and production use, the large radio studio in WTMJ Milwaukee's Capitol Drive "Radio City" building still exists...

 

[fybush]

I'd be real sprised if WGN didn't still have some kind of large production studio somewhere in that big 'ol building on Michigan Ave.

...WGN Radio was in the same facilities on Bradley Place as their TV operation for many years before returning to Tribune Tower, so there's really no reason to assume they'd have any large radio studios left over from their days as a key affiliate of the old Mutual network on Michigan Avenue.

The current WGN facility, on the south side of the first floor of Tribune Tower, is not the same location that WGN radio and TV used in their initial go-round on Michigan Ave.

That building was 441 N. Michigan, immediately to the north of Tribune Tower proper, and has long since been gutted and reused for other purposes. (I believe there's retail in there now.)

The largest studio in the current WGN facility is a talk studio looking out on the plaza (to the right of the main WGN entrance, as you face the south side of Tribune Tower) that can seat about a dozen guests.

...in Wisconsin, there's the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, where PRI and WHA produce Whad'Ya Know? most Saturday mornings; as well, although it's since been modified for TV newscasting and production use, the large radio studio in WTMJ Milwaukee's Capitol Drive "Radio City" building still exists...

Nope. The big radio studio immediately behind the main entrance to Radio City was dismantled in the eighties and replaced by several smaller studios for WTMJ/WKTI:

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060324.html

WTMJ-TV had its own separate studio at the rear of the building early on; the 1960s renovation added the famed "Studio in the Round" on the west side of Radio City that's still in use today.

 

[GintGotham]

To the best of my knowledge, the former WGN-TV Studio 7A (in which the first few weeks of Bandstand Matinee originated from in 1954) at 441 North Michigan Avenue is currently a meeting and convention space called "Campbell Hall" and used by the Chicago Tribune and leased out to groups.

That was the last studio to be used before the operation moved up to Bradley Place. It was a "high tech" studio, as opposed to the "designer" studios used for display purposes.

 

[fybush]

Doug mentioned the WTMJ studio, which has been heavily renovated (at least beyond the very cool original lobby) since it was built in the 40s. But another facility of similar design and vintage survives almost intact: the "Rochester Radio City" plant built by Stromberg-Carlson in 1947-48:

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2007/site-070914.html

It's now home to WROC-TV, and WROC's newscasts come from the very stage (complete with audience seating) built for WHAM radio more than 60 years ago.

 

[Prais]

Gintg said, "Bandstand Matinee"
_____________
- Was that the show w/Jim Lounsbury? WOW! Jim passed away about a year or so ago.

I believe that Michigan Ave. studio was also used for the "Paul Fogarty" exercise show, and DING DONG SCHOOL w/Frnces Horwich. Paul Fogarty was replaced (n film by) by Jack LaLanne, then Ed Allen, then by a beautiful blonde lady (name forgotten-was it Debbie??.. but not her looks). Certainly got my 10 year old hormones going....

The studio had a large pipe organ, (mostly played by Hal Turner) used for music during exercise and was referred to by Miss Frances as "Mr. Music." On Bradley it was also used for "Great Hymns of All Faiths -a Sunday morning broadcast.. Mr. Turner is largely responsible for my taking 16 years of organ lessons.

That organ was eventually moved to Bradley Place, and has since been dismantled and moved to a Catholic Seminary in MW Chicago, where it is now in use.

 

[CrankyYankee]

Studio D at AFN Frankfurt was such a place. Go here ---> http://www.videopark.com/ktown.htm and scroll down about three-quarters of the page for a photo. It became a TV studio when AFN Television took over the space. The operations have now left the building.

 

[GintGotham]

Jim Lounsbury won the Bandstand Matinee show in a DJ contest. And it became one of the great "record-hop" shows of the USA. He and Dick Clark used to sub for one another whenever there was an issue, like sickness, or travel.

That show came from Studio 1A on Michigan Avenue; however, it began up in 7A on the seventh floor. After it became popular, it moved downstairs to the theatre studio. That 1A was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz and was one hell of a great room. It sat on top of the Chicago Tribune printing presses, and during a dramatic program, you could hear the presses start up. (But the same thing during the Ed Sullivan Show in New York. The Ed Sullivan Theatre shared a party wall with an IND power facility. And so did Captain Kangaroo, on the other side of the IND power house.)

As for Hal Turner on the organ: that was not the big pipe organ from the thirties. That was an electric Hammond organ. They could move those things around from one studio to another. I loved to watch those women who were moved out of the movie theatres by Jimmy Petrillo into the radio studios. They had purple hair, wore green eye shades, had those gigantic "cans" over their heads and ears (to hear the director), and they smoked filter cigarettes (so they could puff on them like cigars while they played the organ). That was the best part of attending the game shows in those days of the golden age of radio and tv.

 

[Tom Wells]

GintGotham welcome (or welcome back if you're returning), and thanks so much for those memories.
I've seen pictures of the place, but it's one I never got in to see back in the 70's.

 

[TheBigA]

I believe NPR does have a modern version of this type of studio in their Washington DC digs. When they've produced those drama specials like the radio version of Star Wars, etc, they used that studio.

Well, you're right that NPR has a huge performance studio in the Mass Ave headquarters, but NPR wasn't in that building when the Star Wars series was done. The music and production was done in Minnesota, which does have a performance studio, and the tracking of the actors was done in LA. There were 6 studios in 2025 M Street, three on street level, and three more built on the 2nd floor when Morning Edition began. The first floor studios were warm and well built, with floating floors and movable sound panels, but couldn't accomodate an audience.

Many of the bigger NPR affiliates have performance halls. I remember WGUC Cincinnati was built next to the city's concert hall.

But I'm hearing from a lot of station owners that there's a desire to build performance studios adjacent to their radio stations. Larry Wilson announced he was doing something like that in Portland. I don't know where he stands with that. Several Clear Channel stations have small performance rooms in the buildings. With the recording industry wanting to put a royalty on recorded music, there may be a movement to return to the days when radio stations owned their performances rather than record labels.

 

[TheBigA]

The other story that caught my eye was during an American Experience PBS show about Glenn Gould. It showed a huge performance hall in the Eaton's Department Store in Toronto. I don't know the background on it, if it was built perhaps for an Eaton's radio station, and if it still exists.

 

[MattParker]

The other story that caught my eye was during an American Experience PBS show about Glenn Gould. It showed a huge performance hall in the Eaton's Department Store in Toronto. I don't know the background on it, if it was built perhaps for an Eaton's radio station, and if it still exists.

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for the great department stores to have performance halls or auditoriums. Others, off the top of my head, included Lazarus and J.L. Hudson. They were used for fashion shows and other retail activities but also concerts and community events.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I believe John Wanamaker's stores in both Philly (center city) and their Wilmington store off Augustine Cutoff had auditoriums.