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Local Radio Station Broadcasts From New Location in Historic Durham, N.C.

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 21:01 CDT

By Anne Krishnan, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Oct. 17--As "The State of Things" moved into its second half Monday afternoon, Jay from Asheboro called the radio program to weigh in.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

Host Melinda Penkava replied in the affirmative, but she wasn't the only one answering.

"Yes, we can," exclaimed Dave DeWitt, managing editor and director, from the control room.

"Thank God," Technical Director Robin Copley added.

So it went for WUNC's first broadcast Monday out of its new studio in a renovated 101-year-old tobacco warehouse at Durham's American Tobacco Historic District. While the production wasn't glitch-free, the staff successfully walked the tightrope of a live broadcast with new equipment and a new space.

"It went very well, extremely well," DeWitt said after the show. "There were quite a number of bugs even as late as yesterday, so to get to this point is great."

The first show was simple by design, he said, but as the broadcasts grow more technically complicated, DeWitt expects to keep discovering glitches for weeks.

The 8,350-square-foot production facility inside the Washington building includes two sets of broadcast studios and by the end of the year will house the public radio station's news department as well as the local content production for "All Things Considered" and "The State of Things." The facility cost more than $1.5 million to upfit, said David Wright, associate director of radio.

The studio has windows on two sides -- both into the facility's courtyard and into Bay 7, American Tobacco's events space next door. On Monday, WUNC had set up chairs in Bay 7 where general manager Joan Siefert Rose, American Tobacco general manager Paul Pope and other onlookers watched the first broadcast.

The windows will take some adjustment, Penkava said after the show.

"Radio is usually done in a room and most people can't see you," she said. "That'll add an interesting dynamic."

The conference room is missing a table, the studio door doesn't close and a wedding next door on Saturday night showed WUNC's staff it's high time they installed the missing layer of broadcast-quality glass in their windows.

But producers and managers alike said they were excited and relieved to be opening the new facility.

"Change can be a scary thing, but I think everybody's been able to see the possibilities at the end of the challenges," Wright said. "The excitement here is great."

The five staff members responsible for "The State of Things" moved into their new digs at American Tobacco on Friday and set up trial runs this weekend.

By the end of the year, about 12 more employees, including news reporters, a producer and host for "All Things Considered" and station and programming managers, also will make the office their home base. The facility has room to add another six people as the station continues to expand, Wright said.

Thirty employees will remain in Chapel Hill, including development and business offices and some broadcasting. "Back Porch Music" will continue to be broadcast out of Chapel Hill, but the station now has plans to host concerts at American Tobacco.

From conception to reality, the station took just over a year to build.

"It's really kind of amazing to see it all come together," Rose said. "This is probably one of the nicest public broadcasting facilities in the country."

Program Director George Boosey said the new facility will allow WUNC to do more original programming, potentially including a national show with Dick Gordon, former host of The Connection, a popular show that's no longer on the air. Gordon was in Durham on Monday watching the facility's launch, said Boosey, who moved to WUNC a year ago from the Boston station that produced The Connection.

"It presents us with an opportunity if we can raise the money to do it," Boosey said.

At least WUNC won't have to worry about the rent; in return for mentioning American Tobacco Historic District in each of its broadcasts from the campus, the radio station pays only utilities on its space.

All of the studio's programming will continue be transmitted through Chapel Hill -- a good thing on Monday when the main location was able to serve as backup in case of technical glitches.

Establishing seamless network connections between the two offices was a technical challenge, Wright said.

DeWitt had a line open to Chapel Hill for the entire broadcast, entitled "Welcome to Durham," and picked up the phone periodically to check in with his counterparts there. "Do you miss me?" he asked as the clock ticked down to noon.

As the broadcast started, DeWitt told his staff that the Durham studio wasn't able to share the 10-second delay that was usually in place in Chapel Hill.

"The only thing that was staying the same was the delay," he said. "Now the people are the only thing the same -- and that might only be until the end of the show today."

Most of the broadcast's bugs came from the small room where two producers manage the show's editorial content during the program. In the first half of the broadcast, Senior Producer Susan Davis realized that Penkava wasn't being notified when Davis sent her text messages about callers.

Just minutes later, the screen allowing show producer Cori Princell to manage calls became disconnected from its server. As DeWitt hummed the theme from "Mission Impossible," IT director Nandini Sen entered the studio to make the needed repairs while the show was on the air. Three minutes later, the call screen was running again.

Throughout the broadcast, Copley, the technical director, made notes on light blue Post-It notes to keep track of what she needed to fix before today's show.

"We've got some tweaking to do, but yay!" she said as the show ended and the staff exchanged hugs.

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Source: The Herald-Sun

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