| KDVS Studio Renovation Project Studio B After powering through Studio A, we decided to gut Studio B, KDVS's main broadcast studio. The studio hadn't received a makeover in what looked like decades. In the past, each new station engineer would plunk redundant wiring on the top of each prior setup. The entire setup needed an overhaul to bring the station from a 70's-80's setup into a professional 21st Century setup. Much of the project was possible due to Justin's ability to cut red tape within the University/Associate Students to lobby for a budget for the project. Several trips to Ace and Home Depot were made to buy lumber, adhesives, bolts, brackets, etc. There are things that come up you don't expect like the need to rent a hammer drill to install counter supports in concrete, or a band saw for detailing clear acrylic panels to be set over the wood paneling to protect it from denting. Second to ergonomics and interior design, one has to think about how materials wear in an environment that is used 24 hours a day. Additionally, sometimes a lot of "MacGyver-ing" is involved when you have a small budget but want a big budget-functioning studio. Some review of “KDVS ethics” needs to be taken into consideration before understanding how “things operate” at the station: - Rich often jokes, “KDVS is a third world country”. There are times when not even a pliers exist to repair something. I remember once using a mirror to make a repair in a dark corner because KDVS didn’t even own a flashlight. - KDVS has a “don’t ask” policy when it comes to equipment that shows up at the door that nobody knows how it got there. We don’t want to know if it was bought from some dude named Chico in a pickup truck driving around the neighborhood. - If a random KDVS new volunteer is willing to come in and work all night sanding and varnishing it is assumed that they have only been drinking coffee. - Anarchists and punk rockers can be motivated to do organized labor. They are an essential part of community radio. A key concern when working at a volunteer organization is to know what you are getting yourself into at the beginning. You may find yourself driving to Home Depot to buy 10 4 x 8' sheets of wood, hauling that wood, carrying the wood, cutting the wood, and installing the wood yourself if you can't find any competent volunteers. The golden rule is "you can't do it all yourself". The most important part of any volunteer project is finding dependable people and delegating. Additionally, you may need volunteers with specific skills. Giving a volunteer work that he/she can't do will only set the project backwards or even ruin product. Second, follow timelines and assign tasks with due dates. Your don't need to use Microsoft Project or create detailed daily routines, but milestones are important. Third, have a backup plan or a budget buffer; things going wrong are the norm not the exception. These are some good rules in any volunteer project. Below is how the KDVS studio looked in 1999 before renovation (it may take a minute for all the photos to load). |
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| Above: A Logitek board (that actually caught fire once), B. Carts galore |
| The hodge podge wiring nightmare buildup over decades (below the controls) |
| A. Studio prepped for teardown; in backgound the KDVS servers and STL/transmitter remote/other equipment located in the master control room. B. From the opposite direction, carts in the foreground looking towards the three studio turntables |
| A. The homemade call-airing apparatus; B. A stripped-out rack revealing tons of dust |
| A. Justin rips the board out B. Turn you head to the side--the wiring mess under the countertop. |
| A. Turntables set free B. Justin starts to tear down the punch blocks |
| A. How do you remove a 2-inch thick solid countertop that runs the extent of the room? Aim a circular saw down the center. B. Picking through the studio mess. |
| Above: Studio B before teardown |
| Here I am pausing wondering what I had got myself into. |
| Mess spreads to everywhere in the station |
| A. Mess spreads out the hall B. A load of dust coats everything. |
| DJ Rick powers through carpet removal |
| A. Sean and Brian remove what is left of the carpet. B. Room is cleaned up for paneling and carpet installation |
| Okay, it appears I don't have any pictures taken in between the room prep and much of the equipment install. Maybe they were lost. Maybe by this time we just wanted to get the project done and just stopped taking pictures. After several drawings of permutations of equipment/counter formations, we chose a custom curvilinear counter formation to maximize space. A "lip" jets out in between mic 1 and mic 2 to allow host and co-host (or interviewee) a comfortable interaction. A Gentner phone system replaced the primitive phone system in both studios. The main upper rack turret was built by PR & E, who impressed us at the prior NAB (I think Pacific designed the studio for NBC's Frazier; they have long since been absorbed by Harris). We had purchased a proprietary-based electronic cart vault to replace the analog cart machines, although we kept the analog machine in the studio "just in case". We chose a colonial maple stain for the studio paneling. |
| A. New Audio Arts 18 channel board and Denon CD players. B. Three new Technics SL1200's (yes three; they play a lot of vinyl at KDVS) |
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| Digital overload: Three monitors in the final studio. The Denon CD players were replaced with Marantz units. A Tascam tape player and an Eventide broadcast delay unit were also added to the turret. A analog cart machine and a minidisc player still reside in the adjacent rack. |
| To the far right another tape deck resides under the turntables for DJs to record their shows (although each radio show is digitally archived on an in-house server). A Comrex Vector modem also resides there for linking remote broadcasts. |
| A. KDVS gave up its proprietary-based audio cart vault and designed its own (screen one, top). An online playlist (right lower) was also developed with programming assistance from ASUCD; playlist shows up in real time on kdvs.org. A new interface is being installed to scan CDs/records into the system via barcode. Left screen is for reading playlists, online requests, etc. B. A view into the studio from the "currents" record room. |
| RIP: Old mixing board. KDViate Teresa lays down on the board KDVS purged from its engineering room because it was too large to be used anywhere. The tiny Logitek console, to the left, from Studio B was also being scrapped. |
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