WBAA station renovations approach final stages

By Christopher Sydloski
Staff Writer

In mid-November, renovations to radio station WBAA's studios and technology should be complete. WBAA, the University-run radio station which broadcasts on FM 101.3 and AM 920, renovated their studios in the basement of the Elliott Hall of Music as part of the process to expand the studio in area and to improve equipment.

Dan Skinner, general manager of WBAA, said the station's equipment and design had become outdated.

"The station was designed for the 1930s and was appropriate then, but definitely not for today," Skinner said.

Eighty percent of the equipment in the new studios will be brand new. Modern equipment will replace the outdated material. The old equipment, which the studio used since the 1930s, was analog, while the new equipment is digital.

The studio now has its equipment routed, meaning it can pull programs up from the first master control room to the second master control room without having to leave the first master control room. Once the project is completed, the new studio will contain two master control rooms, two voice studios, two editing studios, a main engineering control room, business and staff offices, a studio library and a phone center.

The control rooms, voice studios and main engineering room have all been completed. The editing studios are close to completion while the offices, library, phone center and reception area still need work.

According to David Naylor, a morning broadcaster, the improvement in technology will add flexibility to the station and make it more efficient with time.

"The digital changes give a lot more flexibility and options, but there is a learning curve that comes with it," Naylor said.

The physical expansion will allow for more local production at the studio.

"In the old studio we had too much man power and not enough space to utilize it," Skinner said.

The renovation project came into effect under Purdue President Steven Beering's term. Beering approved the renovations and the project has been underway since. WBAA, which has operated its AM station since 1922 and its FM station since 1993, needed to be revamped in order to improve its technology. The station had been using an analog audio board from the 1930s until 1995.

The project has not had any major problems. Only small bugs in technology have occurred and those can be easily eliminated through learning and gaining experience with the use of the new equipment, according to Skinner. The overall costs of the project are estimated to be around $2 million and the studio construction is on schedule.

In addition to being broadcast over the radio 24 hours a day, the station can be heard over the Internet at the site www.wbaa.org.

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WBAA station renovations approach final stages

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