It鈥檚 all over except for the wiring. And the staffers.
海角社区 will be broadcasting from its new $32-million headquarters at 2117 Dana Avenue in Evanston within eight weeks.
鈥淚t鈥檚 on budget and on time, which is what you want to hear,鈥� says Richard Eiswerth, 海角社区 president, CEO and general manager, as he gave me a tour of our new home this week.
The eco-friendly, two-story building is the first broadcast facility in the U.S. to be constructed with Canadian mass timber (there are no steel beams).
鈥淎ll the wood you see is integral to the structure. Nothing is cosmetic,鈥� he says.
By the end of the month, the first employees will move into the building. While on-air staffers are conducting their final fund drive on Central Parkway this week, workers are busy wiring the 11 studios. That鈥檚 nearly twice the number of studios (six) in the space rented since 1980 in WCET-TV鈥檚 Crosley Telecommunications Center across from Music Hall.
Unlike the second floor space above WCET-TV鈥檚 main entrance and a parking garage, the Evanston building has a large first-floor gathering space in the southwest corner to serve as a public performance venue for student, professional or amateur musicians; public lectures; political debates; book signings; public meetings; and rotating art exhibits. It seats 120 people.
鈥淲e鈥檝e already had two requests to use the public gathering space for weddings,鈥� Eiswerth says.
Behind the gathering space stage are large windows looking into the new main audio and video production studio that is three times bigger than the current Corbett performance studio. The sound-proof walls are comprised of concrete blocks, air and sand covered with drywall and thick gray curtains. A lighting grid and ceiling cameras already are in place. There are two control rooms, one for audio and one for video.
鈥淵ou can open the drapes so people out in the gathering space can see a band performing in the main production studio. You can hear the music over the speakers in the gathering space,鈥� Eiswerth says.
Outside the public gathering space is an outdoor plaza with terraced seating on a hillside adjacent to Evanston Park.
Directly off the front lobby is a podcast studio which will be open to the public. The first floor also has the board room available for use by local nonprofits; business offices; an area for station volunteers; and the manager鈥檚 office.
鈥淯nderwriting and development are on the first floor," he says. "The first floor raises the money, and the second floor spends the money.鈥�
Upstairs are the broadcast studios for classical music WGUC-FM and news and information WVXU-FM. Both main studios are in the northwest corner with windows overlooking Dana Avenue. (The current broadcast studios are in the interior of the Crosley Telecommunications Center, far away from exterior walls.)
Soon Morning Edition host Maryanne Zeleznik 鈥渃an see what the weather is!鈥� Eiswerth says. 鈥淎nd the windows look to the west, where most of our weather comes from.鈥� The same for Brian O鈥橠onnell, WGUC-FM morning host.
Down the hall are two more studios, an 鈥渁rts and cultural studio鈥� with companion control room for long-form interviews, and a matching news and information studio with a control room for Lucy May鈥檚 Cincinnati Edition and other news interviews. Cincinnati Edition guests will wait in a 鈥済reen room鈥� lounge instead of sitting in the current station lobby.
Nearby are four small editing and recording bays. One second-floor restroom has a shower for staffers who bike to work on Wasson Way, or spend the night due to severe weather.
鈥淏rian and Maryanne will come in and spend the night before bad weather, so they can be on the air in the morning,鈥� Eiswerth explains.
News, social media, marketing, other content creators and engineering will work on the second floor.
The search for a new home started eight years ago when Eiswerth and the 海角社区 Board members realized that the city of Cincinnati 鈥� which owns the land under the WCET-TV building 鈥� may want to redevelop the site one block south of FC Cincinnati鈥檚 TQL Stadium. 鈥淭he effort to be masters of our own destiny has been a long time coming,鈥� Eiswerth said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 22, 2023.
The new building has about twice the space of the current offices, but the layout is much more functional. The layout on WCET-TV鈥檚 second floor is a sprawling U-shaped configuration that wraps around the huge two-story TV studio in the center of the building.
鈥淭his is about twice the size, but in terms of space used by the staff it鈥檚 about the same. But here there is much more public space,鈥� Eiswerth says.
The new Dana Avenue location is less than two miles from Xavier University, where WVXU was founded Oct. 1, 1970. It moved into the WCET-TV building in August 2005 when 海角社区 purchased the station and combined operations with WGUC-FM. Cincinnati鈥檚 classical music and operation station, founded in 1960 at the University of Cincinnati, celebrates its 65th birthday Sept. 21.
The 海角社区 staff is expected to move to Evanston by mid-April. A grand opening weekend with music, food trucks and tours is planned for April 26-27.
Stay tuned.
John Kiesewetter鈥檚 reporting is independent. WVXU only edits his stories for style and grammar.
