If there is one thing broadcast engineers like to do, it's to look at what is being done in other radio stations. Sometimes you come away impressed and walk out thinking to yourself "Why didn't I think of that?". Or you leave the station wondering how anyone could be so incompetent. Usually it is a mixture of both feelings, but I don't think I have ever left a tour without an idea or two rattling around my head. Unfortunately, you just can't stop at every station you see and ask for the nickel tour (ever try to convince your wife or kids on vacation how much fun it would be to stop at that small town radio station?).
Well, the engineering department here at KCBS and Alice@97.3, thought it might be fun to have an on-line tour of our facilities. You would be able to look at all of our studios, transmitter facilities and also get a little historical information (just who IS the first radio station in the U.S. anyway?).
If you are not in the broadcast biz don't be disheartened. There is nothing too technical on these pages. Each page has a picture of a studio or transmitter and a description of what it is and what goes on in that location. You can ignore the text about the equipment make and style. We think when you're done viewing these pages you'll have a good idea of what it takes to run a major market radio station. If you have any questions about just what the heck is going on in a photo, you'll find our E-mail address at the bottom of each page. Please send only technical or Tour questions to my E-mail. If you have a KCBS programming question or a comment for someone at KCBS, please send it HERE. If you mail a non technical question to my BLRR E-Mail address it might take a while to get a response as I have to read it and then send it to KCBS.
Below is a list of the different parts of the tour. There are sections for the history of KCBS, the studios, the KCBS transmitter site and the KCBS newsroom, and a little info on the engineering department. After all, ya gotta know who to blame for what you will see. There is also a Rogues Gallery, where you can sneek a peek at the people who work at KCBS and some historical photos of KCBS.
The tour is a linear design. You start the station tour in a specific spot a move forward in a predetermined order. This is a big place and it is easy to get lost (I remember trying to find my way around on my first day of work!).
OK, enough talk. Let's move on to your visit of our home, away from home. See you inside!
WARNING! This site is graphic intensive and may be a bit slow to load. Most images run 25-30k bytes. A few run as high as 40k bytes. It was written with Netscape Navigator 2.0 or higher in mind, but works well with Internet Explorer and Compuserve Mosaic. Have patience and enjoy yourself.
Got a cool radio station web page or know of a site that has good pictures of radio equipment? Please send me the address and I'll put them on the radio station/equipment link page that I am working on. Thanks!
Any questions or comments about the tour
Updated 8/11/98
