Gianna Wilcox
At the beginning of August, WOLF Radio and WOLF Sports Network moved to a brand new location: The top floor of Miller Hall.
For over five years, the Anthropology Building was the location for the two stations. Now, the move is complete after years of discussions and planning. Although the move benefited both stations, the stations’ managers did not really make the decision. The dated features of the Anthropology building were decided for them.
“It wasn’t entirely a decision to move, but more that we had to move,” said Michael Tucker, Operations Manager for WOLF Radio and WOLF Sports Network. “With the Anthropology building being as old as it was, the air conditioning and heating units were starting to fail.
“The cost to repair the units was too much for what the building necessitated,” continued Tucker. “So, they decided, ultimately, that it was time to put the building offline, and we had to find a new space to move.”
The radio stations’ move was a matter of safety rather than a choice. Discussions of moving the radio stations have been circulating since before 2019, when Kyle Marrero was the university’s president. However, the final result was a different location than originally decided. The radio stations’ would have still moved to the top floor of Miller Hall, but it would have been at the other end of the hall.
“We were able to find a space about the same size, but the space is utilized better. It provides more room for students to work,” said Tucker. “Where we went from six editing computers, now I have six rooms with three computers each. We’re tripling our workflow.”
“Now I have two student offices with five computers each and Shawn and I have our own offices,” continued Tucker. “Everybody is getting a growth out of this.”
Although a better-utilized space is great, it is not the only advantage of the new location. Shawn Isaacs, Manager of WOLF Radio and WOLF Sports Network, and Tucker were able to upgrade a lot of both stations’ equipment.
“We did buy a new sound board for the student classroom. We’ve also bought two TriCaster systems, which allowed us to put four cameras in each studio,” said Tucker. “Now we can start live-streaming our radio shows on Twitch and YouTube, our goal for this semester, and hopefully grow from there.”
Along with the new equipment, Tucker and Isaacs updated both radio stations’ systems. The updated systems allow the two stations to function like four radio stations.
“The classroom is a functioning radio station, it is just not broadcasting. Then we have our two streams, WOLF Radio and WOLF Sports Network,” said Tucker. “And in the programming room, that board and wide orbit have been set up to be a mirror that could pull up WOLF Radio and WOLF Sports.
“So students could go in there, and voice track or production, programming, and music can put things in the system from that room,” continued Tucker. “It also means that, if one of the studios were to go down, then that studio could operate from the classroom for a temporary amount of time while we got it fixed.”
The new location has allowed the two stations to become more stable, which will only lead to more success.