WUKY's antenna array is shown along with the old Saint Claire Recording Co. logo on the gate. / Photo by Tom Wilmes
When an organization has been operating in the same cramped, outmoded space for almost 80 years, moving to larger, more modern quarters can spark all kinds of new ideas.
That’s why staffers at WUKY 91.3 FM—the University of Kentucky’s NPR-affiliate radio station—are ecstatic about their new broadcast facilities in a plush, former recording studio on Spurr Road near the intersection of I-64 and I-75 north of town.
The station, which had been based at McVey Hall on UK’s campus since the 1940s, began broadcasting from its new home in mid-March. And station officials already are spinning off ideas for new projects that the bigger building will make possible.
One idea is for regular live music broadcasts from the new main recording studio, which has space for a complete band plus a studio audience. Planned to start in July is a new show called “Commons Crossing,” featuring outdoor music broadcast live from the building’s covered “back porch,” with an audience seated on the expansive lawn. Officials say the ample space also will make it easier to broadcast more live performances by touring bands when they stop in Lexington. Finally, the facility will foster more community involvement at the station by making events like art shows featuring area artists possible, they say.
Station manager Tom Godell says WUKY's new broadcast facility "gives us the chance to really be the community resource that public radio needs to be." / Photo by Tom Wilmes
Station manager Tom Godell says WUKY also hopes to soon bring in UK Opera Theater Director Everett McCorvey and a cast of singers to record music featured during “A Grand Night For Singing.” That would have been impossible at McVey Hall, he said.
“This is going to give us much more flexibility and allow us to do things we just couldn’t do be-fore,” Godell said. “It gives us a chance to really be the community resource that public radio needs to be. And we’re very excited about that.”
WUKY’s new home began life in 2003 as an upscale recording studio built by the Saint Claire Recording Co. Saint Claire hoped to lure top musical performers to record in Lexington, and the plan worked—for a while. Singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo recorded at the studio, ac-cording to Godell. Dolly Parton once was sighted there, and Janet Jackson reportedly dropped by to check out the studio when she was in town, Godell said.
Host Joe Conkwright broadcasts from one of WUKY’s new recording studios. The radio station’s new home includes more space for in-studio guests, live musical performances and even full-band concerts. / Photo by Tom Wilmes
But the studio closed in 2013 and was bought at auction by Lexington’s Ann Bakhaus, whose Kentucky Eagle beer distribution company is located just around the corner. Bakhaus and her son, Mike Russell, decided to donate the building to UK.
“They originally planned to donate it to the UK Opera Theater,” Godell said. “But the theater director said that, while they could use it three or four times per year, the UK radio station really needed a new location.”
WUKY, which had been looking for new space for several years, was overjoyed. But it still took two years and about $1.5 million from UK to adapt the building for radio use. Even so, its advantages were quickly obvious.
Saint Claire had spared no expense on wall insulation and special flooring to shield record-ing sessions from noise and vibration caused by low-flying planes and a nearby railroad crossing. Now, WUKY and its listeners are enjoying those benefits.
“We’re stunned by the sound quality. We knew it would be good even before we moved in. But it’s really, really good.” —WUKY station manager Tom Godell
“We’re stunned by the sound quality,” Godell said. “We knew it would be good even before we moved in. But it’s really, really good.” However, some other features in the building had to go.
Saint Claire had built several luxurious bedrooms upstairs so that visiting band members could live comfortably on-site while they were recording. But WUKY didn’t need them.
“There was a Caribbean bedroom, a Chinese bedroom, an African bedroom—all beautifully ap-pointed,” Godell said. “But the bedrooms became offices, the hot tub is gone and where the pool table was located in now our newsroom.”
Even so, it’s still a far cry from the narrow spaces and dated equipment at McVey Hall. UK’s radio involvement began in 1929, when the university produced short programs— usually lectures by professors—that were broadcast on WHAS in Louisville. UK got its own radio station 10 years later under the name WBKY, which eventually became WUKY in the 1970s.
While Kentucky author and Berea College as-sistant professor Silas House has fond memories of the old McVey Hall studio, where he recorded his radio show “On The Porch” for several years, he’s impressed by the new digs.
“The old studio had all that history,” House said. “But this new one is just so much more spacious. More room. More light. And it’s much easier bringing in guests to do interviews and record the show in a state-of-the-art facility.”