Business Beat: December 13th, 2007

I hope by now that you've seen our new KXMC studio and building. Its sits on the north edge of th...  More »

I hope by now that you've seen our new KXMC studio and building. Its sits on the north edge of the 2 and 52 bypass, the dishes and the tower make it easy for you to figure out what this building is. It will be late winter or early spring before we move into this building. That's because 75-thousand feet of cable has to be hooked up for a TV station. But since a lot of the building is finished, we thought you might like a look inside. We enter the reception area, and project manager Bob Knutson with Coughlin Construction is on hand to give us a tour. He's been involved in many construction projects, but it's not often a new TV studio gets built. It took a lot of planning. (Bob Knutson, Project Manager) It's about the same square footage, but it's much more efficient, and I think it will be better for employees. In fact, here's an example of efficiency. A heating and cooling system that exchanges air between the rooms...keeping the temperature even...especially nice since a TV studio tends to get quite warm due to strong lights. And here is our new studio. An area for news and weather, and my favorite, a new set for my Noon Show interviews. As you can see they are laying out some of those many many cables we mentioned earlier. Most all the cable will run through here, the TV control room, the center for programs and commercials. And here's another new feature, the engineers will have easy access when they need it. But perhaps this room is the coolest part of the new KXMC building. It's our break room, but not just any break room. Because when Tom, Joe and the rest of the staff need it, it will serve as a storm shelter. (Knutson) It's build with concrete walls and roof and an extra strong door, so it should hold up in a Tornado. So those of us who work at KXMC are excited about our move to the new studio. But no doubt it will be a little bit sad, the day our current building on South Broadway that has been the home for the station for over 50 years, torn down, to make room for a retail center. For Business Beat I'm Carla Burbidge.  « Less