Cox Radio Construction Project

Well the project is complete now, having worked on the construction of three combined FM station studio facilities for Cox Radio of Connecticut. Two of the stations are major market players, WPLR and WEZN, a rock station and adult contemporary format stations. The third one is a smaller station, WYBC. The facility also controls and monitors four other Cox Radio properties, additional AM and FM stations.

The project started in mid June and as of now, 7/27/2000, I have completed it. Let's take a tour...

This is the buiilding at 440 Wheeler's Farms Road in Milford, CT where we constructed on the third floor.

This is what we call the "Terminal Room" --it's the central nervous system of the three-station facility. There are 10 racks, each one handling a different process for each of three stations, plus a dedicated internet rack for an internet broadcast.

Closeup of the WPLR processing near center of racks.

The rear of WPLR processing rack. We used ADC patchbays. We discovered that ADC punch down connections had a significant number of problems with rework, causing some delays due to extra wiring troubleshooting.

We chose to use raised computer floor panels. Though it's not a plenum floor, fire code required us to install smoke detectors under the floor! The big purple "Barney" cables are the 48-pair digital audio interconnects. Yes, this is a digital facility. Pulling all those cables was murderously strenuous! We put miles of wires underneath that floor!

The back wall of the Terminal Room. This is where the cables that carry signals and logic to and from all seven studios come to a central point. Interconnects will carry signals to the 10 racks in here, which are behind and to the right of the camera. Top row are logic interconnects to all studios. Bottom row is digital audio from each of 7 studios. Middle row is digital audio interface to the racks in this room. Cross connect wires make it convenient to patch any device in any rack to any studio.

I installed this "1A2" style phone system last week. Sometimes the older technology works out better for radio work. 1A2 is well-appreciated for it's ability to bring real Tip and Ring signals to every extention line in the system. Radio hybrids often don't like the newer all-digital phone PBX systems, which is why we chose this system.

Ah, a look inside the WPLR air studio. Coming along. We had to drape blankets over everything to protect equipment from the dust created by tradesmen installing electric wiring, HVAC and glass. Many union shops all worked together on this facility.

Finally, the WPLR studio, center view, when completed. Center and right hand views.

WPLR's news room. Note 360 Systems Shortcut editor at right.

The WPLR Production studio, nearing completion.

This is the WEZN Bridge Studio. This photo was taken just after I installed the Airwaves Digital 20 console from Harris- Pacific. Turrets and under-counter racks have yet to be filled with equipment.

And, speaking of under the counter, a look at the OTHER end of the purple Barney cables and the Molex terminations. The harness came pre-wired from Harris.

And that's all for now. More updates coming soon!