Posted by Scott Fybush on November 23, 2009 at 20:59:44:
In Reply to: Who around the USA (not necessarily in Chicago) has "storefront studios?" posted by Porman on November 21, 2009 at 18:01:05:
When I toured Bradley Place a couple of years ago, the old radio studios were being used as TV edit suites for the production department. The old studio windows and even a few of the clocks were still there.
The weather office that I saw in 2008 was on the south side of the main first-floor hallway, right across the hall from the big TV studios. The newer construction on the east side (Campbell Ave.) was home to the TV newsroom on the first floor. I think CLTV has now been moved in there as well.
There was a smallish new building on the southwest corner of the complex that was home to the satellite uplinks for WGN America.
As for other stations with notable storefront studios, they're big in Chicago - WLS-TV and WBBM-TV both have downtown storefront studios. So does WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Storefront radio is less common, at least in big markets - in some small towns, it's still not uncommon to see the radio station right in the front of a Main Street storefront. (The Route 81 stations in Corning, NY come to mind here, and WEBO 1330 just down the road in Owego.)
Right here in Rochester, Entercom's cluster has most of its stations in first-floor windowed studios, too. They're not quite "storefront," being somewhat elevated above street level, but you can see the jocks on the air when you drive by (as I do often on my way to WXXI across the street!)