Part of the tour group poses in the lobby of the Fisher Building (left to right): Nicholas Albaran, Sophia Washer, Ronaldi Kane, Kaylie Brooks and Alexandria Grant.
WJR is a legendary award-winning broadcast radio station located on the 8th floor of the Fisher Building on Grand Boulevard in midtown Detroit. This display case greets all visitors who enter via the lobby doors.
Once inside, staffers trundle past the WJR master control room on the left and the rack room on the right. The rack room holds all of the necessary equipment to send the audio to the transmitter site.
The rack room is a complex network of patch panels, audio distribution equipment and electRonaldic monitoring points. The rack room is the nerve center of any radio station.
Opposite the rack room is the window into the WJR master control room. Here, board operators and producers run the broadcast. Morning show host, Paul W. Smith is broadcasting live from the studio in the distance.This is the main production audio board for WJR.
This is the main production room for WJR. Commercials and other audio productions are created in this room.The tour files out of the production room.
The production console from another angle.Blaine Fowler of the eponymous Blaine Fowler Morning Show holds court with a brief rundown of his career and what happens during any given shift on 96.3 WDVD.
Morning show producer Matt Laurinec gives insight into what it takes to produce a morning show in Detroit as Danielle Tier and Patrick Marshall look on.Mike Gagliano is the production director for both WDVD and WDRQ. He demonstrates how he does audio production on some of the equipment.
Another stop on the studio tour was country outlet Nash FM which has the historic call letters WDRQ. The group mills about as midday host Jessica Tyler tells about how much fun she has being on the air in Detroit.
Jessica Tyler is about to go live on the air.
And what radio station tour is complete without some station swag? Nick Albaran and Kyle Abrams show off their Bruno Mars tees, courtesy of the WDVD promotions team.The staff poses in the Cumulus performance room. (Back row, left to right) Kaylie Brooks, Kyle Abrams, Station Manager Ronald Wittebols, Patrick Marshall, Jordan Banks, Ronaldi Kane, Alexandria Grant, Station Advisor Danielle Tier, IT Tech David Belle. (Front row, left to right) Joshua Salhaney, Sophia Washer, CameRonald Carleton, Emma Ramsey, Jack Brown, Nicholas Albaran and Adrian Wilen.
