For more than three decades, the University of Utah's radio and television stations have been shoehorned into buildings not designed to house broadcasters.
KUER-FM 90 has been jammed into the lower levels of Kingsbury Hall. KUED-Ch. 7 and KULC-Ch. 9 are, for the most part, squashed into the lower levels of Garner Hall - although some staffers are located a good distance away in the old Alumni House."We'd go to visit stations when we were out of town. There was never a public broadcasting station that had worse facilities than KUED," said station manager Fred Esplin.
But all that is changing. KUER, KUED,KULC and the state's EDNET learning system are all in the process of moving to the shiny, new, $8.6 million, 66,000-square-foot Dolores Dore Eccles Broadcast Center, located just below Primary Children's Medical Center on campus.
For the first time in history, all of the U.'s broadcast entities will be operating out of a single building. And what a building it is.
Inside the modern facade is an ultramodern facility. Cool gray carpeting and paint hide hundreds, maybe thousands of miles of cables and wire that connect telecommunications equipment with state-of-the-art studios.
Wandering through the maze that is the Broadcast Center you'll see editing suites, rooms for tape storage, green rooms for guests, control rooms and sound rooms, all with specially designed equipment and facilities.
There are lots of windows within the building as well as on the outside, allowing, for example, the radio broadcasters to actually see each other in the different studios.
And there's plenty of office space in the Eccles Center - something that did not exist in the old facilities.
In Kingsbury, Gardner and the old alumni house, staffers were literally elbow-to-elbow.
"We're public radio and television stations. We're community supported, for the most part. Yet, there's no room for the community at KUER," said station manager John Greene. "We couldn't even have meetings up there."
The new facilities will also allow more U. students to be involved in broadcasting - something that was severely limited in the old, cramped quarters.
The common decorating theme in the old buildings is early dingy - dark and dismal.
Down in the bowels of Kings-bury Hall is one rather small room where the U.'s broadcasting services began back in the '50s.
"It was an office for radio and television services. I mean, that was it for what has evolved into KUED and KUER and KULC," said Gene Pack, KUER's assistant general manager who has worked for the station since before it was a station - he helped write the original license application to the FCC.
Since then, the stations have expanded considerably. But they've always had to adapt rooms that were in no way designed for them.
For example, KUED's main studio is the old campus cafeteria - which is piled high with props and equipment and dominated by small sets that seem big.
And KUER's "studio" for panel discussions is an ugly, windowless room that doubles as the station's conference room and lunch room.
"One of the major flaws of this building is that Kingsbury Hall has concerts - rock 'n' roll, whatever - and it comes through our airwaves, because they're right above us," said Heidi Woodbury, KUER's director of advertising and promotion.
Of course, over the years the broadcast staffers have grown fond of their facilities.
"I saw my first play here," said Pack. "Acted in my first play. Saw my first concert here. I've got a lot of memories here."
No one seems too nostalgic about their old facilities, however.
"I don't think our staff is going to miss the old facilities at all because they were totally inadequate," Greene said. "The people at Kingsbury Hall we will miss.
They'll also miss the building's ghost.
"We had two psychics come in this year and they both met the same ghost," Woodbury said. "He was an old stage hand. And he's friendly - he loves everybody."
"There is a sense of history and tradition - like your childhood, in some respects - in the buildings we've been in that of course we're going to miss," Esplin said. "But the thing that's exciting is that we'll be able to create that same sense of tradition and history here."
That new tradition begins Monday, when KUER signs off from Kingsbury Hall at 8:59 p.m. and signs back on from the Eccles Center at 9 a.m. (Appropriately enough, Pack will be the first to broadcast from the new facilities.)
KUED is planning to sign off from Gardner Hall at 11 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, and sign back on the following morning at 7 a.m. from the Eccles Center - hurriedly disconnecting, moving and reconnecting a lot of equipment in the eight-hour interim. (They're keeping their fingers crossed.)
Though KUED, KULC and KUER may be the most prominent tenants of the Eccles Center, they're not the only ones.
"It really is a telecommunications center," said Stephen Hess, director of media services at the U.
It's also home to EDNET, the microwave system that's working toward connecting every high school in Utah to increase educational opportunities.
For KUED, the single biggest difference is the enormous main studio in the Eccles Center. While the converted cafeteria in Gardner Hall could only hold an audience of about 25, the new studio can accommodate hundreds.
Plans are already under way for town-meeting type programs and a performance series, featuring various arts groups - it kicks off with Lex de Azevedo in June - that may be simulcast on KUER.
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Donated funds
Although the state kicked in money for new equipment, the Eccles Center itself was built entirely with donated funds - most notably a $5.5 million donation from Dolores Dore Eccles.
All the employees at KUER, KUED and KULC were among the more than 2,000 donors.
And, while $8.6 million is no small amount to pay for the building, it was actually relatively inexpensive.
"Normally these buildings cost, we're told, $220 per square foot. We got it for $110 - about half," said Stephen Hess, director of media services at the U.