CINCINNATI — As a personal wealth management firm, Simply Money provides insightful financial advice and creates strategic plans that help people reach their savings, retirement and life goals. Our CEO, Nathan Bachrach, is often featured on TV shows like CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” on Cincinnati, Ohio’s local Fox TV affiliate and on local and national radio.
Recognizing that traditional media and new digital channels are an effective way to reach people and engage them in personal money management, we recently completed our own in-house television and radio production studios.
TRANSFORMATION
From our radio studios, we produce “Simply Money,” which airs weekday evenings 6–7 p.m. on WKRC(AM) in Cincinnati and iHeartRadio. This one-hour personal money advice show is co-hosted by “Simply Money” co-founders Nathan Bachrach and Ed Finke, both of whom envisioned building these new on-site studios to produce and distribute our own broadcast-quality content locally and with the goal of expanding to national syndication, social media distribution and Web streaming.
Having been an executive with Clear Channel Media + Entertainment, now iHeartMedia, I had the opportunity to work with GatesAir (then Harris Broadcast) on the build-out of that company’s Cincinnati radio station facilities. During that time, I was greatly impressed with the innovation, technology and craftsmanship that GatesAir and its engineering team, led by Paul Barzizza, brought to that project. When it came time to build our radio facilities here — including a control room, talk studio and technical operations center — naturally I turned to GatesAir because of our trusted relationship.
GatesAir delivered the studio design, planning, custom furnishings, audio console, processing equipment, studio networking and completed the systems integration within our tight timeframe. The project’s first phase transformed empty office space into professional radio studios by installing conduit, insulation, sound panels and sonic wall coverings and cutting a large window between the talk studio and control room.
ECONOMICAL
The talk studio is furnished with GatesAir Smoothline custom furniture and cabinetry, including a table and chairs that are aesthetic and comfortable for three. The control room is furnished with more economical GatesAir Quickline furniture, which is modular furniture that is quick to configure. Each provides comfortable host and guest positions with easy access to production equipment, microphones, built-in headphone controls and other accessories.
Both Smoothline and Quickline offer sturdy, ergonomically designs to house furniture and manage cable runs through strategically-placed punch holes and trays. We were pleased with the look and value of the furniture and its décor, which matches the colors of our “Simply Money” branding. The attention to detail was impressive, with cables and wiring cleanly managed, bundled and positioned out of sight.
Our audio control room is equipped with a GatesAir NetWave 16 digital audio console and a World Feed Panel to facilitate the input and output of audio from digital recorders and other XLR or USB devices. GatesAir racks in the technical operations center house servers, automation and an array of processing gear, as well as an Intraplex IP Link STL codec to transport live feeds from studio to station and to broadcast networks. Additional IP Links will be added to distribute live audio to other radio stations and networks that carry “Simply Money” shows and content.
GatesAir really understood the “Simply Money” vision. Our radio studios — which went online in June 2015 — are now a showplace featuring a fantastic and functional platform for producing high-quality radio shows and audio content for the digital space. And we’re in a great place to adapt to whatever technological changes come along.
For information, contact Keith Adams at GatesAir in Ohio at (513) 459-3447 or visit www.gatesair.com.
