When lightning struck Hubbard Radio’s WRMF(FM), part of a six-station cluster in the West Palm Beach market, it damaged their old Harris Vistamax router beyond repair.
“We had an existing WheatNet infrastructure for our WideOrbit network, so the decision was made to start the slow studio migration to it,” said Chief Engineer David Brown.
“The No. 1 station in the market is our WRMF signal, with ‘The KVJ Show’ leading, so it was logical to start there.”
The old studio, he said, was small, dark and cramped.
“We’ve been in this building for over 20 years. We are located in the Northpoint Executive building on the fifth floor with a view towards the coast and downtown West Palm,” he continued.
“I wanted to maximize that view. I wanted big, bright and roomy. We took one small production studio at the end of our ‘studio row’ and two offices next to it to create one large studio and one smaller producer’s studio. In total we have 11 studios, including production, on air and a voicetrack/podcast room.”
The project was completed in mid-2025.
Brown led the work and did the studio layout and design. Integration services were provided by RadioDNA, with cabinetry by Studio Technology. Wheatstone was the primary provider of consoles and studio hardware.
“I’ve slowly been swapping out our hodgepodge of microphones in the overall facility to Neumann BCM 705s, so we continued with that process,” he said.
Support equipment was provided by SCMS and Broadcasters General Store. Insoft supplied and installed an HDVMixer video system.
WRMF’s transmission facilities and a secondary site are located in Wellington, Fla., with a tertiary site in Lake Park. All sites use Harris CD Link or Moseley SL9003s for over-the-air STL, Intraplex units for dedicated fiber and Comrex BRICs for the redundancy.
“We use a variety of transmitters: GatesAir FAX40s, a couple of Nautel NX Series, a GatesAir Flexiva 3DX50 and our newest, a Nautel GV2 40 kW on our WMBX signal,” he said.
Live and local
Brown said that “live and local” matters to Hubbard. “This project reflects that, a studio for real-time use and for real people, lots of space, countertops and storage.”
The cabinetry includes a guest microphone location just to the left of the main console, where someone can simply walk in the door and “have a chat” quickly and easily, with no need to go to one of the more “formal” mic positions.
Studio flexibility is enhanced by digital branding using Amazon Signage sticks. “We can reconfigure the studio to brand any of our products quickly.”
Asked what made the job stand out, Brown replied, “It was special to me to be allowed a blank slate, no predefined layout, console format or equipment list. We built what our local people wanted, needed and envisioned without any corporate demands or input.”
He added, “It’s interesting to note that how much the video portion of the product affected the studio construction.
With numerous fixed shot and closeup HD cameras, the lighting and camera shot angles became a consideration.”
Read about a dozen other recent installations of new radio studios in your free ebook “Sweet New Studios for 2026.”
