Last summer, we told you about the remodeling of Chicago Public Media’s Navy Pier studios. In October, I dropped by Chicago’s Navy Pier to see it ourselves.
Chicago Public Media’s Vice President of Technology and Operations Stephen Wright gave me a tour of the station’s facility on the floating barge that docks into Lake Michigan.
Chicago Public Media includes 91.5 WBEZ(FM), the NPR affiliate in the Chicagoland area which transmits with a Class B FM signal atop the John Hancock Center. It is also simulcast on 90.7 WBEQ(FM) in Morris and 91.1 WBEK(FM) in Kankakee.
WBEZ has called the Navy Pier home since 1995. Its remodeling spanned less than a year and the project was completed in March 2024. The additions resulted in two anchor studios, a talk studio, a production studio and a performance and recording studio.
Visitors are greeted to a newspaper vending machine for the Chicago Sun-Times, which Chicago Public Media acquired in 2022.
I met with Wright on the 3rd floor of the space, which includes WBEZ’s studios and many of its offices, along with the newsroom for the Sun-Times. Wright is part of Chicago Public Media’s engineering team, which includes Bill Prendergast, its director of RF transmission and maintenance and Dave Dennis, who handles RF engineering. Dave Miska oversees its studio operations.
Chicago Public Media also has offices on the 4th floor, making for a total of approximately 44,000 sq. ft. of space. The nonprofit employs approximately 250 people.
I visited during a live broadcast of “In the Loop” with host Sasha-Ann Simons, which is heard weekday mornings at 9 a.m. Personnel in the tech operations center could look into the talk studio and across into the outside newsroom for the Chicago Sun-Times. Wright said visibility between studios and offices was one of the focal points of the redesign. There is also an adjoining anchor studio.
WBEZ’s urban alternative HD2 feed, “Vocalo,” also has its own studio. It is also heard on translator 91.1 W216CL from Chicago and on 89.5 WBEW(FM) in Chesterton, Ind., a Class B1 signal. Wright said “Vocalo” hosts a couple of hours of live programming each day.
Perhaps most impressive is its live audio and video performance studio, which was in the midst of being set up for a performance the band The Braided Janes.
Every studio is connected, Wright explained, using Wheatstone IP-based consoles, so its performance studio has hosted talk programs with a live-studio audience. Every light in the performance studio can be controlled.
I didn’t get to see the Steinway Model D Full Concert Grand Piano in storage — one of two in the city — but it can easily be rolled over to the performance studio when it is called upon.
As Wright explained, if he’s ever having a tough day, having this view out your 3rd floor deck is a nice pick-me-up.
Read Paul McLane’s full profile of Chicago Public Media’s studio renovation project from last summer.
