Wichita State’s public radio station KMUW has made the move from its 5,500-square-foot space at 3317 E. 17th Street to its new 7,000-square-foot space at 121 N. Mead. Let’s wander through their new digs.
Lower left: KMUW’s FM radio transmitter, broadcasting at 89.1 MHz.
Lower right: a collection of pledge drive mugs.
For 35 years, staff of Wichita State’s award-winning public radio station KMUW worked out of a warren of offices just across 17th Street from the campus proper, in a building not originally built for radio.
“We called our old space ‘shabby-chic,’” reports Sarah Jane Crespo, KMUW’s engagement marketing director. “At some point, we just started calling it ‘shabby.’” Shabby no longer.
Crespo and 24 other KMUW staffers are full-out enjoying their expansive new space in Old Town, and so is the station’s corps of volunteers.
Although KMUW has always had an open-door policy with the public, now its new space ushers visitors in with a garage-door-size welcome, literally. Crespo sees the garage door entrance as a sign of KMUW’s traditional openness and new expansiveness.
Not only is there more room for collective activities, there are nine studios, which is a jump from three, for reporters and producers.
There is also space to display the original works of art that the station has collected over the years from its pledge drives, each of which has offered incentives — mugs, T-shirts, prints — that feature a particular artwork by a local artist.
These days, KMUW has the space for staff and guests to gather and work in comfort — and Old Town style.
