Now that the studios are assembled, it's hard to tell the Control Room was a prefabricated studio kit.

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Moody Bible Institute rebuilds to accommodate four stations in four cities

When Moody Bible Institute decided to rebuild its studio complex for the stations in central Alabama, a process began that brought the operations of stations from several cities into consideration. Ultimately, a grand plan was developed to improve the efficiency of handling four stations located in different cities. A key element of the construction design involved a plan that would allow for a more future-proof setup.

The Production Studio is a near mirror image of the Control Room.

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Moody started serving the broadcast area with WMVV in Dixons Mills, AL, and WMFT in Tuscaloosa, AL. These cities are about 90 miles apart. In time, WMVU in Forest, MS, and WRNF-AM in Selma, AL, were added to the cluster. The operation remained in Dixons Mills during this time.

As typically happens, the space for the four stations was insufficient. General Manager Rob Moore began looking for a new location. In his research, he considered the rural location of Dixons Mills, but the greater population center was based near Tuscaloosa. In addition, the Tuscaloosa station covers part of Birmingham. The search began for a new site in fall 2007.

The assembled studios have a drywall facade built around them.

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By summer 2008, part of the second floor of an office building was leased. This space had six offices and one larger open space. The arrangements were made to occupy this space and begin building studios. The first step: Make one office a temporary studio for the morning show. An ISDN circuit was used to deliver the signal to the station's transmitter in Dixons Mills.

By the end of the summer, Moody had leased the entire second floor, and Chief Engineer Paul Lierman was hired to complete the project.

New studio plan

Any studio design project pays special attention to the acoustic properties of the studios themselves. The standard practices of isolated walls, double studs and floating surfaces are applied. In Moody's case, the cost and effort of building traditional studios had a major drawback: If another move or redesign is considered, all the studio construction materials would be lost. With this in mind, the stations looked at using pre-built studios. Products from VocalBooth were selected for the two main studios.

The open area for the two studios is about 20' x 40'. The two VocalBooth studios are placed back to back. The control room measures 12' x 16', while the production room measures 12' x 14'. Once they were set in place, a false wall was created for cosmetic reasons. This false wall hides the HVAC, power and other connections for the rooms.

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