WREK Photo Gallery

Click on any picture below to get a much larger JPEG image (approx. 50 KB, compressed down from 400KB TIFFs).

Van Leer studios, circa 1971
The original studio on the fifth floor of the Electrical Engineering building. Scott Pendergraft is behind the board, and that's the back of Jim Evans' head. WREK was based in this studio from 1968 to 1977. This and the next few photos are probably from 1971.
View over the main op board into the equipment room, where the automation gear was located. Circa 1971.
Main studio. Joel Ackerman is announcing at the board, and Eric Roberts is performing some very important adjustments on the Scully tape deck.
"The Machine as it appeared in 1972-73. You can see random access wiring under Cart 4, which had the ID's and PSA's. The music carts (#1-3) are color coded in order to rotate thru playlist (to the left(cutoff) is the rack with the other carts). The Scully tape machine was for oldies, a second one used to have classical, but at the time of the picture the classics were on carts-I believe #2. The various instruments on the right panel were for compression and to monitor signal parameters on transmitter, so that the operator did not have to leave studio." - Walter LaRoche, WREK staff 1969-1973
George Schneider in the main studio, probably doing his show "Waves". Circa 1974.
Van Leer studios, circa 1977
Engineering production area outside studio. The op is working (playing?) with a calculator.
The old record library.
Coliseum Annex studios, circa 1984
An op (Joe Wreen) in the new Coliseum Annex studio. This was the former location of the old WGST (Georgia School of Technology), before the licensed was purchased and the studios were transferred to WREK in 1978. WREK operated from this studio until July 2004.
Two ops (Dave Slusher and Dave Sedacca, maybe) in the new studio. In this and the previous picture, note the two tone walls. The room was originally designed as a recording studio, with sound-absorbing panels (to reduce unwanted echo) and non-parallel walls (to reduce standing waves or resonance). The walls have long since been papered over with posters, notices, and a zillion playlists from bands performing on the weekly "Live at WREK" show, defeating the original design of the sound panels and making the room more "echo-y" or "live".
Coliseum Annex studios, 1998
The main board in the Air Studio. The same 1978 layout is preserved, with the turntables to the right and various decks to the left. However, the phonograph shelves behind the board have been replaced with CD shelves.
The 'lobby' or 'op' area outside the main studio.
A close-up of the wall in the air studio, and of one of the monitor speakers. Over the years the walls of WREK have become well-encrusted with various artifacts. The assault on the visual senses usually causes first-time visitors to stare slack-jawed at the walls for a while. The monitor speaker(s) were constructed from a Leach design.
Tech Talk, WREK's weekly call-in talk show, does a "remote" in front of the Under the Couch club. From left: Adam Preble, Alex Espiritu, Sara Henry, Phil Morley
A live taping of The North Avenue Radio Hour, WREK's occasional radio drama show. From left: Adam Preble, Ganesh Kumaraswamy, James McDuffie