One casualty of last month’s tornadic storm was the studio of beloved community radio station KNON. A day after the storm hit, his station a mess, Dave Chaos was already thinking about how to get back up and running. Here’s how our news intern Jordan Jarrett assessed the damage:
The broadcasting equipment was recovered and is in good condition. But finding another space to house it, hiring engineers to reset it, and then moving into that new location will “cost something,” as Chaos puts it. The largest cost will be the temporary space needed before another permanent location is even considered. KNON is eyeing a tower near Cedar Hill where it keeps its transmitter. But that’s still just a possibility.
“We’ll set up a makeshift studio as soon as possible, end of the week,” Chaos said. “My priority is to start broadcasting again.”
Today we bring you an update, discovered yesterday by the Dallas Voice. KNON indeed moved into a shed near its transmitter and got back on the air within two days of the storm. But the space was, the Voice reports, “infested with scorpions.” It has now found new, permanent digs, minus the venomous critters.
The new studio sits on Coit Road in North Dallas. Chaos and the gang started broadcasting there on Friday, although they’re contained to a small office for now while the rest of the studio is assembled.
I reached out to Chaos this morning, and he confirmed the news and sent along this note:
We do have new digs on Coit Road.Still building it out but have a temporary studio operating there.We are very grateful to have found someplace. I had looked at dozens of places.Not easy to find a building for a station that is 24 hours a day with over 100 volunteers coming through each week.The station received support from our listeners in our last Pledge Drive and local artists playing benefit events.It is that support that has gotten us this far.Having a new home is big relief but we have a long way to go from here. Still don’t have the studio gear we need. Mainly a broadcast console.About half way to the funds we need to complete our move and our build out. ($30,000 of the $60,000 we need)No one got stung by the scorpions. I came close but stomped it out before it crawled in pant leg.Played some Scorpions for the dead scorpion on my shoe after that. I do the Thursday morning Blend 7 to 9 am playing a little bit of all the music heard throughout the broadcast week on KNON.
