Well.. I had the extra day off, so I decided to gut my garage, build out a new studio desk, and ended up spending the entire weekend sawing, hammering, and building stuff.
I managed to get my 2 desktop rack units completed, the 8 foot by 32" main desk frame completed and painted, and the main desk top cut and painted. I am seriously considering glueing on a sheet of drywall surface I have laying about to make a nice smooth surface that also can have noted jotted down on it...
so sweaty, so gross... now to take a shower before my wife sets me on fire.
MLR, we all want to see your woodworking job so I hope there will be images.
If your wife set you on fire, it would not be personal, she only did it to Celebrate the Fourth!
By the way, you have been very ethical by not mentioning your own Part 15 forum now online at
I am mentioning it because we all want to know everything that is happening with Part 15!
I have appointed myself the host of part15.us by declaring what "we all" want to know.
Are you comfortable working at a desk?
I learned on a stand up board like this
and since then never felt like I could do proper delivery sitting.
Oh, and good luck with the fire 🙂
I worked at an EZ Listening station that required standing up for all board operation and announcements. They forgot to say why they did this, but I was obedient.
Since then I have noticed health studies that say too much sitting is bad for you, and another study that says too much standing is no good.
For all that, I have things arranged so I stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, all-the-day-long.
Except when working in the yard I rarely sit. It would be hard to saw a tree limb while sitting.
Life has its ups.
Voice coach made a big deal of it, saying that the diaphram is restricted in movement when seated. Odd thing the AM side had a seated broadcast desk with slider board, plus the production studio was the same.
Obedient was the word there too. Top-100 market, #1 rated AC/CHR hybrid. Zero job security.
Still I really liked working podium and the huge pots on the board. Almost impossible to hit the wrong pot, unlike the tiny sliders that always gave me fits. Still kind of thinking that I'll do a modern desk and comfy chair. Not spinning vinyl so theres no reason to be up and around... and I'm not exactly 20 anymore. 🙂
the dektop was rough, and no matter how much paint or spray-poly i put on it, it just soaked it right up... last night I dropped almost a quart of polyurethane on it. Naturally, not ever working with polyurethane, I managed to get some on my hands.
This is evil evil stuff. I washed my hands raw with soap and water to no avil. Finally my wife douses my hands in wesson oil, makes me rub it in, then squirts a healthy coat of dawn dish washing detergent on there. After about 5 full minutes of scrubbing, I was in for another round of Dawn. The polyurethane finally came off.
Ok - so.. the poly stuff did not fill in the rough spots. time for the big guns: Epoxy Glaze.
MLR, you are totally serious about that desk!
My desk is a rickety computer desk of the cheap pressed-board variety and sure could use some varnish and bracing.
But I could always describe YOUR desk on the air since the listeners can't actually see the desk.
Imagination is bigger than reality.
Or bolt some diamond plate aluminum, and ground strap all the gear to it. Reduces AC hum and gives a nice ground plane for an AM transmitter sitting on the desk. *grin*
On second thought, the epoxy does sound better. Pics please, I'm curious to see how this works.
the epoxy glaze is on and it looks promising....
tomorrow we see... also; tomorrow i build the bridge for my on-air console.
fyi - pics will come 😀
MLR, did I read your messages right? Are you attempting to put a poly finish on drywall/sheetrock?
when I was young.
I loved it, but my life didn't go in that
direction.
Anyway, it was a sitting down operation.
Bruce, Monitoring station, CT
Except for that one stand up job I talked about all my other radio jobs were chair bound.
At one station there was a very very rotund dj named Ed Wilson who actually broke office chairs when he sat on them. He was very popular on the air. He was among the DJs in the 1960s who physically "broke" rock and roll records on the air to show his disgust for the style and defiantly played the old standards of that day.
Many radio chairs develop squeaks and other noises that get heard on the mic.
Somebody should write a Part 15 chair shopping guide.
KYW (now WTAM) Cleveland had a very popular DJ in the 50's-60's named "Big Wilson". I wonder if they were related.
Big Wilson Info. He moved to New York and DJ'ed for WNBC in the early 60's and then WIOD Miami in 1975.
Living in Fort Lauderdale, he passed away in 1989 while on tour in North Carolina.
@Annandale Terrace Radio - no way. ? I didnt mean to give the impression that I was a *total* idiot... just partial.
So - the epoxy glaze went PERFECT. Well.. perfect for my needs. its uneven, it has bubbles here and there, but dang it, its mine and I did it.
NOW.. I gotta build my console bridge so that i can under-mount the cd players and controller for that...
then.. I go back to my matte finished desk racks and glossy them to near-match my epoxy desktop...
🙂
Although.. I've been working 13-14 hour days this week.. and another one of those today.. so.. it will have to be this weekend...