Day One Hundred Twenty -- One More Thing

It's been a long time since our last update. A number of pressing matters haven't allowed me the time to report. Now, with a brief breather, let's get up to date.The interior of our building, both the new addition and the remodeled portions of the existing structure, are now essentially complete. Most, if not all, of the county inspections have been made. The only thing preventing us from getting an occupancy permit is a matter outside the building.

Our tank has arrived and is awaiting burial.

It appears that one other step was required before beginning the dig.Earlier this week, a company sunk a number of PVC pipes into the ground around the outside of the dig site. They attached these pipes to a larger one which was, in turn, attached to an engine-driven pump. Apparently our sandy soil coupled with the fact that this is the rainy season in southwest Florida, requires that the digging area be as dry as possible to prevent collapse of the sides or filling of the hole with water.
The pump has been running since yesterday and, although you can't see the motion in this still photo, water is still passing through these translucent couplers.

Once this tank is installed and connected, we should be able to get our final clearance to begin to use our new facility. We still have a long way to go to get it furnished and equipped the way it should be, but the completion of the structure is a very good reason for us to express our gratitude to God and to our supporters.

Day Eighty Eight -- Closer Still

Eighty Eight working days into this studio construction project, we're seeing the end in sight.

The contractor's portion of the studio itself is almost complete. The wall behind the ladder used to be the front of our old building, so it needed to be patched where they removed our old front door. All of the studio walls have been painted "CBS Gray". If seen on television, the walls will appear to be white, but will not reflect back into the camera more light than it can handle. A pipe grid from which to hang our studio lights, and a curtain track and curtains will be installed either by us or by a lighting system contractor. The concrete floor needs to be cleaned and sealed, and the studio should be ready for those final touches.

This is a close up of one of the special air conditioning ducts used in the studio. There are three long fabric "tubes" which are perforated along their lengths. The cool air from the A/C units inflates these ducts and "oozes" out the perforations to drop gently to the studio floor. This provides more even distribution and, more importantly, very quiet operation.

Here is our new reception area as viewed from the new front door. As you can see, ceiling tiles have been installed, and all that remains is floor covering to complete this area. The opening in the background leads into our old building, part of which is being remodeled as a part of this project.

Here in one of the remodeled offices in the old building lies the ends of the computer network and telephone cables which have been pulled into the new offices and control rooms. This entire bundle will be pulled over the suspended ceiling in the old building into the transmitter room where all of the telephone and computer terminal equipment is located.

As a part of the remodeling of the old building, the wall between two of our former edit rooms has been removed to make a larger room which will be used as a kitchen, break room, conference room combination.

This photograph, taken yesterday, shows the forms being placed for the sidewalks. Early this morning, the sidewalks were poured and the forms removed.

It won't be long now!

Day Eighty -- The Home Stretch

There were a couple of days of virtually no activity on the new building after our last post, but the pace has now picked up considerably.

As you can see from this latest photo of our new reception area, the drywall has been finished, the first coat of paint applied, and the grid work for the suspended ceiling has been installed. The same is true for the General Manager's office, the Studio Control Room, and the Audio Room. We have the first half of next week to pull our video, telephone, and computer network cables before they are scheduled to drop in the ceiling panels. It would be possible, but much less convenient to do it after the panels have been placed.

Yesterday, a crew installed a black, "blown-on" cellulose material on the ceiling of the TV studio. It serves as both thermal insulation and as an acoustical treatment. As you can imagine, it was quite a messy job. The workers had to wear plastic suits and wear face masks as the entire room was filled with a black haze as they were working. The plastic that protected the walls and floor have been taken up, and the paint crew is priming the studio walls.

Elsewhere, the four rooftop air conditioning units were mounted in place yesterday, and they've had their electrical connections made. They won't be started up until all of the duct work is completed. Our security company is pulling wires to all of the locations for door switches, motion detectors, and surveillance cameras.

One as yet unresolved issue relates to the required fire protection water tank. We must have a tank holding at least 10,000 gallons of water on site before the fire inspector will allow us to have an occupancy permit. There was supposedly a 6000 gallon underground tank already in place, so the initial plan was to install a 4000 gallon auxiliary tank in order to meet the requirement. However there were some serious questions about the functionality of the existing system, so the fire inspector requested that it be uncovered for examination. When we started digging, we uncovered not one, but four tanks, the sum total of which was apparently the earlier-required 6000 gallons. The problem was that the tanks were apparently not vented and perhaps not appropriately interconnected. An inspection scheduled for Monday should show whether it would be financially feasible to make the existing system operational before adding to it or whether putting in an entirely new 10,000 gallon system would be a better investment.

The excitement around here is mounting. We're just a few weeks away from realizing a dream that was born almost five years ago.

Day Sixty Nine -- The Pace Accelerates

Progress since our last post has been slow but steady, but the pace has picked up considerably in the last few days. With the exception of sidewalks and landscaping, the outside appearance of the building is pretty much complete. The downspouts have been added as well as the security lights.

Inside we find most of the drywall has been hung. This view shows the new reception area from the front door position. The opening links this area with the existing building.

The opening from our old front door is now in the corner of the studio, so it is being blocked in today.


The greatest part of the electrical wiring has been completed, and the electricians are now preparing the step-down transformer which will convert our 480 volt electrical service to the 110-220 volt service which will power the new addition. Tomorrow or early next week we will have to turn off the incoming power to permit them to connect the transformer. This will require us to power down both of our transmitters as well as all the control room equipment. This will, of course, take us off the air for an hour or so. Since virtually every piece of equipment has a computer in it or controlling it, it will be quite a task to shut down everything in an orderly fashion, and then to re-boot the entire station, one piece at a time.

There are still some decisions that must be made regarding increasing the size of a water tank needed for fire protection which will be required before we can get an occupancy permit. Other than that, it appears that we will have smooth sailing toward completion.

Day Fifty Six -- Back Outside

What a difference a coat of paint makes! Our new studio addition now matches our existing building after having been painted over the weekend. Roofers are at work today trimming out the top of the block walls and preparing the downspouts for water drainage. Things are quiet inside today.

Day Fifty Three -- Internal Progress

We're now at day fifty three (work days) of the studio construction project. The exterior of the building is almost complete except for painting, and the work continues on the interior.

There is now drywall on one face of each of our interior walls. After a county inspection, insulation will be added. Another inspection will preceed the installation of the remainder of the drywall and its finishing.

Dr. Destructo has arrived on the scene, and has punched through the exterior wall where our front window used to be in preparation for making a passageway from our new reception area into the existing building.

Just inside the former window, the old reception area has been demolished to make way for a new office and a new storeroom. The walls for those will be framed tomorrow. We've had to move our major filing and storage cabinets into the hallway to clear out this area, so our already crowded facility is feeling an additional squeeze. The next few weeks will probably be the most challenging and inconvenient for the staff to endure. This, too, shall pass.

I met yesterday with a lighting consultant about a proposal to equip the studio with curtain tracks, curtains, light fixtures, dimmers, and a controller. Installation of these items will make the studio functional with our existing equipment once the basic construction is completed. We're already drawing up specifications for the high-definition cameras, switcher, and other equipment, but we may need a short financial breather before we equip the studio to operate at its full potential.

Day Forty Two through Forty Four -- Sharathon 2008

Tuesday through Thursday of last week, we held our first major, local Sharathon for the purpose of raising funds to complete the construction of our new studio addition. The total cost of the building is slightly over $700,000. We had raised almost $40,000 prior to the Sharathon, and God helped us to raise $25,000 additional during the three day event. We obviously still have a long way to go, but the words of support and encouragement we received from those who became partners with us provided a great boost to our faith.

During the Sharathon we raised up the vision for more relevant local Christian programming which the studio will make possible. It will also provide another means of generating revenue by allowing us to produce commercials and programs for outside businesses and ministries. Finally, and also of great importance, is to provide a facility for Global Vision Video Institute. We feel called to provide training in video production to the next generation of communicators of the Gospel. This facility, when fully equipped, will provide state-of-the-art equipment to serve as a laboratory in which to study the art and practice of visual communication.

Doing three nights of studio production without a completed studio proved to be a bit of a challenge, but one that our ministry family tackled with great enthusiasm. The studio space was under roof with metal studs in place but no drywall installed. We had the electricians provide some temporary power and we hung five studio light fixtures directly from the roof trusses. Our three portable cameras were set up on tripods and we were ready for three nights of adventure.

Pastor John Antonucci from Faith Fellowship was one of several local pastors who ministered to our viewers and encouraged their participation by prayer and financial support.

Our makeshift control room, manned by director Rick Moreno, was powered by a remarkable device known as a Tri-Caster. It is the small square box with cables connected to it sitting on top of the speaker. It weighs five pounds and contains all the functions that a room full of equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars would have provided just a few years ago. One of Rick's favorite sayings, "Teamwork makes the dream work!" was very evident as all of our staff united to make this effort a success. Since the Sharathon, a lot of construction activity has resumed, and our next blog post will show you what is taking place now.