North Carolina Central University’s Broadcast Studio serves
as the campus’ digital communication source and as a vital, hands-on teaching
tool for communication majors. The studio promotes and serves the university
through campus newscasts, a YouTube channel, mini-sitcoms, athletics marketing,
and other unique media offerings, all of which enable students to learn about
communications through firsthand experience—both behind and in front of the
camera. The studio resides in the first floor of the Farrison–Newton Mass
Communications building, which was built in 1974. The existing interior walls
were comprised of concrete masonry units and brick, and the only visual
connection between the TV studio suite of rooms and the rest of the building
was a 4” wide strip of glass in the door to the corridor. Despite the studio’s
physical adjacency to the building lobby, the suite was completely enclosed and
therefore disconnected from the rest of the Mass Comm department. The irony of
a “hidden” communications hub created an opportunity to pull back the curtains
and allow students and visitors to see into the studio’s innerworkings.