Summertime? -- Changes ahead -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

One could be excused for thinking it's summertime for the moment.

In addition to the mid to upper 50s temperature...ok, that's not quite summertime temps, but still pretty warm for December...and a bit of a lull in athletic activity happening at UofL, we have a bit of a reprise of the summertime lull.

WCHQ new home (by day) 

Let's talk a little bit about WCHQ, our wonderful hosts for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on Saturday mornings.  As we've mentioned before, we won't be the air this Saturday or next because WCHQ is in the process of moving their studio facilities.  WCHQ will no longer be "A Basement on a Hill", in fact, it will no longer be in a basement at all.  The station manager, Kathy, who we refer to as Monk on the show, has purchased a building at the corner of Mellwood and Stevenson Ave...perhaps dangerously close to Apocalypse BrewWorks.  Much of the "disassembly" process of the gear at the Frankfort Avenue location has already been in progress.  The streaming systems have already been relocated to the new facility which already has new Internet access setup and running.

The new facility will have a whole new control board setup...one created from day "1" to be used to manage a radio station, rather than cobbled together tour gig equipment patched together to get the job done (Kathy's description).  The current/previous location of the studio, and it's proximity to some other residences and businesses, really limited what could be done in studio for live performances.  They needed to heavily restrict drum sets and amplification in-studio in order to try to be good neighbors to the restaurant upstairs as well as some residences in close proximity.  Load in and load out of equipment will be much easier at the new facility because it will be on the ground floor and there will be fewer, and more easily negotiated steps.  Not being in a basement and having challenging steps will also just generally make the studio more easily accessible for mobility challenged folk...people with bum knees, for example.

The new studio space is freshly renovated and painted, making for a nicer atmosphere overall, it also will have some amenities that the previous one did not, such as a green room.

WCHQ new home (by night).

Much of the work to move equipment will be done this weekend, Paulie, Sonya and I will all be there to help out as much as we can, and the new studio is anticipated to be up and running by January 2nd so you can look for the return of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on January 6th.  We're excited for the new digs and are proud of our association with this up and coming resource for local music, activity, and news.  We have our niche in covering UofL women's athletics, and I don't think we could have a better radio host and partner than WCHQ in town.

Paulie's side show, Handicapping Heroes, a look at handicapping/horse-racing, will also emanate from there when the ponies return to Keeneland this spring.

With all of that said, that means that there will not be a Cardinal Couple Radio Hour broadcast this Saturday nor next Saturday.  We had toyed with the idea of pre-recording something to send in and get on the playlist, but the stars did not align correctly for that (and frankly, I've been busy doing last minute Christmas shopping).

Looking forward to settling in to a new seat "to the left" of Paulie.

--
Jeff