Float the studios on rubber and use sound proof doors

KXEO is still in the original studio building from 1948. Additions were made later to accommodate a larger staff but the studios have remained nearly intact from a bygone era.  Modern amenities were added to the studios through the years, but the underlying construction remains unchanged.

Earl Dougherty told me that KXEO had a pretty special studio foundation. As the building was located on a busy road (which turned into Highway 54) - great care was taken to isolate the studios from the surroundings.

Rubber was used between the foundation and the framing of the studios - to allow the studios to "float" above all of that road noise.

Each studio had a solid door with a small window and an interesting feature at the bottom. There was a rubber strip at the bottom of each studio door, controlled by a button on the hinge side of the door. When the door was closed, the button was pushed in and the rubber strip dropped down to further isolate the studios from any outside noise.

Although the doors were still there when I left, the rubber strips along the bottom of most of them had become non-functional, where the little button had eaten its way into the door frame over the years.

There are fairly large double pane plate glass windows between the 3 original studios, and the glass was installed at an angle to prevent reflective sound problems.

Little extras to make all of the studios immune to outside noise and control the sound captured by the main microphone in each studio.. And all of that care for a little AM station that gave Mexico a voice for its leaders, administrators, schools, sports teams and the whole community through the years. But it is sad to see KXEO largely ignored by the current owner - and it has been largely ignored since at least 1978.

The receptionist area has a house speaker system and a switch to play either KXEO or KWWR. One time many years ago the receptionist had it switched to KXEO when the owner came back from lunch. The owner came promptly into my office and said, "Shouldn't OUR station be playing up front?" Well-duh!

So it goes.