4-11-2014
So you?ve decided to relocate your radio studio. You are about to make a major investment in time and money and, hopefully, move your operation for the last time. Moving a radio station is no easy task; most stations have been in their existing homes for years. So there are many factors to consider ? some are straightforward, but some can come out of nowhere and bite you when you least expect it.
JVC just completed a major move and relocation for our group of radio stations on Long Island, including moving one studio into a major regional airport, and many unforeseen issues came up that, with proper planning on the technical and non-technical sides, could have been avoided. We are a small independent company, and when we take on a task like this, it?s all hands on deck and everybody pitches in. Your engineer will take care of the equipment ? new, used, or reallocating existing ? but there are issues that will come up in a move that need to be addressed before you sign a lease.
Typically, potential tenants look at one number: the square-footage charge. But there are tons of extras that can be added on and ultimately make your monthly lease commitment much higher than you?d anticipated.
Operating Systems
Most office-building leases require tenants to pay their proportionate share of the building expenses each month. Not a big deal if you have an accounting office that operates Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. But a 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation will have higher electric costs than a typical office. Check your utility responsibility with the landlord before you sign the lease. Is there an overtime charge for extra hours? Is your utility bill direct from the utility company or does the landlord sub-meter the usage? If it?s sub-metered, does the landlord add on an additional charge? Does the usage include lighting, HVAC, or outside lights? Remember, HVAC in a broadcast operation usually runs 12 months a year.
Building Services
With technology advancing at supersonic speed, the bandwidth used by radio stations, and especially multistation groups, far surpasses typical business-office usage. Does your proposed facility have the level of service you need? Fiberoptic is a must! Our four-station group requires more than 25 independent static IP addresses for its satellite receivers, voice-over-IP remote boxes, and point-to-point remote control. It is imperative that the building have the ability to bring in multiple-bandwidth facility providers. In our recent airport installation, fiber was already in place in the facility, but we were surprised to find out that the conduit that brought the fiber line into the facility was not owned by the landlord, but by the fiberoptic provider. That prevented us from obtaining competitive quotes for services from other providers, and, worse, we were unable to bring in backup redundancy service for the stations. You need to understand which providers are in your proposed space and what carriers have the ability to come into your space without an extra build-out charge that can be passed along to you.
Roof Access
Gone are the days of just sticking an antenna on the roof of a building at no additional charge. In this tight real-estate market, landlords look to optimize every inch of space, and rooftops have become potential revenue generators for many properties. Most building owners with no rooftop revenue will negotiate antenna placement in your office space lease. Buildings that have RF tenants already in place will most likely require a lease that covers, in detail, interference requirements and specific placement for the antennas. It can be done, but you will find that it usually requires a separate negotiation.
Our goal at JVC was to find a place we could call home for a long time. No one can predict how the technology of our industry will continue to change, but we needed to have the infrastructure within our building to adapt to changing technology, give us the opportunity to grow, and, most of all, be a functional and financially operational facility.
John Caracciolo is President and CEO of JVC and can be reached at johnc@jvcbroadcasting.com.
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