The lease for WYSO’s new studio in downtown Dayton’s Arcade has been signed, and a team led by developer Cross Street Partners will soon begin to transform 500 square feet at the corner of Fourth and Main streets into a state-of-the-art recording and production space.
To be named for Chuck Berry of the Charles D. Berry Foundation—which gave the lead gift for the project—the studio will raise WYSO’s profile among current and new listeners and allow the station to cover local news and culture more easily. In addition to the lead gift from the Charles D. Berry Foundation, smaller gifts from individuals as well a generous grant from the discretionary fund of The Dayton Foundation made the new location possible.
Luke Dennis, WYSO GM
“Having a presence in downtown Dayton has been a dream of ours for a long time,” said General Manager Luke Dennis. “And we’re deeply grateful to our donors for making it a reality. I thank Chuck Berry especially for his decades-long support of WYSO. His generosity has always made it possible for us to grow and improve, like when he gave the lead gift for our license purchase campaign that allowed us to become an independent station. He also made the lead gift for a tower relocation project that increased our potential audience by more than half a million people. He has always invested in WYSO in ways that help us build our capacity.”
The new space will be busy. The news team will use it to produce stories. The music team will use it to record interviews with local and visiting performers, among others. Dayton Youth Radio
Director Basim Blunt will bring local teens there to learn to make radio stories. And the business support team and WYSO’s governing and community advisory boards will use it for meetings. “Yellow Springs will always be our home,” Dennis said. “But not all of our employees and board members live in or near the village, and many of the people we want to connect with live or work in Dayton and Montgomery County. Downtown Dayton is a convenient, important place for us to be.”
