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Categories: QZVX.COM

Radio station as backdrop for movies

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A reader writes: The images shown below: 1) Clint Eastwood in the control room of KRML 1410 AM, Carmel, Calf. filming “Play Misty For Me”.
This film could keep a disc jockey up all night … 2) Wolfman Jack in the control room of KRE 1400 AM in Berkley Calf. where he plays himself in “American Graffiti”.
Are there other films or TV shows that use actual radio facilities as sets for their production?


American actor Clint Eastwood as disc jockey Dave Garver in the film ‘Play Misty for Me’, 1971. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

Wolfman Jack at KRE in American Graffiti

** I can think of a couple.

TELEVISION – “THE OUTER LIMITS” “The Galaxy Being” (Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 16, 1963). It stars Cliff Robertson as Allan Maxwell, an engineer and co-owner of fictional radio station KXKVI. In the story, Allan uses the station’s equipment and power to experiment with microwave signals and makes accidental contact with a peaceful energy-based alien being from the Andromeda galaxy (voiced by Leslie Stevens). A substitute DJ boosts the transmitter power against orders, pulling the alien to Earth as a dangerous electromagnetic entity. Yes, this was filmed at an actual radio station.
Production took place at the real-life KCBH (a classical music FM station at the time, now known as KYSR, “Star 98.7”), located at 9000 Alto Cedro Drive in Coldwater Canyon/Beverly Hills, California. They used both the exteriors (including the building and grounds) and interiors (studios, transmitter areas) for authentic-looking scenes of the station operations, control room, and transmitter shed. Additional filming occurred on the MGM backlot and at KTTV soundstage #3, but the radio station itself provided key location shooting over nine days.

Then, there was a movie called “Pontypool” 2008 Directed by Bruce McDonald
When disc jockey Grant Mazzy reports to his basement radio station in the Canadian town of Pontypool, he thinks it’s just another day at work. But when he hears reports of a virus that turns people into zombies, Mazzy barricades himself in the radio booth and tries to figure out a way to warn his listeners about the virus and its unlikely mode of transmission.

PONTYPOOL was shot almost entirely in one location: the basement of the Victoria-Royce Presbyterian Church (also referred to as Royce Presbyterian Church) in Toronto’s West End, Ontario, Canada. This church basement was converted into the film’s set for the fictional CLSY radio station (broadcasting from the basement of a church in the story, which adds to the isolated, claustrophobic feel).Filming took place in Toronto rather than the real town of Pontypool, Ontario (a small, actual place that inspired the setting but wasn’t used for shooting).
Sources like IMDb filming locations list only Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Reviews and behind-the-scenes details (including from director interviews and production notes) describe it as a low-budget production shot chronologically in this repurposed church space using HD Red cameras for flexibility in the confined area.
The setup was built as a practical set within the basement to represent a small-town radio booth, control room, and adjacent areas—no real broadcast equipment or active radio station was used as the primary filming site.

Do you know of any other radio station used as a backdrop for a movie — or TV?

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Jason Remington

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