RKO Studios/History

RKO Studios was built in 1962 by the RKO Network to produce television shows for the network.

The complex was built in a sand-filled lot just down the hill from Dodger Stadium and next to Cathedral High School. The construction of the studio lot was passed off to city inspectors as a convention center, disregarding the soundproof walls with cinder blocks filled with rubber.

A hitch arose in the form of a powerful AM radio antenna from a sports station broadcasting 50,000 watts of power a few miles away. To prevent the soundstages picking up boxing fights and football games through the experimental wireless sound systems, workers wrapped a layer of grounded chicken-wire fencing around the studio, turning it into a Faraday cage.