Photos by Ralph Freso/GCU News
Need a high-level workplace for a studio taping or podcast?
Looking for valuable experience to enhance your skills as you pursue a production career?
Welcome to Grand Canyon University's Studio 42 in the Colangelo College of Business’ T.W. Lewis Center for Student Success. The space was transformed this summer, with the upgraded facility opening this fall to individuals and groups outside of GCU who might want to rent the studio.
“We want a space that is completely customizable for whoever comes in to do their podcast or whatever they want to do,” said Mark Petroff, T.W. Lewis Center director, whether that means customizing signs, lighting or furniture. The intention is for every show to have its own unique feel.
Students have been using the studio – named for the building it's in, Building 42 – since the T.W. Lewis Center opened in fall 2025.
But the college wants to expand its use to outside groups so student workers can be involved in the production process and gain even more experience. And if podcasters don't have branding or a website, Canyon Creative, the student-driven, faculty-led creative and design agency based in the College of Arts and Media, will work with those clients.
“We can actually produce the podcast here ... and it benefits both of our organizations," said Zoey Petersen, Studio 42 production manager and GCU alumna.
Studio 42 is different from other studios in that its focus is on podcasts, speakers' series, business, finance and lifestyle shows, interviews and testimonies.
Students help with onboarding, preproduction planning, postproduction editing, and publishing and promoting the content.
“We want them to come in here, get the experience running the entire studio,” Petroff said. “So whenever they apply for that internship or for that career post-graduation, they’re yards and leagues above everyone else who applies.”
Grammy winner Andy Zulla, director of studio operations and professor of audio and entertainment technology in the College of Arts and Media, helped get the studio to where it is now and continues to provide guidance and audio-visual support for studio operations.
“We couldn’t have gotten to this point without him,” Petersen said.
One of the studio’s new features is its Canyon Creative-designed logo – it includes a cross on the number four in the name Studio 42. The logo reflects the space's mission, which is to produce professional Christ-centered media. It also speaks to its vision – to become the premier Christ-centered university media studio, recognized for producing superb media and developing the next generation of servant leaders.
“The goal is that people can see the cross. (Dean) John Kaites likes to say the CCOB is 'Christ at the center of business,'” Petroff said.
Petersen added that Studio 42’s tagline will be, “Where Purpose Meets Production.”
Besides the new logo, one of the renovations to the space was doubling the number of Macintosh minicomputers to six to expand its graphics and media capabilities. Those capabilities will now include full-screen graphics, presentations, animations and other effects.
Two video playbacks enable a prerecorded video feed to roll live, whether on-air or while recording. Other enhancements: a teleprompter station that feeds each camera in the studio, as well as a multitrack recorder that enables isolated recordings of each studio channel.
Last spring, Petersen said Studio 42 broadcast GCU Finance Club's awards ceremony. The studio toggled between the club's slides, camera feeds and speakers – similar to a church production that's broadcast online. It's the kind of production Petersen hopes to do more of in the studio.
Pan-tilt-zoom cameras in the college's lobby enable events, such as the T.W. Lewis Speaker Series, to be broadcast live and recorded. These capabilities become even more important with the addition of a new stage and two offices installed at the back of the lobby that will reduce the seating capacity. The broadcast connection to the studio and control room would allow those events to be livestreamed and viewed in more spacious rooms for overflow seating.
With the demand for media production rising, Studio 42 – with its professional-grade equipment – aims to become the preeminent resource for these services.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
