CERK logo
CERK is a fictional radio station in Toronto, broadcasting at 490kHz on the AM dial. It was introduced in the series premiere, "Dark Knight": Lucien LaCroix, having come to Toronto three weeks earlier, made a broadcast as a late night host called "the Nightcrawler". However, he was killed—or, at least, believed by Nick Knight to have been killed—shortly afterwards, and did not return until the end of the season.
The front door of CERK Radio has the station logo over the door.
In Season Two, LaCroix returned as a late night host at CERK, again using "the Nightcrawler" as his professional name. His show was broadcast from a recording booth at the station; and a set was built so that scenes could be filmed there. However, the following year, this was dismantled as a separate set. LaCroix took over ownership of the Raven from Janette; and thereafter he broadcast his show from a booth at the back of the nightclub. The set for the recording booth at CERK Radio was therefore in use only in Season Two.
In both seasons, close-ups of LaCroix speaking into a microphone accompany most of his Nightcrawler soliloquies. Few scenes at the station required greater use of the set. Aside from glimpses, the set really appeared only in "Father's Day", "Curiouser and Curiouser", "Close Call", and "Baby, Baby".
Recording Booth Set[]
When recording a show, LaCroix sits at a hexagonal desk.
The recording booth set comprises two small rooms and a short stretch of corridor, on one side of which there are doors into the rooms. One of the rooms has the recording equipment; the other has the microphone and controls used by LaCroix.
Nick can be seen in the corridor outside the recording booth.
The room used by LaCroix is an odd-angled room, with at least two windows into it, one onto the corridor and the other between LaCroix's booth and the tape operator's room. The door also has a window in it. Nick is seen in the corridor in "Father's Day", when he comes to see LaCroix at the end of the episode to give him his watch; Nick and Janette lurk outside the door in "Close Call" while LaCroix speaks to Schanke inside; and, in "Baby, Baby", Nick and LaCroix leave the booth and finish their discussion of vampire folklore in the corridor, after which LaCroix goes into the tape operator's room.
The hexagonal desk has LaCroix's controls and microphone.
Aside from the windows, the room seems to be largely empty save for the hexagonal desk that LaCroix uses, and one or more chairs—the one that he uses, and (if the script calls for it) another for a guest, such as Schanke in "Close Call". The desk has a control panel and a microphone.
The control room has its own door to the hallway.
Next door to the broadcast booth is the control room. Both of the rooms have doors onto the hallway outside. However, there is no direct route between them; so that, if LaCroix wishes to go from the booth into the control room (as he does in "Baby, Baby"), he has to leave and go out into the hall in order to go to the other room.
The control room has a desk that runs along two walls: across the far end from the door, and around to and partway along the wall opposite the booth. The operator is seated on an swivel office chair on castors.
A tape operator is seen in the next room while LaCroix broadcasts as the Nightcrawler.
In only one episode is an operator actually seen working during a broadcast: when Don Constantine comes to the radio station to talk to LaCroix while he is broadcasting. The equipment lining the walls can be seen from the broadcast booth, through the window between the rooms. Equally, of course, the operator can look into the broadcast booth. However, a long curtain at the side of the window suggests that LaCroix can, if he wishes, screen himself from being overlooked.
Lighting in the tape operator's room is provided centrally by a functional-looking three-lamp chandelier.