It was such a great idea. A radio studio inside an outhouse.
Cabin Radio general manager Andrew Goodwin spent the best part of three days this week putting it together from scratch: the wood, the paint, and even the pro-grade foam studio walls inside.
Where you might ordinarily do your business, there’s a microphone stand and a mic connecting you to the outside world. Where the toilet paper usually sits, there’s a little set of headphones you can put on.
So before we go any further with this story, you should come to the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce Spring Trade Show because the outhouse is there and it looks great. Come record a message in it!
But the reason for this story? You’re not going to miss the outhouse if you come to the trade show. Because it’s right next to another outhouse.
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Out of 183 exhibitors, after years and years of entirely outhouse-free spring trade shows, two exhibitors – Cabin Radio and Skills Canada NWT – decided this was the year to bring an outhouse to the trade show.
By astronomical coincidence, those two booths are right next to each other. The outhouses are three inches apart.
Goodwin finished setting up the Cabin Radio outhouse, went for a brief stroll to explore the other booths being erected on Friday afternoon – and returned to find himself seeing double.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” he told a Cabin Radio reporter about half an hour later, still breathless from the shock. “Another outhouse has appeared. Not just in the building, but directly next to my outhouse.”
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The Skills Canada outhouse – which does not contain a radio studio, at least – is larger than the Cabin Radio outhouse and, some onlookers might argue, a little more cleanly constructed. You might conclude it has more flourishes. We say the jury’s out.
“I didn’t think I would have to defend my outhouse compared to another outhouse directly next to it,” said Goodwin, defensively.
When you arrive at the trade show, come admire the Skills Canada outhouse – but don’t let it overshadow the Andrew Goodwin outhouse, which is a marvel of broadcast interior design while also capturing a quintessential Northwest Territories approach to outhouses, namely: “I really need to poop, I will build this thing as fast as I can.”
Goodwin is formulating a plan for next year’s trade show.
“I’m gonna have to build a bigger outhouse,” he declared.
