Look up when you visit Valley Public Radio's new Barmann-Chaney performance studio and you'll see beams. While they aren't structural, they're there for an important reason - acoustics.
A big part of the process of building a radio station is involved with the issue of sound and acoustic design. An ideal studio environment is both isolated from noise of the outside world or adjacent studios, and also has a good sound of its own, not too "live" and not too "dead" - acoustically speaking.