Photos by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission.
Here are some photos by Philip Morgan of Radio WM, taken in November 2004, at the viewing before the auction to sell off all the Pebble Mill fixtures and fittings, before the building was demolished.
I particularly like the sign for ‘Radio Birmingham 206’ pinned up by the clock.
Andy Walters, adds the following information: ‘There is still some equipment in use today that has those BBC Radio Birmingham stickers on. I don’t think any of that kit was included in the auction as it was being used for projects on the days of the auction. The Mk. 3 desks were taken away for spares by BBC Radio Lincolnshire. The pictures look to be of Area 3 (phone in room) and Area 2 (WM self-op studio) on the first floor. Hard to believe but there are still some stations using Mk 3’s today and there are still shelves of Mk 3 spares in the Mailbox for these stations. They were built like brick out houses.’
In Birmingham in the mid 60’s the BBC had offices and studios scattered
across the city including:
Carpenter Road, Edgbaston was the HQ for the region. The site for the building is now a housing estate. In the grounds you also found the Film Unit and the Outside Broadcast Garage.
In the 60’s the Midlands Region operated two TV OB Units and associated communications vehicles, and three radio OB units.
Further down the road there was a former church (cannot find the name of it)
which was the base for the ‘Midlands Light Orchestra’. See http://www.turnipnet.com/mom/bbcmlo.htm for detailed history.
Dave Kirkwood
Radio Birmingham producer and presenter, Pete Simpkin remembers the Church Studio, ‘I am certain it became the home of Zella Records under the ownership of Johnny Haynes and gave many local groups the chance to get on disc. I produced a Malc Stent Album there in the 80s.’
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
These photos date from April 1974. They may have been taken during a skiing holiday organised by some of the VT engineers. The photos include John Duckmanton (brown coat and with camera), Mike Day (in brown sweater) and Tony Newbury (just peeping out from behind John). Please add a comment if you can add information about the trip and location.
Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.
I took these photos about 1980. I worked with Andrew in the Dubbing Theatre and Film Transfer Suite. He later became a Studio Manager at The World Service. Then he became a Radio Producer working at Bush House and Broadcasting House. After leaving the BBC he was ordained. He is now the Canon Chancellor at Exeter Cathedral.
Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission. I took these photos in 2003. They show the self-opt presentation studio which was operated by the news reader. They could opt out of the network programme and switch all the Midlands transmitters to enable a regional news bulletin. With the increasing number of regional bulletins during the Breakfast programme a dedicated production gallery was installed. This freed the news reader from any equipment operation. The gallery enabled video reports to be played and was operated by the director. This area also housed the computer graphics equipment. This was used for the weather maps.
Peter Poole
Stuart Gandy adds the following information: ‘In 1991 there was a project to make the presentation studios in all the regions stereo and included a new self op desk that the presenters used in the studio itself. At Pebble Mill though it was decided to build a gallery for the pres studio as well, that could be used to direct the shorter bulletins from instead of using the main gallery, so needing less people. Hence this was built with a tiny budget. The far end of the gallery here was where the news paintbox was located that was used to produce at very short notice, the graphics for Midlands Today.’
Pete Simpkin remembers visiting the self opt desk: ‘I remember visiting the late David Stevens at work in the self op days and noticed he sat on phone directories as he was a little short to be correctly framed by the locked off camera.’
Mary Sanchez remembers working in the Regional news gallery, ‘ I remember gallery B very well- worked from there for years- vision mixing and directing Midlands Today and Midlands at Westminster etc … Many happy ( and lots of scary!) memories! Self opt desk at 6am – hilarious with carol , sheila and Mandy ….!!’
Roz Gower remembers, ‘the terrifying experience of directing and vision mixing Mids Today! Did the gallery really look that tatty? And the monitor stack looks positively Heath Robinson! But in spite of the gut wrenching nerves it was somehow all great fun.’
