Studio 6 – Presentation Suite

Studio 6 PP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing this facilities list for Radio Studio 6 at Pebble Mill, which was a self-op studio, used for Radio 2’s night time programming. It was quite a nice studio and sometimes used by audio unit for SM driven shows. It had a small kitchen to keep the presenters happy.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Pete Simpkin: ‘I believe it was used by Alex Lester for his very early morning show on R2.’

Andy Walters: ‘Those two studios were replicated in the Mailbox and are now used mainly by the Asian Network. Studio 6 and 6+ could work as two independent studios and did the last live radio programmes to come out of Pebble Mill running as late as December 2004 I think (Local Radio and Asian Network were the first to leave in Summer 2004). The sound desks went to Cardiff prison for the fledgling prison radio project. The digispot system was upgraded to a basic RCS playout system as used in some commercial radio stations. I think Janice Long used 6+ and Alex Lester used the slightly smaller 6. Radio 1 at Yalding House also used those Eela sound desks until 2005 as did the Asian Network in Leicester when they were based at Epic House.’

Chris Marshall: ‘You’re right Pete, it was primarily used for R2 overnights. Alex Lester, Annie Nightingale, Mo Dutta, Katrina (she of the waves) er, I can’t remember any others! R2 we’re always hugely suspicious of the digital play out system, believing that anything other than DJs playing their own CDs was the work of the devil. We always were way ahead of our time. Trying to recall the name of the consultant (and subsequently producer) who set it up. Robin Valk, I think? And in the day, we used it mostly as an editing suite, I think. Can’t remember recording in there.’

Kulwant Sidhu: ‘Remember it well. Often in there with mo dutta on the early Saturday and Sunday morning shows for R2.’

 

Midlands & East News 1996


Thanks to Tim Manning for making this edition of ‘Midlands & East News’ from Aug 1996 available.

Interestingly some of the topics mentioned here seem as relevant today as back in 1996: re-organisation and re-structuring are perennial themes.  The short articles at the end about trying to reduce working hours and introducing more flexible working never seemed to be widely implemented in production areas, despite the good intentions. The Asian Network was becoming more established in the mid 1990s, and the Asian Programmes Unit was an important part of production at Pebble Mill.