Tag: Brian Johnson

BBC Birmingham Studio Centre, Broad Street -Philip Morgan

The BBC Birmingham Studio Centre was at 282 Broad Street if I recall correctly. When Pebble Mill opened it was left derelict until the 1980’s and then demolished along with the adjoining buildings to make way for the new night life developments along Broad Street.  The building was not on the site of the Hyatt Hotel but somewhat further down towards Five Ways.

One Saturday morning during the demolition I went along and asked the foreman if I could take a look and grab a souvenir.  Despite the precarious nature of the site (as it was already being obliterated) he cheerfully let me go in – without a hard hat or high-vis jacket either!

I went through the half-timbered glass doors from Broad Street and up the staircase. The whole place was damp and musty and I explored various rooms and areas including what I believe was the former main control room.  I managed to salvage a battered little wooden box with two studio warning lights which had presumably been above an entrance to one of the technical areas.  It was sad to see the building in such a sorry state.  I certainly never expected I would make a similar visit to its successor in the dying days of Pebble Mill.

Philip Morgan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Johnson adds the following comment on the Facebook page:  ‘I worked in the TV control room at Broad Street (then called Switching Centre) at the time that BBC 2 was just starting colour transmissions. At that time the Sound Control Room was separate and on a different floor. The two were combined into the Communications Centre when it was all moved to Pebble Mill.’

David Stevens, Midlands Today and the self opt

This blog is made up from comments from various contributors on the Pebble Mill Facebook page.

‘David was one of a team of Announcers who in the 70s became both TV and Radio broadcasters reading the radio and TV bulletins and also operating the local TV continuity desks. For a glorious time in the 70s all the Regions had one of these self operated desks, originally placed in the news studios but eventually in their own little cubby hole but using a studio camera wheeled into place after the regional news programme had finished. They shadowed the London announcers doing their own sound and vision mixing ……in vision…… and could call up captions, slides and even telecine.  So the entire evening looked as if it were coming from Pebble Mill. The team consisted of David, Guy Thomas and others and seemed to be a great success.’ (Pete Simpkin)

‘David was always a delight to work with. Many years ago when BBC 1 closed down at the end of the day’s broadcast the Regions would opt out to say goodnight. David was famous for these opt outs and would often show photos from local photographic clubs. One time this opt out carried on after the other had Regions had closed down. The transmitters had a system called RBS. If the line feed failed, the RBS would rebroadcast an off signal, signal from the nearest transmitter. This resulted in all the transmitters switching back on and broadcasting David across the UK!’ (Peter Poole)

‘On the subject of RBS, assuming the tx’s of that era weren’t still being shut off manually at the end of the day (it’s quite possible that the main stations were still manned during operational hours in those days). It would likely be that only stations north of Sutton would carry this extended programme, as the RBS system was designed to work from London outwards it would be unlikely that any transmitters south of Birmingham would’ve stayed on as they would be RBSing from sites in the south, which would likely to have been fed from different regions. The network was strictly one way, a fully meshed configuration would have been a nightmare.’ (Andy Marriott)

‘As an engineer in the Communications Centre on the late shift, I would see David come in around 23:30 and load all his slides from local photographers into the slide scanner for his closedown news bulletin. Depending on how many slides he loaded determined how late we would have to stay!

We would do checks with him from the self op desk to make sure his mic and camera were working ok and then ‘opt him in’ (that is, change the route of BBC 1 Network (from London) from going directly to the transmitters to going via his self opt desk so that when he was cued via Network t/b, he could switch his own output to the transmitters instead of that from London Network)….sometimes there were a lot of slides!
When he had finished, we could put the Network feed back to the transmitters and go home.’ (Brian Johnson)

Contributions from Peter Poole, Pete Simpkin, Andy Marriott and Brian Johnson, and photo supplied by Annie Gumbley Williams

Communications Centre – Brian Johnson

Photos copyright of Brian Johnson, taken in 1973.  Most of the photos are of the Comms Centre, with two probably being of Studio B Vision and Studio B Sound.

The Communications Centre was situated immediately above the Foyer with large windows facing on to Pebble Mill Road.

In brief it was the technical hub of the building and the liaison point with British Telecom, responsible for routing all the internal vision and sound circuits between the Studios, VTR, Telecine and the various external TV and Radio Networks.  BBC 1 and BBC 2 passed through the Communications Centre from London and were routed to our own regional transmitters and one to Manchester for further distribution northwards.

It was also a reception point for Radio and Television Outside Broadcasts via our own Radio Links or B.T. and for incoming contribution circuits from the North and East that were either required in Birmingham or routed through to Bristol or London.