Blog – Page 318 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Studio C, Calrec Sound Desk – Peter Poole

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Studio C was the Foyer, made famous by ‘Pebble Mill At One’. In the early days of ‘Pebble Mill At One’, Studio C did not have a dedicated Production Gallery. Studio A or B’s Galleries were used depending on which one was available. About 1982 Studio C had it’s own Gallery built. This enabled much greater use of the Foyer by other programmes. ‘Saturday Night At The Mill’ and ‘Good Morning With Anne And Nick’ were among many programmes to be broadcast from Studio C. In the final years of Pebble Mill the Foyer was used to record the daytime drama ‘Doctors’.

The photos show the Studio C, Calrec Sound Desk, which gave similar facilities to the Studio A desk, and offered more channels than the Studio B desk. It was very well designed for live broadcasting.

Peter Poole

The 206 team, Radio WM – Viv Ellis

This Radio Times article from 1981 promoted the relaunch of Radio Birmingham as Radio WM, and 206. The station enjoyed much improved reception due to two new transmitters.

The article interviews Viv Ellis and Stuart Roper of the 206 Team, who were on air for four hours a day, Monday to Friday.

Thanks to Viv Ellis for making the article available.

Radio Studio 2 before auction – photos Philip Morgan

Photos by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission. Philip took these photos in November 2004, when Pebble Mill was emptied before the auction to sell off the majority of the building’s contents. You can see the auction lot numbers on some items in the photos.

The photos feature Radio Studio 2, as well as 1/4 inch tape machines, recording rooms etc.

Studio 2 was mainly used for recording music sessions for Radio 2 – ‘BBC Big Band’, sessions for Paul Jones’ blues programme, for ‘Country Club’ which became ‘Bob Harris Country’ and many others. It was also used to record “as live” programmes with an invited audience e.g. a Cajun series. Pam Relton remembers ‘Voice of the People’ being recorded in there,with Jenny de Yong producing.

Thanks to Philip Morgan for making the photos available, and to Sue Welch for providing information about Studio 2.

Gardenwise – photo by Vanessa Jackson

‘Gardenwise’ was a BBC 1 Daytime magazine series in production in 1992. I think there were six episodes. It was produced at Pebble Mill by Clare Stride. I was a researcher and was lucky enough to do some single camera directing on the show, setting up items and directing some of the location stories.

This photo was taken as we were finishing a shoot in Madeira, which was a pretty glamorous location for a Daytime series. We recorded a couple of items about the gardens of Madeira, one about orchids, and one about the gardens of the Reid’s Hotel, where we stayed. Reid’s Hotel is famous for its beautiful setting, fantastic restaurants and illustrious guests, like George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill. We were extremely well looked after, and could choose which of the restaurants we chose to eat in – free of charge! I remember being happy to go along with camerman, Keith Froggatt’s choice of the a la carte restaurant. The rooms were sumptuous, and because I was the director, I had a suite (the first and last time whilst on location). We made good use of the swimming pool as well!

The photo features, from left to right; cameraman, Keith Froggatt; P.A. Sarah Reddi; presenter, Lydia Thomas; sound-man, Paul Taylor.

Radio WM relaunch – 1981 article by Nick Higham

Thanks to Tim Manning for making this article by Nick Higham (now BBC News correspondent) available.

The article is taken from ‘Radio Month’ in November 1981, and talks about the relaunching of Radio Birmingham as Radio WM. The station’s frequency was changed to improve reception sound quality, especially in Birmingham, and the schedule was revamped and streamlined.

Tim Manning was responsible for the publicity and promotion of the station, as well as presenting on Saturday mornings.