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.
Photos copyright of Ruth Kiosses, no reproduction without permission.
Here are a couple of photos some of the Costume Department staff at BBC Pebble Mill, from the early 1990s.
The first photo features Anne Marie Morrell, and Ruth Kiosses.
The second one features Ruth Kiosses, Russell Barnett and Andria Fletcher.
Photos by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.
These photos are from a location shoot for the ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’, an entertainment series, presented by Radio 1 D.J., Dave Lee Travis, and produced at Pebble Mill by John King’s department. Music videos were made for classic hits, recorded before the age of music videos. Guest directors would choose the hit they wanted to shoot the video for, and create the story for it. Dave Lee Travis linked the different videos together.
This shoot was for the song ‘Softly As I Leave You’ composed by Hal Shaper.
Gail Herbert was the production assistant for the series.
The first photo shows sparks Roy Carn, creating a gobo effect with a tree branch. The second photo features exec producer John King.
Here is a link to the 1971 “BBC Engineering” magazine about the building and technical design of Pebble Mill. It gives an excellent insight into the commissioning of the Pebble Mill building in 1970.
Thanks to Philip Morgan for pointing out that this link is available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/bbc_engineering_87.shtml
Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.
This photo shows Merrick editing in one of the film editing rooms. Before PSC (portable single camera) most location programmes were shot on film. Pebble Mill had several film editing rooms. Editors often worked late into the night to meet transmission times.
News was shot on reversal film and processed in Pebble Mill’s film processing unit. I think it took about an hour to process the film. Then it was edited and sometimes a voice over added. This made getting a story to air very slow.
Merrick latter became a director for Midlands Today. After that he directed ‘Pebble Mill At One’ and many other network programmes, including ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’.
Peter Poole
