Radio Birmingham – Page 6 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Wulfrun Echo – Chris Phipps

(Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission)

‘That photo! How NOT to dress appropriately for a Quarry Bank chain shop. The man behind me is Sam Bloomer, one of the last hand chain makers -and I still have that interview, along with many others recorded over the 7 years I compiled and presented “Wulfrun Echo” in the Black Country for BBC Radio Birmingham. Many of these interviews have been hailed by Professor Carl Chinn as being as important as the BBC RADIO BALLADS for their verbal depiction of working class life and times – it makes me very proud to have this legacy for my 40 years in broadcasting. I had spent nearly a decade capturing memories of individuals who had never been in front of a microphone -I then spent 5 years on Channel 4 ‘s “The Tube” capturing people who couldn’t wait to get in front of the camera [when they had something to sell, of course] .

The photo was used in a Radio Times article following me out and and about in the patch, likening me to a human whippet. It was written by Booker Prize contender, Jim Crace. The powder blue jacket? Destroyed by oil spray and soot when I recorded a ride on a traction engine in Wolverhampton – the price of vanity. When it comes to clothes I have never learnt my lesson.’

Chris Phipps

‘Chris was the first full time Wolverhampton reporter based in his own studio in the town and among his regular productions was the ‘Wulfrun Echo’, weekly news magazine on Radio Birmingham. He was followed by Mike Henfield and then the late Barry Lankester. I took over for the year of 1984.’

Pete Simpkin

Joan Collins on Radio Birmingham

Press cutting from May 23, 1979, about Joan Collins storming out of a Radio Birmingham interview. The copy is rather hard to read, so here is a transcript:

Sexy, film star Joan Collins burst into tears and stormed out of a radio station in Birmingham today after a record by her ex-husband was played.

The 42-year-old star of films including The Stud was talking on BBC Radio Birmingham’s Alastair Yates show when she objected to the strong line of questioning from presenter Yates.

Producer George Mitchell said: “Alastair suggested to her that her book, Past Imperfect was a jumping into-bed book, just a catalogue of sexual encounters.

She accused him of not having even read the book, which was just not true. Alastair has read the book from cover to cover and so have I.

Then we played the record What Kind Of Fool Am I by her ex-husband, Anthony Newley, and she burst into tears and left.

I set the questions for Alastair to ask and I don’t regret any of them.

She asked to come on the show and I don’t see why any author should simply by able to sit there and plug a book.

We are not afraid of asking searching questions. The book is one long sexual romp so we asked about that. She seems very bitter about the men in her life so we asked about that too.

But she was on the air for only about 10 minutes before she started crying and refused to go on.”

(Thanks to Alastair Yates for sharing this cutting).

Farming sig tune & Radio Birmingham jingles

Here is the BBC Farming signature tune, from the early 1980s. Farming was the predecessor of the current Countryfile series.

Also included here are some Radio Birmingham jingles, which probably date from the 1970s.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing these.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘Flippin, ek! that recalls memories from a long time ago, from 1980 when I was doing racks in Studio B. The racks job for Farming was usually very simple. Apart from the opening introduction to camera and the goodbyes, almost all of the rest of the programme was on film. It was the telecine operator who had the much more to do, from the ops perspective.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Music always evokes memories…the Top Gear sig tune does it for me having worked there…it gives me goose bumps.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Actually Lynn the Radio sig. tune version of the Farming programme always does that for me, I can still hear David Stevens announcing and then the strains of ‘I wish I were plough-boy’ took us into Tony Parkin’s introduction.’

Peter Poole: ‘I used to work on Farming with Peter Mellors. After a few weeks he asked if I would like to mix the programme . In my excitement I almost forgot to mic up the presenter. This was probably my first live TV programme. Great days.’

Alastair Yates on Midlands Today 1978

Alastair Yates Midlands News 1978 from pebblemill on Vimeo.

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

This clip courtesy of TV Ark, was recorded in 1978 in the Presentation studio (adjacent to the Midlands Today studio) as I was reading a bulletin into Midlands Today‬.

I joined the regional newsroom team in 1978, from BBC Radio Derby, and as well as my TV duties I also read the Midlands news on Radio 4 VHF.

Before long I was also invited to present the morning show on BBC Radio Birmingham (now WM). I left Pebble Mill in 1980 to join Selina Scott as co-anchor of North Tonight at Grampian TV in Scotland.

‪Doesn’t my voice sound plummy: I put that down to David Stevens, Head of Pres., who was trying to rid me of my Burton upon Trent accent.‬ Seems to have paid off though as my career took me to SKY NEWS, where I was the first male presenter on air, then on to BBC NEWS CHANNEL and WORLD. I also joined Deutsche Welle World TV in Germany for a couple of years and am now at Classic FM news.

Alastair Yates

You and Pete Simpkin – Radio Birmingham Jingle

Pete Simpkin Studio 3 1979

This is one of the second wave of jingles made in Birmingham, which was the first co-ordinated set, tailor-made for Radio Birmingham since the original ones made by the Midland Radio Orchestra. The later Dallas set which were the best we had in my day, were made by Pam’s in Dallas…heaven knows how they financed it, but the result certainly helped promote the station’s new image in the 80s, with the new name (Radio WM), stereo and local opt-out services on the two Medium Wave transmitters.

Pete Simpkin

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