Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
A picture of Hazel Farrington a dear colleague known to so many listeners as the lady answering the telephones on so many of our programmes, who has died after a long illness. She is seen here working with me on my mid morning show in the famous Studio 3 in the 70s. We will all miss a hard working, dedicated and lovely lady.
Pete Simpkin
Photo from Pete Simpkin, no reproduction without permission.
The photo shows the Radio Birmingham shop in New Street, Birmingham. Producer and presenter Pete Simpkin points to the entrance!
The following information was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Michael Fisher: ‘Yes I remember when it opened up. Carol was the receptionist who looked after the shop. The small studio came in handy at times for news reports rather than dashing back to Pebble Mill. It also provided a city centre profile for the radio station and was very close to the City Hall but was on the edge of the New St shopping area. However it was probably an idea before its time as local radio later branched out. Pete Simpkin will recall that at the time we had “Sinky” in Coventry & covered Wolverhampton & Black Country (Chris Phipps programme) as well as parts of rural Worcs. Warks. & Staffs. almost extending as far as Cannock. I managed to get Nuneaton covered in the non-league soccer that I started for Jim Rosental to go with our six league clubs Blues, Villa, Sky Blues, Wolves, Albion & Walsall who I enjoyed reporting on.
Pete Simpkin: ‘Well remembered Michael, in fact I went on to replace Barry Lankester who had followed Chris Phipps to Wolverhampton and spent an enjoyable year ar the Queen sreet studio. Representing the BBC I was included as one of Wolverhamptons 1000 people in their millenium year!’
Andy Walters: ‘We moved out of the Queen Street studio in 2002. There’s now a radio & TV facility in Wolverhampton by the Wolves ground.’
Pete Simpkin: ‘Thanks Andy,I wonder if all the old files and tapes moved with you? I well remember having to do a live lunchtime discussion programme from the little studio at Queen St, we only had two microphones and I really needed four so I went round to Tandy’s and bought two table mics, plugged them into the mixer and it all worked perfectly.There was no way these unofficial items would ever be claimable on exes so as they were mine I took them home and used them in retirement jobs for many years!’
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
Video editor Ian Collins took photos of various pieces of post-production technical kit before the fixtures and fittings of Pebble Mill were sold off in auction in Autumn 2004.
These photos are of a Nagra audio recorder. They were used in the PSC (portable single camera) edit suites until the 1990s. They were very rugged and reliable.
Please add a comment if you can add information about how the Nagras were used.
The following comment was made by recordist Murray Clarke about location Nagras: ‘Of course the Nagra 3 and 4s were the standard sound recording machine for location recordists for many many years before DAT became more common. I bought my mono Nagra 3 in 1971 for a cost of around £3200. I took it up to Yorkshire for a couple of episodes of all Creatures Great and Small – and it rained solidly for a fortnight!!!. My ‘over-qualified’ boom op and assistant was Dave Baumber, then the Dubbing Mixer at the newly-built Pebble Mill studios.’
Christopher Hall adds the following information: ‘This is a Nagra T. T for twin capstan. They had a computer controlled synchroniser which could chase timecode from the VT machine in an edit suite at high speed. I went on a factory course for these in the late 1980s. We spent a whole day learning how to repair the motors, and when we asked how long they usually lasted for a discussion in French and German revealed that they didn’t know because none had stopped yet!’
Paul Vanezis: ‘I tracklayed 10 episodes of ‘Chalkface’ and 8 episodes of ‘Specials’ on a Nagra T…’
Peter Poole: ‘This must be the finest tape recorder ever made. I spent ages trying to get film unit to buy one for the transfer suite. It never happened. But after seeing the price I could see why!’
Pete Simpkin: ‘Totally agree with you Peter……I used one to great effect recording a nightingale for a Radio Birmingham programme in the 70s. The standard reporter’s Uher was not up to the job and the simple version Nagra gave level control, mixing of two mics AND ‘off tape’ monitoring!’
Copyright resides with Pete Simpkin, no reproduction without permission.
Here is a podcast from presenter and producer Pete Simpkin reminiscing on diverse experiences of working over Christmas on Radio Birmingham and Radio WM.
Andy Walters left the following comment on the Facebook page: ‘It’s not that much different today. This years WM Carol service was recorded last Monday. I have fond memories of being sat in what became known as Area 3 in Pebble Mill devouring Producers tins of sweets as they were bought in.’
‘Good Company’ OB to the Saddlers Centre
Rolf Harris cartoon of Pete
Yoga on the Radio
Copyright resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission.
Radio Birmingham producer/presenter Pete Simpkin has three cartoons of himself from when he worked at Pebble Mill. The first relates to an OB he did for the Afternoon show ‘Good Company’, from the Saddlers Centre, Walsall. The second was drawn by Rolf Harris whilst Pete interviewed him, and the third is about the famous ‘Yoga by Radio’ which was pioneered on Radio Birmingham.