Radio WM – Page 15 – What Was Pebble Mill?

10 years since the beginning of the end for Pebble Mill

Photo by Philip Morgan, November 2004

Photo by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission.

Yesterday, saw the tenth anniversary of Radio WM leaving Pebble Mill. It was on the 4th July 2004, at 10am, that Radio WM signed on for the first time at the Mailbox.

The Pebble Mill building was emptied gradually during the summer of 2004, as programme runs ended, or logistics would allow. Former TV programme exec, Mark Kershaw, oversaw much of the removal process, particularly for Network Factual TV.

Thanks to Andy Walters for the reminder about this anniversary.

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

Becky Land: ‘Where has that decade gone? I remember discovering that the WM Newsroom was sandwiched between the toilets and canteen. In the early days,if the queue for lunch got too long it snaked passed the news booth and we used to ask people to pipe down as it would come out on air. Also people used to nick the chairs from that booth for others nearby meeting rooms. Nothing like running in for a bulletin and then realising that you had to do it standing up…’

Emma Taynton-Young: ‘My dad was a radio WM presenter, but left before they moved to the. Mailbox.’

Gregory Hallsworth: ‘I had the privilege of working on your Dad’s show at the ‘Palace of Broadcasting’ for five years before we were disbanded in the summer of ’96. He was a great guy and he’s very much missed!’

Ainsley Harriott – Good Morning with Anne and Nick

Photos by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.

TV chef, Ainsley Harriott, on Good Morning with Anne and Nick, visits the Hotliners, who manned the phones of the daily live magazine show. The photo dates from the early 1990s.

Thanks to Karen Bond for sharing the photos.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘Ainsley once gave me an apple! It was at the end of one of the recordings of Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook. I was on the studio floor clearing up after the programme for the day, when he suddenly declared there were lots of apples left over, and promptly dished them out to many of us.’

Bridget Vaughan: ‘I appeared on Can’t Cook with BBC Wm’s Bob Brolly, we won.’

Carolyn Davies: ‘Was thinking of GM today! Ainsley used to cook a separate batch of food especially for the crew….’

Good Morning with Anne and Nick – D-Day

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

Today it is the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the end of WWII.

I remember the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in 1994. I was an assistant producer on Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The D-Day Anniversary was an important topic for Good Morning, and one that we wanted to cover with a live outside broadcast from Normandy. I think that we were going to borrow an existing BBC Events OB unit which was going to be covering some of the events later in the day. They initially said that that was going to be fine, and then decided a day or two before D-Day that they would be too busy to help us out, so we had to organise our own OB!

My job was to be the producer back in Birmingham, in case anything went wrong. We had a whole parallel script made up of links and short films, to go to, if the OB link went down. I think that Will Hanrahan was one of the standby presenters, and I can’t remember who else joined him on the sofa. I was ever so slightly terrified, as I had never produced a live show in the gallery before – but all was well, and the OB signal behaved itself, and I just sat in Gallery C, and followed the dummy running order and script I’d spent days perfecting, alongside the live OB.

Vanessa Jackson

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

Sharon Fisher: ‘I remember! My first OB. Vidal Sassoon was being interviewed and I was busy doing specially printed red white and blue viewer response cards.’

Caroline Feldon: ‘My first OB was for Radio 3 at the Cheltenham Festival. A week or so of fab concerts at the Town Hall and Pittville Pump Room with legends such as Mark Decker, Tony Wass, Steve Portnoi and anyone remember Alan Ward?’

Paul Hunt: ‘Tom Horsfield and I were there in 1994 by Southsea castle looking out across the Solent with Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer to do a live OB for WM. We had a very early start to do our rig – once done we had some time to take in the immense scale of what we part of and what we were remembering. Tom then took some photos of the flotilla of ships including the Canberra, the QE2 and the George Washington aircraft carrier. The OB went without a hitch. As we de-rigged we discovered that Tom’s camera had been stolen from the OB van – which put a sad end to such a memorable event.’

Katie Wright: ‘I think you’re thinking of the Dunkirk anniversary Vanessa Jackson. We were on board HMS Alacrity, escorting the little ships across from Dover to Calais…. Phil Thickett was with me.. And Helena Taylor. My father was on the beaches and it was a real honour to remember him and all the others and the many who risked their own lives to rescue them. We had to get Alacrity to sail at a strange angle to keep ‘line of sight’ to our vehicle on the white cliffs, which would explain why you were on standby throughout. ‘

Joyce Miller

The death of Joyce Miller was announced in the Worcester News today, 4th March 2014. Joyce was a press officer at Pebble Mill, and was married to Stuart Miller, an engineer at Radio WM, and later at BBC Hereford and Worcester. Stuart passed away a couple of years ago.

Joyce was a regular phone in guest to Hereford and Worcester’s mid-morning show until quite recently.

Thanks to Mark Hellings, Assistant Editor of BBC Hereford and Worcester, for sharing this information.

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

Marie Phillips: ‘When I took over CIN [Children in Need] from Tony Raimont it was based in the Press Office because nobody really knew where it belonged !! Joyce was very welcoming and helpful and a true friend when I was threatened with “eviction” !! We shared a lot of laughs, none more funny than the story of the trifles. She and Stuart were active in their village life and Stuart arrived home from a Committee Meeting to tell her that she had been nominated to make 14 trifles for the next event. She begged and borrowed enough bowls, put in monumental effort and made them on the due day, taking them proudly to the venue, to be told by Madam Chairman that actually, it was “trifle for 14” !!! Stuart almost ended up wearing them. Happy memories Joyce – rest easy.’

Richard Uridge: ‘Joyce and Stuart took me under their wing when I was a cub reporter at Radio WM at Pebble Mill. A charming couple and a sad loss to the local radio “family.” Joyce, like Stuart, always had a twinkle in her eye. Both warm and mischievous. A wonderful combination. Happy memories.’

Radio WM Christmas Show 1986

From from Pete Simpkin, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of the Radio WM Christmas Show from 1986, at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. The show was a unique shared show with Regional TV who also recorded it.

Included in the photo, left to right are: Roy Wood, Steve Woodhall, Maggy Whitehouse, Gyn Freeman, Mary Lloyd, Ed Doolan, Malc Stent, Kay Alexander, David Stevens, ?, Maggie Nelson, Soraya Patrick, Pete Simpkin, John Love, ?.

Thanks to Pete Simpkin for sharing the photo, and adding the information.